> >One technique is to get an 0870 (national number) at 7p a minutes and > >1p or 2p of the call charge is given to you, this is like the system > >that free ISPs use and if I had the money for a second line for a QL ISP > >I would use. The Phone Coop (http://www.thephone.coop) used to offer > >this service for free, I do not know if they still do. > > > Don't forget to add the 1-2 minute recorded announcement about 'please > listen to the following options carefully ...... calls may be recorded > for training and........' followed by the options in a complex manner > and 'to 'repeat these options key 9' by that time you have spent a bit. > And then you get 'all of our operators are busy. Your call is important > to us (but not important enough to actually employ anyone to answer it) > so please hold the line until an operator becomes available (or until we > have made enough to retire)' > -- > Roy Wood I worked for a company called Patientline for a while. They had a system similar to this. In their case, ripping off customers and sheer greedy profit was NOT the motive, but it was seen by customers as such and people used to go ballistic with us front line staff about it.
People were paying up to 50p a minute for making calls to patients in hospital and the call started with a long announcement plus if you didn't know the number to get through to the patient's bed you had to go through announcement plus wait until able to speak to operators. Presumably it all mounted up. There are sometimes legal announcements you have to make - in these cases, these premium rate numbers should start free until the end of announcements and recorded music until you actually get through to a person. In terms of making money - good idea. In terms of upsetting your customers, not a good idea. It all adds to the "Rip-off-Britain" impressions we have. Dilwyn Jones _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
