I have had someone elses line cease put onto my account - help

[#1]

I have Plusnet phone & ADSL

I have not made any 'cease' or transfer request to another provider

Plusnet are still taking their due fees, the line still works voice & data, and the Plusnet fixed IP address is still mine.

However Plusnet also think they have executed the cease, and want me to cancel my account.  Also the free Plus-Plus phone calls are now being charged to other Plus customers

Staff please look at ticket 192739248 where my reply is outstanding after a week

[#2]

Hi @wcw

Thanks for getting in touch and I am sorry if you have received some confusing communications.

Having looked through your account I can see that we sent an email to you on 19/07/2019 explaining that we had received communications from another supplier, stating they were taking over your telephone service. You can view this here

What this means is your telephone service is working, however it is being provided by a different supplier called Millennium Talk. Your Plusnet broadband is still active and working as it should but currently someone else is providing your telephone services. Have you been contacted by anyone over the summer months discussing your telephone services at all? This situation is called being 'slammed' when a supplier takes over your services without your knowledge, consent or using scrupulous tactics on the call to mislead you to agreeing to the transfer.

The solution to this would be to place an order to transfer your telephone service back to ourselves, this would take around 10 working days to process, I have sent you a ticket via your account, if you could respond to the ticket here confirming if you would like us to begin the process of transferring your services back to us.

[#3]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.  I have had no discussions with anything called 'Millenium Talk', who appear to be a business phone provider, not residential. I have not had any billing attempts and Plusnet were charging me for calls up to at least 2 August.

Doing a bit more digging on 'Millenium Talk' who are well known account slamming fraudsters and also the  same addresses as 'Met Technologies',  'Zoom Telecom' and 'Guaranteed Telecom' who are also well known account slamming fraudsters.

https://www.metplustelecomscam.co.uk/

I have had 'previous' with 'Guaranteed Telecom' a couple of years back when they attempted to activate a direct debit for call barring using personal details stolen from my former BT account.

This was reported as slamming fraud to OFCOM (= wet blankets) and to the British Banking Association (= rottweilers) who did go after them over their Direct Debit claims.  At one point they offered £50 if I called off the BBA - I did not.

How could I recover the advance line rental position with Plusnet ?

I note that OFCOM require both providers to send letters stating the proposed transfer.  Did Plusnet send the required letter or just the email to which you refer ?

[#4]

Hi @wcw

Thanks for getting back in touch and I am sorry to hear that you have had similar dealings previously.

Regarding the Line Rental Saver side of your account this is lost when your phone services cease with us and move to another supplier. That being said once your phone service switches back to Plusnet I would arrange discounts to ensure that you do not pay for the remainder of the period that you had paid for the line rental saver.

Can you confirm if you received any notification from the other supplier regarding taking over your telephone service? As we are a paperless company we may send these communications via email, which was sent to you on 19/07 linked in the earlier post.

If you would like me to begin the process of resuming your phone service with Plusnet please respond to the ticket on your account and I will place the required orders.

[#5]

Hi,

I can confirm that i have not received any communications from 'Millenium Talk', although it seems that this is their modus operandi, so you get 3 months in before realising what is going on.

Would it be prudent to send them a legal letter before Plusnet start the retransfer process ?

I was thinking 'Rejection of fraudulent transfer'.....'Plusnet will now recover my service and you are not authorised to charge or resist' ............ 'All correspondence will be copied to OFCOM, ICO and BBA for further action'

[#6]

Hi @wcw

I'd leave that decision entirely up to you to decide if you want to contact them. My only thought is that if this has been set up without reasonable communication with yourself then there is no guarantee that they will have your name on record for the new service. Be that as it may, it may be worth giving them due notice that this will be taken as seriously as you wish if it came to it.

What I would say is once you have taken the next steps, send a response to the ticket on your account advising you wish for us to bring the service back. After doing so send a quick notification on this thread and we will ensure that the orders are placed as quickly as possible.

[#7]

I will do that, as soon as i get the read reciept to the email you will be notified and the ticket actioned.

My intention is to complain in such a way as to make them divulge what personal data they hold (ie the stolen BT records) , whereupon they have a big data protection problem with ICO, having been told to cease all data processing last time.

[#8]

Hi @wcw

That's not a problem and I might add it sounds like a sensible approach to this.

Just let me know when you're ready and we will get this all corrected for you.

[#9]

I'd never heard of this company, and a quick Google search has this at the top of their list: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4955211

It looks like they don't have their own website; it just refers to MET Technologies Limited, which in turn is one of CHESS LIMITED'S 28 (yes, twenty-eight! if I counted correctly) subsidiaries.

The moneysavingexpert link is from 2014 so it would appear they've been scamming for quite some time.

Companies that hide behind a complicated structure are usually not easy to deal with when things go wrong (two is difficult enough, i.e. BT and PN).

[#10]

The following email has been sent (personal data redacted)

I will post the updates 🙂

FORMAL NOTICE REJECTING FRAUDULENT LINE TRANSFER (SLAMMING)

You have taken over my line 01*********3 without permission and without a contract (slamming).  This is both fradulent and specifically contrary to OFCOM regulations.

You failed to provide notice of the line takeover as required by OFCOM regualtions.

Any further discussion shall only be in writing (letter or email) for evidential purposes, and may be shared with appropriate regulators. 

No verbal discussions will be accepted, do not call me.

Any calls from you will be considered as harassment.

The line will be reclaimed by my supplier Plusnet

You shall not obstruct the recovery transfer to Plusnet

You shall not attempt to collect payment for any activities without a contract.  You are owed nothing without a valid contract.

In accordance with CIFAS guidelines, I claim the following compensation:

*    £40 for moderate inconvenience (to date, final claim dependent on your compliance with this notice)

*    £10 for costs of phone calls to me from others that would otherwise have been included in my contract with Plusnet (to date, final claim dependent upon any further delays in returning my line to Plusnet)

The email address provided is solely for processing of this complaint, data shall not be retained

[#11]

Thanks for getting back to us @wcw

I can see Warwick created a ticket on your account regarding the next steps with regards to bringing the landline back to us.

If you can respond to the ticket here and then post back once you've done so we'll get that picked up

[#12]

I will, just waiting for the read receipt to come in from the miscreants.

Their 24-7 support does not work weekends...although whether that is UK weekends or Bengali ones I do not know.

[#13]

Both emails read by MilleniumTalk and Met Technologies.

Same read receipt address though - *****@milleniumtalk.co.uk

No reply yet

PlusNet now requested to recover the line on ticket.

[#14]

Thanks for getting back to us @wcw 

I've now started the transfer of your phone line back to Plusnet.

We'll provide an update on this within the next 24 to 48 hours.

[#15]

A final update.  

Zoom Telecom send an invoice after 3 months (which I rejected as a complaint)

With no reply and unsure of who to complain about through dispute resolution I had to ask OFCOM

OFCOM confirmed that the line was taken by Met Technologies

Complaint submitted through CEDR/CISAS

Met initially demanded £37 in charges and £200 cancellation fee, then reduced to £100, then to zero cancellation.  I rejected each time.

Case went to adjudication as Met did not supply a defence.

Adjudicated in my favour, £40 compensation and no charges to pay.  Not got the cheque yet though .....

OFCOM have also launched an investigation into Met/Zoom/Guaranteed Telecom for slamming.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/bulletins/competition-bulletins/open-cases/cw_01250

Sadly Met have now put me back on their 'phishing dialling list'.