Phone Call

[PJ.]

Have they said why the phone call is a premium rate number? Is that going to the charity or is it going to pay studio costs so that they can claim that all profit of the item goes to the charity. I have no problems if it is going to the costs of running it which much amount to manny hundreds of thousands but I would like them to be upfront. It smacks of Bid's tactic of trying to hide the extra cost of a product.

PJ

 

[Deleted member 16796]

Hi PJ, I believe the official line from Equal World is that their £1.08 call charge goes back into the Equal World foundation to help keep overheads etc low. I am sure other members will be able to expand on that or correct me if I am wrong or have misunderstood this. Next time I watch, I will try and get an accurate quote from the presenter or on screen ticker to make sure I have got this correct. But of course you can always order online direct from their website, and I believe there is also an alternative non-premium rate telephone number in place for customers to talk to customer services about orders, returns or to ask questions about products.

 

[Deleted member 16796]

As promised I have looked into this for you, and to quote from the channel: "Calls to our 0901 telephone number cost £1.02 per call. Our customer service department can be reached on 0300 365 3000 for customers with existing orders or queries."

I did get it wrong, sorry about that, the call charge is £1.02 and not the £1.08 I stated earlier.

Regarding whether the £1.02 goes directly to the foundation, as soon as I have confirmation on the exact details, I will let you know.

The quote came from the ticker at the bottom of the screen, but the on screen graphics also state: £1.02 per call + network extras and there is also a fixed graphic on the top of the screen that says: ALL PROFIT GOES TO CHARITY

I hope that helps clear things up.

 

[Deleted member 16796]

I will be adding an update to this soon, but in the meantime I think there might possibly be an error with my earlier quote. I apologise if that proves to be the case. There is a slight chance that the alternative telephone number has been misquoted, but I cannot be certain. The problem is that the on screen ticker which contains the information about the channel, the cost of the phone number and details about the customer service number is quite hard to read at times. Sometimes it looks like it says 0300 and when I checked again later it looked like 0800.

 

[Deleted member 16796]

I have just checked the on screen ticker again to ensure that I am giving you all the correct information, and the customer service number appears to have changed to: 0800 808 5161 so maybe that contact number differs according to which item is on air at the time.

Also, and this is good news, according to a new on screen graphic, and I quote:

LIVE SHOWS START MONDAY 8th SEPTEMBER TUNE IN ON MONDAY 1st SEPTEMBER AT 3PM FOR AN EXCLUSIVE LIVE AUCTION PREVIEW!

 

[WifeSlashGoddess]

Steve Bennett has said on air that the price of the phone call helps cover the overheads - so that the profit from the items can all go to charity.

I have no gripe with the phone call cost on a charity channel. It's clear for all to see. It's people's choice whether they choose to phone or not. I consider the call charge a donation to charity. The postage rates are reasonable and Steve Bennett doesn't charge premium rates on Gems TV - so it's obvious that he's not ripping people off.

Unlike a certain other channel that used to make a song and dance about selling items for £1 or 1p - but then ripped you off with postage and a £1.53 call that then made your junk tat "1p item" work out to a tenner - and twice the price of your local Wilkinson store. That was blatant ripping off.

Steve Bennett is not a con man. In fact, I've had many parcels from Gems £2.95 set-price rate that have been very bulky - and would have cost a lot more than the £2.95 for Gems TV to send - so they've taken that hit out of their profit.

Could you imagine Tat At Bid doing that? No, me neither.

 

[PJ.]

Thanks for all your investigating Shop and W/G.

 

[The Insider]

The presenter on air has just said a couple of times now that the cost of the call goes to literally lighting and heating the studio - well why don't they switch off the heating, make her wear a jacket and perhaps only switch on the lighting needed for that small corner they present in, instead of lighting the whole room.

I know the purpose of the channel is all good and positive but everyone associated with it and appearing on air should get their stories straight - plus the presenter on air now is another who like Steve, comes on air without full knowledge of how things work - this one asking her producer how the postage worked...

 

[Chad]

Maybe you want the presenters to wear hair shirts and flog themselves once they've finished turning all the lights and heating off? What's up with you people? Steve Bennett doesn't need to do this. How often do you hear about rich businessmen actually putting something back and helping genuinely poor people? Why is this something you feel you need to sneer at and criticise? Are you so bored now that Bid Tv has gone off air and you can't endlessly slag off poor old Peter Sherlock et al that you have to find another target for your venom?

 

[Deleted member 16796]

INFO - This evening for the duration of the live auction format, Equal World introduced an 0800 freephone number.

 

[The Insider]

Maybe you want the presenters to wear hair shirts and flog themselves once they've finished turning all the lights and heating off? What's up with you people? Steve Bennett doesn't need to do this. How often do you hear about rich businessmen actually putting something back and helping genuinely poor people? Why is this something you feel you need to sneer at and criticise? Are you so bored now that Bid Tv has gone off air and you can't endlessly slag off poor old Peter Sherlock et al that you have to find another target for your venom?

I'll not be mixed up with the bid tv forum bods thank you, and where's the venom?

My point is, it's so god damn awful at the moment - you'd never believe it was setup by the same person that ran Snatch It - it's not entertaining, it's not engaging, presenters have little or no product knowledge and most go on air without knowing how the channel works.

It's all very nice of presenters if they are still giving their time for free and the rest of the crew, but it's falls on deaths ears when you try to do it on the cheap and just rely on people being happy to put up with it because the profits go to charity, even though little is ever said in detail about the charity work, nor how much money is being raised.

At this rate, instead of Steve (has he got his OBE yet?) / TGGC subsidising this channel, they'd be much better donating the costs straight to charity.

 

[Chad]

Well I'm sure Steve Bennett will take on board your constructive criticism about the production values of his channel. How much does the channel you work for do for charity? How much free time do you and your colleagues give to help desperately poor people? At this rate you'd be better off donating your free time to the local Oxfam shop than spending it on here slating people for actually doing charitable work.

 

[Deleted member 16796]

Not a criticism, but a question - does anyone know why the picture is jumping about and the sound stuttering so frequently tonight?

Has the on-screen graphics computer run out of memory?

 

[mr tom]

I think this channel is a great idea and venture.

I am not surprised to find that certain aspects are priced at a premium to cover the cost of the overall aim of the channel.

There is nothing to suggest that this is anything like bid.tv

 

[shopperholic]

Maybe you want the presenters to wear hair shirts and flog themselves once they've finished turning all the lights and heating off? What's up with you people? Steve Bennett doesn't need to do this. How often do you hear about rich businessmen actually putting something back and helping genuinely poor people? Why is this something you feel you need to sneer at and criticise? Are you so bored now that Bid Tv has gone off air and you can't endlessly slag off poor old Peter Sherlock et al that you have to find another target for your venom?

Calm down........Steve Bennett will be doing this to promote himself and his failing Gemporia business, great publicity for him. The stuff they selll is absolute rubbish. Why not do some campaigning off big company's for better things to sell, I'm sure they'd like the publicity too. Must add I only.flick on this channel now and again, the same shouty loud presenters that he has on his other channels turns me right off, but good luck to him.