Ofcom is investigating 11 companies for mis-selling
phone lines to customers and is extending its enforcement
procedures to cover companies selling combined voice and broadband
services.
Mis-selling covers inappropriate sales and marketing activities
including “slamming“, where customers can be switched from
one company to another without their express knowledge and
consent.
Ofcom has announced that rules protecting consumers from the
mis-selling of fixed-line voice call services will now also cover
providers that offer voice and broadband services using full local
loop unbundling (LLU) technology.
Since May 2005, a new
General Condition of Entitlement (GC 14.5) has
required providers of fixed-line voice call services to comply with
a code of practice for sales and marketing in accordance with
Ofcom's guidelines.
Since the regulations came into effect, Ofcom says it has opened
investigations into eleven providers, including Economy Calls,
FreeCall, Lo-Rate, Orb Communications, Platinum Telecom, Post
Office, Scottish and Southern Energy, Tesco, Unicom, Universal
Telecom and XLN Telecom.
From January to March 2007 alone, Ofcom received around 1,200
complaints related to mis-selling.
In addition to extending the migration rules to cover LLU
services, Ofcom says it is also carrying out a review of
migrations, switching and mis-selling across all telecoms services,
including broadband, mobile and cable.
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Ofcom website
>>
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