How much does it cost to TALK with your retailer?

How much does it cost to TALK with your retailer? Following feedback from a customer during the winter of 2020, ICEGRIPPER turned it's attention to this point...

Our customer Patricia, in Scotland, called us for advice on a particular product. As usual we spoke with Patricia at length, providing all the information she needed to make her purchase and she was delighted with the service she experienced.

A couple of weeks later she mailed us with a copy of her telephone bill showing the breakdown and her call to us cost her over £4.

ICEGRIPPER has always prided itself on being able to provide a contact number on every page and encouraging and welcoming customer calls, so it was a bit of a shock that customers were being charged so much to call us on our 0844 number.

The charges to these types of numbers had gradually increased since we contracted ours and we had not kept track of it. Something had to be done, so we talked with a number of non geographic number suppliers.

Why it is necessary to have a non geographic number in the first place?

The answer is that using a standard geographic number would be prohibitive and misleading to our customers. Although we are based in East London, we have developed the systems and expertise to quickly ship our products anywhere in the UK and in fact across the whole EU (despite the problems caused by Brexit !). Therefore a non geographic number is more consistent with the service we provide. Additionally, Google and other online search and listing companies draw conclusions about your company from information like telephone numbers. Providing a normal geographic number might result in misleading listing and categorisation.

Following conversations with a number of companies we contracted an 0333 number and you will now see it on our website.

As part of the 'research' we found out quite a lot about non geographic numbers, but also realised a lot of customers might not realise there is a big difference when calling (for example) an 0844 or an 0333 number.

In addition to the points above, here's why we chose this type of number and typical costs that a customer will incur when calling us:

• Calling 0333 numbers from your mobile will cost you the same amount of money as it would when you are calling a traditional landline phone number. Most mobile phone tariffs allow the calling of 0333 numbers in their monthly quota of telephone minutes that they provide in their customers call package. In this case, provided you have not used your quota of minutes for the month you will not be charged any extra for calling an 0333 number
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• However if you call an 0333 number outside contracted landline minutes allowance, it might typically cost: ASDA Mobile 8p/m,  Delight Mobile 3p/m, EE 30p/m,  GiffGaff 10p/m,  Lebara Mobile 19p/m,  LycaMobile 15p/m,  O2 35p/m,  Tesco Mobile 25p/m,  Three Mobile 3p/m,  Virgin Mobile 26p/m,  Vodafone 30p/m

• Often, home landline packages will include free evening and weekend calls or possibly free anytime calls. In this case, if you call 0333 numbers during the free call periods, you will not be charged anything extra for making the 0333 call. However, if you call the 0333 number outside of these inclusive periods, you will be charged for making the call...
  
  
• Provider Approximate peak cost: BT 12p/m + 21p set up charge, TalkTalk 13.5p/m, Sky 9.5p/m, Virgin Media 12p/m

What experiences have you had calling non geographic numbers? We would be pleased to hear your stories and relay them through our blog.

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