Struggling to find a good deal? Tell the CMA

osbornbiscuit

I am not tech savvy and my mobile phone needs upgrading as I cannot download various apps that would make my life so much easier. Having had long discussion with my son on the pros and cons of various phones and not having a clue and finally plucked up courage to walk into a mobile phone shop to see if I could view the actual phone. I walked into an empty shop with 3 assistants stood by the counter. I am sixty plus and of reasonable intelligence but feel extremely intimidated by technology. I found the two phones I had wanted to look at. picked them up looked at the and waited and waited and waited. All this time all I could hear was laughter and joking from the counter. After 5 minutes I walked out still to laughter and just as I left the shop one came and asked if he could help at which point I gave full rip with regard to their customer service. I felt a total idiot because no matter how much you look on line there is never anything written in a language I can understand. I know I am a pensioner but life now never seems simple and as you get older the need for simplicity increases. I suppose I am in a lucky position in that I can use a computer (just) and have kids I can ask but it isn't that simple. Use comparison sites and then you find out that a lot of companies aren't on them so what's the point..... no one makes that clear do they!

Kim1032001

I am a support worker for vulnerable adults and the main difficulty is that people don't have access to the internet and computers and are unable to use them.
Often, the best offers require email addresses which people generally don't have. There is a lack of understanding about paying by card or direct debit and how safe it is.
People can be mis sold products due to the lack of understanding.
If, as support workers, we are able to support them to do this online, they may not have the correct type of bank card to allow the transaction or there may be an issue with capacity or permission to complete on their behalf.
I have set up several email accounts on behalf of people who require it. It does not get used other than by myself.
Universal credits is online only which is appalling given the above issues.

fudgecat

I live in a small rural village with only one bus a week. The elderly, the poor and the disabled who do not have family members who can operate the internet for them are at a huge disadvantage as it is virtually impossible to find the best deals on anything if you are not online.
We have a portable post office and portable library service that comes round. I wonder if some sort of portable research facility (with someone to operate it for those who have no clue) could be provided or tacked on the existing services?

Periphery

Exhausted.
Just joined forum now to post here, bear with me. Mainly housebound & isolated due to ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also struggling with anxiety & depression.

Read weekly email & try to act on Martin's recommendations, but finding energy to do so is difficult. Currently spent weeks trying to switch 89 yr old Alzheimers' mother's power supply from npower to Co-op Energy for better deal, exhausted by dreadful service from both companies & too tired to find another company. Very difficult to deal with research when brain refusing to work properly.

Same problem with photo ID as spudxjnr above. Never had driving licence, & no passport as I haven't been well enough to travel abroad for over a decade. Don't even have a bus pass.

Devonian_Rodders

osbornbiscuit wrote: »

I am not tech savvy and my mobile phone needs upgrading as I cannot download various apps that would make my life so much easier. Having had long discussion with my son on the pros and cons of various phones and not having a clue and finally plucked up courage to walk into a mobile phone shop to see if I could view the actual phone. I walked into an empty shop with 3 assistants stood by the counter. I am sixty plus and of reasonable intelligence but feel extremely intimidated by technology. I found the two phones I had wanted to look at. picked them up looked at the and waited and waited and waited. All this time all I could hear was laughter and joking from the counter. After 5 minutes I walked out still to laughter and just as I left the shop one came and asked if he could help at which point I gave full rip with regard to their customer service. I felt a total idiot because no matter how much you look on line there is never anything written in a language I can understand. I know I am a pensioner but life now never seems simple and as you get older the need for simplicity increases. I suppose I am in a lucky position in that I can use a computer (just) and have kids I can ask but it isn't that simple. Use comparison sites and then you find out that a lot of companies aren't on them so what's the point..... no one makes that clear do they!

I sympathise with you completely. I too have experienced difficulty with shopping for mobiles.
Seems assistants aim for the 20/30 age group who can be persuaded into having long contracts. In my case I wanted a mobile with a loud ring tone since I am partially deaf and often miss calls when out of doors. The assistant said they could not demonstrate the loudness of the ringtone as this would prevent them from selling the phone if it did not meet my expectations. I needed to replace the phone and took their word for it and bought it, and fortunately it is louder than previous one. However, changing the sim was not easy as they had to update it. When I got it home and charged it, I found all my stored contacts were missing. Tried to contact store but no answer from phone, as I hoped to be able to retrieve old sim card.

So the moral of the above is to make sure assistants know what you want and confirm before you leave that all they have told you is correct.:(:(

CMA_Communications

Thank you so much everyone for your comments so far, and for sharing your experiences so honestly, we are very grateful and this will all be very helpful for our work. We'd love to hear more from people if you have stories - we are keen to hear of your experiences of accessing goods and services in a range of markets. Thanks again and let us know if you have any questions about the project.

mhodge

I have changed phone supplier several times and found it quite easy.
This year I changed from Sky to Plusnet.
I was welcomed to Plusnet on 18th July but the phone and broadband weren't connected until 21st August.
When I asked why it took so long they told me it was very complicated to which I replied that customers should be warned if this was the case. I was told that if customers knew how complicated it was they wouldn't change suppliers!!

gingertabby

I've had numerous difficulties with Vodafone over the last several years. They simply have no idea how to deal with disabled people. I even left them at one point because the discrimination got so bad, but I was forced to rejoin them because no other network actually functions in our house.

I have multiple disabilities, but what particularly interferes with my ability to find good deals is my autism, which makes phone calls difficult, and the brain injury I sustained in a traffic accident which leaves me unable to remember verbal information. The combination of the two means that I get easily overwhelmed during sales pitches. To be able to make informed decisions, I need information in a written format so I can process the information properly and without stress.

However, on to the central story. Today I received a call from Vodafone wanting to tell me about their latest offers. I informed the man of my difficulties and that I needed information in written format, but he proceeded to talk at speed for five solid minutes about some tablet he wanted me to buy. At the end of his spiel, he asked me if I wanted to buy it. I repeated that I needed written information. He offered to text me some details and then call me back. I said that I would prefer to handle things in some way other than the phone because of my problems and he insisted that it was not possible to do so. I then told him I was not interested and hung up, but that was a total waste of nearly 15 minutes during the small window every day that I am able to properly function cognitively.

I had a similar problem with them about six months ago. They do these little offers occasionally for customers. You get some sort of voucher for a little treat, but you have to go to some large shopping centre to collect it. I contacted them to ask if it was possible to get it delivered, as I am unable to get out of the house by myself. I was informed that it was not possible. I pointed out that this was discriminatory against their disabled customers with mobility problems and that I wanted to stop receiving these offers. I received a reply back saying that they would continue to send them to me, as they felt that all their customers should have the same opportunity to take advantage of their offers.

Ah well, I tried. Hope this is useful in some way.

JonnyH

I'm a support worker like Kim and I had something to add that i'd noticed recently.

Basically when changing to new service/utility providers the preferred option for companies is obviously direct debit. Secondarily then to pay your bills using a debit/credit card. Often those are your only two options.

As an example, if people are housed in supported living accomodation where they split the bills they may not be easily able to pay in either of these ways.

In the first instance they may have a financial appointee to handle their ongoing finances if they do not have capacity to do so themselves. Direct debits require a person understands and can remember to give approval to an ongoing service and the value of it, then reconsider that value when a contract ends etc which many people cannot.

The second option being one off payments by debit/credit card on receipt of bills online/offline. As above, not everyone is able to easily use a card to pay either over the phone or online for differing bills payments. This is also a skillset and they can only be supported with this to a point as their privacy also needs to be maintained.
Due to this many receive money in cash form weekly, as this is much easier for them to manage on a day to day basis. If they live in shared accomodation as mentioned, they may pool cash for their bills/food shops so they each put in a certain amount each week.

The problem here being when it comes to paying bills many providers are taking away the option of paying by cash at PayPoint/Post office outlets. In a recent search for people I support, I found only BT, Post Office and Talktalk offered paypoint/cash as a payment option. This clearly limits a vulnerable groups ability to shop around and compare rates. Paying by cash is not a filter on any comparison websites for broadband either (including mse), probably due to this.

So I feel as in the examples above, this is another place where technology is moving on a bit and reasonable adjustments are not being made in all the places necessary to ensure the inclusion of and fairness to vulnerable groups of people.

There should be reasonable adjustments being made for the points people have been raising above. There is too much assumption that everyone can deal with things in the same manner and a narrowing of ways to do this. The point of technology is to innovate and make things simpler or more enjoyable for people and clearly this isn't happening for everyone.