Mis-sold? Prestige Telecoms

jspod

Hi Kelly
i would be happy to send over any information that will help you!!  Let me know how to contact you! 

JAnuks365

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’m literally just in the same boat except I told them that I didn’t want this to be associated with my business as I don’t want a line. I have a limited company but Prestige put me down as a sole trader. This was completely missold to me. Is there a possibility of getting a copy of the letter used to make your initial complaint to Prestige ?

ladruid

I just had a call from this company on my company mobile two minutes ago. This was the conversation...

Them - "Hi, like to discuss your mobile today"
Me - "Hi, sure, how can I help you"
Them - "Your eligible for an accounts review... we can save you money"
Me - "Great, always looking to save money. I spend £10 every six months on a pay as you go tariff, how much can you save me?"
Them - "No, we wont be able to save you money."
Me - "Shame. Goodbye"
Them - "We will remove you from our system, goodbye"

<adds next number to the phones spam/block list>
<adds number to Who Called Me? spam phone tracking website>
<Grabs a coffee>

Regards
La

Revjem61

Prestige Telecom Group: a case of mis-selling…

My O2 usage contract expired recently and I was cold-called by a person identifying herself as someone who worked with O2. She seemed to know my contracted just expired. She knew who I was and where I lived. So I assumed this was O2 getting in touch with me to explore a new contract. I thought this is with whom I need to speak to get this best deal available.

She then mentioned that she was offering a business contract. I explained that although as a vicar, I was not technically employed, I was not a business. She checked with her boss. He said they knew all about vicars. So that was OK apparently. 

She then offered me a new usage plan for £24pm for 36 months which compared reasonably favourably to my existing plan of £29pm for the same amount of data. She also told me that I would have her as my point of contact.

I thought this all sounded OK. At this stage I had no idea that a business contract is exempt from the statutory 14 day cooling off period common to all consumer based contracts executed over the phone.

So I signed up. I had to get a PAC code.

After this I checked my O2 app and I found an offer of a 12 month contract for £10pm with three times the amount of data. 

Next thing is that another person from Prestige Telecom Group called. She explained this was a verification check. She sent me an email with a link to the O2 website where a list of business partners was to be found upon which their company was listed. Actually PTG is not listed by their partner Plan is. But PTG does not explicitly appear at all.

I said that I had found a cheaper deal on my phone and could I cancel the contract? She said I could not as it was a business contract with no cooling off period. I said OK, but why if they were working with O2 was O2 undercutting them? She said that the offer had popped up on my app as I had just requested a PAC code. Furthermore she said it was a very competitive market.

Later on my wife checked her O2 app on her phone and found exactly the same offer of 15GB for £10pm over 12 months.

I sent this email to Prestige Telecom Group:

Dear (Removed by Forum Team), 

Thank you for this.

On reflection I wish to cancel my contract with you. 

I understand that under the Consumer Contracts Regulations I can terminate any contract not conducted face to face within 14 calendar days of signing without being required to give a reason.

Please cancel my contract and cancel the PAC code transfer of my phone number to the new SIM you are to provide me with.

I understand that you are required to provide a standard cancellation form to make cancelling easy. I would be glad to receive this if available. However I note that I am not required to use it and can cancel just by sending you this message.

When I first was called by your operative Sophie Allison she gave the clear impression that she was from O2. I asked her to identify herself using some information that she would have from my O2 account. She quoted me the first line of my address. Thus I was led to believe that she was speaking on behalf of O2. I now discover this is not the case. Furthermore Prestige Telecom is not listed on O2’s trusted business partners page:

 This was at best misleading and therefore I have been mis-sold this contract.

Please confirm these arrangements:

• You have cancelled my PAC transfer to a new SIM
• You have cancelled my direct debit.

Please would you also provide me with an audio file of the telephone recordings of both calls I received from you at the following times:

• 16:48 26/4/23
• 17:23 26/4/23

Please also note that I am a consumer in this matter representing no business. I am not a sole-trader.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

(Removed by Forum Team)

I received this reply the next day:

Hi (Removed by Forum Team),

Thank you for contacting Prestige Telecom Group. I am sorry to see that you wish to terminate your contract.

Taking the below circumstances into consideration, I have spoken with a manager and we are happy to cancel the agreement from yesterday.

We have evaluated your initial sales calls with my colleague Sophie and can confirm this package was not miss-sold to yourself, and conducted under our OFCOM regulations and criteria. However, on the basis of your employment status, the Consumer Rights Act would certainly apply and therefore entitles you to a 14-day cooling off period.

I will ensure that the porting of your number and the PAC code gets cancelled, and any details we currently have on file for you will be removed.

Sorry that we couldn’t do more for you as a customer, we would have hoped that the savings we provided were substantial for you, but if you ever need anything further from us then you are always more than welcome to contact us on 03303 200 222.

Kind regards,

(Removed by Forum Team)

So I got away lightly!

I do believe I was mis-sold this contract. They gave me the clear impression this was the best deal O2 could offer. They did not adequately explain they were merely a ‘trusted partner’ with O2. They sold a business contract to someone whom they knew was not a business.

Not a scam exactly but certainly an example of mis-selling and someone with which O2 should not be associated.

Stevie_May

This has happened to me in the last week! Assumed they were from EE and offering a cheaper deal...reducing the tariff by £30 for all 3 numbers paying £85 per month. I then contacted them to cancel the contract as I wish to stay with EE, they said they were business connectors with EE and so I wouldn't be leaving them. 

I have been going around in circles with them!! I received an email from saying that they would cancel it but then had them call me again today and telling me there's no cooling off period and being invoiced a fee of £810 to cancel!!!!

Being a vulnerable adult, I was naive and roped into this deal and now I'm stuck trying to leave them.

Stevie_May

I've used the previous email in one of the comments, as a template to reply back with. Hoping it helps (Image removed by Forum Team)

km1500

I am not understanding this - if they called you and offered you a good deal eg reducing the price by £30 per number and you accepted this why are you not now happy with it?

mosskatz

Hello
These people are awful, the same thing happened to my wife
Ive worked in call centres all my life so i sent a stern and threatenting email and they cancelled the contract for free.
I also emailed all the senior staff.

feel free to use............

Hello 

My name is ___, I am the husband of ___, who was cold called yesterday by a member of your sales team where it was implied that you were calling from EE about an upgrade on her account.

 

She was given sales spiel about saving on monthly bills and coerced into signing up for a 36-month business contract without any cooling off period.

 

My wife had no idea about the difference between a business contract and a personal one and it was not explained to her that there wouldn’t be a cooling off period.

 

We’d like to cancel her contract with Prestige Telecom group asap.

 

1.      Under the GDPR Individual rights section, we are entitled to a SAR (Subject access request) for the call transcripts and recordings from the selling off this contract. Please provide.

 

2.      We believe that the contract was mis sold under the ‘communications act 2003’.

 

3.      Under the right to be informed section of GDPR, We are entitled to know where you got the data to call her from. I was told a lead generation site yesterday but was given no name. Do you have the site? Site owner? IP? Address? Optin? Privacy statement? I await these details.

 

4.      The CLI used to cold call her and make the sale was an 07 number, under Ofcom and ICO rules sales calls cannot be made from mobile numbers. Can you advise why sales calls are being made on mobile phone numbers?

 

5.      The contract terms are also deemed unreasonable as per the ‘unfair contract terms act 1977’.

 

6.      Your agent yesterday mentioned that you screen against the TPS register but did not mention the CTPS? Can you confirm if you screen calls against that register?

 

7.      You have one calendar month to reply to the SAR and then we will take this to the financial ombudsman.

 

8.      We also believe that the FCAs TCF guidelines were not complied with, especially outcome three which ensures that ‘Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.’ Can you advise?

 

9.      After asking the agent multiple times yesterday if we could cancel, he said no and we must pay the full contract price (36 x £27). I then spoke to ___ who advised we could cancel after all? Can you explain the reason for the discrepancies?

 

10.   I notice that you have recently had a record sales month on new business? Do you have any visibility for the consumer on how your staff are incentivised (besides pizza and doughnuts). Matt confirmed that he is paid on commission but couldn’t divulge the amount. Can you please provide transparency? I believe this also comes under the TCF guidelines?

 

11.   I can also see that you have been shortlisted for 2 awards by ‘The News, Portsmouth’. Has the paper been made aware of the 100s of negative reviews online?. (see below) The Trustpilot page also seems very suspect with a lot of generic non-specific reviews? I find it had to believe that there are so many 5* reviews when the complaints are so high elsewhere.

 

arrivala.com/prestige-telecom-group-298/reviews/

 

www.justanswer.com/uk-law/is8rt-i-ve-coldcalled-buy-company-called-prestige-telecom.html

 

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6266683/plan-com (there are a number of posts on MSE)

 

We were told last night that we would get a call about the source of the data but still have had no call.

 

As mentioned above we would like to cancel her contract with Prestige Telecom group asap.

 

Kind Regards

 

 This was the reply they sent 

this was the reply to the email

Hi ___,

The good news is that after review with our management team we are happy to cancel this contract with no fees due.

As the connection had not gone through as yet we have pulled this back and the services will not transfer, there is no further action required on ___'s part to get this done.

Kind regards

Here are the addresses i sent it to

(Removed by Forum Team)

Good luck

Hibousage

There is already a 10 page thread on these companies under 

Prestige telecom / plan.com - its time we fought back