Primus Saver / New Call Telecom - Annoying dispute

tiedtothemast

Hi All,

Any input on this would be gratefully received. It should also serve as a cautionary tale:

I took up the Primus Saver Broadband and Line Rental product when I moved into my new home in January of this year.

During April, I begin experiencing very poor connection speeds and after a couple of weeks of working with their engineers to no avail I asked them to terminate the service and close my account. New Call agreed to this and told me that they would waive their Early Termination Charge. I asked them at the time whether they would also waive the broadband bill for the period during which my speeds were at a crawl and again they said yes.

I then moved Line Rental and Broadband providers successfully on the 22nd May. Unfortunately, after this I continued to receive bills for this account along with reminders for payment via post and text message.

Ringing into their customer service number and speaking to a manager (Vicky), I was told that I had in fact asked to terminate my broadband contract with New Call, but not the Line Rental. I disagreed with this statement of facts, but in an effort to end this situation as quickly as possible, I asked what balance I would have to pay to settle the outstanding Line Rental charges and finally close the account. I was told that one month's line rental, plus a part month were still outstanding. I agreed to this, paid the amount and asked to receive a final letter stating that my account was closed (the letter never arrived).

And yet bills kept on coming - the latest being one for £91.81!

After a letter of complaint, I have just got off of the phone to the same manager (Vicky), who denies having ever told me that paying the outstanding line rental would close the account:

"I've been in telecomms for ten years and I'd never say that... We have a contract with you and there is no way we would release you from it." - were two actual quotes.

This is the precise opposite of my original conversation with her - I have asked for a copy of the original phone call, but apparently only some are recorded so I am not exactly hopeful.

I am non-plussed as to where to go with this. I will write another complaint letter to the company detailing today's conversation, but twice now the company has told me one thing over the phone and then done something different and I am very worried about the possible impact on my credit rating if they assign this to a collection agency.

Thoughts anyone?

Risingaboveit

I sympathise, but cannot offer any help. But I will share my experience of this company...

I cancelled my order with Primus in January, 10 days before it was due to be connected. I rang and spoke with someone, they told me it was cancelled, no questions were asked, no mentions made of early termination fee.

An engineer arrived on the previously arranged date to transfer my phoneline (he had already disconnected me wherever he needed to disconnect me). He told me he was connecting me to TalkTalk, otherwise I wouldn't have let him continue.

Over the next 24 hours I realised that I had been connected to Primus, rang them and explained. They tried to persuade me to stay as 'we've paid a connection fee now', but I declined. It was confirmed that the connection was an error on their part so there would be no fee.

In April, I received a bill for £162.44. I spoke to customer services, it was confirmed that I shouldn't have received it, she could see from the notes on my account that I had cancelled before I was even connected. I was told it would be raised to the manager and cleared overnight. I received a letter 10 days later saying the amount was still outstanding, I rang and was again told that the manager would be clearing the account and this would happen at the end of the month.

I heard nothing more...I believed that they had done what was promised.

On 4th July I received a letter from a debt collection agency for £187.44. Since then, I have made 9 phone calls, sent 6 emails and today have sent 2 letters recorded delivery. Every person I speak to at Primus tells me I shouldn't have been billed, I am told that it needs to be cleared by a manager. No emails have been replied to by them.

The manager is never there to speak to as 'he is in and out of the office as they are moving offices'. Two days ago I was told that there was another manager who could call me back to discuss it but they refused to give me his name. Two days on and I am still waiting.

I don't know what more I can do. I have emailed the CEO and also copied him in on the last email to Primus, detailing all of my efforts to resolve the situation. I feel that banging my head against a brick wall would be more productive.

Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe it!!

tiedtothemast

Wow... I recognise so much of the high-handed and incompetant behaviour you describe.

Very good idea about contacting the CEO - I'll email him today. I have also completed an OFCOM monitoring form describing the problem.

Do let me know if you have any updates!