Gradwell Code of Practice

Our Procedures

About Gradwell and this Code of Practice

1.1. Gradwell Communications Limited (“Gradwell”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a communications provider that provides various Internet and telephony products and services to business customers in the United Kingdom. We have been trading since 1998.

1.2. The purpose of this Code of Practice is to inform you about our procedures, products and services, and customer care policies.

1.3. Gradwell is registered with the Ombudsman Service who provide an independent dispute resolution service in the telecommunications sector. Please see www.ombudsman-services.org for more details.

1.4. This Code of Practice applies only Gradwell’s direct customers who use our services themselves (i.e. it does not apply to parties who resell Gradwell’s goods and services or who refer customers to Gradwell).

1.5. References to “Website” means our web presence at www.gradwell.com, including any associated website, web-page, or sub-page of that site. This includes the Gradwell control panel, which you will have access to once you create an account with us when you become a Gradwell customer.

1.6. References to information or notices being “written” or “in writing” includes those sent by email.
How to Contact Us
Sales enquiries
Tel: 01225 800 808
(Mon – Fri 9am – 5pm except Bank Holidays)
Email: sales@gradwell.com
Technical Support enquiries
Tel: 01225 800 888
Email: connectivity@gradwell.com for data/connectivity services and support@gradwell.com for all other types of service.
Fax: 01225 800 801
Website: www.gradwell.com
Support availability: Mon – Fri 8am – 6pm for voice services (although a ‘reasonable efforts’ support service is provided outside of these hours, but it is provided without any commitment, undertaking or other assurance). Support for data/connectivity services is provided on a 24/7 basis.

Postal Address
Customer Services
Gradwell Communications Limited
Ground Floor
Trimbridge House
Trim Street
Bath BA1 1HB
United Kingdom

Our Services

2.1. We provide a number of different communications services that are available for purchase including voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephony services, broadband and fibre internet access and Microsoft Office 365. You can get information on our current services and charges by visiting our Website or by calling the Gradwell sales team on 01225 800 808.

Ordering our Products and Services

3.1. This can be done via our Website or by calling our sales team on 01225 594 746.

Contract Terms

4.1. The contract for the goods and services we sell are based on our standard terms which include a number of service-specific annexes. To sign up as a Gradwell customer, you must read and agree to these contract terms. The terms are shown to you on the Website during the purchasing process, or are sent to you when you become a Gradwell customer if you purchase goods or services over the phone or you complete an order form.

4.2. You can view a copy of our standard terms online (and download a copy) at www.gradwell.com/terms. Alternatively, you can request a copy by emailing concerns@gradwell.com.

Minimum Contract Period and Cancellation of Services

5.1. All services we sell have a minimum contract commitment period. This period is:

  • Two years for voice services
  • Three years for broadband/connectivity services
  • Two years for any other type of service

5.2. We may in some circumstances specify or agree with you that a different minimum contract period will apply.

5.3. Unless special circumstances exist (as detailed in our standard terms), if you want to cease your service before the end of the relevant minimum contract period, you must pay a cancellation charge. The cancellation charge is the amount you would have paid had you kept the services for the remainder of the minimum contract period.

5.4. Once the minimum contract period has expired, it will automatically renew for a further minimum contract period of 12 months unless you satisfy the definition of a residential or small business customer under Ofcom’s General Conditions of Entitlement. Where you satisfy this definition, the contract will only renew for a further minimum contract period of 12 months where you give us express consent to renew, otherwise the contract will continue until terminated by you or Gradwell on 31 days’ notice (or where a shorter notice period applies if either party breaches the contract).

5.5. Where you are a consumer (as defined in the standard terms), you may cancel your contract for goods and/or services within 14 days of the goods being delivered to you, or of the contract for the service starting. Please note that if you’ve agreed to, and we have already starting to provide the service by the time you cancel it, you’ll have to pay us the full cost of the services you’ve received up to the point when you notify us.

5.6. You can end your Gradwell contract at any time by giving us 31 days’ written notice by post or email to the appropriate contact details listed above. However, you will be responsible for paying for the charges associated with any remaining period of the relevant minimum contract period.

5.7. If you give us notice that you wish to end your Gradwell contract, then you must make arrangements to switch to an alternative telephony service provider before the end of the 31-day notice period you give us. You do not need to wait until the end of your notice period to switch to another service provider (but you will be responsible for all charges associated with your Gradwell services up until the end of the notice period).

5.8. At the end of the 31-day notice period, your entitlement to use the relevant Gradwell services will end. If you do not take steps to secure equivalent services from an alternative communications provider, you will be left without the relevant type of service after this

Price Lists

6.1. We will give you at least 31 days’ notice in writing of any increase in the price of your Gradwell services (except changes to call tariffs).

6.2. We may change our call tariffs at any time by providing you with at least 14 days’ notice in writing.

6.3. The current call tariffs that apply are available on the Gradwell control panel.

Price Lists

7.1. Invoices for the products and services you buy will be provided to you through the Gradwell control panel and by email. Paper statements are also available on request.

7.2. Itemised call data records for the calls you have made using our voice services are available through the Gradwell control panel. Specific call data records should not be treated as final until you receive an invoice from us in respect of those records.

7.3. Unless our standard terms say otherwise, you must pay in advance for the products and services and in arrears for any usage charges (including, where applicable, charges associated with you exceeding your service usage cap).

Support

8.1. You can check the current status of our services at any time by visiting www.gradwellstatus.com.

8.2. If you experience a problem with your Gradwell service, please contact our support team via one of the following methods below.

8.3. If your problem relates to broadband, please call 01225 800 889 or email dsl-support@gradwell.com.

8.4. If your problem relates to any other service provided by Gradwell, please call 01225 800 888 or email support@gradwell.com

8.5. Our support team will discuss the problem with you and work with you to resolve the problem. In some instances, this may involve third party operators such as BT.

8.6. Some of our services are supported by service level commitments with assured uptime and fix time commitments. To see if the service you receive is accompanied by such support, please visit our Website.

Moving Premises

9.1. If you move premises, we may be unable to provide the same service at your new address. To check whether we can continue supplying the services, please contact our support team on 01225 800 888 in advance of your move. You must always keep us updated of your current address which you can do through the control panel or by calling our support team.

Complaints

10.1. Gradwell are committed to providing excellent service and we try to deal with all complaints and concerns fairly and within a reasonable period of time.

10.2. If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service, please contact us so we can investigate and do our utmost to resolve the issue.

10.3. If you have a problem with the way we have sold, provisioned or delivered the service to you, you should:

• In the first instance, telephone us on 01225 800 888 or write via email to support@gradwell.com. We aim to respond to emails within 24 hours. Please ensure you retain the reference number the support team provide you with. Our support team will do their utmost to successfully resolve any problems at the point of first contact, but where this is not possible, we will agree a course of action with you.
• If you remain unhappy with the way in which your complaint has been handled in the first instance, you may contact the Customer Support Manager via concerns@gradwell.com mentioning your case reference number. They will respond and aim to resolve your complaint within 48 hours.
• If the Customer Support Manager is unable to resolve the issue to your satisfaction, you may escalate your concern to the Chief Executive by emailing concerns@gradwell.com. In both cases, they will aim to respond to you within two working days.
10.4. As part of investigating and addressing any complaint you make, we will inform you in writing about the outcome within 7 working days of the investigation ending.

10.5. Please note that in all cases, we ask that you mention your incident reference number in all correspondence, and that you work with our management team to resolve your concern. In the unlikely event that your complaint has not been resolved by Gradwell to your satisfaction within a period of eight weeks, or if during the process of investigating your complaint you believe the situation has reached a deadlock, you may refer your complaint to the Ombudsman Service for independent consideration. Where your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks or you notify us that you believe the situation has reached deadlock, we will send you an ADR letter explaining your right to refer your complaint to the Ombudsman Service. The Ombudsman Service will make an independent decision based entirely on the merits of the complaint.

10.6. More information on the Ombudsman Service is available on their website www.ombudsman-services.org, or you can write to them at the following address: Ombudsman Services: Communications, PO Box 730, Warrington, WA4 6WU.

10.7. You can also call them Monday to Friday between 9am-5pm, or you can email, fax, textphone or write to them. Contact details: Phone: 0330 440 1614, Email: osenquiries@os-communications.org, Fax: 0330 440 1615 0330 440 1600.

10.8. In addition to the above, where you buy goods or services from us as a consumer:
• the European Commission has established a web-based platform to allow consumers to deal with contractual disputes. Access to the portal is available through the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. You may also contact us via email at: support@gradwell.com; or
• you may wish to contact the Citizen’s Advice Consumer Service for independent, impartial and free service, although this process is outside our complaints procedure.
10.9. We will retain certain data about any complaint you make in accordance with our Privacy Policy. This data will include a record of the date on which the complaint was received, a description of what the complaint is about, all communications between us and you and the date on which the complaint was resolved or closed.

10.10. A hard copy of Gradwell’s complaints and dispute resolution procedure is available on request by emailing concerns@gradwell.com.

Number porting

11.1. When you take a new voice service with us or you switch your voice services to us, you may request us to port your telephone number from another communications provider and we will try to do this where it is technically feasible. However, this may not always be possible. Where it is not possible to port your number in, we may have to provide you with a new number. We may charge you a reasonable fee to port your number. For more information, please call the Gradwell sales team on 01225 800 808.

11.2. You may request that we port your telephone number to another communications provider and this process is led by the communications provider you are transferring to. We must have in place with the other communications provider a porting agreement and the necessary technical measures before we can port your number. We may charge you a reasonable fee to port your number. For more information about the process and the relevant timescales, please call our support team on 01225 800 888.

Number porting compensation policy

12.1. Compensation may be available if your number port to Gradwell is delayed.

12.2. To be eligible for compensation:

• You must receive voice services from Gradwell solely for use in your personal capacity (i.e. other than within a business context); and
• There must be a qualifying delay in porting your telephone number(s) to us (as explained below).
12.3. Where we approve your request to port your number to us, we will confirm the scheduled porting date to you in advance (“Porting Date”). A qualifying delay occurs where your number port is not activated within one working day of the Porting Date. If this happens, for each day by which the Porting Date is missed, we will pay you 1/40 of the Gradwell porting fee you paid for the relevant porting order. Please note that the compensation is paid on a per order basis and not per number.

12.4. Compensation will not be paid automatically. To enquire whether you are eligible for compensation, you should email porting@gradwell.com within 30 days of the date on which the relevant number port was activated.

Directory Entries

13.1. If you tell us, we will include your details in a national directory and/or directory enquiry service. Please call or write to us (please see our website for contact details) if you would like us to do so. There may be a reasonable charge for this service.

Nuisance calls

14.1. Nuisance calls can include the following: unwanted marketing calls (for example, live sales calls, recorded calls, silent or abandoned calls), spam and malicious communications. We refer to these as “nuisance calls”.

14.2. We take the problem of nuisance calls very seriously. We tackle it by working closely with the police and others in the communications industry.

14.3. If you have been a victim of nuisance calls, please call our support team to report the incident and we can provide you with advice on how to deal with it.

Services for people who are disabled or vulnerable

15.1. 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, including:

  • text relay services;
  • additional help and support if you have difficulty paying your bill;
  • copies of bills in accessible alternative formats, such as in large print, on computer disc (or in Braille) for customers who have difficulty reading their bill;
  • copies of this Code of Practice, and our standard terms are available in other formats on request; and
  • You may also nominate a close friend or relative to contact us to manage your account, and if necessary, any complaints.

15.2. We will also work with our network partners to provide a priority fault repair service as swiftly as practicable to customers with disabilities who have a genuine need for an urgent repair.

Data protection

16.1. We comply fully with our obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 in relation to managing your personal data and marketing preferences. Please see our Privacy Policy on our Website which sets out how we can use any information you provide to us. Compliance with data protection issues is regulated by the Information Commissioners Office.

Part 2 — Premium Rate Service (“PRS”) and Number Translation Service (“NTS”) calls

Introduction

17. Introduction

17.1. This Part 2 informs you about our policy on calls to PRS and NTS and how we charge for calls to these numbers.

17.2. Calls to fixed line numbers for NTS and PRS usually begin with: 118, 084, 0870, 0871, 0872, 070, 09. SMS short code, which are usually around five digits, usually begin with 2, 6, 7 or 8 (SMS stands for short message service).

17.3. Examples of the types of services you might call when you use these numbers includes competition voting for TV talent shows, entering TV or radio competitions and calling video chat services.

17.4. Calls to these numbers are typically more expensive than calls to other phone numbers.

Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) and PRS

18.1. The PSA is the industry-funded regulatory body for all premium-rate charged telecommunications services. It regulates premium-rate services through the PSA code of practice (the latest edition can be found on their website). PSA’s main role is to prevent harm to consumers.

18.2. PSA investigates complaints about the promotion and operation of services that involve the use of a telephone connection via a premium-rate number. This includes services available through various mediums such as voice (telephone), fax, Internet, mobile phone SMS and interactive TV.

18.3. PSA regulates the following services and promotions:

  • numbers beginning with 090 or 091
  • directory enquiry (DQ) services operating on numbers beginning with 118
  • reverse-billed SMS (you are charged for receiving messages) containing content operating on shortcodes.

18.4. PSA can fine companies and bar access to services if its code of practice is breached. PSA can also bar the individual(s) behind a company from running any other PRS under any company name on any telephone network for a defined period.

18.5. PSA can deal with lesser problems by issuing formal reprimands or requiring companies to seek prior approval before offering a service.

18.6. Their service is free to consumers and is fully independent.

How to complain to PSA

19.1. If you think a particular service falls within PSA’s remit, you can submit a complaint to them. There are various ways of submitting your complaint, but, before you do, we recommend that you visit their online number-checking facility for instant information about the number in question. After that, please use one of the following methods:

  • if you have a hard copy of the promotion in question (i.e. a page from a magazine), please supply your complaint in writing with a copy of the promotion to: PSA, FREEPOST WC5468, London SE1 2BR;
  • by using their online complaint form (www.psauthority.org.uk); or
  • by calling their free helpline on 0800 500 212 from 8am–8pm, Monday–Friday.

Finding information about our premium-rate service (PRS) tariffs

20.1. You will find up-to-date information about the tariffs for calling PRS numbers from our network on our Website.

How PRS works

21.1. Calls to PRS numbers are typically more expensive than calls to other telephone numbers. Most PRS numbers operate on the basis of a revenue-sharing arrangement. This means that the bulk of the revenue from calls to such services goes to the PRS providers who are responsible for the content, product or services provided or who act as resellers or ‘aggregators’ on behalf of a number of such providers. The PRS providers are responsible for complying with most of the obligations imposed by the PSA code of practice mentioned above.

21.2. The rest of the revenue is shared by:

  • the network where the consumer dials the number – also known as consumer’s ‘originating’ telephone company (for instance our wholesale partner, which receives a small fee for origination of the phone call); and
  • the network which connects the customers call with the PRS service provider – also known as the ‘terminating’ telephony company. The terminating telephony company contracts with the PRS provider to terminate these calls in this way.

Barring access to PRS numbers

22.1 By default we bar calls to premium-rate numbers, which will stop any dialling on your line to all UK-based 0900-0909 premium numbers.

Disputes about PRS numbers on your phone bill

23.1. PSA: Furthermore, the PSA may order a PRS service provider to pay you a refund if they have completed an investigation and the outcome requires this. If it can be shown that your phone has been used without your permission to call certain types of premium-rate service (e.g. live and recorded chat and live tarot services), the PSA may also be able to help you get compensation from the PRS provider.

23.2. The PSA will also be able to help you identify the service provider who provides the service behind the PRS number on your phone bill. Please visit its website at: www.psauthority.org.uk.

23.3. Ombudsman Services (Communications): of which we are a member, can investigate if you have a complaint that we cannot resolve about calls to PRS numbers appearing on your phone bill.

NTS and PRS Charges

24.1. We publish Charges for calls to NTS and PRS on our price list available on the Gradwell control panel.

24.2. You will note that we are unable to comment on the service charges payable for contacting a PRS provider as it will vary from provider to provider. We have, however, set out the access charges that arise from originating the call on our network.

24.3. Our published charges for calls to number-translation services will include variations by time of day, for example, whether the call is made during the day, evening or weekend.

24.4. We will also make it clear whether any special offers, discount schemes or call bundles include calls to number-translation services.

Internet Diallers

25.1. If you use the Internet, it is possible for software to be placed on your computer without you knowing using the same methods as for computer viruses. This type of software (known as Internet or rogue diallers) can then make calls to PRS and NTS numbers without your knowledge. The PSA has been given responsibility for policing this type of activity and you can contact them via www.psauthority.org.uk to ask for help or to report examples of this type of abuse. For other ways to contact PSA, see the ‘Useful addresses’ section below. We can also help by barring calls to 09 numbers.

The Telephone Preference Service (“TPS”)

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

Useful addresses

Advertising Standards Agency
Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn, London WC1V 6QT. Tel: 020 7492 2222. Website: https://www.asa.org.uk

Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF. Tel: 0303 123 1113. Website: https://ico.org.uk/

The Ombudsman Service (Communications)
PO Box 730, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 6WU. Tel: 0330 440 1614 email: osenquiries@os-communications.org Website: www.ombudsman-services.org

Ofcom
Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA. Tel: 020 7981 3040 or 0300 123 3333 email: contact@ofcom.org.uk Website: www.ofcom.org.uk

PSA
Clove Building, 4 Maguire Street, London, SE1 2NQ. Tel: 0800 500 212 or 020 7940 7474 Website: www.psauthority.org.uk
Telephone Preference Service, DMA House, 70 Margaret Street, London W1W 8SS Tel: 0845 070 0707 Website: www.tpsonline.org.uk

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