The Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Social Justice, Peter Black, has welcomed a commitment from Ofcom to stage a formal review into problems in the 'mobile retail sector' in order to decide whether formal regulation is needed to provide sufficient protection for consumers.
Mr Black wrote to the Department of Trade and Industry in December following a campaign by the consumer magazine 'Which?' which argued for the banning of cashback deals. These deals offer to repay part of all of the line rental to a customer as an incentive to take out a mobile phone contract. Ofcom has been receiving hundreds of complaints every month on this issue as many customers have been finding it difficult to get companies offering these deals to honour them.
"I am glad to see that this is an issue that Ofcom are taking seriously." said Mr Black. "We must review the way in which companies selling mobile phones are allowed to operate and ensure that there is transparency and fairness in the deals that they offer. I also welcome Ofcom's recognition that the response by operators to these concerns has so far been insufficient. The networks can no longer be allowed to simply blame retailers and must take responsibility for those selling on their behalf."
"I have asked Ofcom to include other issues in their review. These include providing clarity on extras included in contracts such as 'free Mobile TV' and 'free Insurance' which are time limited deals. However it is often the case that consumers are not told that they have to cancel these deals within that time or they will be charged."
"I also would like to see all phone calls between customer and retailer recorded. My bank is able to record all phone calls to all departments, why is my network not able to record all calls that to relate to sales? When a customer is unhappy with details of their contract and claim they were mis sold, it seems that the only protection they have is the salesman's own notes. Given that these are people who work on commission, there is no incentive for these notes to be accurate. This is something that often happens through the networks themselves, not just through independent retailers."
