Have you ever
signed up to a new phone package at an unbeatable price only to find that when
the first phone bill drops onto the mat, the price is simply not anywhere near
what you thought you were going to be paying? Welcome to the world of bill
shock.
Who is Bill Shock?
No it's not a late
night comedian. Far from it. Bill shock is traditionally associated with
hundreds of pounds worth roaming charges being applied to your mobile bill when
you return home from your family trip to Florida (Fortunately that’s less
likely to happen now with the new EU roaming regulations where the concept of
roaming has been essentially eradicated). However, a different kind of bill
shock is the one where we get suckered into the headline rate of a phone deal,
only to find the price on the bill is higher (It's never lower is it? Funny
that).
Unlimited internet,
calls, money and hugs for 99p per month for life
We’ve all seen
them. And we always buy into them. However, the devil is in the detail and you
can bet your bottom dollar that weaning your way through the small print will
reveal a myriad of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ (aka clauses) that means the final price on
your bill is most probably going to change. It might not change today, or
tomorrow, but it will.
We’ve seen the classic
broadband for £1 per month for the first year (then £45
per month thereafter minimum contract term 3 years). It’s a practice
that is absolutely rife in the industry and how trading standards hasn’t picked
up on it heaven knows (actually, I do know, most telcos are run off state owned
networks). I regularly speak to customers that say ‘yeah, but company X is
offering me 1 million calls for 99p a year. Beat that.’ and sure as eggs are
eggs, they’ll call us back a few weeks later complaining that they are getting
ripped off and want to move to buzzbox. Of course, they can’t do that, they
signed the bullet proof 5 year contract that (unfortunately) you will find
almost impossible to get out of (you can pay an early termination charge but
that’s equally as painful). I can hear them whimpering down the phone as I hang
up the call.
Without blowing our
own trumpet, we literally have our customers ringing us up shocked, saying ‘wow,
when you said it was £5 a month, I couldn’t believe it actually said £5 on the
bill’. That’s not right – you don’t go to Tesco’s and find they’ve added 20% to
the final bill for ‘trolley rental’, ‘fast track queue’ and ‘in-date products’
but it’s absolutely standard in the telecoms world. One customer was paying
£100 a month for ‘handset rental’ and you should have seen the 15 year old,
spittle coated crumb encrusted relics they were ‘renting’. The old adage is
true, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Keep in mind that
wholesale line rental prices hover around the £11 mark no matter who you are,
so if someone is offering line rental at 50p a month, they will be sure as
damned making the difference up later in the contract.
Where is this going?
OK Stu, you’ve had
a good rant, where are you going with this? The long and short of it is change –
and it has to start with us. We need ask the telcos exactly what we are going
to be paying – record the call if you can – if they quote a price and you tell
them you’re recording them, it would stand up legally if you had to take it
further when they start billing you more. Secondly, we need industry change,
and it probably has to go via OFCOM (they’re pretty sympathetic to this plight
but things move slowly over there). And finally - stay sharp and be safe.
Comments