Monitoring
– Any queries/ complaints that come through from front line as an escalation point are investigated on a case by case basis and can result in red/ yellow cards being issued. Any API’s found to be consistently in breach are then taken action against which can again result in red/yellow cards being issued
– In a self-regulated environment, EE are happy to put in place a third party entity to monitor API behaviour to make sure that payment flows, merchant contact details, delivery of digital goods etc are all in compliance with the scheme rules.
Enforcement Process
– If an API has been found to be in breach of the scheme rules, there is a dedicated team that works on issuing a red or yellow card depending on the severity of the breach and the potential for consumer harm. In some cases, if a yellow card is issued and the problem has not been resolved within 48 hours, then a red card may be issued.
– As PhonepayPlus is aware, information on breaches is quickly shared with the rest of the operators for information purposes only. In a similar manner, we appreciate information shared to us by other operators. All red/yellow card decisions are made purely on an individual basis only.
Customer Resolution Process
– If a customer has a query on a Payforit charge which shows on their bill or is deducted from their Pay As You Go allowance and do not have the details of the third party, they would initially turn to their MCP customer service line (by dialling 150 from their handsets) . Our customer service call centre advisers on both T-Mobile and Orange are provided with and trained on systems that can identify Payforit transactions as well as the associated API (on Orange) and API/ merchant (on T-Mobile). Central support systems are also in place within the call centres for both T-Mobile and Orange, and any information the advisor may need on the Payforit service, how it works, who to contact etc is all detailed within these support systems.
– An example Orange Payforit support system for front line customer services:
– If a customer contacts the Orange or T-Mobile customer service call centres about a transaction they didn’t make via Payforit, our frontline agent for Orange would be able to identify the API that billed for the service and would then either pass the customer to the API by providing them with the API’s phone number/ email address or they may just refund the amount if it was a small amount. On T-Mobile, the merchant can be identified using the MT service ID that appears on the customer’s bill and the customer would then be passed to the merchant by means of providing them with a phone number/ email address or a refund may be issued if it is a small amount. The MT service id range on T-Mobile for Payforit is different to that of PSMS so both types of transaction can be identified from their service ids straight away. There is also a different bill description which states “Payforit charge” for Payforit and “Premium Text” for PSMS.
– If the customer does not get any satisfaction from calling the API or merchant and calls back to Everything Everywhere to resolve the issue, Everything Everywhere would then pursue the matter to resolution directly with the API or merchant.
– T-Mobile customers can now use an online tool (https://www.t-mobile.co.uk/pricing-data/sms-code-check/result/) where they can input either a Service ID from the bill (e.g 700030099) or a shortcode to obtain details of the third party. The above URL is also printed on the back of customer bills.
– Any query that cannot be resolved by front line customer service advisors are routed through an escalation process for which we have a designated team:
Orange – Issues are escalated by frontline agents using a tool called ‘Merlin’. These are then managed by a back office team in our Plymouth call centre who contact the API and resolve the issue on the customer’s behalf. If a refund is due then the team will apply this directly to the customer’s bill for contract customers, or provide airtime credit to if PAYG. The refund will be clawed back from the API. The back office team will also include the details of the issue in a report which is sent to the Operation Team on a weekly basis so that they have visibility of the escalations which they can then monitor and review (and where necessary issue warnings and red/yellow cards).
T-Mobile – Escalations are sent to the Operations Team via a follow-up email and these are then dealt with in the same way as Orange escalations above.
