On 27 Feb 2007 16:10:43 -0800, MIG wrote:

Does TfL make any money from calls to 08453309876?

When you call an 0845 number, the recipient does receive a portion of
the cost of the call, so I presume the answer is yes.

In message , asdf
writes

When you call an 0845 number, the recipient does receive a portion of
the cost of the call, so I presume the answer is yes.

Its not quite that simple. With an 0845 number the charge to the caller
is fixed, whatever the distance of the call, and the recipient pays or
receives any difference in the actual cost of the call.

But in the case of the Oyster helpline, I would imagine that the
overwhelming majority of calls are local (from the London area) and so I
would expect that they make a profit from using an 0845.

--
Paul Terry

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:08:24 +0000, Paul Terry
wrote:

In message , asdf
writes

When you call an 0845 number, the recipient does receive a portion of
the cost of the call, so I presume the answer is yes.

Its not quite that simple. With an 0845 number the charge to the caller
is fixed, whatever the distance of the call, and the recipient pays or
receives any difference in the actual cost of the call.

Little more complicated than that. 0845 has day/eve/weekend rates, and
the recipient can get benefits (call patterns, rerouting) as well as
or instead of cash. A crack down is overdue in 2008. Calls to geo
numbers are also now irrespective of distance for most people so the
excuse of "lo-call" is long blown.

FOI request is probably needed to find out why 0845 is more and more
in use: they have probably been sold a pup. TfL are better than most
in having geo numbers, v. useful when on hold which is a normal
situation for Oyster. Why they don't give priority to emails, or even
answer them, is a mystery. Any call centre should love emails. But at
least the web site is in more robust health than poor old cclondon
(not wildcarded as *.cclondon.com and regular outages).
--
Old anti-spam address cmylod at despammed dot com appears broke
So back to cmylod at bigfoot dot com

Colum Mylod wrote:

FOI request is probably needed to find out why 0845 is more and more
in use: they have probably been sold a pup.

I think an inquiry to the mayor from a London Asssembly member would be
even more effective.
--
Michael Hoffman

Paul Terry typed


In message , asdf
writes

When you call an 0845 number, the recipient does receive a portion of
the cost of the call, so I presume the answer is yes.

Its not quite that simple. With an 0845 number the charge to the caller
is fixed, whatever the distance of the call, and the recipient pays or
receives any difference in the actual cost of the call.

But in the case of the Oyster helpline, I would imagine that the
overwhelming majority of calls are local (from the London area) and so I
would expect that they make a profit from using an 0845.

Yebbut aren't the Oyster help people up in Fife or Anstruther or some
other Scottish back of beyondness?

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

In article ,
(Helen Deborah Vecht) wrote:

Paul Terry typed

In message , asdf
writes

When you call an 0845 number, the recipient does receive a
portion of the cost of the call, so I presume the answer is yes.

Its not quite that simple. With an 0845 number the charge to the
caller is fixed, whatever the distance of the call, and the
recipient pays or receives any difference in the actual cost of
the call.

But in the case of the Oyster helpline, I would imagine that the
overwhelming majority of calls are local (from the London area)
and so I would expect that they make a profit from using an 0845.

Yebbut aren't the Oyster help people up in Fife or Anstruther or
some other Scottish back of beyondness?

I don't think Ming Campbell would describe his constituency as "some
other Scottish back of beyondness". :-)

--
Colin Rosenstiel

(Colin Rosenstiel)typed


In article ,
(Helen Deborah Vecht) wrote:

Paul Terry typed

In message , asdf
writes

When you call an 0845 number, the recipient does receive a
portion of the cost of the call, so I presume the answer is yes.

Its not quite that simple. With an 0845 number the charge to the
caller is fixed, whatever the distance of the call, and the
recipient pays or receives any difference in the actual cost of
the call.

But in the case of the Oyster helpline, I would imagine that the
overwhelming majority of calls are local (from the London area)
and so I would expect that they make a profit from using an 0845.

Yebbut aren't the Oyster help people up in Fife or Anstruther or
some other Scottish back of beyondness?

I don't think Ming Campbell would describe his constituency as "some
other Scottish back of beyondness". :-)

Maybe, but I don't suppose he considers it 'local' to London either...

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

In message , Helen Deborah
Vecht writes

Yebbut aren't the Oyster help people up in Fife or Anstruther or some
other Scottish back of beyondness?

I don't know, but their geographic number (apparently 020 7227 7886)
looks like 55 Broadway SW1 to me. Of course, it is possible that that
number is re-routed to Scotland.

--
Paul Terry

Paul Terry typed


In message , Helen Deborah
Vecht writes

Yebbut aren't the Oyster help people up in Fife or Anstruther or some
other Scottish back of beyondness?

I don't know, but their geographic number (apparently 020 7227 7886)
looks like 55 Broadway SW1 to me. Of course, it is possible that that
number is re-routed to Scotland.

Could well be.
The people seem to speak with Scottish accents and the envelopes are
franked 'Anstruther' IIRC if you buy an Oysterr from the online shop.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

In message , Helen Deborah
Vecht writes

Paul Terry typed

I don't know, but their geographic number (apparently 020 7227 7886)
looks like 55 Broadway SW1 to me. Of course, it is possible that that
number is re-routed to Scotland.

Could well be.
The people seem to speak with Scottish accents and the envelopes are
franked 'Anstruther' IIRC if you buy an Oysterr from the online shop.

Ah, got it! The Oyster website gives another number for the 24-hour
Oyster helpline: 01561 376 082. That's Aberdeenshire.

A bit more googling finds: http://www.journeycall.com/services41.htm

"[Journeycall's] Travel Advisors currently answer over 3000 live calls a
day, about half of them on behalf of clients. Services include
megabus.com, megatrain.com and TfL's adult Oyster Card".
--
Paul Terry