This Code of Practice is published by Lebara Mobile Ltd (referred to as Lebara Mobile in this Code).
This code of practice does not remove any of your legal rights as a customer, nor does it form part of a contract between you and Lebara Mobile.
1. This Code of Practice aims to provide:
An introduction to Lebara Mobile
Information on the services we offer
Information on our sales and marketing activities
Information on billing and pricing issues
How to contact Lebara Mobile
How to make a complaint
Information on premium rate services
Information on number translation services
Information and contact details for telecommunications regulatory bodies such as Ofcom
2. Introduction to Lebara Mobile
Lebara Mobile Limited is a company registered in England with company number 06184980. Our registered office is located at 25 Copthall Avenue, London, EC2R 7BP, England.
Please see our website www.lebara.co.uk for further information.
Lebara Mobile provides mobile telecommunication services within the UK to customers. Its primary area of focus is the United Kingdom.
Lebara Mobile is committed to making every reasonable effort to supply this Code of Practice in a suitable format, therefore, if you require assistance or a different electronic version, please contact our customer service centre free from a Lebara mobile on 5588, from a landline on 0870 075 5588* or email care@lebara.com.
3. Our core services and products
Lebara Mobile offers a range of Mobile Telecommunication Services. We provide mobile voice and data communications services in the UK, and in other countries through roaming agreements with other mobile networks which our third party network provider uses. Lebara Mobile aggregates telecoms traffic and communication solutions to be able to attract economies of scale. These generated savings are passed on to our customers in the form of better value solutions.
Below is a brief description of Lebara Mobile’s core products and services:
Other mobile services:
4. Sales and marketing activities
Products and services are sold primarily through independent retailers or online.
When we undertake sales and marketing activities we are committed to giving outstanding service, it is essential that our customers understand the services offered and the contract they are making.
We work to the principles within the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion, and Direct Marketing, which may be found on the website www.cap.org.uk.
5. Contract Conditions
Our Pay As You Go SIM is a prepay service which has no minimum contract period and no need for cancellation.
If you do not use the Pay As You Go Services for a period of 84 days, your contract will be deemed to have been terminated by you. Upon termination for whatever reason, Lebara Mobile is under no obligation to refund you any call credit that is on your phone at the date of termination. For more information see the General Terms and Conditions on our website at www.lebara.co.uk/terms-and-conditions.
Our Pay Monthly SIM is subject to terms and conditions which are available at http://www.lebara.co.uk/paym-terms-and-conditions. If you would prefer a paper copy please contact our customer service centre free from a Lebara mobile on 5588, from a landline on 0870 075 5588* or email care@lebara.com.
6. Credit Vetting
Our Pay Monthly service requires a credit check. Information about how your details are used for credit checking and for fraud prevention is available at time of purchase. Lebara Mobile will disclose to credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies details of your agreement with us, including any change of address, payments you make, account balances, payment defaults, disputes and queries. We, and other organisations, may use this information to help make decisions about other credit applications made by you or other members of your household with whom you are linked financially and to protect both our business and our customers from fraudulent activity. Any information we hold may also be used for debt tracing and claims assessments. In the event that you do not pay us in full and on time, we may tell credit reference agencies who will record the outstanding debt. For further details on how we use your information, please refer to the Lebara Mobile Privacy Policy on our website www.lebara.co.uk/privacy-policy.
7. Tariffs
Lebara Mobile publishes its prices on our website. If you would prefer a paper copy please contact our customer service centre free from a Lebara mobile on 5588, from a landline on 0870 075 5588* or email care@lebara.com.
8. Billing and Payments
Lebara Mobile takes invoicing seriously. When invoices are prepared they are checked against contracted pricing and, where relevant, the recorded usage to ensure the invoice has been calculated correctly. Purchases or other charges from 3rd parties will be detailed as a “Data Content Purchase”. All payments are made to Lebara Mobile Ltd. If you are a Pay Monthly customer your bill will be sent to your email address once a month on your billing date. You can also view your bill from your MyLebara account. You can request a paper bill to be sent to you by post, but Lebara Mobile will request a one off payment of £1.50 for each bill posted.
Payments are made by Direct Debit. You can only use your own personal UK bank account details to register for a pay-monthly contract. The date when we collect the amount due will be clearly shown on the front of your bill and will be around 10 days after the date of your bill.
When you Pay Monthly by Direct Debit, we'll set a credit limit on your account. This limit is set to ensure you don’t accidentally spend more than you planned to. We'll review your credit limit regularly to make sure it’s set at the right level for you. Although we'll do our best to let you know when you're near your limit, you shouldn't rely on your credit limit for your own budgeting, since it might not always be possible to reach you. If you do go over your limit your phone may be temporarily suspended. If this happens you will need to make an interim payment.
It's not a good idea to rely on your credit limit, whether you're at home or abroad. Calls made abroad can take us a little longer to process which means you could easily go over your limit. If you do, you'll still have to pay for all of the charges.
If you have a query relating to your bill or need advice, information or assistance on pricing please contact our customer services centre free from a Lebara mobile on 5588, from a landline on 0870 075 5588* or email care@lebara.com. Should your request require escalation, it may be forwarded to our Accounts team for resolution.
9. Compensation or refund policy
Refunds (where applicable) will be credited to the card used for the original purchase after receipt of the returned equipment and satisfactory inspection by us. Please allow 30 days for the refund.
10. Suspending your service
If you are a Pay Monthly customer and your Direct Debit fails your service will be suspended. You can phone our customer services centre free from a Lebara mobile on 5588 or from a landline on 0870 075 5588*, and pay with a credit or debit card.
11. Privacy and Data Protection
We know that privacy is very important to our customers and we aim to respect and protect that at all times. Please read our privacy statement available on our website www.lebara.co.uk/privacy-policy.
We may collect personal information about you from various sources. These may include:
Lebara Mobile is registered under the Data Protection Act and takes all reasonable steps to ensure there is no unauthorised access to your personal data.
We may use the personal data we hold to promote our products and services but we will not pass them to any third party organisations for marketing purposes unless you have authorised us to do so.
In some circumstances we may supply information to organisations such as the police and other governmental agencies where the law requires us to do this.
We may record phone conversations for training purposes or to provide evidence of a transaction.
If you wish to know what personal information we hold on you, you can get this by writing to: Data Controller, Lebara Mobile Ltd, 25 Copthall Avenue, London, EC2R 7BP.
You may wish to stop unsolicited telemarketing calls from other organisations. If you register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) this may prevent some of these calls. The contact details for the TPS can be found in the useful contacts section below.
12. Customer Services
Fault Management
We aim to provide you with all the help you need to understand how to use the services and to help you with any technical problems you may experience. We intend to resolve faults as soon as reasonably possible. If you have any technical questions simply call us free from a Lebara mobile on 5588, from a landline on 0870 075 5588* or email care@lebara.com.
Faults can be reported free of charge, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Engineers, however, attend faults between the hours of 8.00am to 6.00pm excluding national and public holidays.
Faults can occur on the Lebara Mobile network, or on one of our suppliers’ networks or equipment. If a fault is reported during normal working hours, Lebara Mobile will try to establish the location and cause of the fault straight away.
If you are not satisfied
We are committed to providing you with excellent customer service. However, in the event that you are not satisfied with the manner in which we are handling an issue that you have brought to our attention, we have a comprehensive complaint handling procedure, which includes escalation to independent agencies in the event that you are unhappy with the outcome of a complaint.
When you call a customer service consultant will try to solve the problem a quickly as possible, preferably during your phone call and where this is not possible, will agree a course of action with you. Invoicing queries may take a little while to resolve.
If you are not happy with the response you receive you may ask for the matter to be referred to the appropriate senior manager for further investigation. The matter will be investigated by the appropriate manager and you will receive a response with 3 working days.
We believe it is in your and our best interests to try to resolve any dispute without outside assistance, and you may be assured that we will devote sufficient resource to attempting to resolve any issues that may arise between us.
If we are unable to resolve your complaint satisfactorily, we will issue a “deadlock” letter so that you may make a complaint to the Ombudsman Service: Communications, an independent alternative dispute resolution scheme (contact details are set out below). Alternatively if after 8 weeks your complaint remains unresolved you can contact the Ombudsman Service: Communications scheme directly.
How to contact us
If you need advice, information or assistance on any products and services or this Code of Practice, please call us free from a Lebara mobile on 5588, from a landline on 0870 075 5588*, email care@lebara.com, visit our website at www.lebara.co.uk, Or write to us at the following address:
Customer Services
Lebara Mobile Limited
25 Copthall Avenue
London
EC2R 7BP
13. Premium-rate services
Premium-rate services have dialling codes starting with 09xx or 0871 and are charged at a higher rate than normal calls. They might include:
The company providing these services is known as a ‘service provider’.
Directory enquiry services with numbers that start with 118 are also classed as premium-rate services. The extra cost of the call is paid to the organisation offering that particular 118 service. The network operator who gives them the 118 number will also take a share of the price to cover the cost of carrying the 118 calls.
Information about the charges for calling premium-rate services from a Lebara SIM card is given in our price list which is available at www.lebara.co.uk/prepay/rates.
14. PhonepayPlus
PhonepayPlus regulates premium-rate services. It publishes a code of practice that providers of premium-rate services must follow. This includes rules on advertising and promoting premium-rate services. PhonepayPlus may be able to help you if you’ve a complaint about a premium-rate service.
PhonepayPlus (see ‘Other contacts’ for their contact details) regulates the content of premium rate services and how they’re advertised. It’s responsible for investigating complaints about the way premium-rate services are advertised or run, or the way information received using a premium-rate call has been presented. PhonepayPlus can’t give compensation for calls made to recorded information premium-rate numbers. It may be able to give details of the service provider.
15. Number Translation Services
Number Translation Services (NTS) are calls to numbers shown in the National Telephone Numbering Plan as ‘special services’. The National Telephone Numbering Plan is the UK’s list of numbers that Ofcom has allocated to phone companies. The ‘special services’ include:
Complaints about Number Translation Services
What we can do for you:
We can give details of:
Our advertising and promotional materials clearly show:
You can find information about calling Number Translation Services using a Lebara SIM card line in our price list at www.lebara.co.uk/prepay/rates.
16. Some Other Useful Contacts
Ombudsman Services: Communications
PO Box 730
Warrington
WA4 6WU
Phone: 0330 440 1614, 0192 543 0049 or 0845 050 1614*
Fax: 0330 440 1615 or 0192 543 0059
Textphone: 0845 051 1513* or 0330 440 1600
Email: enquiries@os-communications.org
Website: www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html
PhonepayPlus (regulator of premium-rate services)
Freepost WC5468
London
SE1 2BR
Phone: 0800 500 212 (8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday)
Website: www.phonepayplus.org.uk
Ofcom (Office of Communications)
Ofcom Contact Centre
Riverside House
Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA
Phone: 0300 123 3000
Website: www.ofcom.org.uk
Telephone Preference Service (TPS)
DMA House
70 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8SS
Phone: 0845 070 0707*
Email: tps@dma.org.uk
Website: www.tpsonline.org.uk
*Calls to ‘0845’ and ‘0870’ numbers are charged at a national rate from BT Landlines, other network operators’ charges may vary, calls from mobiles may cost significantly more.