Posted by Paul Foster on June 24, 2008, 6:10 pm Paul Foster
Hi All.
Has anybody had any dealings with this company? They are the 'corporate' side of 118118. I recently signed with them on the understanding that my business would be the 'preferred' referal when someone asked for a local garage. (Rotherham, in my case)
A couple of months after we went 'live' a regular customer mentioned that they had asked for my business BY NAME and 118118 had no record of my business! I rang up pretending to be a customer and, sure enough, no record of my number or business name.
Not only that but when I asked for a local garage I was given the number of a guy who used to work for me; left to set up his own garage and had subsequently closed down!
When I rang 118118 customer services (an oxymoron in this case) I was informed that my garage was on a rotor with other garages in the area AND I was only the 'preferred' garage in a few areas within Rotherham, not Rotherham itself. I pointed out that this was not what I signed up for and I wouldn't have gone ahead if that had been explained properly as I didn't want to be associated with some of the garages on the 'rotor'. I also pointed out that they had proved unable to supply my number even when asked for by my business' name.
After putting my concerns in writing (and cancelling the D/D), including a demand for re-imbursement of the deposit/payments I had already paid, I recieved a call (God knows where they got the number) to say my concerns were being addressed.
I have just recieved a letter demanding payment in full for the full contract or legal proceedings will follow! Another call to them resulted in me being told that there is no'cancellation' policy in the contract but they were prepared to negotiate a 'settlement to enable a return on my investment'! I told them that I do have a cancellation policy and to expect to hear from my solicitor.
My solicitor now has the various correspondence including an invoice for the wasted time spent on the phone and writing letters. (I'm posting this free of charge!)
I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has had any dealings with this company as I'm passing the details to trading standards. I bet I'm not the only one fooled by their sales technique. I suppose I should have known it was to good to be true.
Sorry for the long post. Paul.
Re: 118118/Media Sharp pratice?
Posted by Steven Humphreys on June 25, 2008, 10:42 pm, in reply to "118118/Media Sharp pratice?" Steven Humphreys
Ne te confundant illegitimi Don't things like this make you sick.As if there isn,t enough going on in your head on a day to day basis.Stick it to them Paul tell them to shove it where the sun don't shine. Good luck!
I had the very same problem with Talking Pages many years ago. I told them to shove it and take me to court. I contacted my solicitor he told me that any agreement has a cooling off period can't remember what period was at the time but I never heard anything after that.
Had a similar experience with TalkTalk earlier this year. Agreed a deal for broadband/land lines and ended up in a 3 yr contract.Demanded voice recordings of all conversations with them, i recieved all but the original conversation and too cut a long story short i got them on the cooling off period as i had not recieved a welcome pack and was able to cancel everything with them. Lifes hard enough without these sharks tucking you up . My advice , stick to your guns.
Had a vist from this company today, talk about hard sell! End of the day, he wanted £1200 ish for a year of various call referals. Politely told him to get lost, had to resort to showing him this thread to actually get rid.
Might want to remove or edit it in case he goes back to his boss crying.
This is exactly why I posted in the first place! I'm glad I was able to give you a 'heads up' before they had a chance to reel you in.
I'm glad you did show him this thread. I hope he does go bleating to his manager!
I haven't said anything that isn't true or accurate and I haven't directly told anyone not to deal with 118118 so I stand by my original post.
Oddly enough I had a call the other day from the 'Regional Sales Manager' who said he had only just become aware of my problem and wanted to see what he could do to resolve the situation. I politely told him to speak to my solicitor who will be in touch.
I suspect they have already had a letter and he was 'testing the water' to see if I can be placated.
Well done Paul for standing by your guns. I would do the same. Thank you for posting about your experiences in the first place.
There was no way I was ever going to write a cheque for something as intangible as that. These guys spend a lot of time preparing their spiel. They target what they think we want, who we want to compete with, what they think we need and what they think worries us. If they behaved like this towards vulnerable people I am sure they would be on Watchdog by now.
If this system was any good, all they need to do is give us a month free. After that, if the spiel is to be belived, we would be begging to pay for more.
) to say my concerns were being addressed.