BT Salesperson Ordered New Phone Line in my Name!

Paul_Varjak

MancLass wrote: »

Yawn, Has the BT man been round to get your wife's belongings?

Yes, your BT-employed bailiff boyfriend arrived earlier this evening - I posted him back to you in an A5 envelope.

Paul_Varjak

Today, I received a call from UMESH AJARWAL - manager based in a BT Indian Call Centre. Mr. Ajarwal claims that the order was made on bt.com and that no BT salesperson was involved in raising that order. The clear inference being that I had placed the order myself. Previously, another manager from a BT Indian Call Centre claimed that the order was made at a BT Call Centre in Doncaster.

Sean (from BT's Doncaster Call Centre) had previously stated that the order (which he confirmed was raised on 24 December) was made by SHABBUDDIN SHAIK in a Call Centre based in India. Sean also stated that Shaik falsified the obtaining of a credit report and changed the method of contact on the order from post to e-mail only, immediately after creating the order.

Shaik made this fraudulent order 'offline', meaning that no-one was on the phone line when the order was made. Shaik claims that I agreed to the order but he gave no details of when he supposedly spoke to me and there is no apparent explanation as to why he entered the order 'offline'.

Shaik entered no bank account details and when an e-mail was sent to the fake e-mail address on 4 January to confirm the order, it apparently 'bounced'. Despite this, BT failed to send order details by post. I do not know if BT attempted contact with the mobile number Shabbuddin Shaik added to the order application to advise of delivery - I have no association with that phone number.

The latest postion from the Indian Call Centre is that the order raised on 24 December, was actually raised on 11 January! This is an impossibility, as I received a broadband router, bearing the same order number, before 1pm on 11 January - and this was delivered by Royal Mail tracked delivery. Tracking showed the item had been posted on 9 January! That is 2 days before the Indian Call Centre now claim the order was raised!

Here is Royal Mail's parcel tracking for the package containing the BT HomeHub 3...

11-JAN-2012 12:43 DELIVERED - No Signature xxxxxx DO

11-JAN-2012 07:02 Ready For Delivery xxxxxx DO

11-JAN-2012 01:13 Accepted at Inward Mail Centre Doncaster Mail Centre

09-JAN-2012 17:04 Outward RDC Volumetric Acceptance Yorkshire Distribution Centre

09-JAN-2012 10:51 Pre-advice Received


The Indian Call Centre claims the order was placed at 1.15pm on 11 January - but this is the date and time I cancelled the order - 30 minutes after Royal Mail tracking shows that I received this fraudulent order! But the Indian Call Centre is now also claiming that I cancelled the order the following day - 12 January!

Someone at BT will very embarassed when I produce all the phone recordings of these contacts!

victor2

Good that you've got all the details of their claims and responses.
Take it as high as you can. If call centre managers are clearly feeding you untruths, you have every justification to go over their heads. It's the customers who pay for such poor service. BT need to be made an example of.
Best of luck.

iniltous

BT do have a high level complaints team, if you havent already you may want to get them involved, others with issues seem to get satisfaction by emailing [EMAIL="I.livingston@bt.com"]I.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL], ( I'm sure you already know he is the CEO), complaints here seem to be dealt with properly

Paul_Varjak

victor 2 & iniltous...

Thanks for your support. A formal complaint has already been made via BT's website and I will escalate to CEO level if necessary. I have already pencilled in a date of 8 March to take the complaint to the Ombudsman if necessary - the earliest possible date I can do this under ADR procedures

Someone at BT is now demanding that I return the BT HomeHub, saying that a returns label had been sent. He still demanded the return of the HomeHub even after I pointed out that it was illegal to make such a threat.

Under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling Regulations) 2000...

(5) A person who, not having reasonable cause to believe there is a right to payment, in the course of any business and with a view to obtaining payment for what he knows are unsolicited goods sent or services supplied as mentioned in paragraph (4)--

(a)threatens to bring any legal proceedings, or

(b)places or causes to be placed the name of any person on a list of defaulters or debtors or threatens to do so, or

(c)invokes or causes to be invoked any other collection procedure or threatens to do so,

is guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

DVardysShadow

MancLass wrote: »

In all the call centre's I've designed if theyre using Alcatel Kit you can see that number

I suppose you must only have worked at outbound call centres? If you are working in bound and can see every single number, there is a serious breach of regulatory requirements.

Paul_Varjak

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I suppose you must only have worked at outbound call centres? If you are working in bound and can see every single number, there is a serious breach of regulatory requirements.

I spoke to the Information Cmmissioners Office about this as it is clear that BT Call Centre staff can see even withheld numbers! Although I always call using a 'withheld' number, BT staff can see my number! I have managed to workaround this by calling BT's Head Office on 020 7356 5000 and then asking to be put through to the correct department.

I called my own telephone provider's customer service number and even they could not see my number when I withheld it. I think there is a serious breach of regulations by BT in making all numbers visible to front line staff - including staff in Indian Call Centres; I just wish I knew what regulations covered that.

Paul_Varjak

In an earlier post I mentioned that Shabuddin Shaik not only raised a fraudulent order in my name of 24 December, he also raised another order in my name on 25 December, before abandoning it part way through.

MY question to BT was, how could an order be raised on 25 December when even the Call Centres in India are closedon 25 December? Does this not suggest a bigger fraud? That of accessing BT computers from some remote location, possibly from Shabuddin Shaik's home?

And why is it that one person can apparently raise an order and have the facility to bypass any credt check? I don't believe sales staff in BT generally have this facility, so why does Shabuddin Shaik? Or is the reality that Shabuddin Shaik is working with others at a higher mangerial level to defraud the public?

When I enquired about service with BT (more than 10 days before Shabuddin Shaik placed the fraudulent order in my name) I did speak to a BT sales person with an Indian accent. Even though I said I was only enquiring about the possibility of service, he still wanted a lot of details (including my bank account number) Details I refused to provide of course! The only details I provided when I called was my name and the address for service - everything else that Shabuddin Shaik entered into the fraudulent order was total fiction.

In future, whenever dealing with any company enquiring about possible service I will record the call, and ask for the person's name. I will NEVER NEVER deal with overseas call centres as it seems that british companies have little control over their activities and I have no recorurse to the law against any individual based in an overseas call centre.

victor2

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

In future, whenever dealing with any company enquiring about possible service I will record the call, and ask for the person's name. I will NEVER NEVER deal with overseas call centres as it seems that british companies have little control over their activities and I have no recorurse to the law against any individual based in an overseas call centre.

While I agree that you have little legal ability against the overseas call centre staff, you are dealing with a local company, namely BT, and cannot control where they choose to place their staff. As such, it is BT you should, and rightly are, take action against.
Hopefully, companies who outsource their call centres in this manner will come to realise that having staff blindly follow scripts doesn't always work, then when they turn to fraudulent activities to boost their income, it costs the company money.

Paul_Varjak

victor2 wrote: »

While I agree that you have little legal ability against the overseas call centre staff, you are dealing with a local company, namely BT, and cannot control where they choose to place their staff. As such, it is BT you should, and rightly are, take action against.
Hopefully, companies who outsource their call centres in this manner will come to realise that having staff blindly follow scripts doesn't always work, then when they turn to fraudulent activities to boost their income, it costs the company money.

I now have evidence that suggests this individual is engaged in fraud outside of his work for BT. Shabbuddin Shaik may well use my identity or pass that identity onto someone else. I doubt that I could successfully mount any claim against BT for any fraud committed by this individual after he ceases working for BT.

At least if Shabbuddin Shaik was working in a UK call centre there would be a distinct possibility of criminal or civil porceedings against him after he left the employ of BT.

For these reasons, and these reasons alone, I will not deal with overseas call centres.