NEW! Freephone Support Number

Some people have raised concerns over call charges for the current support number. To address these concerns we have now set up a freephone number 0800 987 1008 that people can use to contact us.

We will continue to operate the existing 0844 number for now, but we plan to retire this eventually. This is likely to coincide with a move to a new support platform “Zendesk”.

If you’ like to read more about the background to this, and why we have made this change please read on!

Background

When we install purchased the 0844 number we did so on the understanding that it was a “Fixed Rate non geographic number” with a flat rate. This number was charged to at 5ppm with the option for us to choose a surcharge of anything up to 5ppm, which would go to us.

We chose not add anything and stuck with the flat rate of 5ppm. Since 2009 we have never generated any revenue from support calls, and we do not intend to.

At this time it was prohibitively expensive to run a freephone number and this seemed to be one of the cheapest next best options that did not discriminate nationally, or between landline/mobile users. However this changed.

Since OfCom’s deregulation of telecoms around 2009, costs have on the whole fallen for many services, but at the same time there has been a great deal of confusion introduced to consumers around call charges.

We took advantage of the savings that could be made using VoIP technology, by migrating the 0844 number to a different service provider. However we did not expect to find that we were no longer able to guarantee a rate to our callers. The cost of the call was now made up of a “service charge” (which we knew to be 2ppm) and an “access charge” by the telco used to make the call. The access charge was entirely at the discretion of the other telco (of which there are now many) and could be anything from 7ppm to 45ppm!

Our call charge then became effectively 2ppm + your service provider fee. Which led, understandably, to concerns about our number. We hope that the introduction of the 0800 freephone number addresses these and demonstrates our commitment to support our end users.

Simon
Portfolio Online