25-Oct-2010 11:55
Claim Back Your Money
Have you recently switched your phone contracts?
You could be owed money?
According to the regulator Ofcom, over the past two years, at least £10m remains owing to about two million people in refunds from old telecom accounts.
The refunds include line rentals paid for in advance or promotional credits offered at the start of contracts.
The refunds are applicable to both mobile and landline phone services, broadband connections, and pay TV.
Ofcom said all companies should automatically refund money owed to all clients but until now only three companies; BT, Orange and the Post Office have automatically refunded all outstanding money on their customers’ accounts.
Apparently the mobile operators T-Mobile, Virgin, O2 & Vodafone have also now agreed to begin refunding clients.
However Sky, TalkTalk and Three are still insisting on their customers contacting them first.
Oh... & by the way: SimplyFone - uniquely - have no time-related contracts, ever, allowing all clients the freedom to move without incurring any early-exit charges, penalties or fees.
However, the direct debit works the other way too, enabling the company to refund money efficiently and cheaply to the ex-customer.
We always advise our several thousand new customers each and every month to leave their direct debits in place to enable these refunds to take place.
Laurence
"used to" is the key
Now everybody wants superb quality, fantastic range of features at zero cost,
(I am the same as others!)
Keep the flag flying!
Because a contract 'used' to ensure responsibility & loyalty & the commitment was expected to be a two-way agreement.
Sadly, in 2010, the larger companies appear to have forgotten the importance of customer service.
I may sound an old fogie, but general support, politeness, courtesy & respect seem lacking in most business areas - telecom companies having notoriously poor standards.
There are exceptions of course & SimplyFone are more than happy to help anyone (it being so rare!) with any niggles and possible grievances :-)
I am still trying to understand why in this age of hyper-competition why people will agree to any form of contract period.
Nice one, Norman!
Good point - direct debits should not be cancelled to enable the ethical companies to refund monies paid in advance..
Actually, in the telecoms world, I have to say that BT are excellent in that (one single) respect..
Many (probably most) of our new clients are ex-BT clients and they automatically cease D/Debits or other payment methods.
BT, if they find they cannot refund directly to bank accounts, normally, promptly send refund-cheques in the post...