25 May 2006
Over 200,000 people have complained to BT during the past 12 months about underhand tactics used by some telecoms companies to make them switch their home phone deal.
The number is slightly higher than that recorded last year, despite the introduction of new rules aimed at limiting mis-selling.
Foremost among the techniques used by unscrupulous home phone companies is known as 'slamming', or switching someone's home phone account without their knowledge.
BT's consumer managing director Gavin Patterson said: "This is an anniversary the telecoms industry should be ashamed of. We have received 200,000 complaints since the codes were introduced and, by Ofcom's research, that suggests more than 106,000 customers who have been mis-sold to.
"With complaints running up to 20,000 per month, we are worried thousands more customers are going to suffer in the year ahead," he added.
The Trading Standards Institute said it would like to see harsher penalties imposed on firms guilty of breaking the selling rules.
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