I'm of an age when 'directory inquiries', and even the 'speaking clock' were available free of charge by the fact of you paying for an old fashioned landline. Indeed, you could also dial for 'record of the week' and listen to a bangin' pop tune! (yep, I'm old...)

I frequently hear adverts now for directory inquiries now called 'Maureen 118 212' but the cost is £2.50/call, plus 75p/minute with a minimum of one minute/call!

Who is paying £3.25 to get a telephone number when such access is so freely available?  All I can think of is the elderly who may not have online access but that is just sheer profiteering, isn't it? Who else would need it?

6 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

you could also dial for 'record of the week' and listen to a bangin' pop tune! (yep, I'm old...)

That takes me back in time 😀

The phone number was "16" here in the UK, but you could only 'Dial A Disc' when the cricket season wasn't on. Otherwise you would only get the latest Test scores and even some cricket commentary. 🤣

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Who is paying £3.25 to get a telephone number when such access is so freely available?  All I can think of is the elderly who may not have online access but that is just sheer profiteering, isn't it? Who else would need it?

Possibly the blind may use the service ? 🤔

4 minutes ago, unofix said:

Possibly the blind may use the service ? 🤔

 

Great point, never even thought of that!

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Who is paying £3.25 to get a telephone number when such access is so freely available

An ex of mine had a job where she was on the road a lot and if she was in the company car and needed a phone number when she was on the move she, or should I say her employer paid for that service.

The service she used would connect you to the number that you were looking for as well so you did not necessarily need to stop driving.

Many (most?) blind people just use a smartphone the same as sighted people nowadays.  There are apps that can 'speak' everything shown on the screen and of course they can use voice recognition rather than typing as well.  

I genuinely didn't know the 118 service still existed!

2 hours ago, unofix said:

That takes me back in time 😀

The phone number was "16" here in the UK, but you could only 'Dial A Disc' when the cricket season wasn't on. Otherwise you would only get the latest Test scores and even some cricket commentary. 🤣

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Who is paying £3.25 to get a telephone number when such access is so freely available?  All I can think of is the elderly who may not have online access but that is just sheer profiteering, isn't it? Who else would need it?

Possibly the blind may use the service ? 🤔

I doubt it, modern smart phones and laptops etc have accessibility functions for the blind to use.

 

It's an old fashioned scam; aimed squarely at people that don't have access to smart devices.