Cellphone king gets his lines crossed

Sep 7 2008 Additional Reporting By Jane Barrie

Cold Callers Sign Up Readers To Unwanted Mobile Deals

MEET Paul Kopec, director of a Scots mobile phone firm whose sales staff seem to have trouble remembering who they work for.

At least that's what my readers are queueing up to tell me.

Furious customers of T-Mobile are suddenly finding themselves landed with new contracts from Kopec's t3 Direct.

They claim t3 cold call them when their contracts are due for renewal and try to pass themselves off as being from T-Mobile.

It's either that or they appear to know somuch about their account, readers believe they are dealing with their existing provider.

Others say they are sold contracts against their will, a process known as slamming.

Trading Standards are investigating and T-Mobile are considering legal action to protect their name.

Melanie Sinclair says she was "conned" into taking out a new contract by t3 after they claimed they were T-Mobile.

Linda Soper's T-Mobile contract has six months to run but she finds herself with two deals.

Paola Scarpini was left with two contracts and a £90 cancellation fee after t3 sold her a package without being upfront about charges.

Bartholomew Simpson thought he was upgrading hisT-Mobile handset but was sold a t3 contract.

Bartholomew, 38, said: "I feel like I have been totally ripped off.

I thought I was dealing with TMobile.

I'd never even heard of t3.

Something has to be done."

He received a call on his mobile from t3 last month. They told him he was due an upgrade which was £10 cheaper and gave free calls.

He said: "I agreed to the upgrade thinking I was dealing with T-Mobile as they would have known an upgrade was pending."

But alarm bells started to ring when he received an old-style mobile in the post from t3.

He phoned T-Mobile who said they had an ongoing dispute with t3 and that the phone he had was a downgrade, not an upgrade. He got on to t3 to complain but had to hold for 48 minutes.

Bartholomew, of Basildon, Essex, said: "The girl I spoke to was very rude and demanded to know why I wanted to cancel."

He returned the phone within seven days by recorded delivery but has heard nothing from t3.

College lecturer Melanie Sinclair was called by t3 as her T-Mobile contract came up for renewal.

Melanie, 35, of Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, said: "t3 said they were T-Mobile on the phone so I didn't think anything of renewing the contract." But when the phone arrived it was on the 3 network and she had a totally separate contract.

Melanie said: "I phoned t3 and had to wait an hour to get through.

"The person I spoke to said I could not send the phone back then put the phone down on me."

Melanie now has a bill from 3 for £25, her first month's line rental, despite returning the phone.

She said: "It cost me £7 to post it. This is a big con and I want to warn others about it."

Kopec, 32, is a director of three firms, Tigercom UK, Helios Outsourcing (UK) and Voicestream Ltd, which trades as t3 Direct.

T-Mobile said: "We have no relationship with t3 Direct and are taking legal advice to ensure the firm refrain from taking any false advantage by using our corporate name with consumers."

Last night 3 admitted they had a trading relationship with t3 and were investigating the claims.

They said: "We take allegations of slamming extremely seriously."

When I got on to t3 they claimed that three of my readers had already had their contracts cancelled at no cost after returning their phones.

They would cancel the fourth if the phone was returned unused within seven working days.

They added: "We would also like to offer the customers a full refund of any postage and packaging cost."

If they don't keep their word I'll be straight back on the blower.