NOWTV charging for calls on anytime calls package

D4rkS4v4nt

I signed up my elderly mother for the NOWTV broadband and anytime calls package via the MSE comparison tool. Just received a message from my mum to say she has been charged £63 for the first month! Looking into the account I've found that NOWTV have charged my mother for all the phone calls she has made since joining NOWTV. I've spoken this morning to a call centre representative who have refused to refund the calls and insisted it was my mistake for not selecting the correct phone option when signing up!

I selected the following options from the MSE comparision tool so NOWTV appear to be clearly in the wrong but how do I get my mothers money back?

milgo

When you log into your mother's account online what calling package does it say that you are on?

D4rkS4v4nt

milgo said:

When you log into your mother's account online what calling package does it say that you are on?

It said "Brilliant Broadband" with "Pay as you use calls" - they changed the plan when I was on the phone to them so it is "Anytime Calls" but won't refund the £45 of call charges. Also the discount making it £18 per month is not being applied and I can see they have already issued the next bill which includes more call charges.... Pretty stressed out with this, why big companies treat customers like this is something I cannot fathom.

couriervanman

Do you still have the sign up email confirmation showing which package was signed up for

D4rkS4v4nt

couriervanman said:

Do you still have the sign up email confirmation showing which package was signed up for

I didn't see the sign up confirmation it was sitting in my mothers email inbox and says "Pay as you use calls" but even so that is not what was signed up for via the website. I've posted a similar post to the NowTV forums and there is also one other case I've found where someone signed up through a comparison website and was placed on the wrong contract.

These are the terms I signed up for by clicking the link to "Join" in the image above - they don't do a contract with the "Brilliant Broadband" and "Pay as you use" calls as far as I'm aware for new customers, this is an added incentive for people to join them from another supplier (which we did from BT). I've made a formal complaint and attached the same material.

Fibre: Applicable to NOW Fibre areas only. 18+. UK only. NOW Broadband available to new NOW Broadband customers and new and existing TV customers, not available to existing NOW Broadband/Combo customers. 12-month contract for NOW Fab Fibre: £23pm for 12 months, £0 set up fee and £5.00 delivery fee. 12-month contract NOW Super Fibre: £28pm for 12 months, £0 set up fee and £5.00 delivery fee. 12-month contract Brilliant Broadband: £18pm for 12 months, £0 set up fee and £5.00 delivery fee. No contract option available with £60 activation fee and £5.00 delivery fee. No contract option keeps rolling until offer period ends unless cancelled; cancel any time. 12-month min contract for contract option. On our 12 Month Saver product if you cancel within your contract you may be subject to Early Termination Charges. After 12 months, standard price applies (currently £25pm for Brilliant Broadband / £32pm for Fab Fibre / £35pm for Super Fibre). Offer not available with any other offers. Availability subject to survey. No traffic management policy. See sky.com for more details and our Usage Policies. Average speeds: download speed: 11Mbs for Brilliant Broadband / 36Mbps for NOW Fab Fibre / 63Mbps for NOW Super Fibre. NOW Calls: NOW network areas only. Compatible line required. Acceptable use policy applies. Find our call rates in the NOW Calls tariff guide. General: Subject to status. Upfront payment may be required. You must get any consents required (e.g. landlord’s). UK residential customers only. Further terms apply.
NOW Calls: *Includes anytime calls with any Broadband purchase for the first 12 months, then £8 a month thereafter. NOW Calls network areas only. Acceptable use policy applies. Find our call rates in the NOW Calls tariff guide.

NOW Broadband and £6.99pm for 6 months Entertainment Pass offer: NOW Broadband and £6.99pm for 6 months Entertainment Pass offer: NOW TV Entertainment Pass customers must have 30 days or less on their current offer. New NOW Broadband customers in selected areas only. Ongoing broadband required to be entitled to the £6.99 per month Entertainment Pass for 6 months. Pass auto renews at standard price after 6 months (currently £9.99 pm) unless cancelled. Cancel anytime. Offer lost if you cancel your Entertainment Pass before last month of offer period. General: 18+. UK only. NOW TV account required, set up with debit/credit card (Visa, Amex or Mastercard accepted). Content streamed via broadband/3G/4G (charge may apply) (min. speed 2.5Mbps). Some of our shows aren’t available live or on catch up. Head to nowtv.com/slating to see what shows you can watch live. Register up to six compatible devices and watch on two at the same time. Chromecast counts as two devices. Some content unavailable on some devices, see nowtv.com. Roku LT, XS or 3 and UK account required to watch on Roku. Ongoing monthly prices and channels subject to change. Offers not available to existing customers currently billed by a third party such as Vodafone / Apple / BT or NOW TV Combo customers. Further terms apply.

bagand96

When you sign up to Now Broadband (either via a comparison site or direct) as you say the offer is Free Anytime calls for 12 months.

During the sign up process there is a page (step 2 after postcode check) where you select all your plan options.  There are broadband/fibre options, then the call options, which are:

- Pay as you use calls £0.00pm
- Evening & Weekend calls £4.00pm
- Anytime calls £0.00pm



When I just clicked through from MSE, the "Anytime Calls £0.00pm" was pre-selected.  Is there any chance you could have accidentally changed the option to Pay as you use?  Or perhaps the Pay as you use was pre-selected - but you would have been able to change it at the time.  

The fact your email confirmation states Pay as you use calls would suggest that what was selected during the sign up process. Unless you have a screenshot of the checkout which definitely states Anytime Calls then it will be hard for you to prove that's what you signed up to. The confirmation email would have been the time to check this unfortunately - if you'd spotted it then, I'm sure Now would have amended the package at the time, or you could have cancelled within the cool off period.

All you can do now is try and escalate your complaint and hope you manage to get the right person to listen and offer a gesture of good will.

D4rkS4v4nt

@bagand96 thanks for your reply, no definitely didn't select "Pay as you use calls", I'm very meticulous when completing online forms for anything like this and as you say the offer is for anytime calls so why the option is even available to switch to "Pay as you use calls" is ridiculous as is the "Evening and weekend calls" option. I shouldn't have to prove anything by taking screenshots during the signup process. The confirmation email has the selected options included at the very bottom of the email - perhaps on purpose, on gmail this gets cut-off as the email is to long so unless you realise this and select the option in gmail to view the full email then this information is hidden.

I appreciate what your saying but any company that defends its actions by blaming the customer is not worth doing business with, in fact it borders on being a very crooked way of doing business. The fact that I selected the offer through the comparison site and followed on the order through NowTV's own website should be enough to confirm my intent to purchase said offer and acceptance of it. As I said it has happened to other people as well and in the thread below the person had more luck than myself with a representative who immediately identified the issue being the sign-up process via the comparison site.

I think there maybe a bug with the website whereby even though you see the correct options selected on-screen, when the account is created, it gets created with the basic options instead of the offer.

https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Account-Billing/Call-charges-added-to-bill/td-p/516025#

bagand96

Please don't think I was trying to question you or your actions when signing up, but mistakes do happen, that's all I'm saying.  I'm not generally a conspiracy theory believer, but I don't think Now make their confirmation emails so long that some of it gets hidden on Gmail - it's Googles decision to do that.  Checking the confirmation email and/or logging into the account once its like, to check everything is as it should be is always vital when entering into a contract.

At the end of the day, wherever the fault lies, all you can do is raise a complaint and hope it gets resolved.  It helps that you have evidence of another customer having it sorted, that should help you.  As always, honey catches more flies than vinegar when talking to customer care.

mohammed1111

I'm due to go live 20th November, i screenprinted every page of the order so be interesting to see if the anytime calls has dropped off

Gsaver1

Joined NOW in early October. When I started the process online it said I wasn't able to keep my number. Went on the phone to cancel as that was not any use to me. However, I was told for some reason that certain customers couldn't do the move online. Finished joining up over the phone. Now has a process of linking accounts. This is an absolute joke imo. Changed to another email address didn't solve the problem. I can "login" to my account but it just shows what offers you get when you "join". I asked for the anonymous calls to be put in place. Charged a pound a month for this but still get these calls coming through. Promised a call back on the 27/10, never materialised. Got a credit for the anonymous calls in my next bill, fingers crossed. Still can't login to my account. Old provider says we will send you out a pre-paid bag to send back old equipment. Still waiting for that. What I have learned from moving providers is that what they say very rarely comes to fruition. The regulator has to sort out this number porting malarkey. If one company has an efficient anonymous caller reject program that has to be shared out amongst them all. The TPS is a joke and should be closed down as it is wasting money.

CGarbutt

Hi I have had a similar problem with NOW charging me for calls after offering me broadband with free anytime calls for £18/ month. They say i didn’t select it and have charged me over £160 for calls up to now. I contacted them about it and had evidence of what i was offered but they have so far refused to refund me, and I have spent hours trying to get this sort it out, there are massive holes in their argument that they haven’t explained, and the only evidence they refer to is my confirmation email which does in fact say that my calls will be £0.00 per month every month. I am absolutely livid with them and feel like I’ve been robbed, but i am determined too and will take it as far as possible however long it takes until i get my money back. Have you managed to get your call charges refunded yet?