‘Slammed’ phone gets Tracy down

Tracy Kimpton

A disabled woman from Derker will be without the internet or a landline throughout the festive period because her provider, Tesco, cancelled her account without her knowledge.

Tracy Kimpton (46) realised she was suddenly without the internet on November, 19, two days after she and her husband, Jeremy, had paid their latest bill.

Little did they know that upon contacting Tesco they were embarking on a process that would last for over a month as a result of an account cancellation Tesco has been unwilling to take responsibility for.

Mrs Kimpton said: “I’ve got arthritis and it is difficult for me to get about to do any Christmas shopping so I rely on the internet to get a lot of my presents. This has really caused me a lot of problems.”

Woeful

Mr Kimpton added: “I’m currently a job seeker with the job centre and it is very hard to maintain a professional profile when you don’t have the internet. The internet services in the job centre are woeful and I’m worried I’m losing employment opportunities as a result of this.”

When their internet service first went down, Mrs Kimpton was told by Tesco that it may be a wiring problem and she was promised an engineer would visit.

After a few days’ waiting, a contact from Tesco phoned Mrs Kimpton and tried to organise internet — assuming she was a new customer.

Frustrated, the couple travelled to the Huddersfield Road store to speak to a customer services manager, only to be informed their account had been cancelled.

Tesco explained they would get in touch with the landline provider, BT, to find out what had happened.

Mrs Kimpton said: “Tesco claims they have been ‘slammed’ which is a process they have described as when a different company has tried to take over the account.

“But that seems ludicrous because my account is with Tesco and I can’t understand how an outside company gets involved with my Tesco account.”

Mrs Kimpton has now been told that she can be reconnected but a new account will need to be set up for her taking seven to 14 working days.

When contacted for comment, a Tesco spokesperson said: “Unfortunately in this instance it appears that this customer was a victim of ‘slamming’.

“The line was showing as ceased in terms of our records, however, her account remained active.

“We have been working to have the line reactivated and have opened a new account so that service becomes active as quickly as possible.

“We will stay in close contact with the customer to ensure activation goes through correctly and they do not face any further issues or disruption.”

Have you been the victim of ‘slamming’. Call the Chronicle Newsdesk on 0161 633 2121.