Some of the stories about telephony contracts highlighted this week by the BBC are nothing short of shocking – grossly inflated prices to rent phone equipment on lengthy finance deals and sales pitches that bear little resemblance to the contract subsequently produced. What’s more, in the UK there is no cooling off period for business-to-business contracts, so SMEs have been stuck with contracts lasting five or seven years and costing over the odds.
It’s only good practice to be open and transparent with the customer, giving a clear breakdown of monthly charges and overall monthly costs and itemising any upfront costs. The contract term should always be explicit, discussed with the customer and then must tally with the signed written contract.
Dalycom owner Richard Keenan said: “Our contracts are always discussed and explained in depth, preferably face to face, or if that’s not possible, then certainly on an email or over the phone or a Teams call. We ensure that customers can see precisely what they are paying for with itemised monthly charges broken down so they can identify the subscription charge per subscription and the total cost they should expect. Our contract terms are always adhered to, there are no hidden extras and no separate hardware contracts. Once any handsets are paid for, they belong to the customer.”
Dalycom’s top 10 tips to look out for:
- Check that the total monthly charges for your telephone system are acceptable and cover both the individual subscription cost and number of subscriptions required by your business, giving you a finite monthly total. Your contract should fulfil your business’s needs.
- Check any add-ons like call recording or mobile apps are broken down per user and are shown as a total monthly cost for your organisation.
- Check the hardware costs – look for a cost per month, per handset or the total cost if purchased outright. (Even if handsets are free of charge as part of a deal from Dalycom they are itemised on our contracts.)
- Check that any handsets paid for per month will belong to your business at the end of the contract term.
- Check that the contract term is at the bottom of the contract and tallies with what you have been told by the salesperson.
- Check the small print for any hidden extras or separate hardware contracts. In Dalycom’s case there are no hidden extras or separate hardware contracts.
- Check that if you were to need to upgrade your hardware you would not be required to change the contract length.
- Go through each element of the contract with the salesperson to ensure that you understand everything and can afford what you’re signing up to.
- Sign and keep a copy of your contract – Dalycom’s Business Development Manager will generally sign contacts in person or send it via Adobe Sign and save it to your file so that you can refer to your copy at any time.
- If you’re unclear about anything at all, check it before signing on the dotted line and if you feel uncomfortable about anything ask for more time to read and consider the contract before you sign.
Dalycom’s Richard Keenan continues: “Our business ethos is one of service, we’re here to ensure that our customers benefit from the services we provide and they can trust that we tailor that service to their needs not ours.”
If you’re interested in the BBC article that led to us explaining how we do business, click here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyl1vpdp7lo
