General Condition C8 Sales and marketing of mobile communications services

There are set rules that Ofcom set that all telecommunication providers have to abide by, these are called the General Conditions of Entitlement or GCs.

Under Ofcom’s GC C8, providers must provide a comprehensive summary of their obligations under this specific GC.

Goal:

To make customers aware of the methods we have in place to protect them and provide a standard of service that keeps the customer aware of our agreement to retain certain obligations when selling and marketing our services. We are also required to put in place standards for the sales and marketing output of companies that sell our services on our behalf.

What does C8 cover?

Prevention of mis-selling
Publicising our obligations
Obligations for us to ensure that retailers selling our services adhere to these rules
Providing information to customers that is accurate and not misleading
Specific information must be provided to customers at point of sale about the services they are purchasing
Ensuring staff are trained to comply with the requirements under this General Condition
Specific information at point of sale for sales incentives
Retaining sales records for at least 6 months

What we must do

When we sell you a mobile service we need to confirm that you:

are authorised to join into a contract and do intend on entering the contract
are provided with specific information (set out below)
if we are offering service via the phone, we must provide the information in written form also

The information we must provide,

Information about Cellhire, including our contact details
A detailed description of the service you’re taking, including:
The cost of the services
How you’ll pay the charge
Contract length (commitment period) is for
Whether there are any early termination fees on your contract
How to terminate your contract
When the contract starts and use the services
Any charges that apply if you call numbers that are outside of your plan

Sales incentives

A sales incentive is something extra that’s being offered in addition to your tariff, as part of the agreement you’re taking out with us.

When an incentive is offered, we must make sure that it isn’t overly complicated for you to redeem the incentive and that you are given information in a easily understandable way, including sending you the information via email or letter, if you’re making the purchase via phone we must:

Tell you who is making the sales incentive offer to you and including their contact information
A detailed description of the sales incentive
The terms and conditions
The process to obtain the sales incentive.

Our obligations when a retailer sells our offerings

Mis-selling

Any retailer that offers our services has to follow processes and procedures to ensure that:

Any information is accurate and not misleading
You’re offered any information in a durable medium
Keep records of sales for at least 6 months

Training

We have to make sure that process are in place to ensure that any retailer that sells our services, is trained to comply with this GC.

Risk and compliance check

We ensure that the following checks are carried out by us if there’s a retailer selling on our behalf:

A credit check to ensure that there is a reliable history of payment from the retailer
A director check to ensure they have not been disqualified from that position or have been in control of a company that has filed for bankruptcy
Ensure all information remains up to date.

A GC C8 can be found here. Ofcom's full General Conditions can be found here.