BT and KCT problems - HELP!!

ajm52

I am having the same problems as it seems many of us are with this company its been a nightmare for over a year now. Mine has got to the court stage ..they are claiming nearly 3 thousand pounds in a 5 year loss of contract! I didnt agree to this and was told they were BT. I really think they should not get away with this bad business practice. I do believe though that they are being investigated at the moment. I have set up a facebook group for all affected by them to get together. It will not let me post the link on here. But it is a group called.... join if you are having massive problems with kct. My daughter made the group her name is emma mallon.

Studulike

Oh god i can't believe this i just came off the phone to KCT with exactly the same problem.
They are scamming people.

I have a shop selling electronics and most of my trade is over the phone and internet. I went in to the shop on Wednesday of last week only to find I couldn't make any phone calls etc.

I went home and phoned BT and they couldn't figure out the problem, they said that it seemed like the line had been taken over.
I then checked my email and there was an email from BT saying that my broadband was being terminated on the 10th of November.
I then spoke to BT again and they told me they wouldn't know what was going on untill Monday and if it was a company Hijacked my service then they would not be able to get it back untill the 24th November.
well today they called me and told me KCT group now own the contract on my line and i would have to pay BT an early contract termination fee. This amounts to something like 5 years of contract.
I was horrified by this as I knew nothing about this and seems there is nothing I can do.

I then phoned KCT and from what I can tell I has a salesman call me in July offering to re-setup my BT line as I had been miss-sold the system I had installed.
They told me they were part of BT but not called BT, I couldn't even recall who the company was as so long ago.
They gave me all the speal about BT not being able to charge as they had miss-sold the system and how they would better the price.
well i told them it sounded very interesting could they please send me out further information and some details about the company.
The sales man asked me for a contact number and a home telephone number and obviously the business address that I gave as thought no more.
Anyway I never received anything in the post and never thought anymore about it.
Anyway in August BT contacted me as a courtesy call just to ask if anything was wrong as they had received a request to cancel service. I explained that must be some kind of mistake as I had chatted to a sales man that had called some time ago but never heard anymore. I explained how that i thought they were part of BT and what had been said. i was told that this was happening a lot and simply not true people are not allowed to just opt out of a contract with BT because another company says you can and in this case the company was not part of BT and acting outside of allowed guidelines. BT told me not to worry they would take care of everything and the cancellation would not go ahead and I needn’t worry about anything else as they would take care of everything and there would not be a break in service.

I never heard a thing again until today now everything gone terribly wrong.

I phoned KCT up today after BT had given me the details and after speaking to a very impolite woman on the phone who insisted I was stuck with KCT if I liked it or not and played back a small amount of a recording that just had me confirming my contact details. The rest of the so called conversation and "agreement" was missing.
I then spoke to the manager there and he said he had a scan of all the paperwork sent out to me when i asked why i had not received anything. He said he had a scan so I must of had it which i have not. I also said I only asked for some information in the post not to agree to a contract. the manager said it is made clear you are entering into a contract to buy when we call you. I said that is rubbish.
He said we ask are you authorised to make any discussions in regard to purchasing for the company and I obviously said I was as is the case. I never realised this somehow was entering me into a legal binding contract.
He then went on to say he would investigate but if I was to leave them i would be liable for a 60month contract. I told him i would never agree to a 60 month contract anyway to a company I knew nothing about.
I also went on to say go and do your investigation but i will be transferring back to BT and someone will have to pay me the loss of income within my business for the period i am without service. He then said well I will have to pay to leave them. i then said well I can assure you, you will never get it. trouble is now I just don't know.

It can't be right, now i either owe BT bucket loads or KCT. i think I would sooner owe BT as I don't think it is there problem at the end of the day.

What do we do if we are getting ripped off. Trust me through past experiences if someone wants to rip you off in business even when its criminal there is very few people who want to do much about it.

Ofcom need to close this company down!

Oh and i for one will be joining the Facebook group.

Heinz

Kingston Communications used to be a respected small telephone provider - albeit one with a monopoly of telephony services in Hull. Whatever happened to their morals?

macman

How many of these dodgy resellers are actually prepared to take their so called 'customers' to court in an attempt to make them honour these ludicrous 5 year 'contracts'?

Studulike

Heinz wrote: »

Kingston Communications used to be a respected small telephone provider - albeit one with a monopoly of telephony services in Hull. Whatever happened to their morals?

KCT group is not actually Kingston Communications but I do know the company as my partner comes from there and we had a bit of an issue with them also when she moved south. Something to do with a plastic pig connector to route calls and a couple of hundred quid they wanted for it as was left in the house when she left.
Had to get her new tennant to return it and then in turn because it was returned Kingston then had to supply her with a new one even though the old one was fine.
Mind you still getting billed. lol

Le_Mans

I overheard a conversation between three senior KCT staff on a Manchester to London train . They were talking quite loudly about issues with contracts, and are discussing a review of their procedures and sales process.

They are concerned that there is no approved verification process with the customers before they go live, there seems to be an issue with not sending out contracts (2 weeks behind as they have to play back every phone call recording prior to issuing a contract), and may have an issue with the validity of wording with their sales script. They are keen to send out 'welcome letters', which may now have been sent out in lieu of a contracts to tie clients in.

One comment from the louder of the managers, possibly director….we have fighting for our livelihoods now.

I dont know if this helps anyone, hearing this conversation i was interested in what the issues were, and reading this and many other threads on KCT and BT issues, i hope that this little information may help.

Paul_Varjak

Own-initiative investigation into KCT UK Limited concerning compliance with General Condition 24 – sales and marketing of fixed-line telecommunications services

CW/01062/12/10
Complainant: Ofcom own-initiative investigation following complaints from consumers
Investigation against: KCT UK Limited (KCT)
Case opened: 1 December 2010
Issue: Whether KCT has complied with its obligations under General Condition 24 of the General Conditions of Entitlement

Relevant Instrument: General Condition 24 (GC24) concerning the Sales and Marketing of Fixed-Line Telecommunications Services.
Ofcom has opened this investigation following an increase in complaints from consumers who claim to have been mis-sold a fixed-line telephone service by KCT, or have had their service switched to KCT without their consent.

Ofcoms investigation will examine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that KCT has failed to comply with the requirements of GC24 concerning the mis-selling prohibition (GC24.3) and the provision of information at the point of sale (GC24.6). The investigation will also explore KCTs compliance with other sections of GC24 as appropriate.

Case Leader: Jasminder Oberoi (email: [EMAIL="jasminder.oberoi@ofcom.org.uk"]jasminder.oberoi@ofcom.org.uk[/EMAIL])
Case Reference: CW/01062/12/10

ColinAllCars

Heinz wrote: »

Kingston Communications used to be a respected small telephone provider - albeit one with a monopoly of telephony services in Hull. Whatever happened to their morals?

But KCT have got nothing to do with Kingston Communications Heinz. ?

ColinAllCars

KCT were featured in the Daily Mirror recently http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2010/10/kct-can-i-have-my-phones-back.html

Paul_Varjak

At least if you have line rental with any company other than BT, the chances of getting of getting 'slammed' are pretty remote. I have an LLU line with TalkTalk and the only company that can take back that line is BT. I cannot even switch my line to TalkTalk's business sister (Opal Telecom) without going back to BT first.