25 February 2008
BT is set to be the first telecoms company to get rid of charges for landline calls made to its technical support help lines.
In a move which BT says will cost it millions of pounds, people who phone its 0870 and 0845 numbers from a landline will not be charged from April 1st. Most of the numbers will be changed to 0800 or 0808 prefixes.
The firm has also called upon other operators to follow its lead and scrap charges made to customer support lines.
"There really is no excuse for companies whose prices are either sky-high or verging on the ridiculous," commented Gavin Patterson, a managing director at BT.
"We believe that customers are out of pocket to the tune of £70 million a year."
Currently, BT imposes a charge of 2p per minute on calls to its 0845 numbers in the daytime and 6p per minute for 0870 numbers.
Steve Weller of uSwitch.com recently warned BT customers to be wary of an upcoming overhaul of its Together tariffs, which could result in higher monthly bills.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
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