Mis-Sold Telephone Answering Service

fxlaw786

Hi Everyone

Firstly, I apologise if this is posted in the wrong forum, I can't seem to find a better fit.

Back in November/December, I spoke with a company about answering any calls my office is missing as we seem to get regular complaints from customers saying their calls go unanswered. The company asked to know how many calls we miss so that they can tailor a package for us but I told the advisor that we don't at that time have a call-logging system to show us and I'm never in the office myself so I have no idea.

I was told it's fine, she can put me on a basic starter plan, which is pay as you go so their is no fixed contract term and we can trial it for a month. It's a 30-minute package at £28.80. I questioned how far a 30-minute plan could stretch and was told most calls average 50-70 seconds so around 30 calls. I thought that was brilliant for a trial and then hopefully if we are missing more calls, I can get a better rate.

After 30 days, I received an invoice for £2,300 saying we missed 781 calls totalling 2,200+ minutes and that any minutes over the initial 30-min was charged at 0.96 pence per minute.

I have been arguing the fact that it was mis-sold as a pay as you go service, not a 30-day rolling contract. However, they are saying they don't have the original call recording but have another from my second call when another advisor did say any calls over 30min is 96p a min, I admit that. I also signed the paperwork, which says the same... 96p per min.

I complained saying it was so&so advisor that mis-sold it. I then managed to speak to that advisor who again, said yep it's a Pay as you Go service etc etc. When I then pulled her up on my situation and how she mis-sold it to me... she went quiet and said she cannot comment and will need to refer me to management. - I have been forwarded this call recording reluctantly!!

I really want to know where I stand with this. I am partly to blame I accept that because it was told to me on the second call from a separate advisor and it was on the paperwork I blindly signed - but I went in blindly based on the initial enquiry conversation where it was mis-sold to me.

The company also made no effort whatsoever to make contact with me to say we had gone over the 30-minutes. According to their statistics, we hit 30-minutes within the first half of the very first day!

Please, any sound advice is greatly appreciated.

paddyrg

Go back to your contracts - what do they say? B2B contracts rule - business owners are expected to do their own due diligence and contract agreement, so this'll be essential.

You are totally free to not pay the bill and let them take you to court and let a judge decide. They will decide based upon the evidence both parties provide, and if you can show you agreed a 30-minute trial prepaid package, not an all-you-can-eat service, the other side will have to show otherwise. Court sounds scarier than it is.

fxlaw786

Thanks Paddyrg for commenting.

The contract does state 30 day rolling contract and anything over 30-minute is 96 pence per minute but she definitely said Pay as you Go in the initial enquiry and she said the same thing in the recorded call they sent me recently so they know I can't be making it up.

Admittedly I blindly signed but she totally sold it to me on how professional she was and understanding to my circumstances. I feel conned - I don't believe it was intentional, I think it was due to poor staff training but cannot afford a £2k bill.

Cheeseface

Can they prove the 781 calls and 2200 minutes?

paddyrg

I don't know if "Pay as you go" has any specific legal meaning, whether pre-payment/automatic cut-off is inherent in the term may be debated. They could argue that it is opposed to prebuying a large minutes package.

It smells fishy though and I suspect they'll press for an out of court settlement rather than in-court settlement if you tell them you're not paying. It's your call, but if you can't afford £2k your options are negotiating or not paying. Not paying is a negotiating tactic, fwiw

Savvy_Sue

Cheeseface wrote: »

Can they prove the 781 calls and 2200 minutes?

That would be my question: if you're the kind of business which people expect to phone 24/7 then that's 26 calls a day, lasting 73 minutes each. Surely you can't have been missing THAT many calls?

Also how were the details of the calls they answered supplied to you? Can you tally those details with the numbers they give?

However I do agree with those who say it's a B2B contract, you're expected to read and understand what you sign ...

paddyrg

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

26 calls a day, lasting 73 minutes each

That's a hell of a lot, isn't it? I'm pretty sure you'd know if you'd been spending about 30 hours a day on the phone before a 30-minute trial. Not paying until they can prove it makes sense.

Savvy_Sue

paddyrg wrote: »

That's a hell of a lot, isn't it? I'm pretty sure you'd know if you'd been spending about 30 hours a day on the phone before a 30-minute trial. Not paying until they can prove it makes sense.

More to the point, as the OP says people were complaining about not being able to reach them by phone, I think you'd be out of business if that many people were unable to reach you that frequently ...

the other possibly relevant question would be why were calls lasting more than 30 minutes? What service was this call answering service providing? They surely can't have been doing the OP's business for him, and I take quite a lot of phone messages where I work. Never on the phone for more than 5 minutes, even if I have to listen to a lot of detail.

Thinking about it, I've made a couple of calls lately where I've been on hold because 'all of our operators are busy at the moment'. None of them have lasted more than half an hour either ...

Kayalana99

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

That would be my question: if you're the kind of business which people expect to phone 24/7 then that's 26 calls a day, lasting 73 minutes each. Surely you can't have been missing THAT many calls?

Also how were the details of the calls they answered supplied to you? Can you tally those details with the numbers they give?

However I do agree with those who say it's a B2B contract, you're expected to read and understand what you sign ...

Maths is wrong here sorry. It's nearly 3min a phone call. 2200 min / 781 calls = 3min.

Kayalana99

As above, you should have read the contract and I think the best option here is legal advice.

In my view you paid for a service that clearly stated 30min starter plan + 96p per min for any extra calls... I appreciate 2k is a lot from £30 but you signed up for a service and they provided it. Any who said what....other then perhaps you are thinking that after the 30min was over it shoudl have ended and not carried on for the month?

My question is all these calls, wasn't there any feedback? Did they actually help and handle everyone of these calls?

I'm just thinking surely there must have been some communication with this business to yours that would have made you realise it was over the 30min call mark, or did they manage to handle them all themselves?

angryparcel

the fact is you signed up to a 'Pay as you go' plan at 96p per minute above the 30 minutes. I assume with the bill they provided a breakdown of all the calls they took for you.
But for a telecom service provider that you states says

hey are saying they don't have the original call recording but have another from my second call when another advisor did say any calls over 30min is 96p a min,

sounds fishy as why do they have a recording of the second call, but not of the call where you say you were mis sold the package