HL Deb 28 May 1968 vol 292 cc1029-30

2.36 p.m.

LORD FRASER of LONSDALE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what redress a telephone subscriber has against persistent misrouting, as for instance when he dials a Brighton number and finds himself talking to someone in Kent or Berkshire; and whether records are kept which would show the spurious profit which the Post Office must make by reason of such errors, and if so, what this sum amounts to per annum.]

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, a customer who has obtained a wrong number on a dialled call can obtain a credit or a refund if he reports the error to the operator. The Post Office has no records of the revenue from calls to wrong numbers, 80 per cent. of which are attributable to incorrect dialling by customers.

LORD FRASER OF LONSDALE

My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that if I (or she) dial 100, in London, and then ask the operator to credit the call, it wastes five or ten minutes; and although the operator is very polite and of offers to help, you then ask her to get for you the number which you failed to get, and at the end of it all you get charged more for this job than if the machine had worked?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I hope the noble Lord will agree that this is the unusual, rather than something which happens in most cases. I am sorry that he is so unfortunate.

LORD FRASER OF LONSDALE

Oh, no. Would the noble Baroness believe me when I tell her that it is very widespread?

LORD MOYNE

My Lords, would not the noble Baroness agree that the figure of 80 per cent. which she quoted comes under suspicion if there are no records on which it is based?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

Yes, my Lords; I suspect that this is a conservative estimate.