I just stumbled across IrishPassportAdvice.com
I must credit those involved in the enterprise. Rather then copy and paste text from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs website and shove some Adsense on a side bar this crowd provide a Irish premium rate number!
I think this is walking a fine line. I haven’t phoned the number because Ambrand does not provide a telephone expense account, but I imagine the line consists of touch-tone accessible audio versions of the Departments webpage, or perhaps a human reading the Departments webpage.
The phone number is in the new and mysterious 0818 STD. This is not instantly recognisable as a premium rate number as traditionally those began with 15, for example 1550. IrishPassportAdvice.com also spaces the number as as “081 828 6628″ which suggests the STD is 081, this makes it look like a regional number, for example the Cork City region is 021.
It could be argued that as the website is advertised via Adwords they need to make their money back somehow.
Plus should we criticise a for-profit from charging money for providing information that may be found freely elsewhere, isin’t that what newspapers have being doing since time immemorial?
Well yes, I just rang the “081 828 6628″ number and listened to a slowly read introduction in a regional UK accent. I hung up after about 45 seconds when the message said something to the effect of “for more information phone 1590…” Now 1590 is a infact the most expensive premium rate number costing the caller about EUR 3.00 per minute. I think the line has been crossed.
and say, if you prefer to deal with expensive private information providers you might also enjoy birthsdeathsmarriages.ie over gro.ie
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