Sip Communications Limited Small Business Code of Practice

1.Introduction

This is our UK small business code of practice. If you use our services and are a small business, it means that this applies to you and that you agree to it as part of our terms and conditions of use. If you are not a UK small business, then the complaint handling and dispute resolutions process will be set out in your contract with Sipcom.

We may change this policy, so we expect you to check this page from time to time as the changes will be binding on you. There may also be changes elsewhere on our site.

The purpose of this code is to inform you about our products, services, customer-care policies and where to find information about our charges and terms and conditions. This Code of Practice is published on our website www.stg-sipcomcorporate-stagingold.kinsta.cloud Additional copies are available on request and free of charge to any small business customer.

While we may not provide all the component parts of our services ourselves, we do take responsibility for the services delivered to you. So, we will liaise with our suppliers to ensure that any problems with their services are resolved promptly.

2.Who we are

SIP Communications Limited is part of the SIP Communications Group Limited.

Some important details about us:

Our HQ is located at Lowry Mill, Lees Street, Swinton, Manchester, England, M27 6DB.
Our regulator is: Ofcom (UK) and FCC (USA)

3.How to Contact Us

Please contact our Customer Service Team using one of the following:

By Phone: 0203 328 5000
By Email: support@stg-sipcomcorporate-stagingold.kinsta.cloud
By Letter: Lowry Mill, Lees Street, Swinton, Manchester, England, M27 6DB

4.Our Commitment to You

We are committed to giving you the highest quality of customer service. When we purchase our services from wholesale providers, we choose those providers carefully to ensure that you get a high-quality service. We make every reasonable effort to supply services that satisfy your requirements. We work to all relevant laws and regulations.

Our Products and Services

Landline telephones
Landline calls
CPS – Carrier Pre-Selection
WLR – Wholesale Line Rental
ISDN – digital telephone lines
Broadband access
VoIP & IP telephony services
Non-geographic numbers
Intelligent Call Routing
Internet
Directory enquiries
Mobile telephone and data services
Wide area/local paging services
Equipment and maintenance service
Hosted Telephony
Cloud Services

For more details on any of our products and services, or to place an order immediately, please contact our Customer Service Team on info@stg-sipcomcorporate-stagingold.kinsta.cloud

You may also purchase our services from local dealers and retailers around the UK. For more information, please contact the Customer Service Team on info@stg-sipcomcorporate-stagingold.kinsta.cloud

Marketing
We work to the principles in the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, which are set out on the website www.cap.org.uk.

Terms and Conditions

When you subscribe to a service from Sipcom, we will send you our Standard Terms and Conditions and ask you to sign a contract, if applicable. If you have any questions, please phone our Customer Service Team on 0203 328 5000. We may carry out a credit check as part of our assessment procedures.

Where applicable the minimum contract term for our services will be 36 months. We aim to provide services within three working days of your original request, subject to the availability and provisioning requirements and installation of any equipment and, where appropriate, lines to your premises. If we need to carry out a survey of your premises or lay additional cabling, we will inform you of the revised timescales as soon as we can.

Cancellation

If you decide to cancel your order or agreement before we have provided the services, you may do so without charge within 10 working days of your order being placed. For cancellations after 10 working days we will charge you an administration fee as set out in your contract. If you wish to terminate your contract within the minimum term of 36 months, please call our Customer Service Helpdesk on 0203 328 5000. We will charge you a fee as set out in your contract. After the minimum term you can cancel any service by calling our Customer Service Helpdesk giving us the required notice as set out in your contract.

Faults and Repairs

Please call our Incident Team on 0203 328 5000 if you experience a fault with any of our services. For domestic customers we aim to have this investigated and repaired within 2 days. For SMEs we will agree the timescales applicable to activation of a new service, restoration following loss of service, keeping a pre-agreed engineer appointments etc during the customer order process.

Compensation and Refund Policy

We do not offer automatic compensation payments in cases where the service level targets are not met and will assess any claim for compensation on a case by case basis. Any payment made will be on a purely discretionary basis.

We do not feel that fixed level compensation payments are appropriate for business customers, who we advise to seek other ways, such as insurance, to protect themselves against the impact of any loss of service.

Price Lists

Our pricing structure is available from our Customer Service Team and would also be set out on your order acceptance document. We will inform you in advance if we change the pricing structure on your products and services.

Billing and Payment

We will bill you monthly. Generally, services are billed in advance and usage like calls are billed in arrears. You can choose to pay us via a range of options including Direct Debit, credit card, cheque and Bank Transfer. These are agreed at the start of your contract. If you wish to change your method of payment at any time, please call our Customer Service Team. We provide itemised bills as part of our service to you.

If you have difficulty paying your bill, please contact us on 0203 328 5000 and we will try to arrange a different method of payment. We will do all we can to help our small business customers to manage their bills and avoid disconnection. In any event, you will be given 48 hours’ notice of any decision to disconnect your services.

Moving Home or Office

Please call our Customer Service Team on 0203 328 5000 no later than 14 days before your move date. We will amend your account and billing requirements as necessary. We will endeavour to offer you the same telephone number to minimise disruption but please note that for geographic numbers this is not always possible.

Number Porting

Sipcom recognise that keeping your existing telephone numbers may be important to you. If you move your business to us and wish to keep the number that you have with your old provider, we will arrange it if you ask us. We will work with you to ensure that the services are switched over at a convenient and appropriate time. For more information, please call our Customer Service Team on 0203 328 5000.

If we fail to allow you to move your number away from us, we will pay you compensation at a rate of 1/365^th cost of number rental (if applicable) per day of delay.

Directory Entries

You are entitled to a Directory Entry listing (including an entry in the Phone Book) for both your fixed and mobile telephone numbers. If you do want your details included, please contact our Customer Service Team on 0203 328 5000.

Complaints

We make every effort to ensure that our customers are happy with the level of service, and the products and service they receive from us. However, despite our best efforts, things can go wrong. We take customer complaints very seriously and aim to resolve them quickly and efficiently.

Our Code of Practice on Complaint Handling and Dispute Resolution explains how customers can complain. The code also provides information on how we deal with complaints and your right to take unresolved complaints to Alternative Dispute Resolution. You can find a copy of our Complaints Code on our website. Alternatively, copies are available free of charge and on request from our Customer Service Team on 0203 328 5000.

Services for People with Special Needs

We are committed to helping all our customers to communicate easily. We offer the following additional services on request for customers who are older or who may have a disability:

Priority access to the Customer Service Team
Priority fault repair and assistance
Text Relay Service
Mobile SMS access to Emergency Services
Third party bill management
Access to a free Directory Enquiries service for people who are unable to use the printed phone book
Copies of bills, contracts and this Code in an accessible format

Data Protection

We comply fully with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018.

6.Code of Practice for Premium Rate Service Calls

This code informs you, our small business customers, about our policies on providing information about Premium Rate Service (PRS) calls and on our charging policy for calls to PRS numbers.

Premium Rate Services

Premium rate services (PRS) are telephone numbers that offer some form of information or entertainment that is charged to your phone bill. UK-based PRS numbers are normally prefixed by “09” or “118”. Numbers starting 087 are also designated as Premium Rate numbers and subject to PRS regulation when they cost 7p per minute or more. Typical services include TV votelines, mobile ringtone downloads, technical helplines, charity fund-raising and adult entertainment.

Charges for these services are made up of two parts, a service charge and an access charge and the total is added to your telephone bill. You will see the service charge advertised by the company providing the service alongside the number and this can be between 7p and £3.60 per minute, or £6 per call or per text (including VAT) for 08 and 09 prefixes. Calls to 118 services can cost up to £15.98 per call plus a £7.99 per minute charge (including VAT). The access charge is kept by us, your phone company. Our access charge for calling these services is shown in our price list, which is available on request from our Customer Services Team and via our website.

If you have a problem with PRS, we can help. We can provide advice on checking the telephone number of any PRS charges that appear on your bill and will try to help you identify the premium rate service provider. We can use call barring to restrict access to “09” numbers. Please call our Customer Service Team on xxxx for advice on this. We can give you a factsheet on PRS.

You can also ask for help from the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) which is the industry-funded regulatory body for Premium Rate Services. PSA operates a Code of Practice that sets out standards for the operation of PRS. You can use the PSA website at www.psauthority.org.uk to check PRS numbers direct and find contact details for the company in question or to submit a complaint. PSA has the legal powers to require a provider of PRS to amend its service or promotional material (or both) and can also order refunds and impose penalties on service providers for breaches of the PSA Code. For other ways to contact Phone-paid Services Authority, see the “Useful addresses” section below.

If you are unhappy with the help you have received from us on a problem with PRS, please contact us by phone: 0203 328 5000 or by email: support@stg-sipcomcorporate-stagingold.kinsta.cloud and ask for the Chief Commercial Officer who has responsibility for compliance with our code of practice for PRS. You may also complain using the complaints procedure set out in our complaints code including, ultimately, referring your complaint to Ombudsman Services/CISAS.

The Telephone Preference Service

If you don’t want to get sales and marketing calls you have not requested, you can add your details to a list run by the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). If your number is on the list, it is illegal for a company to call you for marketing purposes. You can contact the Telephone Preference Service via www.tpsonline.org.uk or by telephoning 0845 070 0707.

7.Who owns this document?

The Chief Commercial Officer is the owner of this document and is responsible for ensuring that this procedure is reviewed in line with the review requirements of the business. A copy of the Policy is available on our website or by emailing legal@stg-sipcomcorporate-stagingold.kinsta.cloud.

Useful Addresses

The Ombudsman Services

3300 Daresbury Park, Daresbury, Warrington, WA4 4HS

T: 0330 440 1614

W: www.ombudsman-services.org

(CP questions can be directed to osaccountmanagers@ombudsman-services.org )

CISAS

70 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1EU

T: 0845 1308 170 or 0207 520 3827

E: info@cisas.org.uk

W: www.cisas.org.uk

Ofcom