Confused Winz beneficiaries dial 0800 wrong number

Toby Yorke is having problems with WINZ clients mistakenly calling his firm's freephone number. Photo / Natalie Slade

A small-business owner is receiving about six calls a day from beneficiaries because of a Work and Income letter with an unclear telephone number.

Even worse, Toby Yorke is paying about $100 a month because it is an 0800 number.

The stock letters from Winz advise recipients to call "the general inquiries 0800 number".

Winz's general inquiries number is actually 0800-559-009, but the phone number for Mr Yorke's web design company, Geek Free, is 0800 NUMBER (686-237).

He has been fielding about six calls a day from confused beneficiaries since October last year.

"Initially I thought I had purchased a number once owned by Winz but that wasn't the case," said Mr Yorke.

Over the past year, he has been trying to contact Winz to find a solution to the problem - a process he says is frustrating and slow.

Winz told Mr Yorke it would update the letters, so clients could be supplied with specific numbers. However, it will be months before all the letters are changed, leaving Mr Yorke out of pocket.

Winz sends out more than nine million letters every year.

"Basically I have been told they cannot help and as a result I have continued to pay to receive Winz calls.

"A practical solution would be for Winz to reimburse the cost of receiving their calls until the time at which all the letters have been changed."

Acting head of Work and Income Liz Jones said she recognised Mr Yorke had experienced some inconvenience as a result of people calling his number in error.

"We have discussed with him the possibility of changing his phone number, however, as is his right, he does not wish to do so," she said.

Mr Yorke said the number was valuable to his business and he had plans to use it for a range of different businesses he was setting up.

"I can't believe this has become such a drama."

In order to deter Work and Income callers, Mr Yorke set up a pre-recorded message, at a cost of $175, to explain that "this is not the phone number for Work and Income".

"It reduced the calls but, believe it or not, they haven't stopped.

"It doesn't look good when clients call up and the message is telling them, 'This is not Work and Income'."

Ms Jones said she hoped the pre-recorded message had alleviated some of the inconvenience Mr Yorke had experienced by choosing 0800 NUMBER.

"I can provide assurance that as opportunities allow and the content of our letters is changed, we will update the wording to provide clients with specific numbers."