Cold callers and verbal contracts.

Got asked for help today by a guy who got suckered by a company who sell telephone landline contracts short of it is he was with BT residential and this con artist sold him a deal at half price of the BT one. They read him out the usual shit at high speed on tape he got confused and asked them to repeat but they wouldn't. Anyway he did not get what they offered him, the 14 day opt out contract never came and he has discovered they have put him on a business contract for 5 years at quadruple BT's residential price. He phoned up to complain and told them he did not get what he agreed and they laughed at him and said he is on tape agreeing to it , but there is no tape of his original deal. So he cancelled the DD and recalled the money he paid thru his bank, now they have cut his line and are threatening him, his wife is ill and he is unemployed, self employed.Now he cant get any private work phoning in and he is now stressed to the point of collapse, they told him it will cost two grand to terminate.Yes he was a fool to do it but he has been conned big time.I think they fix tapes to suit themselves and why no tape of the sales offer? very convienient for them. I could fix it so there were no tapes but that would cost him much more than two grand. Any legal eagles out there?

I'd recommend going to the Citizens Advice Bureau

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice/consumer_service.htm

BoltonTillIDie wrote:I'd recommend going to the Citizens Advice Bureau

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice/consumer_service.htm

He went, they sent him to trading standards who said they will contact him in the near future. He was told to contact CISAS who are sending him some forms and they regulate these firms and their decision is final, he is worried it will go against him and it can take up to six weeks by then he will be skint with a family to feed and mortgage with no phone no work. They are in kent in one way its good but logistics wise not as i am not down that way for some time. If it was north west i'd be inclined to persuade the contracts manager to give me the tape as a goodwill gesture, but kent's a long way for no pay.

He could just get BT to reconnect the line and he can pay them like he used to, or get a mobile and use that as a contact number.

Yeah but they count that as breach of contract and charge him 2 grand cancellation fee he tried that and got a letter saying they would give the debt to an agency who would then send round bailiffs.

Plus all his adds have his number and he say's old folks dont trust mobiles.

Angry Dad wrote:Yeah but they count that as breach of contract and charge him 2 grand cancellation fee he tried that and got a letter saying they would give the debt to an agency who would then send round bailiffs.

Surely they breached the contract when they decided to give him a business line and charged him 5 times as much as what he previously had. To make the recording legally binding, surely they would have to also hear what he was agreeing to (which was 1/2 price line rental).

Personally, I would breach the contract. How long has he had the line in for?

BoltonTillIDie wrote:

Angry Dad wrote:Yeah but they count that as breach of contract and charge him 2 grand cancellation fee he tried that and got a letter saying they would give the debt to an agency who would then send round bailiffs.

Surely they breached the contract when they decided to give him a business line and charged him 5 times as much as what he previously had. To make the recording legally binding, surely they would have to also hear what he was agreeing to (which was 1/2 price line rental).

Personally, I would breach the contract. How long has he had the line in for?

About a month.

Just tell him to go back to BT, breach the contract with the other firm and if the other company threaten him with legal action then basically say see you in court. They will have to bring all the evidence relating to his contract, including the original deal offered.

I doubt that they will seriously take any action on the alleged breach of contract. Easy for me to say I know, but he should stick it out and go back to BT (or even better someone else) for a phone line and/or use a mobile as a contact number.

Details of another scam that almost conned my wife below:

Cold call from someone claiming to be phoning on behalf of Microsoft. He said that her laptop had been sending lots of error messages to them and he would help her fix it. She was sceptical but he convinced her by showing her two things on her laptop. First there were lots of error messages and secondly he quoted a very long number which was on her laptop. Fortunately I walked into the room at this point and managed to stop her doing anything else. Her sister was not so lucky and paid £85 for this scam. We only had to pay someone to come out and check our computer was still safe.

Firstly all computers generate a lot of error messages. Secondly the number he quoted was not unique. Thirdly although this outfit have a website this means nothing. Fourth nobody but scam artists cold call and offer to fix problems on your computer.

Out of interest is the phone company Unicom?

Angry Dad wrote:Got asked for help today by a guy who got suckered by a company who sell telephone landline contracts short of it is he was with BT residential and this con artist sold him a deal at half price of the BT one. They read him out the usual shit at high speed on tape he got confused and asked them to repeat but they wouldn't. Anyway he did not get what they offered him, the 14 day opt out contract never came and he has discovered they have put him on a business contract for 5 years at quadruple BT's residential price. He phoned up to complain and told them he did not get what he agreed and they laughed at him and said he is on tape agreeing to it , but there is no tape of his original deal. So he cancelled the DD and recalled the money he paid thru his bank, now they have cut his line and are threatening him, his wife is ill and he is unemployed, self employed.Now he cant get any private work phoning in and he is now stressed to the point of collapse, they told him it will cost two grand to terminate.Yes he was a fool to do it but he has been conned big time.I think they fix tapes to suit themselves and why no tape of the sales offer? very convienient for them. I could fix it so there were no tapes but that would cost him much more than two grand. Any legal eagles out there?

I feel for your mate but he shouldn't worry, the law is on his side.

He should ring Ofcom and they can advise him, but this company haven't got a leg to stand on. No way will bailiffs be turning up because a judge would have to sign the warrant which will never happen.

Not sure of the duration, but isn't there a cooling if period anyway whereas you can cancel for whatever reason within this time.

I got a call last week re a special offer on a response alarm/fire/medical emergency system. £1500 of free equipment but had to pay £200 for installation. Sounded great. If I was burgled, uniformed guards would come round to the house. If there was a medical emergency an ambulance would be called and the fire brigade would be alerted if there was a fire.

What they didn't mention was that the actual response bit was a further £3800. In essence, they proposed to fit all the kit but nobody would actually turn up. Oh how we laughed.

OneFinFreedman wrote:Out of interest is the phone company Unicom?

Select calls ltd- maidstone. He's gone back to BT today and is waiting to see what happens,bt cant get him on until the 20th as select calls ltd are slowing down the process. I just read about them on the forum money expert.com and typed in select calls there's a big thing on them. If their sales people are lagging they make them work standing up.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Angry Dad wrote:Got asked for help today by a guy who got suckered by a company who sell telephone landline contracts short of it is he was with BT residential and this con artist sold him a deal at half price of the BT one. They read him out the usual shit at high speed on tape he got confused and asked them to repeat but they wouldn't. Anyway he did not get what they offered him, the 14 day opt out contract never came and he has discovered they have put him on a business contract for 5 years at quadruple BT's residential price. He phoned up to complain and told them he did not get what he agreed and they laughed at him and said he is on tape agreeing to it , but there is no tape of his original deal. So he cancelled the DD and recalled the money he paid thru his bank, now they have cut his line and are threatening him, his wife is ill and he is unemployed, self employed.Now he cant get any private work phoning in and he is now stressed to the point of collapse, they told him it will cost two grand to terminate.Yes he was a fool to do it but he has been conned big time.I think they fix tapes to suit themselves and why no tape of the sales offer? very convienient for them. I could fix it so there were no tapes but that would cost him much more than two grand. Any legal eagles out there?

I feel for your mate but he shouldn't worry, the law is on his side.

He should ring Ofcom and they can advise him, but this company haven't got a leg to stand on. No way will bailiffs be turning up because a judge would have to sign the warrant which will never happen.

Well nat i'm going to ask my solicitor on monday just to put his mind at rest, she's been on holiday so i havn't had a chance to speak to her yet, these bastards are the real scum out there.

Cold callers are a bloody nuisance. I always speak in a foreign accent and pretend I can't understand them.

Some geezer recently took a company to the small claims court for wasting his time with unsolicited cold calls. They settled out of court.

I got her to send a letter for him, they wrote back straight away dropping their claim for 2K cancel fee and said four hundred would do. I told him to refuse and offer them fifty or nothing. watch this space.

I wouldn't have offered them anything, they broke the 'verbal' contract by changing the prices - but if this is the easiest for your friend then so be it

This is what he needs to do...

Get bt to reconnect him. Then phone the company who are trying to rip him off and record the conversation. Make sure he tells them at the beginning of the conversation that he's recording it. He needs to tell them that he is going to charge them £2000 for reading any letters they send and for any phone calls they make to him. Then he needs to tell them he is removing rights of access to his property for anyone from that company or anyone who is representing that company. Tell them they will receive a list of costs and a letter removing rights of access by recorded delivery in the next few days. Then say goodbye and the problem is solved. If they do phone or write send the bastards a bill for £2000.