Huge drop in mobile phone services complaints

The number of complaints about mobile phone services has decreased, according to a report by Payphoneplus.

The regulator of phone-paid services said the total complaints regarding mobile services are down by 57 per cent from June 2008 where the number of complaints totalled 2,125. In May 2009 this dropped to 919.

Payphoneplus said the fall in complaints could be a result of new rules put in place following its 2008 Mobile Review. These say that services cannot be advertised as free unless they are free from any associated charges.

The regulations were introduced in June 2008 in response to a rise in consumer complaints regarding mobile services. On average, these account for 90 per cent of all calls to Phonepayplus' Contact Centre.

A prior permissions scheme for subscription services costing upwards of £4.50 in any given week was also introduced.

The rules also reinforced Phonepayplus' zero tolerance to any failure of the 'STOP' command allowing people to opt out of receiving unwanted contact by text message.

Consumer complaints regarding mobile subscription services have almost halved, falling from 1,207 to 651since the introduction of the new rules. And complaints about unsolicited text messages are down by 85 per cent from the first half of 2008/9.

Paul Whiteing, chief executive at Phonepayplus, said: "These results show that we are heading in the right direction and sorting the good from the bad in mobile services. It is early days, and we are still analysing the various impacts on our complaint numbers, but these are an encouraging set of results that appear to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new rules, as supported by responsible providers in the sector.

"However we are not complacent and remain vigilant for any new opportunistic activity that may result in consumer harm.”