See it, but don’t say it if you’re on Smarty

[RoCoUK]

Hey all,

had a pretty scary incident today on the tube (but above ground). Wasn’t appropriate to call 999 as I didn’t want to alert the other person. And remembered “See it, say it, we’ll sort it. Text 61016”. 
So I did exactly that. Unfortunately I got message sending failed. I couldn’t report this online as the BTP form was too cumbersome for a mobile. So I ended up being followed by someone until I could reach safety. 
This really isn’t on, I’d understand if it was a premium shortcode but it’s a national police service I was trying to contact. 
Please make your subscribers aware that this doesn’t work proactively! It really was relief when I remembered the number and fear when it didn’t work!

[Strandloper]

@RoCoUK,

Welcome to the Smarty Community Forum. We are mostly customers, just like you.

[Strandloper]

@RoCoUK,

We, as customers, have little we can do to change things directly.

I can appreciate that your situation wasn't the nicest to experience. Hopefully Smarty will be able to change the use of shortcodes for us, but we don't have a time frame for that at present.

[jassingh]

Turns out this is a common thing (and not just limited to Smarty) in that '61016' is deemed a premium rate number. It's not the BTP that sets this rate but the mobile networks (something around ~13p or so; similar to a standard text). I guess its because although 101 is the non-emergency number, the 6's are commonly used for texts.

The BTP also don't advertise it as having a charge, because it shouldn't ... but on the other hand they could have chosen to use a number that was free? Down to the networks if they should be waiving fees for this and make it accessible. I did note the BTP site does mention the following as an alternative if you can't reach them via text:

However, you can email us at first_contact@btp.police.uk or call us on 0800 40 50 40 if you do not want to text us.

[MSF]

@RoCoUK  You do make a very good point. This issue has been discussed a fair bit recently as a number of organisations, utilities etc use the short code system.

I would raise it as a complaint in order to add to the pressure.

[Chalkychap]

This is really pretty poor customer service from SMARTY @RoCoUK. 

Considering SMARTY allow use of these short-codes: 65075, 75075 and 85075 - hard to see why an SMS to 61016 would need to be blocked. 

Perhaps make a complaint, to add weight to the community voice on short-codes, as @MSF suggests.

#LessSMARTY, #MoreMalarkey 🤔