018 call-connect fee under fire

By RICHARD WOOD

Telecom is charging people using the 018 national directory service for toll calls even though they may have nominated another telco as their preferred toll provider.

The issue involves the "direct connect" service where users press "1" to automatically dial the number provided by 018.

Such calls are billed by the network users are connected to, such as Telecom or Vodafone, for their mobile calls. But the system bypasses users who have "non-code access" with an alternative toll provider.

Direct-connect users are charged a 30c fee for pressing 1 and Telecom's system warns callers they will be charged that fee plus any "applicable telecom network call charges".

Consumers Institute chief David Russell has panned the warning as not sufficient. Other telcos are also unimpressed, and even Telecom acknowledges its doesn't explain it well enough.

Russell said Telecom should make it absolutely clear. "If you press '1' you are going to be charged for the call by Telecom. Amen. "

Telecom group marketing manager Sandra Geange said 018 was a service provided by Telecom and delivered over the Telecom network and callers were given the choice of taking the number down and ringing it themselves, or pressing "1".

But she acknowledged the message could be clearer. "At the moment we don't explain it at the automatic voice prompt, that's true."

It appears to have been this way since Telecom introduced the service.

Alternative providers said they had little idea of the extent of the problem because they didn't see calls that they didn't receive.

Geange denied there was a major issue, saying the problem had never reached her ears as a manager.

"We've never really had any feedback. That is just the way it has always been since we provided that service."

Some telcos said they had become aware of the issue only when the Herald contacted them.

But TelstraClear spokesman Mathew Bolland said it had raised the issue with Telecom over a year ago when it was Clear, and Ihug director Tim Wood said he had struck the problem himself a couple of months ago and spoken to his Telecom rep about it.

Geange said it would not be technically impossible to pass the billing of such calls to other providers.

"We'd have to have a look at it and decide whether it's a better option for us to make the customers aware that their call will be charged by Telecom if they press '1' or whether it's better to take the behind-the-scenes approach and come to agreements with each of the providers."

TelstraClear's Bolland said customers expected that when a toll call was placed it would be charged to the carrier they had chosen for tolls.

TelstraClear, like many toll providers, promoted special weekend "unlimited time but limited cost" calls that if made though Telecom could be charged very differently.

Wood said Telecom's message needed to be extraordinarily clear if the company was going to continue to retain 018-led calls.

"It should say something like, 'Pushing this option, you will be choosing a different toll provider than the one you've selected'."