Ο Consumer Advocate, has received a number of consumer reports on their high charge resulting from calls to special telephone numbers, which are excluded from the built-in benefits of their financial plans.
Examples of such reported numbers are:
- Short five-digit numbers of the number 13, which are used for customer service and fault reporting by various service providers (power, electricity, etc.).
- Short all-digit numbers of number 14, through which multimedia information services (MIS) are provided, however there are cases where such numbers have been selected for telephone appointment services.
- Short four-digit or five-digit numbers of number 15, which are used to provide services of public interest or services to society as a whole by Ministries or Local Government Organizations.
- Ten-digit 801 serial cost numbers, commonly used by companies to contact technical support departments or telephone orders.
For all such numbers except the serial numbers 137, which are assigned for the provision of customer service services for fault issues and for which there is an explicit provision that there is no charge for calls to them, there is the possibility of charges, with some conditions and restrictions, which are determined by the pricing policy of providers electronic communications services.
In the context of the investigation of the relevant cases, the Authority has made recommendations to all companies and entities that use such numbers so that:
- consider making special arrangements for incomplete calls, in the case of numbers used to provide information services on a range of key issues (eg employment, pensions, insurance, health, etc.);
- to introduce alternative ten-digit geographical numbers for customer service (where they do not already exist and which is possible), which are included in the integrated benefits of the financial plans of the telecommunications service providers and therefore do not incur out-of-pocket charges,
- to promote the use of ten-digit geographical numbers to serve consumers and
- provide clear information to consumers about any charges that may arise from the use of the special numbers, both in the publication and promotion of these numbers to the consumer public and in the provision of services through them, advising and urging consumers to consult price lists of their providers.
It should be noted that, after the intervention of the Consumer Ombudsman, to the E.F.K.A. Regarding the special number 1555, the pricing policy of all telecommunications providers regarding the number 1555 has changed and now calls to this number are free of charge.
Finally, we recommend to consumers, in order to avoid excessive, off-line charges of their (fixed and mobile) telephony bills:
- avoid using special numbers, provided that the alternative of using ten-digit geographical numbers is provided; and
- to be informed about the pricing policy of their providers, by consulting the relevant price lists, before using the special numbers.
Press Release
Note :
If you want to find out which multimedia information service provider has a specific five-digit increased billing number and learn how to protect yourself from unwanted charges, then visit the page at govgr which we give you in the following link.
Search for five-digit increased charge numbers
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