How we can help
We provide clear, practical, impartial advice to help you sort out problems and disagreements you may be having with suppliers of goods or services.
From overcharging to faulty goods or dodgy workmanship and from energy supply to postal problems, our advisers are ready to offer solutions for individual problems.
We offer help and advice to every single consumer in Great Britain (regardless of age, gender, social background or ethnic group) who is buying or has bought goods or services. You can contact us by telephone or email.
The advice and information we give is free and you can call as many times as you need to. Telephone calls are charged for via the 0845 number, which will cost no more than 4p per minute for BT customers (other networks may vary).
- Consumer Direct is available on a single national telephone number - 08454 04 05 06 - from 0800 – 1830 Monday to Friday, and 0900 – 1300 Saturday, excluding bank holidays and public holidays.
- A Welsh-speaking Consumer Direct service is available on 08454 04 05 05.
- Minicom or Typetalk users can contact Consumer Direct for Consumer Issues using Minicom or typetalk services, if the issue is regarding Energy or post only the typetalk service is available.
- Minicom users can call 08451 28 13 84 to access this service.
- To use TypeTalk, simply dial the prefix 18001 before dialling your chosen Consumer Direct number.
- Calls to the Consumer Direct 0845 numbers are charged at no more than four pence per minute from a BT landline. Call charges from other landline providers or mobile phones may vary. Please check the rate with your phone service provider.
- Postal Complaints can be sent to us at Consumer Direct, P.O Box 833, Moulton Park, Northampton, NN3 0AN.
- Consumer Direct is available in England, Scotland and Wales. Consumers from Northern Ireland should contact ConsumerLine on 08456 00 62 62.
Why does Consumer Direct use an 0845 telephone number?
Consumer Direct provides consumers across Great Britain with easy access to clear practical consumer advice via contact centres based in the English Government Office regions, Scotland and Wales.
Our 0845 number allows us to publicise a single number nationally. To publicise many different local numbers would be confusing, and would mean that much of our advertisements would be taken up with different telephone numbers instead of information about the service. Having a single number is essential for us.
Use of an 0845 telephone number allows us to determine where in the country a consumer is calling from, and to route them through to the appropriate contact centre.
If we encounter a problem with the service in one centre, our 0845 number also allows us to divert calls to another contact centre. This ensures that we can provide an uninterrupted service for consumers, and we have less than 1.5% calls abandoned.
We are aware that some callers prefer to call a landline number rather than a non-geographic 0845 number, as this may be less expensive for them. Calls to our 0845 number are charged at no more than 4 pence per minute for BT customers. Call charges from other networks or mobile phone networks may vary. You will need to check the rate you pay yourself. Typically an average call to Consumer Direct lasts about six minutes.
Consumer Direct is designed to operate from our 0845 number, so we cannot guarantee connectivity, but under many circumstances the following landline numbers will work correctly.
East of England: 01438 737460
East Midlands: 01522 563000
London: 020 8799 9200
North-East: 01642 495600
North-West: 0203 1035165
Scotland: 01851 822401
South East: 01622 626520
South West: 01209 720333
Wales (English language): 02920 367800
Wales (Welsh language): 02920 367801
West Midlands: 02476 786610
Yorkshire and the Humber: 0113 201 3670
Energy: 01604 640 373
Post: 01604 640 374
Consumers who call Consumer Direct from a mobile phone are handled personally. We will offer to text a landline number to consumers who call us from a mobile phone, and who live in an area that is served by Consumer Direct, because calls from mobile phones to 0845 numbers can be much more expensive.
