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Capping of Fixed Term Contracts?


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I have run into an issue with our old friends at Unicom. This all started a couple of weeks ago when Unicom sales (who I have two phone line with) contacted me to offer a deal on Broadband which on the face of it sounded OK apart from when they got into their script they mentioned that it was a 36 month contract; I immediately stopped them there and said "I don't do 3 year contracts" the girl was a bit flustered and said "they only offer 3 year contracts" so I said "Forget it then" she convinced me to hold on and she went to talk to a manager. On her return she we can tie it into your current phone contract so I agreed and we continued on.

 

Yesterday when my accounts administrator came in I explained what I had done and showed her the figures she did some quick sums and reported that I would end up paying far more than I do currently. She had a look around and she found several deals that would be a lot cheaper and asked me to contact Unicom to see how long we had on our current phone contract and to cancel the Broadband migration.

 

I called customer services and asked when my current phone contract expires "May 2016" came the reply I then ask what is the term "36 Months" they replied; if this was the case then the contract must have renewed somewhere around April - May 2013 I didn't say any more on this subject at this point but I did go on and cancel the Broadband migration ( a few harsh words with a salesman here but I persisted).

 

I then e-mailed a "Formal Complaint" to customer services stating that I don't remember any contract renewal and was this an "Automatically Renewing Contract"

if so these had been banned by OFCOM. I received a phone call some 2 hours later and was told that it wasn't an ARC and that I had been contacted by phone in April 2013 and I had agreed to renew the contract for 36 Months and to top this they had a recording of the conversation. She went away and and listened to the recording and came back and reported that YES it was me and YES I had agreed to 36 Months; I asked if she could e-mail me a copy of this recording to which she agreed.

 

Having carried out some further research into OFCOM's GC9 I see that they capped Fixed Term contracts to a maximum of 24 Months but what isn't really clear is if this cap includes Small Businesses ie those with 10 employees or less.

 

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

Regards

Chris

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Hi Chris

European telecom laws and Ofcom have ruled that businesses and residential premises must be offered a 12 month contract as from 26th may 2011. The maximum 24 month contract only applies to residential premises http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/news/uk-consumers-benefit-from-european-telecoms-law-changes/

If you need any help, please check out www.unicom-complaints.co.uk

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Apparently, Unicom's defence when approached about this is that they DO offer a 12 month contract, but it is up to the customer to ask for it!!! The definition of 'offer' in the Oxford dictionary is 'present or proffer (something) for (someone) to accept or reject as desired.' and could be a useful quote if they use this tactic on you.

 

A legal definition of offer is 'An offer is a communication that gives the listener the power to conclude a contract.' If they did not communicate this 'offer' then there was no offer! http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/offer

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Thanks RMJ for the additional information, I'll wait for the recording to turn up via e-mail and then listen to it carefully

 

Regards

Chris

 

PS I have seen your PM sorry I can't reply due to low number of posts.... But I am following it up.

Edited by Chris.Marsh
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Unicom are currently under investigation by Ofcom and the investigation centres on Unicom's sales and marketing activities in relation to fixed line products and also into whether there was a breach in the rules regarding a requirement to offer contracts with minimum terms. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/competition-bulletins/open-cases/all-open-cases/cw_01125/ I would URGE you to contact Ofcom on on 0300 123 3333 and make a formal record of your complaint. The more complaints that Ofcom receive, the more information they will have for the purpose of the investigation.

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I would do both. Send an email to Jonathan Ruff and also call them to make a record of your complaint. Ofcom do not deal with individual cases but they do monitor companies and record complaints with view to investigating them if they receive many complaints about them. Ofcom will advise you to raise your complaint with The Ombudsman Services who can deal with individual cases eight weeks after your first complaint to Unicom - or if you receive a deadlock letter - whichever is soonest. However, the Ombudsman's decision is evidence based meaning if you can't prove what was said during the sales call or meeting, they will rule in Unicom's favour as they will have the evidence of the recording of you agreeing to the contract, or a signed contract.

BTW if you haven't received your recording say by the end of next week, or if you do receive a recording and find it is the short edited version of the agreement but does not consist of what you agreed to, I would send a Subject Access Request for ALL the FULL UNEDITED recordings and an excellent template can be found here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387306-Full-Subject-Access-Request

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Thanks again, also having read some of the horror stories (Links) on unicom-complaints I really need to get written conformation of my CANCELLATION of the impending Broadband Migration as from what I have read it could still go ahead and then a denial of having received my cancellation telecom. I'll e-mail them Recorded Delivery tonight.

 

Regards

Chris

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RE: Subject access request

 

I see I definitely need to do this because a key part of my report to ofcom and any action that might get to the ombudsman service will be the key phrase "We only do 3 year contracts", I'll set-aside some space on one of our servers and ask them to upload all the data to it.

 

Regards

Chris

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