SAYNOTO0870.COM - CPC / Farnell

Ian G

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #15 - Jun 27^th, 2014 at 12:11pm

It seems they have little or no awareness of the new regulations which came into force two weeks ago.

The terms and conditions need to be updated to reflect the provisions detailed in all of these
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/made
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/made
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/870/made

Looks like the change of phone number is just a small part of what they need to do...

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« Last Edit: Jun 27^th, 2014 at 12:17pm by Ian G »

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allegro

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #16 - Jun 27^th, 2014 at 1:22pm

RS Components terms and conditions http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=aboutRS&file=conditions state:

Quote:

RS is a business-to-business supplier. The RS website is intended for use by business customers and not by consumers or private individuals. Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in these terms and conditions of sale shall affect the statutory rights of a Customer who deals as a consumer.

This is a reasonable approach for a B2B company that may on occasion be willing to deal with consumers. Despite the fact they will deal with consumers much more willingly than RS, Farnell in their terms and conditions state:

Quote:

25. Business customers

The Company is a business to business supplier. The Catalogue and any specialogues and other product brochures produced by the Company are intended for use by business customers and not consumers. By ordering, the Customer confirms that he, she or it wishes to obtain the Supplies for the purposes of his, her or its business and not as a consumer.

But they also say this, which would appear to be in conflict with the above.

Quote:

10. Distance selling regulations

If, notwithstanding the terms of Condition 25, the Customer is buying as a ‘consumer’, as defined in The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, the Customer may, provided he or she has taken reasonable care of the Goods, return the Goods..........

(I don't think it influences my comments but I ought to declare that I am a customer of RS and have had a credit account with them for many years. In practice I nearly always pay with a credit card as it's more convenient for me. I've never had an account with CPC/Farnell and deal with them as required. Since I trade under my own name CPC/Farnell would have no means of knowing whether I was a consumer or business)

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derrick

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #17 - Jun 30^th, 2014 at 12:27pm

Ian G wrote on Jun 27^th, 2014 at 12:11pm:

It seems they have little or no awareness of the new regulations which came into force two weeks ago.

The terms and conditions need to be updated to reflect the provisions detailed in all of these
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/made
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/made
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/870/made

Looks like the change of phone number is just a small part of what they need to do...

Sent them your links on Friday, got an "out of office" reply, received two emails this morning
@ 0830:-

"Thank you, I will forward to our Contact Centre Manager"

Then @ 1010:-

"I have been advised that our telephones have been ordered and that we awaiting them

Thanks"

Don't know why they need to "order telephones"? I have replied asking why and suggesting they either contact their Telco to change the 8 to a 3, or to just revert to their 01772 number which can be done in minutes on their website.

Just received a reply,

"Apologies, we have ordered new telephone numbers"

.

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« Last Edit: Jun 30^th, 2014 at 3:34pm by derrick »

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Ian G

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #18 - Jun 30^th, 2014 at 1:30pm

I guessed that "new telephones" was a typo for "new telephone numbers".

That's good to hear.

Keep an eye on how they describe the new numbers. Many sites have changed their numbers but forgotten to amend the pricing text.

The important point is that "calls to 03 numbers cost the same as calling 01 and 02 numbers and count towards inclusive allowances on landlines and mobiles".

I hope you advised them to swap the 8 over to a 3. Cheesy

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derrick

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #19 - Jun 30^th, 2014 at 3:30pm

Ian G wrote on Jun 30^th, 2014 at 1:30pm:

I guessed that "new telephones" was a typo for "new telephone numbers".

That's good to hear.

Keep an eye on how they describe the new numbers. Many sites have changed their numbers but forgotten to amend the pricing text.

The important point is that "calls to 03 numbers cost the same as calling 01 and 02 numbers and count towards inclusive allowances on landlines and mobiles".

I hope you advised them to swap the 8 over to a 3. Cheesy

Ye a typo is one thing, but to guess that they missed a complete word out and added the s to make a plural to telephone(s)?

As stated in my post above yours re 8 over to a 3: "suggesting they either contact their Telco to change the 8 to a 3,or to just revert to their 01772 number which can be done in minutes on their website."

From my email to them at 1310 today:-
"All it needs is a call to your telephone provider, (Telco), to change the number 8 to a 3, i.e 0844 to 0344, this should take no longer than 48 hours, or just revert to your 01772 number, the website can be done in minutes!"

.

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« Last Edit: Jun 30^th, 2014 at 3:33pm by derrick »

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derrick

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #20 - Jul 7^th, 2014 at 9:13am

I have just received a reply from CPC, (below), re an email I sent them on Friday asking why they still had the 0844 numbers on their website, now "due course" means nothing, any advice as to my next course of action as they are clearly in breach of the regulation?

Giving me the original number does not get away from the fact they are duping their other customers.

Thank you

As previously stated we are awaiting a new 01772 number to be allocated and this will be provided in due course, in the meanwhile you may use the original number I provided in my original response or the email address's I also provided.
We will still also continue to our 0844 number as this will be used by sales and technical service customers, we only need to provide an alternate number for customer service consumers.

Regards

.

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bigjohn

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #21 - Jul 8^th, 2014 at 2:31am

derrick wrote on Jul 7^th, 2014 at 9:13am:

We will still also continue to our 0844 number as this will be used by sales and technical service customers, we only need to provide an alternate number for customer service consumers.

Thats only ok provided it is a discrete service, and not one on which the caller is also expected to call to discuss problems with a purchase already made. Provided the trader makes it clear that it is a separate service for which a separate fee (paid for through the enhanced cost of the call) is payable and not one for post purchase problems.

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« Last Edit: Jul 8^th, 2014 at 2:34am by bigjohn »

BJ.

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derrick

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #22 - Aug 29^th, 2014 at 9:15am

I have just received a reply from Trading Standards,(see below), and it looks like no official body is going to protect the consumer re use of these 084 numbers.

Response:

I can confirm that Lancashire County Council Trading Standards Service received two referrals from the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline, further to your calls to the Helpline dated 9th July and 6th August, regarding the trading practices of CPC.

Regulation 41 of The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, does not create a criminal offence for failure to comply and therefore is not actionable by Trading Standards.

The Regulation creates rights for the consumer which entitles them to a refund of any costs incurred over and above the cost of calling a basic rate number should the business fail to comply with the requirement to provide a telephone line at the basic rate.

I can advise therefore that the information provided regarding CPC has been recorded but no further action has been taken at this time. However, the intelligence received will be considered and used when providing advice to Lancashire businesses in light of the changes to this legislation.

I trust the above is useful.

Yours Sincerely,

Miss P. *****

Access to Information Officer
Lancashire County Council

Email: freedomofinformation.gov.uk

.

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NGMsGhost Supreme Member Offline The Forum Ghost of NonGeographicalMan<b r /> Posts: 2,720 Surrey, United Kingdom Gender:	Re: CPC / Farnell Reply #23 - Jul 12^th, 2015 at 10:20am So therefore they need to be taken to the Small Claims Court for the consumer to win their case. And there need to be a number of precedent cases before the courts will presumably then start to get tough with them?
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CJT-80 Global Moderator Offline Posts: 1,714 Manchester Gender:	Re: CPC / Farnell Reply #24 - Jul 12^th, 2015 at 10:34am Interestingly all numbers except the accounts team and the fax numbers are now 034..... http://cpc.farnell.com/contact-us
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bigjohn Supreme Member Offline Posts: 2,316 Gender:	Re: CPC / Farnell Reply #25 - Jul 12^th, 2015 at 11:40am CJT-80 wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 10:34am: Interestingly all numbers except the accounts team and the fax numbers are now 034..... http://cpc.farnell.com/contact-us Replace 0844 with 0344 and they also give you 03 access.
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derrick Supreme Member Offline Posts: 1,124	Re: CPC / Farnell Reply #26 - Jul 13^th, 2015 at 8:31am CJT-80 wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 10:34am: Interestingly all numbers except the accounts team and the fax numbers are now 034..... http://cpc.farnell.com/contact-us And no call cost information for those 0844 numbers! .
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CJT-80 Global Moderator Offline Posts: 1,714 Manchester Gender:	Re: CPC / Farnell Reply #27 - Jul 13^th, 2015 at 6:29pm Feedback can be submitted here
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SilentCallsVictim

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #28 - Jul 14^th, 2015 at 12:26am

derrick wrote on Jul 13^th, 2015 at 8:31am:

… And no call cost information for those 0844 numbers!

We may need to remember that "Clear Call Rates for Everyone" only covers C2B contact (i.e. consumers contacting businesses - or other organisations).

If the "Accounts" service is only available to traders, then there is no obligation to declare the Service Charge, as telcos do not have to apply the "Access Charge + Service Charge" principle in their 'Business' tariffs.

It seems however that many of the telcos are applying the "unbundled" principle to thier Business tariffs (to avoid having two different approaches to worry about). In practice this means that Service Providers are best advised to adopt the principle of declaring the Service Charge on all their numbers, albeit that there could be Business Customers who could thereby be wrongly advised about cost of calling - so some form of qualification may be required.

It may also be that a Service Charge is easier to justify in a B2B context, than in C2B.

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@fairtelecoms (tweets)

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CJT-80

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Re: CPC / Farnell
Reply #29 - Jul 14^th, 2015 at 9:45am

bigjohn wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 11:40am:

CJT-80 wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 10:34am:

Interestingly all numbers except the accounts team and the fax numbers are now 034..... Huh

http://cpc.farnell.com/contact-us

Replace 0844 with 0344 and they also give you 03 access. Wink

Accounts (unless my eyes deceive me!) now appears to have an 03 number instead! I think that's what bigjohn was indicating, right?

So that just leaves the Fax numbers and I would assume that there are there discourage Fax spam.. after all in this day and age anything you can fax, you can scan and e-mail to them. Huh

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Regards,

CJT-80

Any comments made are my own and are not those of SayNoTo0870.com

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