Comparethenetworks.com SCAM

Nixy1 · ‎03-09-2024

Hi, hope this is the correct place for this...

I know this is an EE forum - I am with EE but hoping for some community advice. My partner was cold called by a business called comparethenetworks.com who claimed to be a 'partner' of 3 mobile. They caught him at a time when he was busy at work and also unhappy with his current phone which had started playing up. He came home and gleefully told me it was all sorted and he was getting a new phone. My heart sank as I said to him - NEVER agree to anything where someone has phoned YOU! Too late, he has signed a business contract. He was certain all was ok and wasn't too keen on my negativity initially. A really 'knowledgeable' and nice guy on the phone told him no worries, you can keep your number, we will pay off your existing 3 contract, the new one is 18 months and bob's your uncle everyone is happy! I immediately googled them - not great news. Trust pilot has some horrendous reviews but overall the score is fine, mainly because the reviews all look like they've been written by the same people and are fake. Companies House shows them as a dissolved company. His new iphone 15 phone did arrive - from Amazon! I looked at the contract - it's three years not 18 months. He was also not aware there is no cooling off period on a business contract. Needless to say they have not paid off his existing contract or ported his number - they never even asked for a PAC. My partner now has two phones, two numbers and two contracts and has no idea what to do other than suck it up and put it down to experience - or stupidity. This company are scammers - AVOID.

bristolian · ‎03-09-2024

@Nixy1 wrote:

He was also not aware there is no cooling off period on a business contract

This is not strictly true. Different rules apply for business-to-business sales, but if your partner is a consumer - then whatever label the retailer or network may choose to apply to that plan, consumer distance sales rights apply.

UrsulaJ · ‎06-10-2024

I will need to look up consumer distance rights.
I’ve had a similar situation.

Rob_T · ‎06-01-2025

Hi, this exact scenario has just happened to me but I have 4 sims on my account. They cold called me and I was reluctant to entertain the sales guy called Kieron. He seemed to know alot about my account with EE saying they are a partner of ee. I told him that I'd recently altered my plan on some of the devices so dont think i can change anything atm. It also coincided with really poor signal issues with the phones which was becoming a real problem. He told me he could change our sims and provider for £12 each per month unlimited data and calls with network 3. Because I was reluctant he said we can have a 14 day cooling off period to test the new network. If I wasn't happy with signal he could swap everything back. I agreed SIMS came and he called following day to do the pac codes. I gave him my ee log in and that's when he discovered we was actually in contract till 2026 on 2 devices. I wasn't aware of this but had told him on the first call I had know idea where we was up to contract wise with ee. He told me to call ee and see if I could leave mid contract. Ee said that would cost me £1000, but if my signal issues was down to there network I'd have a case to leave foc. Ee sent me a new sim and did some tweaks etc but I had to go along with the testing ee wanted me to do. I told kieron to pause going over to 3 till I knew if I was able to leave ee. He didn't and now I have 4 three sims and my original ee ones. I've requested all call records and have put an internal dispute in with compare the network who have found they haven't done anything wrong (no suprise). Now I'm putting the case together for the Onbusmen to review.

So annoyed with myself as I never do things over phone which is what I kept saying to him but he made it all sound risk free!

E444_frazer · ‎15-01-2025

It's definitely not a scam, If it was a scam why would they post you a mobile phone?

HappyMan3 · ‎04-03-2025

Because they tell you on the call that the contact is shorter than the contract that they send to you. Because they say they are going to get you out of your current contract with your current company (buy you out).

Leanne_T · ‎04-03-2025

Hi there @HappyMan3

Thanks for posting.

Have you been contacted and had a new contract set up? If so, is the contract with EE?

Leanne.