'Slamming’ is the most severe form of mis-selling. It's when your service is transferred to a new phone company without your knowledge or consent.
Examples of slamming:
- Your service is transferred to a new phone company without you being contacted
- You were contacted but gave no permission - for example, you are asked to agree "for more information about their package" and then your agreement is used to transfer your service
- You agreed to a different product or service
- You wanted a new service, but were deliberately misled about the identity of the company you were making an agreement with - for example you were led to believe you were speaking with BT when it was a different company
Other mis-selling:
Apart from slamming, there are other forms of mis-selling that primarily involve mis-representation (for example if you are misled as to the relationship between the “new” telephone company and BT) or pressurised selling.
- You've been given misleading company information - for example you are told that "BT has sold its customers" to the new company, or that "Ofcom has ordered BT to transfer its customers" to them
- You've been pressurised, either over the phone or on your doorstep, into transferring your service
- You've had to agree to the service just to get information - for example you've been told that, to get information about its services, you have to transfer your calls or your calls and line rental and then cancel the new service if you don’t want it
The action you can take depends on the type of mis-selling you have experienced and when it happened. It is also important to tell Ofcom of your experience as such reports help Ofcom tackle slamming/mis-selling. Although they cannot investigate individual cases your complaints can lead them to launch investigations and ultimately to take action against companies found to be mis-selling. You can contact Ofcom online at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/how-to-report-a-complaint/changing-provider or by calling 020 7981 3040 between 9am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday.