Unsatisfactory suppliers and some Really Bad Suppliers!

Revolution Telecoms (Big problems during July / August 2009 - but more complaints during 2011)

e4b Electricity (Went into Administration in Oct 2008)

Royal Mail. 16 April 2010: Well their website is useless. A few weeks ago I tried to check about the price rise that I had heard about in the news. Couldn't find anything about it at all on their website. Today, I go into the post office and I find out that the prices have gone up and we have been putting the wrong stamps on the mail.
And even today their website is only half updated, for example - on their question and answer page is still refers to their 2009 tarrif (although the link does not work).
Privatisation is the only answer.

Revolution Telecoms March 2011 - An email received from another unhappy 'RT' Prospect (name supplied but witheld on request) : Hi there, I just had a phone call from Revolution Telecom trying to sell me their services. I have heard of a few of these phone scams and so told the girl I wasn’t interested and hung up. I then googled them and found your site. After a quick read, I found this passage that Alfie Cleaver wrote to you:
“We have tried over the last 18 months to counter act this issue and whilst we have made significant progress we have decided the best way to rid the situation completely is to remove all tele-sales agents and replace them with field sales agents. We have started this process in August by downsizing our tele-sales team and now run field sales only.”
Blatantly this is a lie, as they just cold-called me, despite being on the TPS. Just thought you might like to know.
Feel free to post this on your site on condition that I have anonymity. I don’t want any more calls from these shysters!
So it seems that Revolutions Telecom management cannot be trusted at all.

Revolution Telecoms Feb 2011: Mr Alfie cleaver has phoned and emailed me to say the following:

"Dear Leisure Building Specialists
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me earlier this afternoon regarding your website described "bad supplier campaign".
I thought it would be a good idea to phone you and see if we could discuss the possibility of having our name and article removed from your site.
As you are probably aware, advertising and in particular websites, are a big way to reach potential customers who would like to research your business before any dealings with that company. As your website highlights us and is currently in position two of standings when Revolution Telecoms is 'googled' this is having a detrimental effect on future business.
I understand the problems that you have encountered during your brief time with us, miss selling being a major. We have tried over the last 18 months to counter act this issue and whilst we have made significant progress we have decided the best way to rid the situation completely is to remove all tele-sales agents and replace them with field sales agents. We have started this process in August by downsizing our tele-sales team and now run field sales only.
The reason for a field sales based only team is to completely eradicate the issue of miss selling whereas we require the signature of the customer and we both keep copies of the terms and conditions and price agreement.
We have reduced any contract term from 36 months to 12 months, therefore giving the customer more freedom and also making sure we give the best quality service in that time to ensure customer retention.
We have recently moved into a retail shop where we offer any of our customer the oppurtunity to come in and discuss there needs, any problems or any additional services they require. We are the only land line telecoms provider to do this in the UK.
We know we have made mistakes and have tried our best to rectify them. We are not a big corporate company, we have just learnt by our errors and have now implemented the best ways we see fit to make sure these things do not continue to happen.
Your view would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Alfie Cleaver
Director"

So I am now asking again, if any other people/businesses have recently had a bad experience with Revolutions Telecom, please do get in touch with us. If I do not get any response in the next 6 months, then I will revise my position regarding their company.

Revolution Telecoms July 2009: Well this bunch of fast talking liars are cold calling businesses (That is in breach of the law, since we are registered with the telephone preference service). Revolution Telecoms are then saying that they are 'In partnership with BT Openreach' (or something very similar). We are using BT for our phones, so we take the call and listen to their dreadful sales pitch. Of course, they have no special tie up with BT, but they just want to do their unlawful sales pitch and to get us into a long contract. They then go through a very dodgy part of the sales routine which involves asking if you want a brochure and then passing us onto some other fast talking person who took down some details and ends up by using the phrase 'verbal contract'. At that stage we hung up on them. Someone then called back and said that the salesperson had made a mistake. We said we didn't want to deal with them.
It is clear that the DTI or someone should close down Revolution Telecoms, but don't hold your breath.
(Please note that there is also an Australian company called Revolution Telecom which we think is unconnected.)

Our advice: Avoid Revolution Telecoms Ltd (website: Revolution Telecoms) and definitely avoid paying them for anything in advance, since I believe that they will eventually go to the wall and leave many customers and suppliers with irrecoverable losses.

Update (25th August) - Revolution Telecoms - Well these crooks have now taken over most of our 5 lines from BT, without any consent from us (It is called "slamming"). We received a letter and invoice from Revolution Telecoms on Sat 22nd of August, but I wasn't in the office until Tuesday 25th, so the transfer was completed before I knew anything about it. I have filed a complaint with Offcom and with Revolution Telecoms, and asked BT to take us back. Clearly my 'bad feeling' about this Revolution Telecoms business was justified. It seems that they will do anything to get customers and hence are well on their way to a really bad reputation. Among all of the bad things is a 'tie in' period that is 3 years (according to the back of their really amatuerish invoice). I phoned their offices to complain. In addition, I asked for the name of their directors. I was given one name: Amy Green. The person dealing with my complaint agreed to call me back within 30 mins. They didn't call me back, so I called again and was told that it would take a day to retrieve and listen to my "agreement". I asked about directors again and was told that Alfie Cleaver is also a director. Later on they rang back to say that they couldn't accept my verbal complaint. It had to be a complaint in writing. I told them that they were crooks. Immediately, Mr Alfie Cleaver [director] rang back. I asked him who the directors were. He said that they were himself and Alan Green (NB - see 6th Oct update). He said that Amy Green was not a director. There was a long discussion about the 'procedures' for complaining, but eventually I said that since I knew that I didn't have a contract, and that he was a director, he was being a 'lazy git' by not dealing with my complaint. Then I put the phone down. After all, who want to spend all day on the phone with someone who doesn't want to deal with what you are saying, especially when they are a director and have the power to deal with things as they see fit. Clearly Herr Director Alfie Cleaver doesn't care one jot.

We will see where this goes, but Offcom/Parliament seems to have made a mistake by allowing telephone companies to do these kind of transfers. No one goes to jail for these kind of crimes, despite being an enormous and wilful disruption to small businesses. It is a huge inconvenience. We are thoroughly dissappointed by these laws that are supposed to 'open up' competition. They are exceedingly bad news for small businesses, who have very little protection from the laws of this country. Once again we appeal to the DTI (or it's latest incarnation) to act more swiftly to close down crooked businesses. Since the DTI won't close them down, I would suggest a law that any Telecoms (or other utility) 'cooling off' period extends for 1 year if there is no written contract, or for 3 months if there is a written contract. It appears there is some good news in that the person at Offcom who took my complaint said that it sounded as if we had been "slammed" and that he had heard of other complaints about Revolution Telecoms.
Just for the record, British Telecom sent us a letter dated 13th August telling us about the transfer. We received it on the 21st August, but I was not in the office until today (25th Aug), by which time the lines had been transferred. Frankly, whilst they do generally give us a good service, BT have not really done enough to make sure that we had consented. Why didn't they call?

Revolution Telecoms Update. 6th Octomer 2009: I have had several calls from Mr Alfie Cleaver in the past two days and one today from Alan Green. Alan Green was very upset that I had put his name in this web page (And so was Mr Cleaver). Alan Green said that he was the senior director and claimed to have reponsibility for 50 employees and hence was unable to know exactly what is going on. He did say that he 'believed' Revolution Telecoms had willingly given back our lines to BT, but when I pressed him about what he knew about our case, he had to accept that he did not know any of the facts. I suggested that he look into the this and get back to me in wrting with regard to:
(a) What had happened in our case.
(b) Why his company had operated in such an unethical manner when dealing with us.
(c) Who had been responsible.
(d) A detailed explanation of how his company was going to change into a business that operates ethically.
He said he would email me on Frday 9th Oct. If I am not happy with the response then I will put his name back up. After all, directors should take responsibility for the actions of the businesses that they supervise.

e4b story 2008: Well e4b (electricity 4 business) operated in the electricity market and had a contract with a tie in period. However it was almost impossible to get out of the 'tie in' when it ended. They just rolled us over into a new, much more expensive contract and we had no protection at all from the regulator. It was very unpleasant.
On 22nd Oct 2008 E4B received their 'come uppance' - They went into administration. Unfortunately, we will lost about £700 because we prepaid for our supplies. Lesson Learnt: READ THE SMALL PRINT - No Matter how tiny!.

BTW, we are now with The Utility Warehouse - and quite happy.

Sita Waste story 2009: This company supplied us with waste bins for many years, but they simply got worse and worse. Whenever they reorganised the schedules, they never told us, so we would sometimes find the bin unemptied. On other weeks they would empty it more times than we wanted. When we complained they seemed to want to improve but didn't manage it. Eventually we complained to their head office but they did not respond at all. And their billing was useless - they didn't itemise the collections so it was always difficult to tell if our bills were correct. In the end the local branch (Melksham) agreed to release us from the full notice period and we are now moving to Hills Waste.

Unsatisfactory suppliers and some Really Bad Suppliers!

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