Irritated by companies that don't have normal phone numbers

Companies are increasingly using some sort of Telkom Sharecall-type numbers for their call centres, instead of ordinary 011 or 021 numbers. I understand that they want the caller to be charged for a "local" call regardless of where they're calling from, but in this day of cellphones, the concept of the "local" call has almost ceased to exist.

Many cellphone contracts come with a certain number of included minutes. Even if you have hundreds of these minutes available, any call to a Telkom sharecall number - or even a Telkom toll-free 0800 number - gets charged. It will not come off the free minutes, even though, if you'd made the call from a normal Telkom phone, you would be charged the price of a local call.

In the UK they experience the same problem so there are websites (such as Say no to 0870 - 0870 numbers being "non-geographical numbers") devoted to finding alternate "landline" numbers for many of these types of numbers.

Wouldn't it be great to have something like that here? Or how can we get companies to advertise their real landline numbers for their callcentres, branches and head offices?

ros_b said:

Companies are increasingly using some sort of Telkom Sharecall-type numbers for their call centres, instead of ordinary 011 or 021 numbers. I understand that they want the caller to be charged for a "local" call regardless of where they're calling from, but in this day of cellphones, the concept of the "local" call has almost ceased to exist.

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In some cases there are valid reasons for using the 086 numbers. For example, ICASA has run out of contiguous 011 numbers. Hence they are providing 010 numbers to the smaller/alternative network operators for customers in the Johannesburg area. Telkom and Neotel have most of the 011 numbers. One of the problems the smaller operators face is that some existing PABXs are not configured to dial 010 numbers, and hence customers who are using the 010 numbers complain that people are unable to call them. It ultimately becomes the receiving operators problem, when a caller with a legacy PABX on Telkom is unable to make calls to their network. Using a 086 number to the customer is one way of overcoming the problem.

In some cases if a company has a national footprint and you call the 086 number, the call generally gets routed to the nearest call centre. In this case the company does not need to advertise every regional number. It also helps, when one call centre is very busy the call can overflow to a call centre in another region.

The are also individuals and companies using VoIP services with 087 numbers.

If your gripe is mainly related to not being able to use your free minutes to 086 numbers then you should take it up with your service provider.

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