@publisher wrote:
the company to whom the number is allocated is Plusnet, therefore they have a responsibility to make sure that customers can no longer use it if they (the company) have chosen to employ a free option.
In general the numbers for call centres (and individuals, small businesses, etc) are rented from a supplier. Some might be offered at very low (or no) cost, because they make coppers from the minutes of calls made (the termination charge) or in the case of an 0800 / 0500 / 0808 number, the recipient pays upwards of 8p (sometimes as much as 17p for calls from a mobile) and a portion will go to the originating network.
It isn't always possible to know what the "next customer" for the number will use it for. In PN's case, yes, they can and should do something - a short announcement giving their current 0800 and 0345 numbers may be best - but if they had simply cancelled their use of the number, you'd quickly learn it no longer reached them. Sometimes it costs money just to be able to continue to use the number, as a form of rental, without taking into consideration the time/salary of those who are needed to answer the calls. I was on the receiving end of calls in the past, for 2 different 0800 numbers.
One was "promoted" by some school children (or older, but with similar mentality) who must have placed ads for "Sexy Suzy the Snake charmer" in various London phone boxes. I was getting calls at all times of day and night until I had to cancel using that number because it was not going to be usable for new business. I was being charged for the privilege of these nuisance calls. The second number had been used by an electrician (who had not deleted it from online display, but had ceased trading). So his details and business showed the number I was renting for incoming new business. Again, I was being charged for "his" calls and he had no incentive to delete the details off the internet.
So you can see why sometimes a user won't continue paying rental for a non-geographic number. I suppose PlusNet might have just "kept on" the rental or might have had a long term contract. Either way, such "no longer in use" numbers should be reviewed so that a caller gets either an announcement about the correct number to call, or never gets answered so does not get charged at all.
0845 is not "strictly" classed as a "Premium Rate" number because there is a minimum fee per minute for that category and 0845 charges are lower, but still significant if you call from a landline, more from a mobile, and significantly more, if called from a PAYG mobile.
