Our Onetel hell goes on

By MICHAEL CLARKE
Updated:

 

CUSTOMERS of telecoms company Onetel are still bombarding This is Money with complaints – one year after the company promised to get its act together.

This time last year we exposed stories of bullying and flawed administration suffered by customers at the company after Brian and Gill Barnes were harassed by debt collectors when they tried to cancel a Onetel broadband package that didn't work.

Their case led to hundreds of customers flooding our email inbox with similar tales of incompetence. Onetel was taken aback by the response and promised change. At the time, a spokeswoman told us : 'I'm shocked by the level of complaints you have received and we will look into each of them individually.'

However, little appears to have changed, despite the fact it is now owned by Carphone Warehouse. Customer Louise Marshall found herself with a black mark on her credit record after she tried to cancel her Onetel account. The personal assistant asked the company to close the account as she was going to work in Dubai. Although Onetel confirmed that the balance was nil, four months after she left for Dubai, it sent her a bill for £1.

She says: 'Obviously I didn't get the bills because I was overseas but they kept sending reminders which incurred penalties. My credit rating has been affected by a pathetic debt that I was completely unaware of.'

Onetel finally admitted the mistake, but the damage to Louise's credit record has prevented her from being able to remortgage a property. She adds: 'I asked Onetel for a letter of responsibility for the mess they created and the impact on my credit history. I was advised it was not company policy to send letters out!'

Andrew Fisher, from Warrington, Cheshire, has also been threatened by debt collectors after trying to close his account. Despite several efforts to terminate it, he is still being charged by Ontel and it has issued him with a final demand for payment.

He said: 'Why have I ended up in this situation? I now risk having my perfect credit record ruined over a minor debt that I do not owe. To make matters worse, I must have racked up about £15 in phone calls to their contact centre over the last few months.'

Michael Healey and his wife Helen weren't chased by Onetel for payment - they were simply left without broadband and the ability to make outgoing calls for a month. Michael, from Gloucester, said: 'Despite numerous phone calls to various departments the problem isn't rectified and we have no idea when it will be.

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'Furthermore, countless promises of return phone calls have failed to materialise. The customer service operators seem to flounder when a call goes 'off script'. I want a refund for calls I have had to make through my mobile.'

Business customers using Onetel have also suffered. Helana and William Watson run a recruitment firm in London and were left without access to their business emails for more than a week. Helana said: 'Emails from clients were being bounced back and it looks completely unprofessional. We are also unable to receive emails from potential candidates. We called the call centre several times but nobody really appeared to know what was going on, or was prepared to look into the case.'

The couple eventually switched to a different provider after weeks of trying to get the situation resolved.

Onetel insisted it has made a number of changes to improve its service particularly regarding disconnections and billing. A spokesman said: 'We have focused on a number of initiatives over the last twelve months in direct response to the issues raised last year.

'This has been in conjunction with our continued business focus on reviewing how we can improve the level of service we deliver to our customers.

'During this time, we have seen a month-on-month upward trend in our customer satisfaction and a continued downward trend in complaints received. We were pleased to come third out of twelve providers for billing accuracy in the recent TopComm quality of service review overseen by Ofcom.'

The company added that it has been working with customers to improve communication once an account has been closed, including raising their awareness regarding 'residual' calls - the calls that may come in after their cancellation request, and ensuring that all payments have been made before direct debits are cancelled.

Tell us your Onetel story below in Reader Comments and please send on the link to get other Onetel customers involved. (We only need your name and email for verification - we won't use them for anything).

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