HMRC calls on 0300 number costs when kept hanging on for over an hour

[Almedia]

My partner has been attempting to speak with HMRC a couple of times and has been held in a queue for just under the hour without being able to speak with anyone. She has then been forced to hang up and lose her place as we know the general rule about re-dialling under such circumstances for regular numbers. I am asking if anyone knows the definitive answer to my question which follows as despite being on VM Chat (WhatsApp) since midday (14/8/23) until 17:30, all I was able to learn, (incorrectly I believe) is that with our "Anytime Chatter" landline package, 0300 numbers are now chargeable since November 2022. I may stand corrected but I truly believe they remain effectively Freephone numbers still as Ofcom (and I quote from their website) originally issued these "UK-wide 03 numbers as an alternative to chargeable 08 numbers, such as 0870. These numbers allow organisations to have a single national point of contact without consumers having to pay extra to call them."
My question then is that if we are forced to stay holding on the phone for more than an hour on an 0300 call, as to hang up prior to the hour and redialling would only put us back to the beginning of the queue, would we still get charged a cost by Virgin Media? As 0300 numbers, like 0500 and 0800 are effectively free calls anyway, what would justify VM being able to charge us for the call if we had no choice but to hang on longer? I hope someone can understand as the VM Chat guy totally misunderstood before then telling me that we would be charged under those circumstances. He may be right, but that does seem rather unfair with such a number. We certainly would not wish to pay for the "privilege" of holding on indefinitely for HMRC!  Many thanks in advance.

[Alex_RM]

Hi Almedia,

Thanks for posting 🙂

It would be our policy that the first 60 minutes of the call would be free, depending on your talk plan. After this the price per minute would apply. 

You can read more on call costs here

Alex_Rm

[Roger_Gooner]

Calls to numbers beginning 01, 02 and 03 are not free but won't cost if part of your inclusive allowance for up to 60 minutes. BT has the same policy.

[nodrogd]

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@Almedia wrote:

 I may stand corrected but I truly believe they remain effectively Freephone numbers still as Ofcom (and I quote from their website) originally issued these "UK-wide 03 numbers as an alternative to chargeable 08 numbers, such as 0870. These numbers allow organisations to have a single national point of contact without consumers having to pay extra to call them."

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Where does it say they are Free. You omit to quote the very next lines from the same article:

“Calls to 03 numbers cost no more than the national call rate to an 01 or 02 number and must count towards any inclusive minutes in the same way as 01 and 02 calls.”

Calls on most mobile packages have a number of inclusive minutes. With fixed landlines there is a fixed time limit instead, which is actually more advantageous. So someone on a Moblie could be in the same situation & run out of minute allowance during one of these calls. It is not the phone provider’s fault that HMRC do not answer their phones in a reasonable time, & your complaints should be directed to them.