Our customers are an important part of our business, and making sure you’re happy with our services is at the heart of everything we do. So we’ve put this code of practice together to make sure you have the latest information on our products, services and customer care policies, including how to contact us if you have any questions.

​

We’ll follow this code of practice to make sure that we:

• act fairly and reasonably when in contact with you

• help you to understand how our products and services work

• deal with any complaints quickly and fairly

• make sure that all our products and services keep to relevant laws and regulations

• make copies of this code available on our website and in writing

• train all our staff to follow this code at all times

 

Who We Are

Fone World is an independent telecoms provider offering service, support & savings to consumers & businesses for more than 5 years.

 

Our Services

We provide a range of voice and data services on price plans that suit your needs.

 

Billing and Top-Up

If you are a Pay monthly customer you will receive a monthly bill (usually online) detailing the charges for the month to come and any call charges for the previous month. You can receive a paper bill at a charge of £1.99 per month. You can pay your bill by Direct Debit, telephone banking, internet banking or other payment methods but there will be an extra charge for any payment methods other than Direct Debit.

​

Switching to Fone World

You can keep your existing mobile number if you switch to Fone World from another provider. It takes one working day and is free of charge. First you will need to get a PAC from your existing provider and give it to us. This means we have your permission to request your number to be transferred to us.

 

Fone World Disconnection Policy

Our disconnection policy is outlined in our terms and conditions which you receive a copy of when you join the Fone World network. If you are a Pay monthly customer and you don’t pay your bill or exceed your credit limit, we may stop you making outgoing calls. Continuing not to pay will lead to suspension and disconnection. If you are a pay as you go customer you will be disconnected from the network if you don’t make a chargeable action (e.g. call or SMS) within a 180 day period. We may also disconnect customers for other reasons, e.g. if you use our services in an unlawful manner such as making offensive or nuisance communications, or sending, receiving, uploading and downloading material which is illegal, offensive or indecent.

 

Terminating Your Plan with Fone World

If you are on a pay monthly plan and wish to terminate your plan with Fone World, please contact us for details. Once terminated you will receive a final bill that will include any early termination fees (if applicable). If you change your mind between informing us and your contract termination date, you can let us know and we will restore it. If you cancel during the minimum term you will have to pay an early termination charge which is equivalent to your monthly line rental x remaining months of your contract (plus any other outstanding charges that you owe us). We will deduct any discount we owe you. When you call us we will explain the charges to you in detail, including how we arrive at the final amount.

 

Emergency Calls

In an emergency you should dial 999 or 112 to be connected to the emergency services. An operator will connect you though to the emergency authority that you request. If you are hard of hearing or speech impaired you can use the 999 SMS service by registering here: www.emergencysms.org.uk.

 

Directory Enquiry Listing

You have a right to choose whether your details are included in directory listings. Contact customer services if you do want your details included.

 

Non-Geographic Call Services

These are numbers that don’t relate to a geographic location. They include numbers beginning 08, 09 (premium rate numbers), 116 (helplines), 118 (directory enquiries) and 070 (personal numbers or “find me anywhere” numbers). If you call these numbers you will see the total cost of the call split out on your bill into an ‘access charge’ which is set by us, plus a ‘service charge’ that is set by the organisation you are calling. Calls to 0800, 0808 80 helplines and 116 numbers are free to call.

​

Premium Rate Services

Premium rate services offer some form of content that is charged to your mobile phone bill or prepay account. They are priced higher than your standard call charge because they involve an operator sharing revenue with a content provider. These services can be voice, text, video, picture message. Services can also be accessed by landline telephone, fax, interactive TV and PC. Premium rate numbers generally begin with 09. Typical services include TV vote lines, ringtones, chat, charitable fund-raising, sports results and directory enquiry services. Mobile text short-code numbers - the five digit numbers that you can use to enter text competitions, give to charity via your mobile, download mobile games, etc. - are also considered premium rate. Directory enquiry services are advertised on six-digit numbers beginning with 118. Charges for these will appear on your account and a proportion of the charge will be paid to the content provider. It is possible to bar calls to 09 numbers and you can also stop receiving chargeable messages. If you would like to know how much it costs to dial a specific number, or if you would like information on how to bar numbers, you can contact us.

 

Subscription Services

Some services require you to subscribe which means that you may be charged a daily or monthly fee for which you will be sent a number of chargeable messages every month. Before you subscribe to a premium rate service you will be sent a free welcome message which contains useful information including charges for the service and how to unsubscribe. If you want to terminate the service, or you have mistakenly subscribed to a service, you can send the word ‘STOP’ to the short-code and you should not receive any more chargeable messages. You should always be given the contact details of the company and the cost of the service before using it and monthly reminders while using it. If you have a query, a complaint, have not received the service or want a refund then you should contact the third party directly.

​

Unlimited Data Policy

Subject to data fair usage policies. Where users regularly tether to 12 or more devices or have used 650GB of data twice within a 6 month period then we may investigate to ascertain whether your unlimited data usage is in line with standard use and our Artificially Inflated Traffic (AIT) policy. In the event it is determined that usage is for non-standard purposes, then we reserve the right to adjust the plan or to terminate the agreement. In addition whilst roaming outside of the UK on unlimited data plans, and within standard inclusive or daily roaming destinations usage is capped at 25GB per month and roaming restrictions may be applied.  

​

Inappropriate Content

The mobile industry uses the BBFC guideline to determine what content should be rated 18.

 

Content Control Bar

To prevent users from accessing 18-rated content when they use a mobile phone we have a service called ‘Content Control Bar’. To remove the Content Control Bar you will need to prove that you are over 18.

​

Phone-paid Services Authority

Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) is the regulatory body appointed by Ofcom to regulate the content, goods and services charged to a phone bill. PSA investigates complaints about the advertising, content and overall operation of premium rate services. It has the power to fine companies and bar access to their services if they breach their code of practice. If you have a complaint you should contact the service provider first. If they don’t resolve your query to your satisfaction you should contact us and we will investigate. You can contact PSA by phone: 0300 30 300 20 or online: www.psa.org.uk.

​

​

What to do if you receive unwanted calls or text messages

You may receive unwanted calls from sales and marketing companies who are trying to sell goods and services. If you don’t want to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls, you should register your number with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) by:

​

• telephone: 0345 070 0707

• online: www.tpsonline.org.uk

 

If after registering with the TPS you still receive unwanted calls you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:

​

• telephone: 0303 123 1113

• email: data@informationcommissioner.gov.uk

• online: http://www.ico.gov.uk/

 

What to do if you receive nuisance calls:

Malicious calls can be offensive, threatening, or just very annoying. They may also be a criminal offence under the Communications Act 2003. If you are getting nuisance calls, please let us know.

​

What to do if you have a faulty phone:

If you have a faulty phone, the action you should take depends on whether you have bought the phone directly from Fone World, or from another store or service provider. If you bought your phone directly from Fone World, please contact us and we will be able to assist you. The solutions that Fone World can provide will differ from case to case, depending on the type of fault and the reason for it occurring. If you did not buy your phone directly from Fone World but from another seller you will need to speak to them directly.

​

Complaint handling and alternative dispute resolution procedures:

We hope that you will never have reason to complain about any aspect of our services.

​

However, if there is something you are not happy with you should contact us and we will make our best efforts to resolve your complaint or query. We will aim to find an immediate solution where we can, though more complex complaints may take a little longer to sort out.

​

If having contacted us you feel that your complaint has not been dealt with you can ask for your complaint to be escalated to a Manager. If we still can't resolve the complaint after eight weeks, you can refer the issue to the independent Alternative Dispute Resolution service provided by Ombudsman Services Communications. As long as your complaint is within their remit, they'll investigate it free of charge.

​

You can ask that your complaint goes to Ombudsman Services Communications before the eight weeks is up. However we do have the right to insist that our process is followed if we’re taking steps to resolve your complaint and expect it to be resolved promptly. Ombudsman Services Communications can refuse to investigate your complaint if they think it’s malicious or outside their remit.

Their contact details are:

​

Ombudsman Services: Communications
PO Box 730
Warrington
WA4 6WU

​

• Phone: 0330 440 1614 (standard call charges apply)

• Fax: 01925 430 049

• Email: enquiries@os-communications.org

• Online: http://www.os-communications.org