From:    donotreply@3mail.com <donotreply@3mail.com>
Date:    31 August 2006 00:20
Subject: Re: Feedback from Hutchison 3G web site - Category: General

WITH REFERENCE TO YOUR EMAIL TO THE 3 CONTACT CENTRE

If your request is really urgent, phone us on 333 free from your mobile or 08707 330 333 from any phone.(calls are charged at a standard rate).

If you need information relating to your bill, please use My 3 on your handset or visit (www.three.co.uk/my3).

We're doing all we can to resolve the issues and will aim to respond within 5 working days . In the meantime we're very sorry for the inconvenience.

From the team at 3

Further to my previous email I have spoken to our marketing department who have advised they are fully aware of the situation with Ofcom and are in the process of getting this information added but due to technical problems with our website and brochure printers this will not take effect fully until the end of next week 08/09/06. We are fully aware that this should have come into effect on 19/08/06 but technical problems have made this impossible.

Again thank you for your interest and time in the matter and I can assure you it is being dealt with by the company and all regulations are being complied to. If you have any further comments on this matter please forward them in writing to the below address

Regards
Katy Andrews

Thank you for contacting O2 Customer Service.

I am sorry you feel our website does not display equal prominence.

I understand your concerns, however before a customer makes a purchase it is their responsibility to read any Terms and Conditions and any Small Print before an order is placed.

The information is available to read freely on the website.  As we have so many different Service Providers within O2 we cannot show all of the information on the same page.

Different companies have different charges in place for calling their 08 numbers, hence why we cannot show direct charges for all 08 numbers.

The Small Print contains the below information:

Inclusive call minutes can be used to call some non-geographical and special services numbers with the following prefixes: 0800, 0808, 0844, 0845 and 0870. Once the inclusive minute allowance has been used up, calls to these numbers will be charged as calls to standard UK landlines at the prevailing tariff. Some exceptions may apply and calls to some numbers may be free of charge.

I am sorry if you feel that the information is not in the correct place.  O2 do provide this information and it is the customers responsibility to read this information.

I trust this has clarified matters concerning your complaint, however if I can be of any further assistance about this matter, please reply to this email.

Important - Please make sure that every time you contact us you include the following information: Your Date of Birth, Postcode, Mobile Number.


Kind regards,

Kerry Andrew
O2 Customer Service.

Thank you for contacting O2 Customer Service.

I am sorry but we provide equal prominence to the information provided on our website. We also comply with the telecom regulatory bodies.

If you want to complain in writing, please post your written complaint to:

Complaints Review Service
PO Box 116
Leeds
LS11 5DS.

Our team will review your complaint and contact you within 5 working days.

I have also forwarded your complain to the relevant department. They will contact you soon.

If you need further information about this matter, please reply to this email. For further details about O2, please visit our online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

Important - Please make sure that every time you contact us you include the following information: Your Date of Birth, Postcode, Mobile Number.

Kind regards,

Navneet Kumar
O2 Customer Service.

Thank you for your enquiry, which will be reviewed by one of our customer service advisors shortly.

We will endeavour to respond to all enquiries within 24 hours (Monday to Friday).

Please note that if your enquiry is complex, further investigation may be required and it may take 10 working days to respond fully.

Thank You.

Customer Services
Post Office Ltd.

Thank you for your e-mail dated 4 September 2006.

We will contact you again shortly.

Yours sincerely,

Web-Enabled Response Team
Telewest Broadband

Thanks for your email about the regulations with Ofcom. I'm sorry I've taken a while to get back to you.
We do actually have a booklet of the non standard charges, if you reply with your mobile number I'll send you one out for you.

These charges are listed on the website. Go to www.t-mobile.co.uk click on phones & plans - price plans - special number charges, and you'll see the following information:

These are specific charges for calls to certain types of number, as shown below. All these charges are for a direct-dial voice call (except where specified otherwise), in pence per minute.

(*....continues with list of calls to all 'specialist' numbers including 0845/0870 numbers....*)

Own-initiative enforcement programme into compliance with General Condition 14.2 ("GC14.2")

[…]

In this investigation, Ofcom has assessed the steps taken by the largest providers serving residential and small business customers to ensure compliance with GC14.2. Ofcom has required information from the following eleven OCPs:

Fixed providers

• BT
• Virgin Media
• Carphone Warehouse
• Pipex Homecall
• Post Office

Mobile Providers

• 3
• O2
• Orange
• T-mobile
• Vodafone
• Virgin Mobile

PRS Codes

Annex 1 of GC14 sets out the Guidelines for codes of practice for handling customer enquiries and complaints about Premium Rate Services. Section 3 of the guidelines lists the information which OCPs should ensure is available to their customers in relation to PRS calls. All eleven OCPs assessed by Ofcom had PRS codes in place which were available on their websites and in hard copy, on request. Ofcom’s view is that the assessed codes are consistent with the guidelines and therefore appear to be compliant with GC14.2.

NTS Codes

Annex 2 of GC14 sets out the Guidelines for codes of practice for the publication of prices of calls to Number Translation Services.

These guidelines require that OCPs publish usage charges for NTS calls on websites and in published price lists in a way that gives the NTS call charges the same prominence in terms of location and format as given to charges for geographic calls, calls to mobiles and call packages.

The guidelines also require OCPs to publish, in their advertising and promotional material which refer to call pricing, the maximum charge for calls to NTS numbers and a clear reference to where customers can find the complete set of NTS charges and to make this information available to any new customers.

Having reviewed the Codes provided by the OCPs listed above, Ofcom identified some gaps in relation to the specific requirements of the guidelines. Most notably, a number of the OCPs had not included within their codes a commitment in relation to NTS call charge information provided in advertising and promotional material (as set out in Section 4 of the guidelines). As such, Ofcom asked those OCPs to amend their codes to ensure they were fully consistent with the requirements set out in the guidelines.

Ofcom has now received commitments from those OCPs regarding amendment of their codes to make them compliant with GC14.2

Full text here