General Condition C8
These are the Ofcom rules we follow to make sure we sell our mobile services fairly and honestly.
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
You can read them in full or get in touch if you'd like us to send you a copy. But to make them more digestible, you can read all the most important bits right here.
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, online, over the phone with one of our team, or through a partner company.
General condition C8 FAQs
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. There's more on this further down
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.
Before we let a partner company sell mobile services on our behalf, 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
- Making sure that our checks stay up-to-date
We can't pass on any information we obtain about a partner company or use it to gain an unfair advantage.
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 - at a shop, online, over the phone with one of our team, or through a partner company (for example the address of a retail shop)
- Signed copies of any contracts either on paper or electronically
- Recordings of any phone calls of a sale if available
We must always keep enough information so that we can show that you've agreed to our contract.
We sometimes offer these if you sign up for a contract or upgrade. They could be things like cashback, vouchers, a free gift, or other rewards. To make sure you're in the know about how all these offers and rewards work, we must:
- 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
We, or if you've signed up for one of these offers through a partner company of ours, they, must keep all records of it for at least six months or 90 days after it's been redeemed, whichever is longer.
We should provide you with details on:
- details of the company offering the cashback or reward, along with confirmation that they'll provide the offer
- a full description of the cashback or reward offer
- the terms and conditions of the cashback or reward offer, including how to claim it
