Lebara UK increased call rates 150% Dec/2013 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been a loyal customer with lebara for many years since it was offering the convenience of cheap international calling and at the same time (USED TO BE) cheap local and national calls. This has all changed now customers should be warned that you are being charged more than what you know or think.

I had two incidents the first happened about 3-4 weeks ago with a friend who is also with Lebara and he was charged £7.50 to get 1GB for one month when he never subscribed for this and only when he complained to their customer they just said sorry our mistake and refunded the money back. No compensation was given and imagine there is probably 1000’s of customers out there being charged like this without realising and the only person at loss is the customer while Lebara increases the profits.

Just today was another shock for me, while I was talking on the phone all for a sudden the phone conversation ended abruptly and I got a voice saying you have used all your credit. This was a shock for me as I knew exactly how many minutes I used and I know the call tariffs. Furthermore, I usually get this annoying voice reminder that tells you are low on credit and reminds you to top up. On this occasion I did not get this low credit reminder and just got cut off when I ran out of credit.

I was really angry and called the customers service to get an explanation and know what happened. First the customer services said “sorry we just increased our prices a week a ago from 5pence local call to 15pence per minutes and mobile calls also increased to 15pence per minute”. He claims customers are suppose to be informed about it, then he said he will check and see why I was not informed about and only with few seconds he came back and said “ sorry it is within our terms and conditions that prices can vary” and nothing can be done.

It is obvious that this was all planned by the company and while all retailers and companies decrease their prices during Christmas season it is the opposite here. Also it is obvious that Lebara has decided to take the low credit warning at the same time which means that all their subscribers will just not realise about low credit until it is completely finished and will not notice the increase in call rates. The only person at loss here is the customer and Lebara will be increasing their revenues which has reached more than £500 million in year 2012.

I think that Lebara is assuming that majority of their customers are of particular demographics (who have relatives abroad) and hence will not know their rights or take any action against their unfair polices. I have attached few links below with helpful information so that you know your rights and how to complain. I will be making an official complain to the company today and see how it goes though I am not expecting anything positive from them. It is seems that this is corporate policy for the company and in the third link below you will see how the company ended the services of employees abruptly which comes to show the mentality of the Lebara manage and how they value Customer Satisfaction!!!

Know your rights and how to complain (make your voice heard and don’t be quite):
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/how-to-complain-to-the-ombudsman-about-a-mobile-phone-provider
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/consumer-advice
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/
http://www.lovemoney.com/news/household-bills/mobile-phones/12583/the-uks-worst-mobile-phone-provider

Link about Lebara employees:
http://www.prepaidmvno.com/2012/04/15/lebara-mobile-retrenches-60-staff-members-with-additional-job-losses-to-come