In the UK we had a directory enquries service ' 192 ' that was de-regulated and replaced by about 10 commercial entities this weekend, all prefixed with 188 - I think - under the pretence that a monopoly was bad and competiton is good and that customers will choose which of the ten services they use based upon the various confusing pricing schemes and service levels.
That is if they can actually remember which bloody 188-xxx-xxx number combination they need to dial at a time when all the competing services are spending millions bombarding us with adverts to try to programme our memories, all this to a public market that was quite happy with the old, easy to remember 192 service thank-you very much.
And to top it all off, it's not like you can call directory enquiries to find out the number for directory enquiries, can you?
A bloody, open-market-beaurocracy-gone-mad fiasco if ever there was one.
That is if they can actually remember which bloody 188-xxx-xxx number combination they need to dial at a time when all the competing services are spending millions bombarding us with adverts to try to programme our memories, all this to a public market that was quite happy with the old, easy to remember 192 service thank-you very much.
And to top it all off, it's not like you can call directory enquiries to find out the number for directory enquiries, can you?
A bloody, open-market-beaurocracy-gone-mad fiasco if ever there was one.