I am writing on behalf of the
sufferer, whom living in the same address. The sufferer is an
old lady and does not know any English.
In Dec 2001, there was a man coming to this address and said there
is a free gift giving to Mrs Yao. All did Mrs Yao understand was
just a free gift and she accepted. The man just ask her to sign
and make she feel that it was just a receiving slip and did not
realize that it was a telephone contract.
In this point, I better tell what exactly the free gift was. It
was a black box, called Smart Socket, which installed on the telephone.
This box got a very strong signal. When the household use that
telephone, the signal box functioned and grab the outgoing signal
to the Npower company. So, the household had to pay the bill to
Npower instead of the original telephone company, Breathe.
Mrs Yao realized that her bill was changed to Npower due to the
rising bills. In breif, Breathe only charged her around £5
for 30 mins, but the Npower charged her £19.57. Her niece
helped her to cancelled the service, but it took 6 months for
the cancellation due to the late respond of the company. In the
meantime, the Smart Socket kept functioning and the bills was
much higher than the original company would charged, i.e. the
peak international rate. Mrs. Yao even was not told about there
was a dialing number in Npower which would cost less. From there
to now, the lump sum is £70.17 in total.
Mrs Yao is a 67 old lady who is still taking the relief fund from
government. She can not afford to pay such a hige amount. I strongly
protest against the way Npower has conducted its business. Through
no fault of Mrs. Yao, this poor old lady has suffered a lot of
trouble and much anxiety and distress because of Npower's unscrupulous
salesman going from door to door to exploit helpless old people
who are alone, especially those who have difficulty speaking or
understanding English. Surely, it could be deemed illegal to have
her signing the contract under false pretences. In this case,
as if Mrs Yao was signing for a delivery.
Considering all the trouble and anxiety that Npower has put Mrs.
Yao through, I certainly feel that she should not bear the amount
charged to her on her Npower bills and apology letter would be
appropriate.
If it is necessary, all the correspondences can be provided for
evidence.
