Phone Charges - well kept "secret"

[harryc]

Anyone ever wonder why there are such long waiting times for so-called 'asiakaspalvelu?'

There is no motivation to improve as the phone calls to the so-called service numbers - 010 020 0200 etc are set up so that the owner of the number gets a nice chunk of the phone charges.

When I first heard about this I was really doubtful - how could it be so easy.

I called Telia-Sonera and said our company wanted to set up a 020 number and how does it work? They said we could decide on the charges up to some amount - and T-S gets some kind of standard 'commission' - and we get the rest!!! Nice, eh? Think about the next time you are waiting for someone to answer.

[macora]

Common practice in Switzerland, too. One is supposed to keep one's eyes open.

[harryc]

I'm not sure how one is to know all the charges - with open or closed eyes.

For the first thing, this rip-off should be publicized - but it is a rare person that knows about it.

One sits on a waiting line for 15-20-30 minutes - there's no choice.

All this is to say this is exactly the place for regulatory action - Ficora or whatever. Kuluttajavirasto has now and then jumped up and down about wait times - but the long waits have gone on and on. And certainly the fact that the cash register continues to go 'ka-ching' for each minute 'Oy X Ab' keeps you on the line - is worthy of an article in HS or Kauppalehti - but as they may well be benefactors of the scam, it's probably naive to expect them to blow the whistle.

[macora]

Maybe it is a Swiss thing, to check where my money is going. Like understanding the contracts I am signing, and reading the bills I am paying. Not sure which waiting lines are entirely unavoidable, that are such pay-numbers, too. One person's (or culture's) scam is the other one's (not so) new business model. My interest is sparked though. If I do not forget, I am going to ask around about those numbers. Where I am coming from, everyone knows them. Not because the respective companies write it in their headlines, either, but because... see above. There can be errors in bills, too, I like to catch before I am paying.

[harryc]

Costs are published - often in small text, inconspicuous etc. - and many will notice that telephone charges have shot up appreciably for all these 'service numbers' - one will also know that cell phone 'packages of yyy minutes' do NOT include these service numbers.

But then will notice when they call

Pohjola
Nordea
OP
Elisa
etc
etc

the wait goes on and on - ka-ching ka-ching

10 mins 20 mins 30 mins

and some idiot always telling in a robot voice that they will be righrt with you. ha ha ha

Sorry - but that is straight away a scam - and the use of a public utility should not be party to it.

[Upphew]

Costs are published - often in small text, inconspicuous etc. - and many will notice that telephone charges have shot up appreciably for all these 'service numbers' - one will also know that cell phone 'packages of yyy minutes' do NOT include these service numbers.

But then will notice when they call

Pohjola
Nordea
OP
Elisa
etc
etc

the wait goes on and on - ka-ching ka-ching

10 mins 20 mins 30 mins

and some idiot always telling in a robot voice that they will be righrt with you. ha ha ha

Sorry - but that is straight away a scam - and the use of a public utility should not be party to it.

Pohjola = OP and they seem to want money for calling them. I'm not their customer, but someone who is usually calls the same dude on his cellphone number.
http://www.nordea.fi/About+Nordea/Norde ... 10-04-2013
Elisa called me just this week to inform that my contact is called so and so, please visit for a chat and coffee. He has regular cell number too. Oh, and first number I found isn't anything on top of regular call and waiting times seem to be three to four minutes with 20% answered under 60 seconds.

Not saying that those numbers aren't a scam, but your examples didn't convince me

[Honest]

May be they don't do it intentionally but they are careless because they know that they are not going to lose anything in any case.

Same thing happens in billings. It's almost impossible that they send you a lower bill by mistake. Mistake in almost all the cases will be such that if you don't notice it you'll be the loser. And who has so much time to check all the bills in such a detail to catch them.

Same goes in shops. You'll never get a thing on discounted rate because they forgot to change the price after discount ended. But often you would buy something which is listed as discounted but you'd be charged normally. And if you discover this "fraud" they would just give you back the extra money without any penalty for them.

There should be laws to protect customers from all this. For shops I'd suggest that they are forced to give back double the amount which is charged because of negligence on their part. Because they are careful enough to not lose ever but they try to steal from you

[harryc]

Not saying that those numbers aren't a scam, but your examples didn't convince me

You have just been lucky to hit at the right time. I could keep a diary and make a more comprehensive list I guess - but the main question is really - how and why are the called companies able to get revenue for you the customer calling them? They already have the Sampo system of 0600 when they want to charge you for psychotherapy, how to invent gunpowder, etc. And they then bury the whole thing under the moniker of 'customer service' and it is a rare person these days who says they get any service at all.

[AldenG]

Yet another instance of American crap-cultural imperialism.

It only amazes me how quickly and enthusiastically others rush to embrace our worst ideas.

Look what "fiscal austerity" has done to fix Europe's economies lately.

Oops, not so much. Funny how, in a great example of "do as we say, not as we do," the US has talked austerity as the cure but only half-assedly practiced it while Europe embraced the prescription with both arms, so we are recovering better. Meanwhile austerity is playing out exactly as economists of the evidence-based variety said that it would. The "conservatives" just don't realize quite yet that they bet their entire credibility on a Pied Piper and lost.

Meanwhile all this petty crap like brain-dead scripted customer service on the stripper-booth pay-by-the-minute model just keeps spreading. Quality of life used to be a Nordic ideal.

[harryc]

Basically agree about the import of greedy US 'ideas' - but actually with the phone system, many US companies still use the 0800 number - whereas in Finland it came, but has been dumped in most cases. 'Customer service' is still an oxymoron just about everywhere

[Upphew]

May be they don't do it intentionally but they are careless because they know that they are not going to lose anything in any case.

Same thing happens in billings. It's almost impossible that they send you a lower bill by mistake. Mistake in almost all the cases will be such that if you don't notice it you'll be the loser. And who has so much time to check all the bills in such a detail to catch them.

Same goes in shops. You'll never get a thing on discounted rate because they forgot to change the price after discount ended. But often you would buy something which is listed as discounted but you'd be charged normally. And if you discover this "fraud" they would just give you back the extra money without any penalty for them.

There should be laws to protect customers from all this. For shops I'd suggest that they are forced to give back double the amount which is charged because of negligence on their part. Because they are careful enough to not lose ever but they try to steal from you

There was a thread here about car insurances from POP about a year ago. I switched to them and got 1st bill about six months after. They did some other things too that made another insurance company's salesman declare their prices impossible.