EA 'soon' to publish an alternative to 0800 Incident Line for boaters etc.

[thames cruiser]

I received this email reply from the Environment Agency in response to my enquiry about their use of only an 0800 number for their Incident Reporting Line (which is pretty costly if called from a mobile, which I guess is what most boaters and riverside walkers would be doing)...

Your email regarding the 0800 incident number has been passed through to me to answer as I work in the Incident Communication Service of the Environment Agency.

We currently use a 0800 number for all members of the public to contact us on. The reasons that we use this is that it gives extra resilience and the option to "move" the number should we have any need to work out of a different office. As you have correctly stated the 0800 number diverts to a landline, but should we have to work from a different office e.g. if we lost power to our main office our IT team can simply divert the 0800 number to an alternative location to allow us to still provide our 24/7 service to our customers. If we were to publish a direct land line number it restricts our ability to move quickly and ensure the service is kept operational for our customers.

However, we have received feedback from our customers advising that they would like an alternative option for mobile users . Based on this we are considering setting up a 0300 number to sit along side the 0800 number.

The reason that we are favouring a 0300 number is because of the following reasons.
•As you have stated, a call to a ‘freephone’ 0800 number on your mobile usually it isn't free, and can cost upwards of 10p/minute on some tariffs. Yet with a 0300 number the call will be as cheap as calling a landline from a mobile; usually much cheaper than calling an 0800.

•Depending on you mobile network provider, calls to 0300 numbers may be included in your inclusive minutes.

•Having a 0300 number provides us with the same resilience as a 0800 number and will allow us to "move" the lines in the event of a business disruption.

We are progressing this work as speedily as possible and would publish any new numbers to the contact us section on our website.

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Well done all.

 

[CJL]

The National Customer Contact number has already changed from 08708 506506 to 03708 506 506 (Available during working hours) both will run in parallel for a fair time I'm led to believe.

There again if you have an incident to report to the 0800 number and your worried about cost.....its probably not a real incident that needs reporting!!!

Call 'em the next day, speak to the next lock keeper or email them!!

CJL

 

[Captain Coochie]

I called the emergency contact number once when stuck in old winsor lock . After about 10 mins i got put through to a 24 hour locksmith . We spent the night in the lock .

 

[thames cruiser]

The National Customer Contact number has already changed from 08708 506506 to 03708 506 506 (Available during working hours) both will run in parallel for a fair time I'm led to believe.

There again if you have an incident to report to the 0800 number and your worried about cost.....its probably not a real incident that needs reporting!!!

Call 'em the next day, speak to the next lock keeper or email them!!

CJL

Oh PLEASE, give us some credit. If the EA see fit to publish a 'Freephone' number for their Incident Line (not the General Enquiries Line that you quote above), then it might as well be 'free' (to all). I don't mind paying (despite your insinuation), but it's not rocket science to expect that something important enough to report should not be charged at 'premium rates' to do so (which 0800 from a mobile does). And actually, many 'company' mobile phones actually have freephone and other premium rate numbers blocked for expense control purposes, so there are some (possibly many) people who cannot ring an 0800 number from their mobile.
Oh, and how many times have other peeps thought 'I should report that', but by the time they get home, have either forgotten to do so, or forgotten some of the key facts that are no longer fresh in the mind. Of course the serious stuff will (usually) get reported anyway, but why not make it easier for everyone to get involved where appropriate?
Last word, I posted this info as I thought others might find it interesting/usueful - I did not expect someone to take a cheap pop at me for it!
PS: There is not an 03 number for the Incident Line yet. The number mentioned above is for General Enquiries, business hours non-weekends only. Not really much good to us weekend boaters.

 

[CJL]

Oh PLEASE, give us some credit. If the EA see fit to publish a 'Freephone' number for their Incident Line (not the General Enquiries Line that you quote above), then it might as well be 'free' (to all). I don't mind paying (despite your insinuation)

I'm sorry but I see the problem is with your mobile phone provider/tariff not with the EA. What happens when 0300 numbers start get charged by mobile providers? Tariffs always change and is it fair to ask the EA and other bodies to keep changing their numbers to suit? BW are still on a single 0800 number and to be honest the EA 0800 80 70 60 number is easy to remember.

Changing it risks undoing a lot of work promoting these numbers to make people feel involved which then means that when people can't get through on the old number they then feel uninvolved.....its a vicious circle!

I should point out that if you ring the National Customer Contact Centre out of hours using the 08708 506 506 number then you can also report an incident.

CJL

 

[thames cruiser]

I'm sorry but I see the problem is with your mobile phone provider/tariff not with the EA. What happens when 0300 numbers start get charged by mobile providers? CJL

Well, we're getting away now from a 'boating' discussion, but I agree with you in part (and part not). True, the fact that (all) mobile phone providers charge extra for calls to 0800 numbers (and 0870 and 0845 etc.), is something of a UK telecom market scandal. That said, this is partly the reason why 03 numbers have been introduced - not a very good fix, but the one that Ofcom have introduced to address a bundle changes to UK telephone numbering. There are no plans to allow mobile providers charge for 0300 numbers, since the number range was introduced specifically for charities and other not-for-profit organisations to avoid 0800 costs, as well as provide all callers with a known fixed national (landline) rate tarrif.

From the reply I received from the EA, it seems I'm not the only one to have complained about the 0800 from a mobile issue and they appear to agree that this (perhaps small) issue needs to be addressed, whichg is why they plan to do so.

 

[boatone]

From the reply I received from the EA, it seems I'm not the only one to have complained about the 0800 from a mobile issue and they appear to agree that this (perhaps small) issue needs to be addressed, whichg is why they plan to do so.

I had certainly raised this some time ago on behalf of the TMBA and I know of at least one other request that was made.

 

[Keith 66]

Its an utter waste of time phoning the EA, over many years we have had occasional diesel leaks on the creek. You phone the 0800 number & someone turns up two or three days later.

 

[Ramage]

When my friend Ian's boat caught fire near Old Windsor Lock I called the EA incident line. When I told them the incident was near Old Windsor Lock I was asked what river that lock is on.


It seems the Incident line operator is in Peterborough.....


However, I cannot understand why they would not know lock and town names on their rivers...... As an airline employee I am expected to know where JFK, IAD, HKG, JNB, LCA, MCO etc are, so why don't they know where their locks are?

 

[CJL]

The operators on the incident line cover the entire country and its not reasonable to expect them to know the names of every; lock, flood defence asset, waste transfer station, incinerator, oil refinery, power station, river, culvert, ditch, landfill site, steel works, and compost site!

Particularly when you consider that's its shift work and I imagine its not the massively well paid! Also don't forget they simply pass the message on for somebody locally to deal with!!

CJL

 

[Ramage]

Shift work makes no difference. I work shifts. So do many other people.

The big clue is "Old Windsor".

That funny little place where the Queen lives. Near London. Which has a river going through it called the Thames.

It's not rocket science!

Failing that a poster or map on the wall?

 

[Riverleak]

If there is a serious issue, like being stuck in a lock or an accident or someone falling ill etc, why not save time and money and knock on the resident lock keepers door.In my experience they always know what to do, how to help or who to contact, and have NEVER been refused help when something is wrong

 

[TrueBlue]

If there is a serious issue, like being stuck in a lock or an accident or someone falling ill etc, why not save time and money and knock on the resident lock keepers door.In my experience they always know what to do, how to help or who to contact, and have NEVER been refused help when something is wrong

'Trouble is, it's becoming increasingly an issue that there may be no lock keeper in residence, either because there is NO resident, or that the house is being "refurbished"....

 

[Riverleak]

Yes,I agree, perhaps then we should use their contact numbers to complain that there are no lock no lockstaff to help us after all it's OUR service and let's face we pay enough for it!!!! I seem to remember the old days when we had a better service, resident lock keepers at each lock wearing smart uniforms and usually happy to boot, having had a boat on the Thames for just over 25 years I think back and so many things have changed, old faces gone etc not to mention the odd Thames patrol boat with a (usually) friendly river inspector passing by (almost as rare or as hard to spot as a kingfisher nowadays) AND we used to pay less for it!!!

 

[Captain Coochie]

I went out last weekend for the first time in ages and saw a river inspector . Two of them in the same boat in fact ! They waved and smiled aswell .

 

[Brayman]

That's whar they do!