GTMobile / GT Mobile / Lyca Mobile .... Aaargh!

ShowMeTheHoney

This is my first post - (I think ... its so long since I last logged in).

Anyway here is my gripe. This bunch of ******* all owned by Lyca Mobile were advertising 1p per minute to call international mobiles (abroad) up until yesterday. Their advertised offer was "... valid from 31/12/11 to 31/01/12".

So the idiot that I am I bought a SIM Card for £5 (with £5 of credit pre-loaded). Made some calls yesterday - all fine at 1p per minute. Made calls this morning and noticed credit disappearing fast. Guess what they changed the rate to 3p per minute. :mad:

I cant post links being a new user but if you go on google and look for cached versions of their 'Offers' page it will show the 1p per minute offer I am referring to and that it was "... valid from 31/12/11 to 31/01/12".

Called their 'customer service' - and they say they reserve the right to change rates at anytime? Nowhere on their web-site did they say this in relation to the '1p per minute offer'.

How so when their offer which I accepted yesterday was valid until 31/01/2012?

(Personally I'm not bothered about the £5 I spent and even the 3p per minute wont kill me, but multiply that by the hundreds of SIM cards this lot must have sold so far and they are raking it in.)

Is this allowed? :mad: I am not alleging that this is a cheat, con, crooked, deception, fraud, rip-off, or anything else by GT Mobile / GTMobile / Lyca Mobile. But can someone please help and let me know if they are allowed to do this by law?

Anyone?

(Thanks in advance)

Guys_Dad

ShowMeTheHoney wrote: »

Is this allowed? :mad: I am not alleging that this is a cheat, con, crooked, deception, fraud, rip-off, or anything else by GT Mobile / GTMobile / Lyca Mobile. But can someone please help and let me know if they are allowed to do this by law?

Anyone?

(Thanks in advance)

Welcome to the forum. The answer is "I don't know", but it seems pretty shabby and downright dishonest. Check on their t&c to see if they are allowed to renege on the 1st month agreement.

As you say, it's not worth too much bother for £5 - you know what to do, get your PAC and walk away if you are not happy.

The bit about costing people who call you is an important one and you should check that out.

People on this forum swear by Giff-Gaff, so check them out. Personally, I like the convenience of sim-only, although the best deals are on 12 month deals.

:beer:

Buzby

The key word is 'offer'. It isn;t their standard tariff, but a temporary promotional rate. Their small print will give fuller details, either than they can withdraw the offer at any time/if oversubscribed, or a set barrier that once reached, ends. That said, they should advise you if an expected rate is terminated early, so if you feel its worth arguing, feel free.

Personally, any supplier that did this would make me move my business elsewhere.

Desmond_2

I have been using GT Mobile since September and have been happy with the tariffs promotional and standard. Is it possible that you have misread the dates of the promotional tariff offer? I ask because usually their promotional tariffs commence at the beginning of one month to the end of that month. For example the promotional offer of calls from 1p last month ran from 1st December to 31st December. I know this for a fact as I checked the website before I made some international calls before Christmas. The new 1p promotion started on 4th January running until 31st January. Again I checked the website before making some calls in the New Year.

One more thing. The 1p promotion was only for selected countries which are always listed on their website.

Lycamobile

Hi ShowMeTheHoney,
We have just seen your message and would like to further investigate the grievance. Which country were you calling?

Regards
Lycamobile

ShowMeTheHoney

Thanks to all for the responses (especially Desmond, Buzby and Guys Dad).

As for Lycamobile? Is this really how you investigate customer grievances? Wait for a customer to seek advice on a forum and then decide that you want to 'investigate' it - wow how kind-hearted and conscientious of you ... aww you really do care? :A

Give me a break! I think your approach just sucks. Glad you only got a fiver out of me.


I spent in total 15 minutes on the line to your 'customer service' agents. The first time I was in a queue and when I got through I explained my problem and suddenly the line went dead. I had to re-dial and then go through the whole procedure again, the chap I got through to the second time sounded remarkably 'identical' to the guy I had spoken to the first time but guess what ... he had never spoken to me before. Then he proceeded to read from a script and told me that you reserve the right to change the rates at any time "because it is your right to do so". :mad:


My grievance is that I was stupid enough to buy your SIM card. If something sounds too good to be true it normally is - I've heard Martin say that many times (only I am glad that the one time I chose to ignore his advice I lost only a fiver).

Dont worry guys whether you are Lycamobile / GT Mobile / GTMobile or whatever new badge you decide to trade under I think customers of your organisation (or indeed any other organisation which treats its customers the way you treated me) can do nothing better than to take the advice of Buzby (see post above) and move their business elsewhere if they are not happy ... I've already done that.

GUYS DAD - many thanks for your top tips, and for not biting my head off - I was a bit apprehensive about posting something over a disgruntled £5 spend. :T

BUZBY - top advice and thank you ... but I really should have known better.:T

DESMOND - thanks for your genuinely helpful response - I went back and checked the cached pages of GT Mobile website (sorry I wish I could post the links to prove it but even though I have been a member for a while I havent posted enough to do that) and the facts given in my original post were correct. I agree maybe I am the one customer for whom things went wrong. But just look at their approach to customer service. Anyway for the sake of £5, good luck to them. :T

If anyone's interested I now make my international calls using 02's international calling card service. Google it - if the rates are OK for you then use it. Their customer service is excellent, although it wasn't exactly difficult for them to better my recent experiences with the Lyca crew.

macman

Lycamobile wrote: »

Hi ShowMeTheHoney,
We have just seen your message and would like to further investigate the grievance. Which country were you calling?

Regards
Lycamobile

You can't post on this board as a company rep unless you have been authorised by MSE to do so.

ShowMeTheHoney

macman wrote: »

You can't post on this board as a company rep unless you have been authorised by MSE to do so.

Aaah but you see they reserve the right to post as a company rep without permission from MSE ... it says so on their website. If you ask them exactly where on their website, then I am sure they would only be too happy to investigate your grievance. :eek:

(Pedantic? .... who me?)

digp

report it to trading standards with print outs. if you are right it may be that a criminal/regulatory offence has been committed. a trading standards bod will be able to tell you straight away.

[ http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2008/9780110811574/contents ]