Quote:

Broadband mis-selling 'targeted' A minority of customers are being short-changed, Ofcom says Telecoms regulator Ofcom has vowed to crack down on mis-selling by phone and broadband providers. Ofcom said it was prepared to fine firms which broke industry rules large sums to ensure public confidence in the sector was maintained. Competition has intensified in the broadband and telecoms markets with the likes of Carphone Warehouse, BSkyB, BT, Orange and Vodafone vying for business. Rules making it easier for people to change supplier come in next year. Level-playing field Firms flouting these rules, which come into force in February, and other regulations will potentially face a maximum penalty of up to 10% of their turnover.       There is a threat that if there is mis-selling, then confidence in the market will suffer and that is not acceptable Ofcom spokesman Ofcom stressed that the broadband market was generally working well for consumers but added that it had a duty to deal with a "minority" of cases where people were being short-changed. "You will see a crackdown on rogue operators that are trying to implement scams and those companies dealing in unfair methods of competition," an Ofcom spokesman said. "There is a threat that if there is mis-selling, then confidence in the market will suffer and that is not acceptable." The regulator insisted that it would not investigate companies for the sake of it but wanted to ensure a "level-playing field".

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6199509.stm

Its nice to see Ofcom doing something for the consumer if only it wasn't as usual two or three years too late after scamming on this matter had become rife.

It also still seems rather a pity though that Ofcom aren't apparently worried about a sizeable majority of UK telephone customers being completely "short changed" and ripped off whenever they need to make a call to what were once ordinary UK business phone numbers.

In fact Ofcom and their sidekicks at ICSTSIS actually plan to further endorse the scamming by allowing these new hidden Premium Rate 0871 numbers to be miseladingly entitled Business Rate :o >:( :'(

Edit by Dave: Source added

We will have to wait and see how Ofcom enforces these rules as they come into effect in February. I think that saying that it "Gets tough" is very pre-emptive.

Dave wrote on Dec 21^st, 2006 at 4:16pm:

We will have to wait and see how Ofcom enforces these rules as they come into effect in February. I think that saying that it "Gets tough" is very pre-emptive.

I've only scanned half way through the MAC statement and I'm sure I read that if a complaint was made against an ISP for not supplying a MAC, etc it would take them the usual amount of time (generally 6months+) to look into it.

I can imagine if hundreds complain then it would be looked at as a matter of urgency but otherwise it's pointless complaining.  However, now that ISP can't withhold MAC (unless it's technically not possible to migrate) then there is a good chance ISP's wont because they now know that Ofcom can do something whereas before, stupid OfcoN made it voluntary and "hoped" that ISP would oblige without any problem.

What's so stupid if OfcoN thought about it is that ISP's know that most customers wont go through the hassle of moving ISP's without a MAC due to being without internet for upto 2 weeks and having to pay normal price instead of the lower cost of using MACs to move.

So say I own my own ISP and was scrupulous to purposely withold MACs because I know that most customers would still stick with using my ISP because they don't want to be without broadband for weeks and pay the normal full cost of moving.  Now giving this choice, or just issuing MAC's of my own freewill and losing a customer what is it I would do in such circumstances?  I'd obviously refuse or make up excuses for not issuing MAC's to avoid losing a customer.

Common sense tells you that is what could easily happen and has done a lot of times according to posts on MSE and even as far as customers being blackmailed to move to a certain ISP only (obviously more expensive) if their current ISP goes into receivership.  Tiscali LLU did this recently and even refused to do anything when asked by Ofcom simply because Tiscali LLU knew Ofcom couldn't do anything.

I also noticed it in The Register as well.


Quote:

Newly minted Ofcom boss Ed Richards laid out a tougher approach to UK media and telecommunications regulation in an interview with the Financial Times yesterday. Richards said: "We have been pretty generous over time and now is the time to start saying: 'Come on guys, get into line, make sure you comply with the codes'." He also announced that he wouldn't be allowing ITV to reduce its children's television programming, despite its inability to make much money from it and the existence of an increasing choice of competition. Ofcom announced last week that it would be investigating allegations that the Post Office has been switching people to their fixed-line service without approval. Mr Richards suggested that with the introduction of an easier transition process, due in February, such practices could spread to broadband too, and Ofcom would be ready to act in such cases. Switching broadband providers will be an area of particular focus, with companies who fail to hand over transition codes promptly - leaving customers disconnected - being targeted for non-compliance. Public service broadcasting will also be reviewed before the planned switch off of analogue services in 2012

I wouldn't be surprised if Ofcom staff themselves use Daniel's database to lookup alternatives and have told friends/family about it but still don't want to do anything to stop it or at the very least make it clear that 084x/087x numbers are NOT local or national rate and are in fact just lower-priced stealth premium rate calls.

Dave wrote on Dec 21^st, 2006 at 4:16pm:

We will have to wait and see how Ofcom enforces these rules as they come into effect in February. I think that saying that it "Gets tough" is very pre-emptive.

Well gets tougher anyway Dave which is better than the current sorry situation.  But perhaps your point is that this is in fact another sham action by Ofcom like its change on 0870 while still allowing OCPs to charge extra and doing nothing at all about the 0844 and 0845 scams and watering down the original proposals on 0871 becoming properly Premium Rate.

Apart from the actual disgrace of 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871 not being forced to move to 09 though and make clear call price announcements and have no queueing allowed my biggest beef with Ofcom is that they have not even made it an offence punishable with big fines to go on calling 084 and 087 numbers local/lo-call and national rate numbers in marketing material and information leaflets.  They rely on the ASA and us campaigners having to waste huge amounts of time to have the ASA adjudicate matters on a complaint by complaint basis and with them lacking powers over Police and local council information leaflets and websites.

Ofcom could at the very least have imposed tough rules to stop calling 084/7 lo-call/national rate without immediately shutting them down.  And surely we could at least have expected them to take the full page newspaper ads to publicise this that they took to publicise de-control of BT residential line rental and call prices claiming wrongly that it would be to the advantage of the general public.

NGMsGhost wrote on Dec 21^st, 2006 at 7:08pm:

... They rely on the ASA and us campaigners having to waste huge amounts of time to have the ASA adjudicate matters on a complaint by complaint basis and with them lacking powers over Police and local council information leaflets and websites.

Indeed, and that's how today's telecommunications industry seems to work. Whether it be reverse charged premium rate SMS, missed calls from revenue generating numbers or messages encouraging victims to call such numbers, protection of the consumer and punishment (if you can call it that) is all done after the event. That's after the consumer has reported the fraud, which is only likely to happen if they notice on their bill.

I am writing this as I work on the database. I've just come across an entry for Fusion Conveyancing Ltd. It's bad enough having 0871 described as "national rate", but they are blatent liars and say it's "local rate" next to the number at the top of every page. BT Pricing says it's a 10p/min at all times number!