0800 Reverse was a
reverse charge (collect) call service that provided reverse charge calls within the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. The service was operated by Reverse Corp Ltd.
- Reverse Corp Ltd Website An 0800 Reverse charge call was placed by dialling the
phoneword
Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the correspondin ...
0800 REVERSE (i.e. 0800 7383773). The number can be dialled as a free call from most out-of-credit mobile phones, and most fixed land lines. 0800 Reverse was advertised in television campaigns featuring
Holly Valance, and the service was advertised on many phone boxes throughout the United Kingdom. The service is mainly targeted towards children and teenagers, but can be used by anyone.
Both 0800 Reverse and the number's sibling, MUMDAD (686323, 0800 686323 and 08000686323) that functions the same, have discontinued service.
Although none of the service's numbers are active, the 0800 Reverse website is still online.
Complaints
In 2007, a complaint was raised with the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), that the terms and conditions of the 0800 Reverse service were not made sufficiently apparent in their television advertisements. The ASA decided that the cost was likely to influence a viewer's decision to use the service and a recipient's decision whether to accept a call. They found that the call charge information was not sufficiently legible for it to be easily absorbed by viewers in one viewing, and ordered that the onscreen text regarding pricing be made more prominent.
The service was also the subject of a
Watchdog
Watchdog or watch dog may refer to:
Animals
*Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence
* Portuguese Watchdog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed
* Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet U ...
investigation due to its high charges, and failure to inform users of its cost.{{Citation needed, date=June 2023
References
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
Calling features