OFCOM - New Rules

nsabournemouth

New rules have come into force. OFCOM have told newtorks that if complaints don't drop they will be charged 10% of turnover.

They are getting tough on:

People being told they have good reception bjut then finding that they have little or none.

The dealings with cashback

People on a 12 month deal being put on 18 or even 24 month deals without being told

The mis-selling of contracts ie Different plan than what was chosen etc etc
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8258172.stm

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/

fiish

I believe the reception issues could be helped by one of these methods:

(i) Enforce a cooling-off period for mobile contracts where the customer has the right to return the phone and cancel the contract due to poor reception. The problem with this is that it will be costly for the networks as the value of the handset will have dropped.

(ii) Give the customer a trial SIM to be used for a few days before the contract starts. An obvious problem here would be if a customer doesn't have a compatible/unlocked handset handy....

Personally I think a cooling off period should be enforced anyway, given how long the contracts are these days. As for the networks losing money because of this, such a rule would either force them to improve their coverage or they could just price this risk into their package offerings.

And for the mis-selling, I think it is a good thing that operators are being asked to offer accurate information about their contracts to customers. One way would be to send the customer a schedule of the contract package detailing free allowances, contract length and monthly cost including all applied discounts. If this does not match what was offered over the phone, for example, the customer would then have unconditional right to cancel. Networks already do something like this, but they don't list any discounts, preferring to put it on a bill which often arrives too late for the customer to complain under distance selling regs.

Guys_Dad

fiish wrote: »

I believe the reception issues could be helped by one of these methods:

(i) Enforce a cooling-off period for mobile contracts where the customer has the right to return the phone and cancel the contract due to poor reception. The problem with this is that it will be costly for the networks as the value of the handset will have dropped.

(ii) Give the customer a trial SIM to be used for a few days before the contract starts. An obvious problem here would be if a customer doesn't have a compatible/unlocked handset handy....

Clearly the cost of sending out phones and then receiving back, checking and then selling them as refurbished would significantly add to costs which would be passed on to consumers, so I would not favour that.

The answer is blindingly simple. Check out reception in your area and home first. There are only 5 networks. If you don't have 4 friends who have sims on at least 4 of the networks, then you don't need a mobile in the first place!

In addition, all the mobile companies have to do is to bring in contractual terms that state "I have established that I satisfied myself that the reception that I receive meets my needs" and include that in all contracts. Frankly, I am surprised that none of them do so already.

chattychappy

Guys_Dad wrote: »

In addition, all the mobile companies have to do is to bring in contractual terms that state "I have established that I satisfied myself that the reception that I receive meets my needs" and include that in all contracts. Frankly, I am surprised that none of them do so already.

Not really. It's not necessarily the case that just because something is written in a contract it's enforceable.

The real solution is for mobile phone companies to get their reception sorted out. Yep I'm sure it must be very inconvenient for them having to put antennas in rural areas just for those few odd calls. But either you have a network or you don't.

I've had a T-mob account for 15 years since it started as Mercury One2One. There is still a black spot about a mile from where I live. It on the A232 near Croydon, South London.. Pretty poor really.