Avoid unexpected charges when calling customer services helplines
Have you ever felt confused when looking up the contact number of a company, finding various telephone numbers and not knowing which one to choose? If you searched online for a contact number, you may have come across a connection service.
Have you ever felt confused when looking up the contact number of a company, finding various telephone numbers and not knowing which one to choose?
If you searched online for a contact number, you may have come across a connection service. These act as an intermediary between consumers and said company’s customer services helpline. Connection services advertise themselves as simplifying the process for customers to contact a company, but that comes at a cost; connection services often cost more than standard calls.
As a customer you have a choice between calling a company’s customer services helpline directly or using a connection service. Whichever you go for, here is what you need to do to avoid unexpected call charges.
If you want to call the company’s helpline directly:
- Take care when searching for customer service helpline online
- Remember that the first few search results could be adverts for connection services
- The best place to check is on the company’s official website, usually found in the ‘Contact us’ section
- Customer service helplines of larger companies usually operate on 0300 and 0800 numbers
- Be wary of contact number for well-known companies appearing to operate on 087 and 09 numbers. Always check the tariff of the number you are about to call
We have strict rules in place for connection services. Under our rules, they need to make it absolutely clear that they are third party services (i.e. not connected to the company you are searching for) and the price they are charging.
If you have any concerns about a connection service please let us know. Protecting consumers is central to our mission and we take action against services that break our rules.
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