Anyone had any dealings with Elite Calls

[sharondogf]

Hi,

Approx 4 months ago my husband received a call from Elite Calls promising cheaper rates than BT. My husband unfortunately agreed to them taking over.

Our monthly bills from them have been extortionate (the latest one was for £245). We have refused to pay this and ultimately they blocked our line. I have since been in contact with BT who have now taken the line back, I was shocked to be told by BT that our line with Elite Calls is for businesses only. We don't have a business and never had a business line before. The salesperson from Elite Calls did not mention that they deal with businesses when they phoned. We have been mislead.

I have now received a letter from BT to say that they have an order to transfer our telephone service to another Company, Elite Calls again. I have spoken to BT and confirmed to them that I did not agree to a transfer. (They only want to transfer it back to them so that they can disconnect the line completely). Is this an illegal act?

I have written to the company putting the account in dispute and also complained to Ofcom.

I wonder how many times they will contact BT stating that I have requested my line to be transferred to them!!

[locutus]

Originally Posted by sharondogf

Hi,

Approx 4 months ago my husband received a call from Elite Calls promising cheaper rates than BT. My husband unfortunately agreed to them taking over.

Our monthly bills from them have been extortionate (the latest one was for £245). We have refused to pay this and ultimately they blocked our line. I have since been in contact with BT who have now taken the line back, I was shocked to be told by BT that our line with Elite Calls is for businesses only. We don't have a business and never had a business line before. The salesperson from Elite Calls did not mention that they deal with businesses when they phoned. We have been mislead.

I have now received a letter from BT to say that they have an order to transfer our telephone service to another Company, Elite Calls again. I have spoken to BT and confirmed to them that I did not agree to a transfer. (They only want to transfer it back to them so that they can disconnect the line completely). Is this an illegal act?

I have written to the company putting the account in dispute and also complained to Ofcom.

I wonder how many times they will contact BT stating that I have requested my line to be transferred to them!!

The highlighted red bit I know a little about. BT will have contacted ofcom and reported Elite Calls for mis-selling the services. This will start an investigation against Elite Calls. If they do try it again, you will recieve a letter before your line transfers exactly the same as that one.

To be honest, I looked over the Elite Calls website and couldn't see anything stating it was business only, and they do have a guarantee that your calls couldn't go up, only down, so if your bills went up you are well within your rights to complain!

Hope all goes well here. Keep us updated please

[sharondogf]

There is mention of them being a business service as per extract below from their website but in no way did they state this when they called us, if they had of done obviously we would of questioned the business part as like I said we never had a business line with BT so in my opinion they mislead us, but I shall be arguing.

BT have informed me that they will be contacting ofcom and reporting them, I have also sent a letter to ofcom with a copy of the letter I have sent to Elite calls


Elite Calls offers their customers line rental and service in exactly the same way as BT Retail. Elitecalls's Wholesale Business Plans re-bill the customer for these services at a reduced cost without leaving the BT network.

[locutus]

Originally Posted by sharondogf

Elite Calls offers their customers line rental and service in exactly the same way as BT Retail. Elitecalls's Wholesale Business Plans re-bill the customer for these services at a reduced cost without leaving the BT network.

The "Wholesale" part is how they buy the line from BT (BT group is split into many smaller parts, BT WHOLESALE resells their products to 3rd party companies, and BT retail). I think that it's refering to the fact that their business plan is to buy from BT Wholesale and re-brand the product as their own and pass it on to the customer at a saving.

[sharondogf]

ok. whatever, they still put us down as a business line without informing us of the fact and absolutely no saving whatsoever and no mention of a business line to us, in fact it was BT that informed me they are for businesses, luckily I managed to go back to residential with BT. I never had bills like they sent us before thats why I am now in dispute with them.

A friend of mine is going to contact Elite for information, so we will see what comes back!!

Thank you

[Pablo8]

I am just starting out in my dispute with Elite Calls transfer from BT. Perhaps my main weapon against them, will be that I am NOT running a business, and the 'phone line is in my home. I also feel that Elite Calls mis represented themselves when they first called. They said that they were part of BT. How have others resolved matters... Any tips that would help me to be released from their clutches?? I cannot afford the £395. + vat charge Elite Calls are asking for.

[legalpickle]

Ask them for their complaints procedure and post it here. Then I'll try to give some constructive advice.

[garpash]

Originally Posted by Pablo8

I am just starting out in my dispute with Elite Calls transfer from BT. Perhaps my main weapon against them, will be that I am NOT running a business, and the 'phone line is in my home. I also feel that Elite Calls mis represented themselves when they first called. They said that they were part of BT. How have others resolved matters... Any tips that would help me to be released from their clutches?? I cannot afford the £395. + vat charge Elite Calls are asking for.

Hi Pablo,
I have dealing with this organisation. Basically they miss sell products and services, then put you on rolling contracts, add connection charges, degrade your service and make it very hard to get away from them. They were trading as Lo-Rate Telecom (also known as Low Life Telecom) who were taken to court by Ofcom for illegal practices, such as claiming to be a part of BT and selling rolling contracts without advising customers.

They are in cahoots with Chess Telecom now and their latest trick seems to be slamming lines between one and other to confuse you and to create multiple bills. They also slammed me from BT without consulting me, which is also not allowed, and I am now in dispute with BT as a consequence, because they want an early cancellation charge. I have reported all of them to Ofcom and to Watchdog. If enough people raise the issues they will be put in the spotlight again....Good luck and don't let them beat you....

Here is a recent letter to my contact in Ofcom:


Thank you again for your help on this matter. Unfortunately things get worse.

I was recently assured by Chess Telecom that I would be free to move my lines and services, with no penalty charges, back to BT. I had this confirmed again yesterday with a conversation with William Kay at Chess, who also agreed that the service I had been provided with was appalling and that I could move my lines with no penalty. Today I received a call from William Kay stating that he had “made a mistake” and that I would have to pay in excess of £400.00 to transfer my lines………..

Chess representative, Katie, assured me some weeks ago that I could transfer free of charge so I actioned the transfer of my business line (01111) 111111 to BT. This went smoothly until I received a notice of early cancellation from BT requesting £158.00 plus VAT. When I contacted BT it appears that Chess had slammed my line without permission and at considerable cost to me – an illegal act for which BT have lodged a report with your organisation.

In the last few weeks I have been lied to, mislead and slammed. I was miss-sold a service at the outset. I never received a contract from Lo-Rate and was not informed of connection charges and roll over contracts. All in all these 2 organisations are a scam. Add to this the debacle of Elite Telecoms who appeared to have my lines under their control for a period, and who also gave verbal agreement that I was free to cancel 01111 111111 because it was a business line and they only handled residential lines. They actually just transferred my line, without my permission, to Chess. I have now got outstanding bills from BT, Lo-Rate, Elite and Chess. I do not intend to pay any of them. The service is a disgrace. I have no idea what I am being charged for and by whom.

Today I have told Chess that I will transfer my lines, free of charge, as I have had agreement on twice. I am not sure that Chess will not slam me again, or try to charge me despite verbal assurances otherwise.

I explained to William Kay that my business depends on my line and broadband and that I am not prepared to risk their incompetence’s, to which he yesterday agreed. On my personal line, I have very sick family members, one of whom has progressive MS, one of whom is 90% blind and in his eighties. Throughout this Chess have shown no regard for my concerns over their incompetence and they have just caused me more stress and sleepless nights worrying that my telephones would be cut off…..

Anything you may be able to do would be appreciated.

Kind regards

[legalpickle]

What many people don't realize is that Ofcom is the regulatory body and can very rarely intervene in disputes between customers and their suppliers. They will normally just forward the letters to them and tell them to deal with it.

Every telecoms provider [except Sky Satellite TV] must be a member of one of two ADR [Alternative Dispute Resolution] schemes and have a Code of Practice which includes a complaints procedure.

The two ADR schemes are Otelo [www.otelo.org.uk] & CISAS [www.cisas.org.uk]. You will need to check on their websites which companies are covered by them.

You must write to the address in the complaints procedure, and escalate it in accordance with the providers complaints procedure. Once you either receive a "deadlock" letter - saying this is our final response - or 12 weeks have gone by and no satisfactory response has been received, you can take the complaint to Otelo / CISAS.

You are covered by Otelo / CISAS even if you are considered a small business - less than 10 staff. Telecoms providers that offer fixed-line or broadband services to residential consumers or small businesses must be members of one of the above two ADR schemes and are charged a fee for each complaint that reaches the scheme.

The decision of the Ombudsman in either of these schemes is binding upon the telecoms company, but not upon you. If you do not like it, you are free to refuse, but then will not be able to demand that in future. If you are satisfied with the recommendations of the Ombudsman then you sign an acceptance form and they are mutually binding. But, you don't sign this till the result comes through, so you are not bound by the outcome from the start.

The second option is County Court proceedings, if you have a clear case. If you need help with this I suggest you start your own thread for assistance with this. PM me with the link to your thread, so that I notice it and I will look at it and try to advise you on the thread. Please do not PM me asking for advice in your case, this is against CAG forum rules.

[garpash]

Thanks.....Very useful, and I may start another thread and seek advice / opinion when I have expired the escalation process.

Ofcom offered to try and put some weight to my issues, an offer I accepoted, in the mean time I am around 60 days into the 90 day dispute period, after which I will escalate to CISAS, who I have already spoken with. Will keep up to date on any progress etc.