Mis-sold? Prestige Telecoms

Smithy06

I received a call from Prestige Telecoms getting me into a 36 month contract. Wasnt give full information prior to signing contract & what they said on the phone differs to there terms and conditions. Less than 24hours if signing I called to cancel, they said I cant as they dont offer a 14 day cool off period. I explained that if i knew i would not have signed. They said I would need to pay over £1000 to get out of the contract. Anybody else used this company & managed to end the contract for free due to being misrepresented. Any Advice would be great as really upset. 

littleboo

what product(s) is the contract for? Is it a business contract?

JJ_Egan

Is their not a big thread on this ??

Neil_Jones

Smithy06 said:

I received a call from Prestige Telecoms getting me into a 36 month contract. Wasnt give full information prior to signing contract & what they said on the phone differs to there terms and conditions. Less than 24hours if signing I called to cancel, they said I cant as they dont offer a 14 day cool off period. I explained that if i knew i would not have signed. They said I would need to pay over £1000 to get out of the contract. Anybody else used this company & managed to end the contract for free due to being misrepresented. Any Advice would be great as really upset. 

https://www.prestigetelecomgroup.co.uk/faq (under the "I want to question something in my contract" entry):

"Prestige Telecom Group sell exclusively to businesses"

This is why you do not have a cooling off period, cooling off periods do not apply to business contracts, they are an entirely different kettle of fish to domestic contracts.  There is a phone number and email address under the  above entry you may want to get in contact with.

And this is also why you should never agree to anything over the phone.

MJBanbury

I have been duped by them too. am absolutely disgusted with them from start to finish. I was lied to on the initial call, was told it was EE, then when o2 was mentioned i said i thought you said ee, who i was already with, they said that because they represent other providers, may have got mixed up. Stupidly, I succumbed to their pressure selling after being told it would save me money and I was told o2 was better in my area. Then found out, there was no cooling off period. So with terrible non existent signal at home or work, pressure sold and mislead by info that o2 in my area was good, and its terrible, so instantly regretted it. I thought that was as bad as it was going to get and that I was stuck with it for 3 years, but would try tolerate and ride it out.
   NOW, 6 months in, phone blew after update, and I have had no phone for 3 days now. A business with no phone and no answer or urgency to get a new one! TERRIBLE! I guess I need to get legal advice and contact ombudsman next?

JJ_Egan

As its a business service then yes get legal advice .

Buy a £20 phone to get you through .

Tokmon

MJBanbury said:

I have been duped by them too. am absolutely disgusted with them from start to finish. I was lied to on the initial call, was told it was EE, then when o2 was mentioned i said i thought you said ee, who i was already with, they said that because they represent other providers, may have got mixed up. Stupidly, I succumbed to their pressure selling after being told it would save me money and I was told o2 was better in my area. Then found out, there was no cooling off period. So with terrible non existent signal at home or work, pressure sold and mislead by info that o2 in my area was good, and its terrible, so instantly regretted it. I thought that was as bad as it was going to get and that I was stuck with it for 3 years, but would try tolerate and ride it out.
   NOW, 6 months in, phone blew after update, and I have had no phone for 3 days now. A business with no phone and no answer or urgency to get a new one! TERRIBLE! I guess I need to get legal advice and contact ombudsman next?

So it sounded dodgy from the start when they didn't know what company they were pretending to be but you still agreed to a contract with them?
I just don't understand how people can succumb to pressure selling over the phone when it is so easy to just hang up!

pbartlett

If what they said to you on the phone differs from the T&C you subsequently received then, of course, the contract is not valid.

jspod

I have just managed to get out of my contract that was misold to me by prestige.  I had a very similar cold call by them implying they were calling from vodafone about the upgrade i was due on my account.  They said they could reduce my monthly bills etc.... all the same sales spiel, and stupidly i went for it.  I then realised i was locked into a 36 month contract that was extortionate.  This company are calling small businesses that do not deal with business contracts therefore do not understand differences etc...
Here is what i did:
1.)sent a subject access request for all phone conversations regarding sale of the contract
2.) lodged initial complaint with Prestige Telecom Group - i argued that the contract was missold under communications act 2003, and the contract terms are unreasonable under the unfair contract terms act 1977
3.) Prestige responded, they did not agree with any points i raised in my letter but interestingly did offer a resolution, which i did not accept 
3.) As it had been over 8 weeks i logged my complaint with Ombudsman services.  I uploaded all phonecalls, emails and initial complaints letter.  

4.) 8 weeks later after no appeal from prestige the ombudsman concluded that the contract should be cancelled and the cancellation fee waivered! What the ombudsman concluded was that while prestige had mentioned it was a business contract, they had not mentioned  there was no cooling off period!! 

If you want any further information i am happy to help! I feel strongly that this company are stopped from doing this to people!! 

This whole process has taken 8 months and quite a lot of my time but thankfully it has paid off!! 

Subroo

My daughter has just miss sold a contract with Prestige Telecom and is at her wit’s end. 

Nothing seems to be working and her business customers can’t reach her and she has just missed her child’s first parent’s evening call as she is uncontactable except on What’s App.
Do you think it will take 8 months for us to fight this or was your experience not a continual fight?

gellykibson92

jspod said:

I have just managed to get out of my contract that was misold to me by prestige.  I had a very similar cold call by them implying they were calling from vodafone about the upgrade i was due on my account.  They said they could reduce my monthly bills etc.... all the same sales spiel, and stupidly i went for it.  I then realised i was locked into a 36 month contract that was extortionate.  This company are calling small businesses that do not deal with business contracts therefore do not understand differences etc...
Here is what i did:
1.)sent a subject access request for all phone conversations regarding sale of the contract
2.) lodged initial complaint with Prestige Telecom Group - i argued that the contract was missold under communications act 2003, and the contract terms are unreasonable under the unfair contract terms act 1977
3.) Prestige responded, they did not agree with any points i raised in my letter but interestingly did offer a resolution, which i did not accept 
3.) As it had been over 8 weeks i logged my complaint with Ombudsman services.  I uploaded all phonecalls, emails and initial complaints letter.  

4.) 8 weeks later after no appeal from prestige the ombudsman concluded that the contract should be cancelled and the cancellation fee waivered! What the ombudsman concluded was that while prestige had mentioned it was a business contract, they had not mentioned  there was no cooling off period!! 

If you want any further information i am happy to help! I feel strongly that this company are stopped from doing this to people!! 

This whole process has taken 8 months and quite a lot of my time but thankfully it has paid off!! 

Hi jspod, 

I don’t suppose you have a copy of your emails you would be willing to share with me, I am currently in the same boat and they have cost us 100s of pounds due to not being able to work in certain areas of the uk that we were promised they had better coverage

Thank you 

Kelly Gibson