Just to further update the mobile phone calls with Finarea's UK call brands routing to the barking dogs scenario as follows:-
1. Tanya Rofani at Ofcom UK (who is conducting the current investigation in to telcos operating without belonging to an Alternate Dispute Resolution Scheme) and her boss Neil Buckley (Ofcom's Director of Investigations) have now emailed be me back to say that as this company is based in Switzerland and as they have not had many complaints about Finarea from UK based customers it is still not a priority for them to investigate Finarea. They say they may review the matter if they receive more complaints from customers of Finarea based in the UK. This is the same fob off response I also got from Ofcom's previous Director of Investigations, David Stewart, three years ago. Translation - Ofcom only ever bothers investigating complaints made by big and powerful UK based telcos who also provide most of Ofcom's fee income. In other words Parliament and the Uk citizen consumer unfortunately continues to be treated with contempt by OfCoN.
2. I emailed copies of my correspondence with Ofcom about Finarea's lack of an ADR scheme to the one person named as a Finarea member of staff in the current domain name registration for
www.18185.co.uk to be found via
www.whois.co.uk That person is igor.tracchia@finarea.ch and I received auto responders to my emails saying he was out of the office for a few days but would reply to the emails on his return. I also complained to Mr Tracchia about Finarea very recently sending me an email saying they were going to take 20GBP from my credit card when I owed them less than 3GBP. As a result of this I have cancelled my credit card payment mandate for 18185 and replaced it with a direct debit payment mandate (as incorrect direct debit payments are much easier to get refunded).
3. To my surprise I have now received the following emails in response from Finarea:-
Firstly a read receipt from info@finarea.ch on 16th May 2008 at 13.35 and then the below email sent shortly afterwards from service@finarea.ch promising me a 20GBP credit to my account (not sure if this was the 20GBP petrol money and wear and tear for the barking dogs incident or a 20GBP refund for the 20GBP they have said they are going to shortly debit from my credit card incorrectly).
Quote:-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Finarea Telecoms Group Services to UK Based Customers
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 14:59:03 +0200
From: <service@finarea.ch>
Reply-To: <service@finarea.ch>
16 May 2008
Dear Mr _________,
Thank you for your email. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.
Call18185 utilises the most up-to-date technology to ensure top quality connections, however it may be possible that carriers overseas employ different quality standards. In order to undercut BT pricing a complex network of international carriers is being used and as soon as we notice a carrier is not delivering the quality required or routing calls incorrectly we immediately deliver calls via alternative carriers; still for these prices we unfortunately cannot always guarantee BT quality connections.
We have added £20 credit to your account as way of compensation.
Yours sincerely,
Finarea SA
So it would seem that threatened with mention of their lack of a UK ADR scheme and/or possible reference to the Swiss telecoms regulator (also called Ofcom) and following an email sent to the personal email address of their one known employed corporate executive (with an email account that does work) that Finarea can be beaten in to responding, albeit extremely grudgingly.
So for anyone else the two relevant email addresses again are
igor.tracchia@finarea.ch,
service@finarea.ch and
info@finarea.chMake sure to mention their failure to comply with Ofcom requirements to belong to an Alternate Dispute Resolution scheme (ADR)
Also mention that you have the contact details for the Swiss telecoms regulator - OFCOM
These are to be found at:-
www.bakom.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en