Warning about Birmingham Hippodrome's phone line / 0844 numbers in general

[alison]

As I've already sounded off elsewhere, I was trying to buy a single ticket for BRB's Nutcracker, but the ones in the price band in question are all in twos at the ends of rows, and the online system won't allow you to buy only one of them if it leaves a single ticket.  So I thought I'd ring them and ask if there was a way round this.  Their website says:

 

"Please give our friendly Ticket Sales team a call on 0844 338 5000†.

†Calls to this line cost 4.5p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge."

 

Not too bad, I thought.  I spent less than 12 minutes on hold (so, £0.54) before my phone provider cut me off, and then sent me a text to say that I'd reached 80% of my monthly off-plan call limit of £10.  Is my phone provider seriously charging me nearly £7.50 to access an 0844 number?!  That's surely the logical conclusion.

 

So, if you're planning on ringing the Hippodrome - or anywhere else operating on an 0844 number - please be aware that you might be charged an inordinate amount even if the per-minute charge seems reasonable enough!

[Jan McNulty]

I once got charged £12 something for a call off my mobile when I was urgently trying to contact the Hippodrome from a hotel room.  I was absolutely horrified.  It turns out that some mobile providers charge a huge premium for the pleasure of dialling one of these numbers!

[Emeralds]

On 24/11/2022 at 13:21, alison said:

As I've already sounded off elsewhere, I was trying to buy a single ticket for BRB's Nutcracker, but the ones in the price band in question are all in twos at the ends of rows, and the online system won't allow you to buy only one of them if it leaves a single ticket.  So I thought I'd ring them and ask if there was a way round this.  Their website says:

 

"Please give our friendly Ticket Sales team a call on 0844 338 5000†.

†Calls to this line cost 4.5p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge."

 

Not too bad, I thought.  I spent less than 12 minutes on hold (so, £0.54) before my phone provider cut me off, and then sent me a text to say that I'd reached 80% of my monthly off-plan call limit of £10.  Is my phone provider seriously charging me nearly £7.50 to access an 0844 number?!  That's surely the logical conclusion.

 

So, if you're planning on ringing the Hippodrome - or anywhere else operating on an 0844 number - please be aware that you might be charged an inordinate amount even if the per-minute charge seems reasonable enough!

😢😢😢

So annoying when they say “don’t leave a single ticket” and sometimes I feel like telling them “I am going to this show on my own and I only need a single ticket- where are your single tickets for people like me?!” And the phone charges just make the whole thing worse. 

[alison]

To be fair to them, when I emailed the Hippodrome rang me back and sorted me out a ticket, but it's an absolute pain.  I lost out on some better seats because I couldn't book online.  And the system obviously does allow single seats to be left, because they are showing up on the seating plan