9.99 Line Rental Cold Call

baxal_2

I failed to get company details from this person - I could repeat the company name he claimed to be representing, but I hesitate because I can't believe a legitimate company would sink to this level and I can only find one provider with a similar name and I don't want to damage the reputation of the wrong company. (It is not a company I have seen mentioned on the MSE emails/site/forum and doesn't appear to be a major UK supplier - if that adds some reassurance.) I am passing along this experience because the way things were worded it would have been extremely easy for someone to inadvertently agree to change their line rental supplier and not even realise they'd given the go-ahead.

I received a call from an unavailable number today and ended up livid because what this person was saying to me was blatantly misleading.

They told me that they were phoning me about my BT line rental, confirmed my phone number, and told me that my line rental will be £9.99 a month. It was literally 'Hello, I am calling from ____ Telecom about your BT line rental. Can I confirm your number? I would like to inform you that your monthly line rental will be £9.99, okay?'

When pressed, the caller did say the telecom company he represents are a competitor to BT, but he kept saying stating as fact that my line rental will be £9.99 and that there is nothing I need to do. I had to ask him directly if his company represents or is affiliated with BT and/or authorized to contact BT customers in order to get him to answer that he is actually with a competetor company, however.

He never asked me if I had considered switching, he never asked if I would consider switching, he never actually said anything about switching at all - until I really pressed him about the use of 'will be £9.99'. BT have never phoned me and told me what my line rental will be - they've called and said 'This is what it COULD BE IF...'

I confronted him about it because telling what it will be and saying that I need to do nothing indicates that this has somehow been predetermined without my permission - so either I need to agree to something or he needs to stop talking BS. He then finally indicated that I would need to switch from BT to his company. This was well into the call and only after I'd started ripping his sales pitch apart. It was written to be less sales pitch and more 'courtesy call on behalf of...' but they don't represent BT at all, no matter how many times they want to name drop BT into the conversation.

I worked as a telemarketer 20 years ago and the 'careful wording' bugged me then and I think that might be why I started seeing red flags and hearing alarm bells 3 sentences into this call. This company may actually supply land line rental at 9.99 - it might even be good quality - but they seem like they're luring customers directly from BT by making it sound as though BT have endorsed them somehow when they have not. I'm posting this more as a heads up to those who might be considering a different line rental supplier - the manner in which they're trying to get new customers makes me extremely wary of them and if someone else gets a cold call like this they've got to really pay attention to how things are being worded. Make sure you make it blatantly clear that you are not interested if you're not interested. The way the person I spoke to was talking I actually am a little concerned that the one time I said 'Okaaaaaaaayyyyyy?' in response to him - because I really was puzzled why BT would hire another company to tell me that my line rental was not going up but down - might have been enough for him to consider it an agreed deal.

I have had some bad times with BT in the past and have said countless times 'If I could have line rental through someone else I would.' Not this time.... not this time...