Posts by Jason Crowley 10 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2008
126 million gets us a lobbist for the telecomms industry, paid for by us.We also get excessive TV regulation, far more than is wanted. The government generates income in selling of parts of the spectrum but we pay in the end.
The consumer just gets a raw deal.
For 126 million a year maybe someone could define "unlimited", enforce the code of practice they insisted upon in 2005? make them honour contract?
The other regulators manage it on far less of a budget.
"They have never been on the side of the public; they are institutionally inept and they impede development of new services." couldnt agree more!
£126 million for a regulator that enforces sweet FA, they will spend money on the survey, spend money talking about it, spend money woking out how to sell it off, and then do nothing else with it and blame another regulator / department.
Please can we have a new communications regulator, pretty please.
Chip and pin was meant to reduce the amount of fraud that the banks have to pay out for, it has achieved this aim.
Before the bank had to prove that I signed for it, if i hadnt signed then the bank refunded my money.
If my pin number is used then then I can be held liable, it will be up to me to prove it was fraud.
The banks have transferred much of the fraud risk from themselves to the consumer.
I was in the same boat as johnnytruant, 11 days into an 18 month contract they took my MMS away. I got told to **** off not a £10 discount for life :(
This was in Sept 2006, this is STILL with Othelo, the ADR scheme. Eventually I will have to take VF to the small claims court to get any compnesation. This really isnt worth the hassle.
Either pay the increase, or move to a less dishonest provider. Only a county court summons will help your arguement.
So is VM`s customer base really going up? Is there anyone left in the UK who hasnt been ripped off Virgin/NTL or are people gullible enough to go back for more? Why are there conflicting reports on the same site?
My internet speed was ok, or maybe everything else was SOO bad I was just glad it worked. Paying £92 a month for a deal advertised as "3 for £30" wasnt so good. Dealing with a compnay that refuses to honour its contract, code of practice or advertised price is a pain in the arse. VMs customer services are now done by a company called CISAS, best bit of the whole sorry experience really.
My electricity supply to my house is 230volt, but never lower than 216volts because OFGEN regulate it.
If everyone in my street runs a bath at the same time my water pressure will not drop below 1 bar because of OFWAT regulations. They dont tell me that because I live more than 2 miles from a reservoir it may take 8 hours to fill a bath and my combi boiler wont work due to low pressure.
My broadband is regulated by OFCOM, it can be whatever they want to give me. They can change it at any time, and can fail to provide it for extended periods and I have no right to complain. Its not rocket science, just a spineless regulator.
Ofcom`s consultation document issued July 2005 states that the following :-
“1.15 Communications providers must improve complaints handling procedures and
customer awareness of ADR procedures. Communications providers must
make customers aware of their complaints code of practice as soon as a
complaint is received and ensure that the codes are easily accessible, ideally
through the company website and/or on customer invoices.”
So no one is following Ofcoms guidelines, rather than enforce current guidelines, issue more guidelines and then fail to enforce these as well.
Its the same with codes of practice, Ofcom said they would enforce them with fines of up to 10% of profits, but failed to enforce them. Time for a new Code Of Practice! Maybe Ofcom can make the new one a "recommendation" rather than "mandatory" and avoid any responcibility for the diaster it will become.
Ofcoms guidelines state ISP have to advise that they have an ADR scheme and who it is and how to contact them. As anonymous crowd has already mentioned, Virgin Media and Vodafone have both refused to admit they have a ADR scheme and refuse to give me the name. I write to Ofcom everytime it happens, and as usual Ofcom says "we dont deal with individual complaints".
Yes there is a problem, and once again it is Ofcom to blame.
I was going to have a rant about how Ofcom have failed to enforce the previous codes of practice, but 50 other people have beaten me to it.
Codes of Practice are only enforceable by the regulator, unfortunately thats Ofcom so nothing happens. The consumer cannot take legal action when the ISPs breach this code, so effectively it is worthless. Even more so as this one is voluntary.
Anyway please sign this 10 Downingstreet Petition to scrap these unenforceable codes
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ScrapOfcomcodes/
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