It’s now over three months since expensive 0845 and premium numbers for customer service lines were outlawed.  Southeastern still hasn’t implemented the new law.  All the 21 other Train Operating Companies have done so.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Payments) Regulations came into force on 13 June 2014.  They prohibit customer helplines charging more to phone a trader about something you have bought than to call a friend or relative, that is to say the simple cost of connection. The telephone number provided should not provide the trader with a contribution to their costs.  0845 numbers, in which a portion of the call charge can be used to either provide a service or make a small payment to the trader, do not comply. The same applies to other 084/087 numbers.

All the other Train Operating Companies appear to have complied with the law and changed their customer service numbers – for instance Southern have changed their 0845 number to an 0345 number.  We’ve checked them all.

However Southeastern haven’t.  Even today we have found that only an 0845 number is given on the information poster at stations, on the Passenger Comments Form and at several places on the Southeastern website.

We tried a short enquiry to the Southeastern Customer Service line, using a Three Pay-As-You-Go Tariff.  After 50 seconds of recorded announcement we were held in a queue for two minutes.  Then we asked our question about ticket validity and received a quick answer.  There was a total call duration of 3 minutes 14 seconds.  Calls to 01/02/03 numbers cost 3p a minute or part minute on this tariff.  So if Southeastern had been complying with the Regulations this would have cost 12p.  However calls to 0845 are 35p a minute.  So the same call on Three PAYG would actually cost £1.40  –  more than 11 times as expensive. Indeed since the 01/02/03 numbers are often part of a free bundle the call to a compliant number could actually be free.

If you are trying to phone Southeastern from a BT payphone you get 30 minutes to a basic rate number for the minimum 60p charge.  That will cover most enquiries.  But you only get 60 seconds to an 0845 number – which only just covers the prerecorded announcements.

Starting on 24 June, we have raised this issue several times with Southeastern.  Each time we have been told that “this has been brought to the attention of our marketing manager [and] we are in the process of updating and amending our posters“.  We do not regard this as satisfactory – there was at least six months’ notice before the new Regulations came into force, allowing plenty of time to amend posters, leaflets and websites.  Most reputable businesses – and most Train Operating Companies – did so in good time.

It is also an unnecessary own goal by Southeastern as they do have an alternative customer services number which is compliant with the new regulations – 01732 378 751; they just fail to mention it on posters, leaflets and throughout their website – although they have used it on Twitter since 13 September.  (If both numbers are given, the Regulations require that the compliant telephone number should be communicated as prominently as the one that is not; we think that at the very least it is sharp practice to put the 0845 number first without mentioning that it is more expensive).

Section 41 of the Regulations provide that if the customer is forced to pay more than the basic rate, then the contract is to be treated as providing for the trader to pay to the consumer any amount by which the charge paid by the consumer for the call is more than the basic rate.  However we consider that it is unrealistic and uneconomic to expect passengers to be able to work out their individual losses and claim it back individually from Southeastern; conversely Southeastern will have very detailed call records showing the origin and duration of the calls they received (that’s a standard part of an 0845 service), and so they can easily estimate the total overcharging.

So we’ve now asked that Southeastern:

• set a clear target date for full compliance with the Regulations
• make a donation to a registered charity of their choice of a sum equivalent to the telephone surcharges that Southeastern customers will have paid since 13 June 2014.

People may ask why the National Rail numbers 08457 48 49 50 (Enquiries) and 0871 200 49 50 (Train Tracker, Premium Rate) are not similarly banned by the Regulations. National Rail have stated that this is because they are not post-sales numbers. Maybe. What’s totally wrong however is that their poster claims that “All calls are charged at local rate” – that’s not been the case for 0845 numbers for over 10 years.  We will be pursuing this further too.

If you have had a costly experience with the 0845 number please let us know in the comment box below.

Addition: UK Train has a list of basic rate numbers for various transport operators; this list includes alternatives to 0845 or premium rate numbers which are not covered by the new Regulations.