Directory enquiry providers accused of ‘poor service’
Three-quarters of the companies taking advantage of the newly deregulated directory enquiries market failed to come up to scratch, according to the latest report from consumer magazine ‘Which?’.
In August this year the new services were officially launched and the old 192 service run by BT was scrapped in order to make the market more competitive.
All new numbers now begin with 118 followed by three other digits. And Oftel had claimed that the greater choice should bring prices down and increase the range of services offered.
However, ‘Which?’ researchers phoned 16 directory enquiries services five times each. Three residential and two business numbers were requested – full addresses were given for some examples, and researchers asked to be connected to one of the residential numbers.
Just four of the services – run by Orange, One, The Number and Share – got all the numbers right.
The report claims that Cable & Wireless Quickcall was the worst service, supplying just one correct number out of five for a flat fee of 35p. Some services that charged by the minute for the calls also took a long time to retrieve the numbers, making the enquiry more expensive.
Helen Parker, editor of ‘Which?’, said: ‘Remembering what number to dial for directory enquiries is the least of your problems when it comes to using the new ‘118’ services. Only a quarter of the services we contacted were able to answer all five of our queries correctly.’
‘Problems ranged from being given a wrong number to no number at all, and we were even cut off. This often poor service didn’t come cheap, with call costs ranging from 20p to £1.10.’
The survey will come as welcome news to The Number, which has dominated the market with its easy-to-remember 118 118 number. It has suffered from some negative press in recent months, with media suggestions that callers were being given wrong numbers because operators had bonus-driven time limits. The company has emphatically denied the claims.
