Care home closure fears over ‘mis-sold’ phones deal

The owners of a family-run care home have said they were mis-sold a phone contract that “could finish the business”.

Ashleigh Residential Home in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, is one of hundreds of firms to contact the BBC claiming to have been mis-sold lengthy, inflated finance deals for their workplace phone and broadband service following an investigation into the telecoms industry.

Many claimed written contracts were different to what had been verbally agreed, locking them in to finance deals lasting years and costing tens of thousands of pounds.

A spokesperson for 4Com said it had seen “no evidence” that customers had been misled.

Claire Doxey and her daughter Kelly-Jay Beeson, who run the home, are among more than 200 people who have contacted the BBC about Bournemouth-based company 4Com.

Speaking to BBC Morning Live, they said based on discussions with a sales representative for the company in November 2023, they thought they were signing a contract for a fixed cost of £329 a month for two desk phones, two handheld phones, broadband and services on a five-year contract.

This amount, they understood, would also pay off the balance owed on their old contract.

They said they were also promised a 14-day cooling-off period.

But when they received the invoice – seen by the BBC – two days later, they said the charges that it set out as being in the contract, which they had signed, were different from what had been verbally promised.

Ms Doxey, who has never unpacked the phones from the box they were delivered in, said her decision to sign the contract “could finish the business” as they also face legal costs to try to challenge 4Com and the finance company.

“I’ve run a successful business for 40-odd years, and then just one sales rep could ruin it,” she said.

The contract seen by the BBC was for seven years, not five – and the mother and daughter claim they were unaware from the verbal sales pitch that they had signed a rental agreement with a separate finance company to hire the equipment.

The BBC understands that two years into the contract, they could be paying as much as £600 per month – totalling thousands of pounds more than they were expecting over the life of the contract.

All of the charges were set out in the paperwork that Ms Doxey and Ms Beeson signed, but Ms Beeson said the amounts were “completely different to what we’d originally agreed”.

They said they called 4Com to cancel within 14 days, but were told there was no cooling-off period and they could not cancel because they had signed the agreement.

“[I] rang them straight away and said ‘I’m cancelling this, you gave us 14 days, and I’ve cancelled the direct debit payment’… I got a response to say: ‘You can’t do that,'” Ms Doxey said.

“I feel like I’ve let everybody down.”

Business owner Craig Lakin, who runs a tool hire shop in Hinckley, Leicestershire, also contacted the BBC about 4Com.

In a similar story to Ms Doxey and Ms Beeson, Mr Lakin said he refused to have the phones installed after he said he realised the true cost of the contract the day after signing in April this year.

After 18 months, a discount would be removed, so when further extra costs were taken into account his payments would potentially be three times more a month than he was paying at the start of his contract.

The BBC has heard a recorded phone call made by 4Com to Mr Lakin’s business, and none of these additional payments were mentioned, although they were all set out in the paperwork he had signed.

Mr Lakin stopped 4Com from switching his lines over, but said he has been threatened with legal action if he does not pay more than £12,000 to the finance company who he said 4Com signed him up with to rent the phones.

He told the BBC he “would rather close the business down, than give them the money” as “a matter of principle”.

“It’s been a bit of a nightmare, it’s caused sleepless nights,” he said.

“It’s definitely taken its toll on us.”

A 4Com spokesperson said the firm took complaints seriously, and was “extremely sorry to hear that these two customers are unhappy”.

It said it has multiple interactions with customers to confirm awareness of key contractual points prior to installation, and continually reviews processes to ensure communications are clear and easy to understand.

“Having thoroughly investigated the customer accounts and call records, we have seen no evidence that they were misled, in relation to either the contract price and structure, or the availability of a cooling-off period,” the spokesperson said.

Tina McKenzie, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) policy chair, said the government should bring in a cooling-off period for small businesses.

Small Business Minister Blair McDougall did not respond to the FSB’s calls but said he took the BBC’s investigation “very seriously”.

“It’s disgraceful to hear that small businesses are being taken advantage of in this way.”

Ms McKenzie also said the regulator, Ofcom, should do more to protect small businesses in the telecoms market – by publishing complaints and customer services data to give business owners more information about companies before they sign a contract.

Ofcom said providers must give small businesses clear contract information.

It said it cannot resolve individual problems but that it works with the ombudsman to monitor complaints.

“If we see evidence of widespread issues, we’ve shown we can and will consider taking action,” a spokesperson said.

Watch the full investigation on BBC Morning Live on Tuesday 4 November from 09:30 on BBC One.