Terrible service from Phone company

Flophouse

Hello!


I was wondering if I could get some advice from anyone on here. A friend of mine was hounded by one of the people standing outside phone shops and talked into getting a new phone with a contract.


This person suffers with, and is medicated for, extreme anxiety, so isn't very confident in these situations. Of course this isn't really part of the story but it might be a useful bit of side information.


I have found out that the person selling was completely irresponsible. As the credit check was being made, this person was giving them information and the salesman was purposefully changing the details. (e.g they said they're a sales assistant and have worked at the company six months and it was changed to manager and 3 years). This has terrified the person since as it is quite obviously illegal to lie on a credit check but they felt pressured to do so.


Besides that, the lies told about the phone were pretty bad. They said the new phone would be better than the one they had on pay as you go ( which it isn't) and they are now paying more money with the same network but getting less than half the same amount of minutes/texts/data.


My question is what is the best way forward with this? The credit check thing alone is quite dodgy.


Many thanks.

mobilejunkie

I doubt you can do much. It's their word against your friend's and the credit check is in your friend's name. Having said that, the Financial Conduct Authority has extremely strict rules on this which could hit a company hard financially. I would suggest a call to the retailer's head office to speak with their Compliance Manager.

I do work in an industry where this happens a LOT; companies sometimes give in when a possibility of breaking the regulator's rules may be taken further if needbe (and they must be regulated to sell finance).

I might add that in the case of a mobile phone company the credit is provided by that company and they were the organisation which accepted the application (no third party financer involved). The shop was acting on their behalf (you don't say whether it belongs to a network or is and independent dealer) but a mobile company should be worried also if it's agents or retailer is breaking such dangerous rules. Bear in mind that it is also fraulent to allow them to enter false information, but I would go to the head office(s) first and concetrate and what they were gulity of and the fact that your friend is a vulnerable person - also something sales people are supposed to pick up and highlight to someone at a higher level.

Jlawson118

A similar situation happened with my step-dad's mum a few years ago, where they pressured her into buying a new phone that she didn't need. I think they reported the guy and got something out of it. So maybe you could write or contact customer services or go into the branch and speak to a manager?