French equivalent to www.saynoto0870.com?

[val douest]

Most of you are probably familiar with the excellent website

'saynoto0870' which provides geographical equivalents for many of the

0870 numbers used by companies and organisations in the UK to boost

their profits while they keep you dangling or route you through a

complex phone tree.  Does anyone know if there is anything similar

to this in France to seek out alternatives to the various special

expensive French telecom prefixes which are used in the same way?

[Owens88]

The 0870 thing is not always a shameful way to boost profits, its often an expedient way of routing calls to the most appropriate place.

BUT

In any case its often irritating to be caught on a call-centre line when the real-life person is available on a real number. So I would also be enthusiastic to hear of any real life numbers. Especially the France Telecom one as their on-hold jingle could turn Gandhi into Dracula.

John

[Ron Avery]

Isnn't 1014 free though?

[Domi]

this is the link

Dominique

[Domi]

it would be helpful if I actually posted the link!

http://www.geonumbers.com/fr/search.php

I found this link on this other site which is quite good (in French)

http://www.telephoner.free.fr/

[Deimos]

[quote

user="Owens88"]

The 0870 thing is not always a shameful way to boost profits, its

often an expedient way of routing calls to the most appropriate place.

John

[/quote]

 

I thought the routing capabilities of 0845/0844 numbers were

pretty much the same as routing allowed by 0870 but that the 0844/0845 numbers

were “local call” rate and thus significantly cheaper for the caller – though

of course the company does not get “kick-backs” from their telecom provider.

I agree that some 0870 numbers can be routed to

international mobiles and to other more “unusual” country overseas landlines,

but when destined for landlines within the UK I thought the routing

capabilities were pretty much the same under most telecom providers.

I know my own company selected an 0870 number in preference

to an 0844/0845 number just for the “kick-backs” they would get from their

telecom provider (i.e. the person providing them the 0870 to real landline

mapping).

Am I wrong in this regard.

Ian

[Eslier]

Using an 0870 number is not always a bad thing athough I accept that in many cases it can be.

I have a UK 0871 number which is used (as well as a UK mobile number) in advertising my gite business.  The number diverts straight to my French land line and the cost of the call  is only 10p per minute.  At this price, it is cheaper, in most cases, for the caller than using the mobile number or calling my 0033 number. I paid a one-off minimal fee for setting up the number and get no pay back on call charges.  As well as business calls, many friends and family also use the number from time to time to take advantage of cheaper calls.

I also have a UK fax number which is an 0870 number via efax.com which enables be to send and receive faxes via e-mail. Again, the charges are not exceptional and the service is very useful. Whichever way you look at it it's cheaper than sending a fax to or from a French land line.

Like many things in life it isn't so simple that you can brand all things bad. On the other hand, if you want to talk about automatic call routing systems (press 1 if you are a little bit angry, 2 if you are quite angry and 3 if you would like to ram the phone down the throat of the automatic voice) then I could be persuaded otherwise !!

[Deimos]

[quote user="Eslier"]

I have a UK 0871 number which is used (as well as a UK mobile number) in

advertising my gite business.  The number diverts straight to my French

land line and the cost of the call  is only 10p per minute.

[/quote]

You can do exactly the same using an 0844 number (i.e divert

an 0844 number directly to your French landline).  The main differences would be that with the 0844 number (issuer I

am thinking of) you would pay nothing (no set-up, no operation – totally free)

and your callers would pay UK “local rate” rather than 10p.  So where is the benefit to your 0870 number

(i.e. callers paying over twice what they need to) ?

Ian

[Owens88]

The tariffs aren't always what they imply on the box. For instance 0844/0845 'local rate' calls do not come within the allocation that many people have as free local calls.

Howver I do admit that 0844/0845 are generally cheaper to the caller than 0870. But not so long ago if you wanted a traneferable 'non-geographic' number yuour organisation had to pay for the privelege if it was 0845 but not if it was 0870. All these things move on and become competitive. Our own community group uses an 0700 no (also premium rate) for a readily transferable service, but not because we are looking for a rake-off.

What really irks me is when a call is 'answered' then put on hold waiting for an operator. Undue delays on premium lines breach OFCOM guidelines but that doesn't mean they dom't happen.

John

[Eslier]

Ian, I would be grateful if ou would post details of the 0844 provider you have referred to so that I can look into it further. If, as you say, someone in the UK will provide me (a resident of France), a local call rate number at absolutely no cost then I will sign up straight away !  I am sure there will be many others who would like to avail themselves of this service too.

[Miki]

Eslier,

We use Andy Martin

www.as24telecom.com/0844

Talk to him, he can put you on within minutes. We use two for our

businesses and people calling us from the UK are charged a UK local

call rate to ring us .

 

[Deimos]

[quote user="Eslier"]Ian, I would be grateful if ou would post details of the 0844 provider you have referred to so that I can look into it further. If, as you say, someone in the UK will provide me (a resident of France), a local call rate number at absolutely no cost then I will sign up straight away !  I am sure there will be many others who would like to avail themselves of this service too.

[/quote]

There are quite a few companies offering free 0845/0844

numbers that can be diverted to many international countries.  You need to check the details of each one’s

offering to select who you want to use. 

I no longer make specific recommendations in posts (as I get fed up

dealing with the associated “corressponance”).

Ian