On “non-tariffable” calls from mobile to numbers 8-800-xxxxxxx in Russia
New Year's holidays for geek - a great time to do things that usually do not reach the hands. Here I am, while defragmentation and annual mega-backups are running on all home computers, I dug out my to-do list, “which I didn't reach in 2011”.
So, today's my question is - is it true that calls from a mobile phone to any numbers starting at 8-800-xxxxxxx are free for a caller in Russia? Such a question for a second is no, no, and many users of call centers and hot lines of banks, courier services, insurance agencies and other organizations have appeared, where you have to dial for a long time, listening to the looped, squeezed mp3-shku dozens of times in a row. After all, if the call is free - you can start dialing up standing in a traffic jam, or just on the way to work - if you walk on foot. But happen, that they will answer you unexpectedly-FAST - in the noise of the street, important information and hard to hear, and dictate not very handy. What if the call will be paid? Then it is better to give him more attention, call from a quiet place, and try to match the time of day for him, when the line of callers-waiting will be shorter.
')
I live in St. Petersburg and check the situation only with local mobile operators, but the information is likely to be interesting for people from other cities of the Russian Federation. Under habrakat -
MegaFon North-West
In my main mobile phone is SIM card NW Megaphone. Let's start with it.
On the PPSOS website I immediately find the call-center number - now it’s 8-800-3330500. I listen to the robot that congratulates on holidays and wants me to always stay in touch (oh, it would always depend on me personally ...), and quickly (holidays, all the same!) I switch to a live operator.
- Tell me, is it true that calls from a mobile phone to any numbers starting at 8-800 (for example, call centers of banks, etc) are free for me?
- If this is a hotline number with a free dialer, then yes, they are free. (thanks, Cap!)
- But still, are there non-toll-free numbers for 8-800?
- Name the specific number, I will check.
- Thank you, there is no need to check, I just would like to clarify this question for myself, in general, so to speak, as ...
- Understand. Please wait a few minutes, I need to clarify.
Both! So it's not that simple? We are waiting ... however, not for long at all - on the strength of 2 minutes.
- Thank you for waiting. Calls to numbers from 8-800-100xxxx to 8-800-799xxxx are free of charge.
- And the rest?
- Charged. (!!!)
- At the standard price of my tariff plan, or maybe otherwise?
- I can’t tell you this, but you can check for a specific number.
My inner paranoiac rejoices - the suspicion that “there is one nuance” is fully justified: you shouldn’t believe your eyes and the popular myth about toll-free numbers 8-800. More precisely, it is worth “trusting, but checking.”
Beeline St. Petersburg
Further in the course is a spare phone with Simka Beeline.
The site of the mobile operator offers two call-center phones at once: “short” 0611 and “city” 8-812-3466000. It's funny that the option from 8-800 is not proposed (although I suspect that if you search, it will be found). I call on the “short”, I listen to the robot, they don’t congratulate here on holidays - but they advertise the iPhone 4s twice. Slightly slower than in Megaphone, but still noticeably faster than on weekdays, I switch to a live operator.
- Tell me, is it true that calls from a mobile phone to any numbers starting at 8-800 (call centers, etc) are free?
- Yes, in Russia calls to numbers starting at 8-800 are not charged.
- But still, are there non-toll-free numbers for 8-800?
- No, according to my information in Russia, all numbers at 8-800 are free. (hmm ...)
- It is strange that another mobile operator told me that only certain numbers for 8-800 are free, and the rest are paid. I have no complaints against you, I just want to figure out - how is that?
- We have everything for free, do not worry.
That's the news! Whether the operator of the biline call-center really does not have the correct information on our issue (then - shame and disgrace to this company), or I was misinformed in a megaphone (but it also doesn’t happen - if they cheat, they present things in the best light, and not at the worst, than they are actually), or the situation really changes from PPSOS to PPSOS.
MTS St. Petersburg
In this case (at the beginning of the article I was hoping for a simpler and faster outcome of the venture) I was not too lazy to find the SIM card of MTS, which I usually do not use at all, and contact them.
On the site of the red operator from the first attempt, the call-center telephone could not be detected EXTREMELY. We click on the link “Help and Service” in the menu (as if the hell you can get on their website for a purpose other than searching for help or information about the service, yeah) and still find the number - now it's 8-800-3330890. I call, the robot congratulates with the holidays, and also wonders if I want to evaluate the specialist's answer - I answer, they say, okay, I want (controversial usability-solution: I would have to deal with my problem first, and after that - with the quality of service ... but oh well ). Ten seconds of music, and I switched to a live operator.
- Tell me, is it true that calls from a mobile phone connected to the MTS to any numbers starting at 8-800 are free?
- Yes, any calls to numbers starting at 8-800 are free.
- But still, are there non-toll-free numbers for 8-800?
- No, all numbers for 8-800 are not tariffed.
- Look: I was told at another mobile operator that only certain numbers at 8-800 are free, and the rest are not. I have no complaints to you, I just want to understand completely - how is that?
- We have 8-800 exactly free, do not worry.
A few seconds after the release, the robot called back and asked for an assessment of the quality of the response.
Stranger and stranger. Ok, we go further: I don’t have Tele2 and Skylink sim cards , I’ll try to call them from a non-their number (I made previous calls from the SIM cards of the PPSOS that I called - being 99% sure that the call center employee is notified by his software whether the caller is a client or not, I expect that the approach to “my” clients may be a little, but still more conscientious; later in the text I call from Simka Beeline).
Tele2 Saint Petersburg
We look at the Tele2 website , we see the “short” number - 611, and the “urban” number - 8-812-9890022. Like Beeline, the call center numbers with the prefix 8-800 are not offered. It turns out that once I have no opportunity to call from the phone serviced by Tele2 (or maybe I am their regular customer who urgently needs to block the SIM card due to its loss?) , You will have to pay for the call. I naively believed that in the 21st century this does not happen =) Further the standard script is a robot (without congratulations), switching to the operator ... stop! the robot does not offer to switch to the operator! o_O Having walked through the menu of a robot offering to listen to various FAQs, I finally make my way to a live operator. 10 seconds of music, and they answered me.
- Tell me, if I call from a mobile phone connected to Tele2, to a number starting from 8-800, are these calls always free, or are there any nuances?
- If you call a toll-free hotline number, such a call is not charged. (hello, cap, hello, megaphone)
- But still, are there non-toll-free numbers for 8-800?
- Name the specific number, I will check if it is paid.
- Thank you, you do not need to check anything, I just want to clarify this question for myself - are calls to 8-800 always free, or is it necessary to fear?
- Some rooms starting at 8-800 are free, some are free. You can always find out the cost of a call to such a number with us.
I checked the balance - that is, the call to the Tele2 call center cost me 5 rubles 36 kopecks. I note that the first attempt to get through failed - the mobile phone showed that the conversation had begun, but the dynamics were quiet. A minute later tried again - got through. And the problem is definitely not as a reception on my side, since from the same device, from the same SIM card and from the same kitchen, all the other calls mentioned above passed without problems.
That is, the situation is one to one, as in Megaphone, only without specifics. In total, the "big four" of GSM-cellular operators in St. Petersburg was divided into two equal camps: in MTS and Beeline they say that the 8-800 prefix is a sufficient reason to assume that the call to this number will not be charged for their subscribers ; MegaFon and Tele2 claim the opposite.
Skylink St. Petersburg
<offtopic>
About Skylink, I admit, I know mostly by hearsay - at that time, when it was chosen by people in dire need of a mobile Internet, which was still too slow (or expensive? Or unstable?) In GSM-operators, I’m not relate and contented with simple voice GSM-communication; when did I need such a need, GPRS from Megaphone, and a little later - EDGE from it and Mobile WiMAX from Yota - completely covered my needs. So I did not get involved with unfamiliar technology and buy an expensive handset specifically for this purpose. The last case known to me, when the choice of a mobile phone of the “exotic” CDMA standard instead of the “standard” GSM was made by a person consciously and justifiably, occurred in 2008, during my student life, then at SPbU on the written exams in the audience the evil teachers included a jammer that was noisy at 900/1800 MHz (if there was a third band for the 1900 range, or there were two bands, but I don’t have wide bands) and trying to get help from the ICQ helpers sitting on books was absolutely impossible SMS - if com unlikely to seriously count on it. So, CDMA phones, either because of the frequencies far from the GSM band, or (which is unlikely, but who knows for sure), because of the protection from deliberately induced interferences originally built into this communication standard, continued to work perfectly and please their hosts opportunity to resort to unauthorized methods of improving the quality of their exam answers. A sort of life hacking.
So, I myself have never been their subscriber, as an inhabitant - I have not heard anything about them for a long time, but I decided to call them anyway. Just in case, to complete the picture.
</ offtopic>
On the site of the last operator here we will have a tough choice between two "city" contact numbers: "Sales: (812) 715-15-15" and "Service: (812) 715-05-55". We are surprised by this seemingly hopelessly outdated work pattern, we are surprised at the absence of both 8-800 and “short” numbers, we call to “service”. The robot welcomes me, and instead of congratulations on holidays, it warns that mobile phones are a source of harmful electromagnetic radiation, and Skylink phones work in CDMA standard and emit less! Leaving the caller to think about it, the robot offers to wait for the answer of the expert “about one minute”, but it’s rather two and a half to wait. And here he is - a live operator.
- Tell me, if I call from a mobile phone connected to Skylink, to a number starting from 8-800, will this call always be free of charge, or are there any nuances?
- Usually calls to these numbers are free, and for all mobile operators, but there are also such numbers for which this rule does not apply.
- That is, in general, seeing the number from 8-800, I can not know whether it is paid or not?
- No you can not. In the case when such a call is charged, you should usually be warned about this on the side where you are calling.
- Do you have a technical opportunity to check a specific number, is it free or not?
- Unfortunately, we don’t have such a database.
- If I face a fraud, and my call is charged, although I was not warned about this - what to do?
- Then you should contact the company that owns this number, and in case of fraud - to the authorities.
I checked the balance - the call to Skylink's call center cost 4 rubles 69 kopecks.
It's funny that it was in the “exotic” and unpopular Skylink that they gave me, perhaps, the most complete and understandable answer, albeit without Megafon's specifics. What remains to us?
Eventually
I almost forgot: In dialogs with everyone except Skylink, I finally asked what to do if the call to a seemingly toll-free number with the 8-800 prefix would be charged — each time they answered the same way, then call us, dictate the problem phone number we'll figure out.
I almost forgot-2: 5 seconds after the end of the call, after talking to the operator of the Megaphone Call Center, I received an SMS that I won a Mercedes-BenzE350 4Matic (literally). It was suggested to send a reply SMS to a short number. As far as I know, such spam is against the rules of even the most loyal to the “gray schemes” content providers and, naturally, PPSOS. In theory, if time is not a pity, you can be conscious and push your operator, who kicks the content provider, and as a result, the final spammer will not be executed, but at least he will be significantly penalized. So, I tried it. The operator turned deep all the same. But that's another story ...
So in the end
In the end, the answer to the question I put in the topic,
Is it true that calls from a mobile phone to any numbers starting at 8-800-xxxxxxx are free for the caller in Russia?
- no that's not true.
And the truth is harsh and ambiguous: there can be no certainty in advance in the pricing of a particular issue, you need to check and understand.
But there were new questions:
- Why information from various official (can you call the advice of a trained call center specialist?) Sources does not agree? Does the situation differ with the billing of the same numbers for different PPSs? - I personally doubt, and I tend to the banal ignorance of operators of the correct answer and the incompleteness of the scheme of their work, which did not allow them to quickly give the client an exhaustive answer.
- Why is the tele2 operator and the harsh military operator Skylink, positioned as “the most affordable and cheapest”, who “confidently catches in the forest and under water since the nineties” for 2012, do not have free call centers (for those callers who do not use their sim card) ? Or maybe they have such toll-free numbers, but they do not shine on the main page of the site?
- Anxiety, slowness and monstrously inconvenient interface (lack of an obvious way to quickly chatter and jump directly to a live operator) of answering robots of all five PPSES, especially Tele2, is the curvature of the author of the TZ, lack of usability in the states of these non-poor companies specialists, or a deliberate measure designed to reduce the load even on the operators of the “first circle” TP (if division into levels is practiced by all - reliably know about this only at Megaphone)?
- Why on the websites of all the mentioned OPPs, except for Skylink, call center telephones are displayed on the page not with text, but with graphics? Krivorukost developers with, again, the lack of usability, or (paranoid mode on!) So did it specifically that the phone numbers do not fall into the cache PS, and if something happens when you replace the pictures with a new number to leave at least a trace of the old?
- Is it possible to personally check the tariffs for 8-800 numbers? In theory, such information should be publicly available, even if it is not obvious (by analogy with the correct price tags for short numbers for paid SMS and “subscriptions” that are difficult to find, but possible)?
- Who will answer for all this? (answered by Alexander Druz)
Actually, of course, I’m no paranoid (simple and honest eyes), and my little investigation was spurred on by idle curiosity, rather than a desire to
All information is given as of today (January 2, 2012), the dialogues with the call center operators are not verbatim (outlined from memory immediately after the call), my judgments are subjective, and I’m in no way agitating
I wish you all good communication, good mood and congratulations on the coming 11111011100 year!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/135626/
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