Toll-free numbers in the US and UK?

[FrankU]

Hi again, please tell me what you think about toll-free service numbers? I mean here in Germany about 90% of all companies advertise their products and service through hotlines the customers have to pay for. Some of the German companies use this strategy in such a clever way that they make their customers pay for their bad service. Here is an example: I have finally managed to get rid of the all-mighty T-Com (the German equivalent to BT). This means, I use my TV cable to make phone calls and access the internet. Today my cable connection was dead (neither the phone, the TV nor the internet worked).

The company (KabelDeutschland) offers a hotline that costs 12 cents per minute. I called the number and had to listen to a various advertisements until the computer voice mentioned that if you want to report an outage you have to dial another number. The voice blurted out the number so fast that it was impossible for me to memorize it let alone write it down.

Funnily enough I could have left a message but I was not sure if anybody would ever have listened to it so why bother? So in order to report a problem this German companies makes you listen to their adverts, pay for that phone call and phone up again if you want to scribble down the number you need to call. Why is that? Why can't they offer a toll-free servicer number?

We once discussed this question at university and one of our profs suggested that this is probably because companies that are offering toll-free numbers would be receiving too many phone calls from crazy people who were bothering the call center agents with their personal problems. I don't think this is the case. As far as I know most companies in the UK and the US offer toll-free service numbers to their customers. Why is this not possible in Germany? What about the companies in your country? Do they offer you toll-free numbers?
I'd be interested to read your comments on this.

Cheers
Frank
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[spencer]

I don't think if someone calls a toll-free number they could cause any problem.
That's what they there for, picking up the phone, dealing with customers. And what if the maniac is rich? If they want to make sure then ask all the customers to fill out an IQ test before, and if they prooved to be smart enough, then give them the number to call.
Or hide the number, if someone can figure it out then he MUST be desperate enough to deserve an answer.

[FrankU]

Hi Spencer, I very much agree with you. I think this shows the German mentality, we are always afraid of risks and see the negative things before we are ready to embrace something new. What is the toll-free number situation in Hungary? How do companies advertise their products there? Do you have 0800 numbers?
Regards
Frank
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[Jamie (K)]

When American companies offer toll-free hotlines, remember that the cost is just shifted from the customer to them. So somebody always pays for it.

Your professor is right. When companies offer those hotlines, they get people calling with a lot of idiotic problems that they could solve themselves. I know someone, for example, who can't admit it when she's made a mistake. Therefore, if she has problems with her computer, she blames it on the computer and phones tech support. She would be a very expensive customer for a toll-free support line.

The way it usually works in the US is this:

Tech support calls are usually free for a limited time, but some companies make you pay by the minute after a certain length of time (often three months). They figure that by that time you should be proficient at using the product or finding the right information.

Customer service calls to utility companies -- electricity, gas, cable TV, etc. -- are ALWAYS free. We never have to pay just to report that a utility company's service is malfunctioning.

I think what's going on with your cable company is probably that someone in management decided that the customer service line should make money. In the US, for example, if I call the phone company, they also try to use the call as a money-making opportunity, but they do it a different way. They'll first solve my problem and then try to use the opportunity to sell me another service. They don't press me to buy anything I don't want, but they let me know what's available. In some cases, they suggest ways I could get better service for less money and I come away cheaper. In other cases, they try to sell me additional service, such as DSL, etc.

Your cable company is using a different approach, and I think it's immoral that they charge you by the minute, make you listen to (and thus pay for) their ads, and then wait and wait and wait for service. There are companies in the US that do this too, but people prefer not to deal with them. And they are not utility companies.

[spencer]

Hey FrankU,
toll-free number in Hungary? You must be kidding!
You are lucky if they don't overcharge for bothering them with stupid questions.
If you get through to that droidgirl and have a real person in the line finally, she has no clue what you are talking about, she calls her boss, (time is ticking when you are having fun) the manager's there, he understands your problem and gives you a mail address and tells you to write a letter about your complains and hangs up on you.
In my country if you go to a bank, be ready 'cause they might tell you lies in your face with no shame, and you believe it of course, he's a bank agent, for God's sake!
No-one reads those small print lines in a ten-page contract, you sign up, TAG.
It's not business, it's robbery's going on here my friend.
So much for toll-free numbers.
Spencer

[FrankU]

Hi Spencer, sounds Hungary is the ideal place to do business . Actually, your description makes me wonder how you have managed to get into the EU, yes I know there are even better candidates like Rumania and Bulgaria waiting in line to be submitted into the friendly community but I wouldn't have thought the customer situation looks that somber in your country.
Frank
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[Jamie (K)]

I get a kick out of how some businesses in Eastern Europe will have an online retail site, and then, after you've made your order, tell you to come to their location and pick the merchandise up, or call and confirm the order over the phone, or mail your signature with permission to charge your credit card. I know there are laws that put blocks in their way, but why take pretend orders over the web if the person has to call you and place the order again anyway?

Then there are those interesting double prices for foreigners in many of those countries. Those have been made illegal in the Czech Republic, but the businesses get around it by, for example, serving foreigners the same meal on a different kind of plate. Then they're providing an "extra service" to them, and it's technically legal.

[spencer]

Don't get me wrong, this isn't like this all the time, it just happened to me, that's why I overreacted a bit.
If you have a business in Hungary don't worry about banks and stuff, the tax, that will kill you with no mercy.
Otherwise I wouldn't be so sure that those countries are in better shape than Hungary (in this case).
Spencer