Cellcom Offers Pele-Phone Customers Tempting Deals; Pele-Phone Makes Transfer Procedurally Difficult

Cellcom has launched a campaign aimed at enticing into its net businesses and private customers of Pele-Phone owning a number of cellular phones and logging more than 500 minutes a month. Cellcom invites them to exchange their Pele-Phone instruments for Cellcom’s Nokia or Ericsson phones, at a cost of 24 payments of NIS 38 each. Together with the monthly payment of NIS 22, the customer pays less than the regular monthly payment to Pele-Phone (NIS 72), makes calls at a rate of NIS 0.41 per minute (in lieu of NIS 0.67), and will receive a 30% discount on more than 150 minutes per month.

Pele-Phone has set up a special department to handle those wishing to switch. A company manager from northern Israel who wanted to switch to the competition said Pele-Phone was piling obstacles in the way of the transfer. "They have obstructive procedures. If I want to leave and sell their instrument, they disconnect it for two months. Who will buy an instrument without a line? When I notified them that I was switching to Cellcom, they sent an agent who offered a free Pele-Phone instrument for every Cellcom instrument I had already purchased, including a car-phone. "I sent them written notice on April 23, demanding to be disconnected on May 1. They sent me a disconnection form and demanded that I sign their document. I explained that the Contracts Law requires them to disconnect me on receipt of written instruction from me, but even so, I received a bill for up to May 20, even though, since May 1, we had not been using their instruments". Pele-Phone wanted the regular payment for that period too. "After three days of argument, at the end of May, they disconnected the lines and promised to refund the money. I had the feeling that they were deliberately complicating the disconnection process and making procedural difficulties".

Pele-Phone commented: "A Pele-Phone customer wishing to terminate his contract with the company, is asked to signed a Pele-Phone disconnection form. The form can be obtained at the company’s service stations, or ordered over the phone from Pele-Phone’s customer service centre, or by fax. When the customer sends back the signed form to Pele-Phone, he is immediately disconnected".