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T-Mobile is clamping down on customers downgrading to less-costly tariffs until late in their contracts, which should help keep revenue levels up and prevent mis-selling.
The latest rules state that customers can only downgrade when they are in month 11 of their contract, rather than month six.
The move follows 3 and Orange, which both made it more difficult to downgrade tariffs, to stop customers being sold higher tariffs than they needed.
The networks' downgrading policies have also been stepped up because of the loss of revenue when dealers have been paid a commission for selling a higher tariff, despite the customer not being on this tariff for the duration of their contract. One network source said: 'Networks have been forced to act. The only reason the dealers are saying “buy this tariff” is because they get paid better commission for it.'
Orange has said it changed its rules in December as it didn't want its customers to be 'mislead into changing their tariff for the sole benefit of the third-party company advising them to do so'. 'We introduced these changes to ensure that customers are offered the most appropriate tariffs to match their needs,' an Orange spokeswoman said. Customers on Orange are only allowed to downgrade to the next price plan and can only do so halfway through a contract.
T-Mobile said customers had to wait until month 11 to downgrade until Flext was introduced in 2006. 'We made an exception at the launch of Flext, because there was a great demand for T-Mobile customers wanting to migrate to Flext. We kept that arrangement until 1 May to make sure everybody was covered. Flext launched about a year ago, so there has been sufficient time for customers to make that move if they want to.'
Distributor Hugh Symons has welcomed the networks' tighter rules. Business manager Bob Sweetlove said: 'I guess it's all related to protection against dealers who are structuring deals and advising customers to downgrade at certain points.'
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Posted: 2007-05-31 13:43:40
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