Mark your line in the sand.

Are you like me in that you try to save money here and there, where ever you can then to see some percentage of it slip through the net as you are placed on hold whilst having to contact someone through a Premium Rate phone number.

Well i for one have had enough, there is a website out there which can give alternative numbers to the Premium Rate ones which is a great tool and i use it often, however i feel that these companies need to be named and shamed so with this in mind i aim to create a league table of response times based on your experiences.

I personally have tried to make contact with one company this morning and on the three occasions i rang i was either listening to a series of options which inevetably led to the " all of our operators are busy " comment followed with a further wait, resulting in me hanging up through sheer boredom and frustration. The average wait time resulting in 15 to 20 minutes on each occasion, giving a total combined time of approx 1 hour. Although 3 pence per minute to 08457 numbers through the Post office may seem small, it isn't when the cost ends up at....

3p x 60 minutes = £1.80

And i still havn't spoken to anyone !!!!!!!!!!!!!

So i will start the league table off and name the following,

Nationwide Customer Contact team, Special Investigations Dep't
08457 778833
Total time watsted = 60 minutes

As i mentioned there is a website for alternative numbers and sometimes there is a freephone number listed but on this occasion it gave me a geographical number for this company as 01793 653000 which still works out 3p per minute so no real saving there.

This is the link to the start of the League Table forum, you will have to register to view the results but i promise you it is Free.

CLICK HERE