Bolt Ons -Underhanded but not illegal practice!

mrsands

Keystone - So sorry I also failed to respond to your question re what I would do if I found I'd received a bolt on by mistake and used it and not being charged.
Some may not agree with me but I would equally flag it up with the MPP however I would argue my case on the basis of the fact that I had never actually asked for the Bolt On and had I have realised I should have been paying more for my usage then I would have been far more aware of how many mins/texts I was using. Therefore in reality I would more than likely only ever have used those quantitys for a maximim of one month until I realised that my "Total Bill" was higher than normal.
Why would I do it when I could keep on taking advantage some may ask? - Because it's the "right" thing to do and because it's bound to come and bite me on the bum sooner or later.

Maybe this advantage that the MPPs seem to have over us re Bolt Ons is about to bite them on the bum???!!!

Snakeeyes21

mrsands wrote: »

ACDeag - Was that Zero to both questions or just one and if just one then which question were you answering with your response?

Keystone - May I remind you that the reason for this thread was to warn the MAJORITY of the consequences of naivety and hopeful save SOME some £££s.

Others on his board MAY pursue a course that is in the interests of a MINORITY but I dont.

Aren't the people who dont check and query any charges on their bill in the minority?
If I had "extras" on my bill I would phone and ask what they were for.

This isn't underhanded tactics by the operator, its a failing of the consumer.

Did you not find it odd that you were paying xxx more per month than you agreed to pay?

elektra-2007

Well i thought it was good of you to tell people if this, i was paying bt an extra £5 each bill for an added service i didnt know i had got, because when i get my bill i scan the phone calls to see if there any numbers im not sure of or cost alot then i go straight to the last page to see the amount, i dont bother reading all the other pages of service charges, vat, blah blah. Ive asked my family and freinds and they all do the same.

mrsands

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

Aren't the people who dont check and query any charges on their bill in the minority?
If I had "extras" on my bill I would phone and ask what they were for.

This isn't underhanded tactics by the operator, its a failing of the consumer.

Did you not find it odd that you were paying xxx more per month than you agreed to pay?

Snakeeyes - The post needs to be read in the context of what I was responding to and has had it's desired effect.

Re Underhand Practice vs a failing of the Consumer - I have already said in previous posts that I take fully accountabilty for my naivity. Ask yourself this "What does good customer service look like to you?" and you may understand my point better.

In answer to your other questions please see below (Ive copied from a previous post that may shed a little light on my naivity)

Whenever I have negotiated a new contract with my MPP its been a case of "Job done -happy with price-just saved x£'s - right lets move on and get on with another thing on my to do list". Once I've agreed the price my mind moves into "Saved £s" mode and forgets what I'm actually paying(as its usually been less than previous contracts) especially as I pay by DD and rarely go over my contracted mins/text. When I do check my bill I've honestly just concentrated on the big picture and checked to make sure Im within my limits I have set myself. ( having asked a few friends they all said that they tend to do the same too)

I'd be really interested to know if anyone does actually find they do have a bolt on they are paying for that they had forgotten they had.

mrsands

Just had a quick look on my MPPs code of conduct. The bits in bold really struck a cord with me. ( I've replaced the company name with an X as I have no vendeta to wage with my MPP and I'm sure this Bolt On issue is industry wide)

We will always do these things

• When you join x or upgrade your contract,
we usually ask to see a copy of a utility bill,
passport or driving licence to check your
identity. If you’re on the phone we might ask
for your card details to confirm who you are.
When you’re with x we’ll tell you in writing:

• What you’re paying for

• What the payment terms are

• How long the minimum contract is for

• How to cancel your contract early and
any charges you’ll have to pay

• About any other charges (like charges
for calls outside your bundle, texts and
voicemail)

• We’ll never deliberately mislead you
about any of our services

• We’ll never deliberately not mention
important information

• We’ll never pressure you to buy
anything, or call you before 8am or

after 8pm (unless you ask us to)

Whenever someone from x calls, they’ll
introduce themselves clearly and say
why they’re calling. If you’re contacted
by someone you suspect is bogus, then
let us or Ofcom know immediately

• Whenever you buy something from x,
we’ll keep records of who signed up for

what, when and how for at least 6 months.
If the contract includes sales incentives (like
cash back) we’ll keep the paperwork for at
least 3 months after it’s been fully redeemed

• We’ll always help you make the right decision
– even if that means missing out on a sale

• We run rigorous checks on all our partners
(companies and directors). But if you find
they’ve broken any of these rules, report
them to us. We don’t want them doing

anything bad in our name

Having now read this whats peoples thoughts about the MPP not discussing existing Bolt Ons when a contract is renegotiated?

mrsands

Further update - Having done it bit more research last night and having reviewed my MPP's Code Of Conduct ( part of which I copied and posted on here last night) I decided to give them another call this morning and have a further chat.

I spoke with "The Leader of the Resolutions Dept" who eventually admitted that ALL their "Advisors" are infact EXPECTED and TRAINED to discuss both Existing and Potential Bolt On's with ALL customers when a customer contacts them to negotiate/review their contract/service from the MPP.

Clearly this has NOT happened in my case on 4 occassions.

I would be interested to hear the readers of this threads opinion as to whether they think this is a training issue or a deliberate attempt by "Advisors" to not discuss the subject if it is not to the "Advisors" advantage.

Bernie

...we've just found out the hard way that when our 18 month contracts end, all the bits beneficial to the customer expire and the contract reverts to the over-arching conditions "Oh!...it is in the small print" - the last refuge of a commercial scoundrel eh?

We foolishly expected the standing conditions to remain extant - that's cost us £20 ea per month - but not for long, we're both sitting here now waiting for PAC to arrive and will be moving on. :mad:

A good lesson that I will never forget and yes Mrs S, we know what good customer service is and what "Arthur Daley" CS is too.

The bolt-on telephonic company has ratcheted up our cynicism level another notch - we will never be relaxed about our contracts reaching termination as were this time round.

Mr S, thank you for your kind warnings to the community (to which I hope our experience will add) ... and sorry to see the curt and somewhat frosty responses that seem to bordering on saying "tough! you should have read the contract". Like you, I consider myself to be on the ball financially and seethe inwardly when I get caught.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

:beer:

mrsands

I'm pleased to see that there's a few people that have responded to this thread that appreciate me sharing my experience and I hope that there's more that have already read or will read it that learn from my naivity.

The more people that are aware of this the better and if I have to take a bit of flack for being so naive then so what...no ones perfect!;)

So please everyone - Get on you mobile and call your mobile phone air time service provider and ask them to explain EVERYTHING you have signed up to and agreed to. Just in case, like me, you've been a bit naive and THOUGHT you understood what you were paying for but in reality don't. Some of you may be suprised what you find.

I'd really love to hear if anyone does come across anything they didn't realise they had!

mrsands

A poster on another forum suggested to me that my experience was down to the advisors incompetence and also because of possible poor training.

If that is in fact the case then 4 incompetent/possibly poorly trained advisors in 4 years have dealt with my "service review" when I have called to review it.

The last call was in Jan 10 so is pretty clear in my mind...Bearing in mind that I was told by my service provider that ALL Advisors are Trained and Expected to discuss Existing and Potentail Bolt On's when a customer calls to "Review their Account" ,is it not odd that in Jan 10 the advisor did in fact REMEMBER to discuss and suggest ADDING a Bolt On to by account but FAILED to REMEMBER to discuss the EXISTING Bolt On?

I presume that all Advisors have KPIs/Targets that they are measured by and need to achieve - Is it also not a possibility that these KPIs/Targets may have had a "negative impact" on the service levels I have received?

Is it not also possible for companies and their employees to use the words "No Legal Obligation", "Incompetence", "Poor Training" to hide intentionally underhanded practices?

What do you think?

MrRincewind

I think,

That this is what you have been telling us all through the thread, and whilst i don`t doubt that this thread has been a great benfit to some people, But nothing new has been added by your most recent posts.

But to continue to raise the same point through the same thread is repetitive to say the least, There is nothing new in the last post that you havent mentioned previously,

The thread will stay alive without you posting relpies to your own last post,