General Condition C8

We always aim to sell our mobile phones and plans in a fair and straight talking manner. But as a mobile provider, Ofcom also asks that we give you a summary of a set of rules called General Condition C8, which covers sales and marketing of mobile communication services

General Condition C8 (“C8”) is a set of rules that Ofcom wants us to follow covering how we sell mobile products and services to our customers and small businesses. The reason that Ofcom put them in place is because it receives complaints about the way certain mobile products and sales incentives, such as cashbacks, are sold to customers. As an organisation  we want to make sure that we try our best to prevent mis-selling.

>>> Read GC8 in full 

>>> Contact us so we may send you a copy 

These rules make sure that when we sell or market our services:

• We give you all the information you need when you're deciding to buy a mobile phone or plan upfront, and ask you if you would like the information provided in writing if you want some time to think about it before signing-up
• The information that we provide is accurate and not misleading
• We don't contact you in an aggressive or inappropriate way

We follow these rules whether you're buying your mobile phone or plan via any of our channels. 

General Condition C8 FAQ

The Rules

1 When you're about to buy a new mobile phone or plan, we need to give you all of the following information, when you sign up:

• Who the contract is with
• How long the contract is for
• What the monthly fee is
• What's included in the monthly fee – things like how many calls, texts and data
• What charges there will be outside your plan, like calls and texts to certain mobile and landline numbers, calls to your voicemail service and how calls to premium rate numbers will appear on your bill
• All your payment terms – how, when, how much
• How you can terminate your contract and if there will be any charges for doing that
• When you'll be able to start using the service
• Any offers you've taken, like line rental discounts or sales incentives, and all the terms and conditions for these.

2 When you buy a new mobile phone or plan from us online or over the phone with one of our team, we need to send you a confirmation of the sale by email soon afterwards. For all our connections this will in the form of and eSign.

• When a customer is buys a new phone or plan, they should receive all the following contractual information in a durable form
• A description of the service and what’s included o the minimum length of time that they need to stay on the plan o details of standard charges to other mobiles, landlines, sms and voicemail
• Payment terms o additional charges such as when not paying by direct debit or itemised paper bills
• Details of the rights and potential charges if they decide to end their contract o terms and conditions of the service
• The minimum amount of notice that they need to give us if they want to end their contract o start date of contract (if not immediate)

3 We must take reasonable steps to avoid any fraud. That includes:

• Carrying out credit checks of all the partner companies selling our products or services to make sure they don't have a bad credit history
• Making sure the directors of the organisation haven't filed for bankruptcy or gone into administration in the past
• We need to check a customer’s identity before they sign a contract or make any changes to their existing one. We could do this by asking them for copy of a utility bill, a passport or a driving licence.
• We should ask customers if they want information (for example terms and conditions) in a durable form. This could be paper or in an electronic format such as email.

4 We need to keep all our sales records for at least six months after any sale. The records will include:

• The date of the sale
• Where the sale was made - for Scancom all contract sales are via eSign direct with the customer from Scancom
• Signed copies of any contracts

5 We must always keep enough information so that we can show that you've agreed to our contract.

Sales Incentive

• make clear any terms and conditions of the offer as well as anything you've got to do to claim your reward
• carry out spot checks or mystery shopping to make sure our sales teams are letting you know everything
• review any complaints about our offers
• make sure the info on any incentives we offer is up to scratch
• check any advertising we do as part of the incentive is accurate

Sales incentive Rules 

We should provide you with details on:

• details of the cashback or reward
• a full description of the cashback or reward offer
• the terms and conditions of the cashback or reward offer, including how to claim it