Ofcom slammed over slamming

TAKING MATTERS into its own hands, UK mobile operator - O2 - has forced a reseller to pay up damages of £500,000 in a practice known as 'slamming'. This involves tricking consumers into signing for a mobile contract they don't actually want.

The UK regulator, Of com, has been criticised for sitting by and letting others take action over such matters.

A report in the Mail on Sunday claims that O2 has beaten reseller, Landmark Communications, by proving that it stole customers over to rival networks 3 and Orange.

O2 claims that Landmark claimed to represent it - the old "We're from 02 upgrades" ploy - while actually fooling consumers into signing a completely new contract with an entirely different operator.

It's not the only incidence of 'slamming' to come to light recently. The Sunday Herald revealed how a young woman, Zoe Hughes, was tricked into giving away her financial details at a Phone4U store.

The salesperson explained it was necessary to 'check' whether she was creditworthy. Even though she didn't want it, Ms Hughes then found herself signed up to an O2 Contract.

It took her 32 months to wriggle out of the nightmare which followed whereby she was pursued relentlessly for a supposed 'mistake'.

A spokesperson for Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, told the newspaper, "If the issue is over the way an item was sold, a customer can go to his or her local Trading Standards office."

The body appears to be ducking the issue entirely. It claimed, rather lamely, that it has received "relatively few complaints about 'mistaken' sales".

One INQ reader who attempted to recover a 'cashback bonus' from a reseller found there was absolutely no proof the offer had been made and no-one at the reseller was prepared to take responsibility.

The reseller, however, had no qualms about employing a debt collection agency when the reader stopped paying.

Such incidents merely fuel criticism that the current regulator - Ofcom, and its predecessor, Oftel - are too close to the industry to take effective action. µ

L'INQ
Sunday Herald