yourtel - Landline Phone Service

Sully · 08-01-2014 3:55pm #1

Anybody ever heard of a company called 'yourtel' based in Dublin? They called us today, knew our name but not who we were with for the phone service. Offered us a 'discount that was available to all eircom customers' of call rates 2.9c per min excluding line rental.

The chap on the phone, not Irish, was very clever with his wording and made it sound like this was a special offer they were giving to me on behalf of eircom. When I asked where they working with or on behalf of eircom, they said no. I then asked would it be me switching service provider and he said, very clever way of answering, that we are 'not completely switching from eircom' that our line and telephone number remains. I just said we were in contract and they said no problem, have a good day etc.

To a lot of people, they may fall for this and switch to this 'provider' resulting in possible loss of service or cancellation fees. Its made out on the phone that its a special discount and not someone trying to switch providers. Could catch a lot of people out about that.

EDIT: Spoke to COMREG. A case on this is already open and an investigation is under way. They took my details to add to the case.

wmpdd3 · 08-01-2014 5:14pm

Glad you went the comreg route, I'm driven demented by my parents getting calls like this, they need the land line for a small business but every day I call out they have details of another nuisance call they have received.

door · 21-02-2014 1:43am

"A case on this is already open and an investigation is under way. They took my details to add to the case"

Does this mean Yourtel are under investigation? Do you know if there has been any advancement on this? We got dooped into signing up with them only to see charges for calls we were already paying for with Eircom, therefore getting charged on the double. We made sure to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

We also got billed for <SNIP> number calls which nobody made and have written to them looking for an explanation whilst they continue to look for payment for the bills. They keep threatening that legal action will be eventually taken if we dont pay up but we want an explanation for these <SNIP> charges first, which they are not coming forward with.

cladf · 26-02-2014 9:38pm

I just discovered the double billing between Eircom and yourTel today. I called both customer 'care' lines. Eircom had no record of cancellation / transfer which was meant to be have been handled by yourtel. Yourtel said they did and asked to send an itemised bill from Eircom. Yourtel have also not replied to my emails of 6 weeks now. I have heard that other Eircom customers are experiencing the same.
Something doesn't seem right.....

wmpdd3 · 27-02-2014 1:44am

Did you sign up with yourtel, or were you mislead?

cladf · 27-02-2014 11:17am

Yep - full transfer was meant to have started in October. The help lines said they did their end of the bargain and Eircom have no record of change.

emeldc · 27-02-2014 11:58am

This sounds very like a crowd that rang me about a year ago although a different name I think.
The call rates are very cheap but when I questioned if my broadband was included, the line used was, 'your broadband remains exactly the same', which in effect means that Eircom would continue to charge me for stand alone broadband, thus making the combined package much more expensive.
When I asked to see the T & C's I was directed to a website that was still under construction. They persisted over the next day or two so I asked to speak with a supervisor who eventually admitted the it would work out more expensive for me to switch. To say the air turned a little blue at this point is an understatement :rolleyes:

wmpdd3 · 27-02-2014 1:21pm

cladf wrote: »

Yep - full transfer was meant to have started in October. The help lines said they did their end of the bargain and Eircom have no record of change.

I have heard of this happening with eircom before with every other company, but it really leaves you in a bad position as eircom will wash their hands of you and the other company will try to keep billing you.

My view would be that you instructed yourtel to provide the service of moving you calls to them. They failed to provide this service, so your contract is voided.

If you are still with eircom, I have no idea how this company thinks you will pay them for a service they didn't provide.

Of course you may have made extra calls while banking on the reduction in price you were promised, so may be at a loss because of this but you cant be expected to pay twice for the same service.

cladf · 28-02-2014 1:22pm

wmpdd3 wrote: »

My view would be that you instructed yourtel to provide the service of moving you calls to them. They failed to provide this service, so your contract is voided.

I agree, a basic undertaking in the contract does not appear to have taken place - still to be confirmed. The customer care line is evasive and lacking in knowledge as it appears you get on to a global call centre in Germany or India who give generic responses to queries.

I anticipate that this is a bad route to go down. What are consumer protection rights on this matter? What neutral party should be complained to when the time comes?

door · 28-02-2014 4:32pm

Luckily we managed to get away from Yourtel. When I explained to them that the usual procedure undertaken by every other phone company is to switch the phone service to the new one, ridding the customer of the old one, they said this is not always the case and that I had to contact Eircom myself. They said the same had to be done if I wanted to be taken off Yourtel. Sounds ridiculous but I followed that instruction.

Fortunately Eircom sorted this out pretty quickly and we no longer have any contract with Yourtel. We are fully back with Eircom (even though we technically never left them) but Yourtel still keep looking for money for calls which we had already been paying Eircom for, as well as "curious" calls we have asked for an explanation about but which has not been forthcoming.

How does a company like this have any legal stand here?

If they are under investigation by Comgreg I assume we can just continue to ignore their payment requests until at least they give us an explanation for mysterious charges.

ericaxxx · 12-03-2014 9:37pm

Hi guys, they are <SNIP> do not answer calls and do not talk to them, any letters you get just return to sender, make your parents aware of this, because they target elderly people, as far as I know, nobody went to Garda fraud squad and actually complained, that's why, nothing can be done at this point.

cladf · 12-03-2014 11:51pm

ericaxxx wrote: »

Hi guys, they are <SNIP> do not answer calls and do not talk to them, any letters you get just return to sender, make your parents aware of this, because they target elderly people, as far as I know, nobody went to Garda fraud squad and actually complained, that's why, nothing can be done at this point.

They are meant to have an address on Harcourt St., haven't replied to my emails and I get on to a generic customer care line in a variable location it seems.

wmpdd3 · 13-03-2014 2:10am

From CRO:

Type Company
Number 528267
Name YOURTEL LIMITED
Address HARCOURT CENTRE
HARCOURT ROAD
DUBLIN 2
Registered 30/05/2013
Status Normal

Effective Date 30/05/2013
Last AR Date 30/11/2013
Next AR Date 30/11/2014
Last Accounts to Date Not Available

larrykinney · 15-03-2014 5:12pm

My parents have got dozens of bills/letters from this crowd threatening them with a collections agency over the last few months. They have always been with Eircom and have never changed providers. The bill is for E10/11 but my Mam insists they never signed up with them. I tried ringing the number provided on the letter last week but just got an automated response. I guess we'll just continue to ignore them.

Hawksticks · 18-03-2014 3:28pm

My mother signed up for this by accident a few months ago. The guy on the phone pretended to be working with eircom and that she would be getting a better deal. When i heard about it i Knew something was up straight away and canceled yourtel. But they have continued to send out bills for like 3 euro up to 20. I rang eircom to inquire if yourtel were a real company and they said they were.

Dont know if i should pay this bill or not any one any ideas?

Seems like its a <SNIP> ?

Mike1001 · 19-03-2014 1:00am

Yourtel are not a nice company. They changed my mothers phone over, we cancelled it but they never responded. Kept sending bills, said we did not contact emir com to change back. My mothers phone was not allowed to make calls then we had to get on to Eircom to sort. Now want 3 euro for copy of a bill. Rip off stay away from them. Rang com reg to complain

Tenger · 20-03-2014 10:43am

Got their call this morning..... "special offer for Eircom customers" "I will record your agreement that I called you and my supervisor will call back in 2 days to discuss it with you".

When he asked for my date of birth I queried why Eircom gave out my personal details. He keep insisting that he was not with Eircom. I asked why Eircom didn't have any info on their website. "Oh we are not Eircom, here is our number, we are in Harcourt St, Dublin 2"

He got hung up on better quick after that. "Thanks for your call but I don't like your offer"

pfurey101 · 15-04-2014 1:21pm

Just got a Bangalore cold call from them on 00493028472466. I had a bit of fun with the chap and he then hung up

As for their website - BE WARY!

1. That Harcourt Road address is a virtual office. Normally a good idea but NOT when dealing with a suspect shower like this.
2. Their "About Us" page is VERY suspect! No names, profiles, biog, links to LinkedIn, no Facebook or Twitter accounts with "real" posters/followers.
3. Anyone know what an 01-90x xxxx number is?

If they were serious about setting up and trying to establish a visible web presence, I would have expected a lot more than a few pages and CRO number.

BE VERY WARY - imho!!!

Cheshire Cat · 15-04-2014 2:59pm

pfurey101 wrote: »

Just got a Bangalore cold call from them on 00493028472466. I had a bit of fun with the chap and he then hung up

As for their website - BE WARY!

1. That Harcourt Road address is a virtual office. Normally a good idea but NOT when dealing with a suspect shower like this.
2. Their "About Us" page is VERY suspect! No names, profiles, biog, links to LinkedIn, no Facebook or Twitter accounts with "real" posters/followers.
3. Anyone know what an 01-90x xxxx number is?

If they were serious about setting up and trying to establish a visible web presence, I would have expected a lot more than a few pages and CRO number.

BE VERY WARY - imho!!!

If somebody called me from the above number I would expect to be able to have the conversation in German. That's a Berlin number!

Phil Iam · 22-04-2014 10:35pm

Got a call from Youtel to day I let him make his pitch he knew my name and address then asked my date of birth at that stage I told him I don't trust cold callers and I was not giving him any info and if he was linked to Eircom then they would have all my details, he played at being very understanding and told me I could make contact with them through their web site needless to say I wont be signing up with them!

whomitconcerns · 25-04-2014 10:09am

Im not on their side but...

They are not a network provider. You cannot switch provider to them, they are a carrier preselect service. Which means you stay with eircom completely. Only difference is that your calls are routed through them instead. They basically prefix the numbers with *#33232# or something like that at exchange level.

You still get a normal eircom bill and any calls which cant go carrier preselect get routed through eircom as normal.
They bill you seperately for any calls which are routed through them.
So you should be getting 2 bills, one from yourtel for calls routed through them and one from eircom for line rental, etc.

carrier preselct is a thing back to the 90s before we had competition in the market, no point in doing it now. But its still a valid service to offer, and as regards office, they dont need any premises!

What you save with them is on specific calls only. You cant think of them as anything else and they are only useful if you make a lot of calls that would normally cost a lot with eircom

pfurey101 · 25-04-2014 10:43am

whomitconcerns wrote: »

Im not on their side but...

They are not a network provider. You cannot switch provider to them, they are a carrier preselect service. Which means you stay with eircom completely. Only difference is that your calls are routed through them instead. They basically prefix the numbers with *#33232# or something like that at exchange level.

You still get a normal eircom bill and any calls which cant go carrier preselect get routed through eircom as normal.
They bill you seperately for any calls which are routed through them.
So you should be getting 2 bills, one from yourtel for calls routed through them and one from eircom for line rental, etc.

carrier preselct is a thing back to the 90s before we had competition in the market, no point in doing it now. But its still a valid service to offer, and as regards office, they dont need any premises!

What you save with them is on specific calls only. You cant think of them as anything else and they are only useful if you make a lot of calls that would normally cost a lot with eircom

Valid points and thanks for the info on the process but apart from a very few (I'd imagine) maybe 99% of the population hasn't a clue about what you have pointed out.

They do not tell you this, so they lie!
They tell you other things, misdirect you - so they lie again!
They are not very customer friendly as pointed out in other posts.
They are very misleadingly vague with their website!
They cold call Skype, UPC and other broadband phones, saying that your line is Eircom - wasters. I have a UPC business landline and an Eircom landline at home, they rang the UPC landline.
Cold calling - poor marketing these days and has a bad name. It is now, unfortunately, even more suspect when its from somewhere like Bangalore. There are too many of this type of call these days! And I totally detest the chaps who ring and say that they are from "Microsoft Windows" and advise me that I have a problem with my computer. Mind you, I do have a bit of fun with them sometimes!

Everything this lot does screams out scam and spam. They are only preying on the vulnerable!

benson henson · 28-04-2014 2:37pm

they re not from bangalore thats ridiculous, the company is located in Berlin. the office is in hardcourt road. but the calls are coming from berlin. The reason being it is too expensive to operate a call centre in Dublin, far cheaper to do it from berlin. Voxpark is the name of the company.

It is not a scam but it does actually limit you by taking up the service. it means you would have to stay with eircom in order to use this and if you take up a flat rate with them you re given a 2 year contract which if you opt out of you receive a severance bill. if you have a bundle package and you accept this reduction you might be opting out of any services you have with eircom and if thats contractually restricted you ll be slapped with a fine from eircom.

The means in which they employ is incredibly dishonest in that they re encouraged to inform you they re calling you from dublin. And that "if you re with eircom" which makes them sound like they re working for eircom.

steer clear, you d only be restricting yourself.

pfurey101 · 28-04-2014 6:31pm

benson henson wrote: »

they re not from bangalore thats ridiculous, the company is located in Berlin. the office is in hardcourt road. but the calls are coming from berlin. The reason being it is too expensive to operate a call centre in Dublin, far cheaper to do it from berlin. Voxpark is the name of the company.

It is not a scam but it does actually limit you by taking up the service. it means you would have to stay with eircom in order to use this and if you take up a flat rate with them you re given a 2 year contract which if you opt out of you receive a severance bill. if you have a bundle package and you accept this reduction you might be opting out of any services you have with eircom and if thats contractually restricted you ll be slapped with a fine from eircom.

The means in which they employ is incredibly dishonest in that they re encouraged to inform you they re calling you from dublin. And that "if you re with eircom" which makes them sound like they re working for eircom.

steer clear, you d only be restricting yourself.

1. Not a scam, fair enough
2. Berlin number OK - that's fairly obvious, but it was an Indian that was selling me that crap. So what are the chances it was an outsource to one of the many millions of minions that pester the world from cheap call centres in India?
3. The address in Harcourt Street is a virtual phone answering service facility - there is no one from Voxpark at home! In fact I would imagine there is no one from that place anywhere in Ireland!
4. There is nothing wrong with this kind of service - but when there are no names on the website and they are intentionally deceiving people and they agressively cold calll while being aggressive???
5. Not a scam, maybe? But intentionally dishonest - definitely.

I suppose if I knew German I could make some sense of the Voxpark website and also the primaholding GmbH website - who are suppose to be a parent company.

bt1991 · 17-05-2014 11:21pm

Hi All,

I previously worked for the serviced office provider that Yourtel uses on Harcourt Road, by no means did I work for Yourtel but I know a great deal about the dealings this company undertake.

They do not actually have an office at Harcourt Road, but merely pay to use this office as a postal address to give the impression that they are based in Ireland. As previously mentioned, they are Primaholding but are trading as 'Yourtel; The Voice of Ireland' and are actually based in Berlin. I cannot stress enough how horrible the people that run this company are and the lengths they will go to to swindle vulnerable and elderly people out of their money.

If you or one of your relatives has been misled into entering a contract with Yourtel I urge you to contact the Garda Fraud Squad and tell them you would like to make a formal statement. As of yet, no one has actually complained to the Gardai so they cannot launch an investigation until this happens. I have been told that there is definitely a case that can be made against them, they are deliberately misleading on the phone and this is a case of malpractice at the very least.

It is extremely difficult to get Yourtel to cancel your account. The best thing I can suggest to do is to type up a formal looking letter, and address it to Florian Hermann, telling him that you were wrongly entered into a contract that you have no interest in and that you have contacted Com Reg and the Gardai with the intention of liaising with them in their investigations. Tell them that you are cancelling your account effective immediately and that all of the correspondence they have sent you has been forwarded onto the police and your solicitor. Be sure to quote your full name, address and customer number as written on your letters from them. Sign your name with ink and enclose a copy of a bill you have received.

As I said, I didn't actually work for Yourtel but I've seen firsthand the stress this company has caused so I hope I can help someone in some small way!

fussyonion · 17-05-2014 11:33pm

I had a call from them today.

They said they were looking for Mrs (we'll just say Smith). Now, my partner's surname is (for the purpose of this post) Smith but my surname is different.

So anyway:

Yourtel: "Hello I am looking for Mrs Smith"
Me: "There's no Mrs Smith here"
Yourtel: "Oh, is it wrong number?"
Me: "You tell me. Who are you looking for?"
Yourtel: "Yes I am wondering..you have Eircom account?"
Me: "Yes"
Yourtel: "Well we are offering you a reduced-"
Me; "Let me stop you there. I've read all about you on an Irish website and I'm not interested in switching. You're not associated with Eircom and I don't want you to call my number again."
Yourtel: "I will call you another time"

:mad:

fountain8 · 19-05-2014 10:41am

Hi ya. I got a call from them just now. I got caught out 6 months ago and ive tried everything to cancel. Ive sent them a letter like I was asked but no result. Ive explained everything they "haven't done" to them. They are so unprofessional and he agreed with me on the phone but I still owe €61. I told him to keep billing me all he wants im not paying them for something they never actually provided. You said to send a letter to Florian Hermann is that all I put on the envelope?

fountain8 · 22-05-2014 4:46pm

I rang ComReg. They told me what to do.

fountain8 · 22-05-2014 4:46pm

I rang ComReg. They told me what to do.

RabbleRouser2k · 11-07-2014 4:55am

They rang my mother a week ago, and pulled a truly disgusting <SNIP>. They said they were with Eircom, and that they were doing an independent survey and then started asking details about her address, Eircom account number, and the bank she was with. When they started enquiring about her bank account number, she told them Eircom had those details, and that they didn't need to ask her for them.

As she was getting suspicious at this point, she said she did not want to switch her account, so they said they would speak to her later. Next day, they call again, same time as the day before (9.30 am, so they are clearly trying to catch people off guard at such an early hour), and start asking the same questions again, this time a different person (previous caller was female, new caller was male). Same deal, started asking the same questions, my mum said she was not for changing her account, and then the person at the end of the phone said she would hear from them in 5 days. Well, 5 days later, forms turn up (with typos and poor grammar) saying 'We are hereby pleased to confirm your order of yourtel 100 service' and that she would be signed up to them within 7 days.
Well, obviously, she never signed up for the contract, so she rang Eircom straight away, and told them to block any attempts to change her phone provider. Apparently, they have got a few people using this technique.

We have also emailed Comreg to inform them about this issue as well.

(Had issues with Talk Talk years ago, where they switched over our phoneline, without our consent, then disconnected the phone once the first bill was unpaid, even though there was no contract. All this whilst we had a seriously ill family member in hospital. Then they threaten legal action. Needless to say, we never paid that bill. Hence the paranoia with Yourtel.)

Deeper Blue · 07-08-2014 4:57pm

My mother got caught out by these a few days ago, she gave them her name and DOB, but no card details or anything like that. Is there any chance theyll start sending us bills?

yourtel - Landline Phone Service

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