Hello! I'm starting this thread because Belgacom has done something apparently fraudulent to us, that I've heard is also happening to some other people in the expatriate community here. If you have had a similar experience, I would appreciate it if you could get in touch and tell me.

A month ago, an Internet + TV pack arrived at our door. Our household doesn't possess a TV, so we were rather surprised. It seems about a week previously, a salesman from the Belgacom shop at the Espace Louise registered us as having called to order the service and all the equipment that went along with it. An absolute absurdity, of course, as (as mentioned) we don't have a television and were not actually at home on the day that the package was said to be ordered.

I won't go into the breathtaking incompetence and poor manners of the four or five customer service reps we've spoken to thus far - I expect any of you who have had to deal with Belgacom are familiar with them! However, there were some interesting points about the matter:

1. A letter informing us of the order arrived two days before the package did. It was in Dutch, and as we'd asked for correspondence in French or English, we ignored it, assuming it was advertising.

2. The false order was made at the same time that our billing was automatically shifted from paper to online, and the items on the online bill were not readable initially.

3. Customer service was strenuous in its denials of any wrongdoing or mistake at Belgacom or at the Ave. Louise shop, inventing ridiculous scenarios blaming our neighbours, for example, or suggesting that my boyfriend had ordered the package - despite the fact that, as he's a member of our television-free household, he doesn't own a television either!

4. The other expatriates who I've spoken to that have had the same problem saw a similar series of events. However, they actually had a television, and assumed they'd got an automatic upgrade or something of the sort. They accepted the delivery in ignorance, and got hit with a bill for more than Euro 200 a couple of months later.

Now, I don't know if this sort of thing has just been a problem in the expatriate community or not, and I don't know how widespread it is, but it is unacceptable. My guess is that some Belgacom salespeople have been registering these false requests, in an effort to meet sales quotas and in the hope that Belgacom's notoriously horrible customer service procedures persuade people to accept the new product and service without trying to make too much of a fuss. And that sounds like a scam to me - what's more, a scam with systemic approval.

Belgacom has already given me enough annoyance over the matter for it to be worth my time now to make a formal complaint through the relevant authorities. However, before I do so, I'd like to hear if any of the people on the forum have had something similar happen to them. If so, do get in touch by leaving a message on the forum, and a way for me to contact you. Maybe I can do more if some of you can share your experiences with me. Thank you!

I did a quick search and found that (see article below) that there is a cooldown period of 7 days in Belgium in where you can make known that you do not want to use the services of a company.

But if you never put down a signature under a contract or anything else written down, then I think it should be possible (as the last part of the article states) to write Belgacom a letter explaining that you do not want the service, never requested it, asked them to stop it right after receiving the package and simply do not even own a tv so it's highly unlickely that you would even consider buying this service. Make sure you do not pay any bill they send you (see article)

Could you explain why you did go in to the Belgacom shop and why you gave your personal details? I am wondering if Belgacom asked you to send a brochure and via this got you into this mess. ie should expats be aware of this.

your point 1: I've got Telenet, we received our bills in french, we did not pay those (not even the reminders) till we got the Dutch bills. Good thing about receiving everything in Dutch is that when you contact the Dutch speaking service center they can actually speak English, while the French generally don't. Same with government bills. I think this is a citizens right.

Point 3: Doesn't matter who's right and who's not. If you write the letter that you want to cancel it, they will have to oblige.

Point 4: Write the letter, to be sure within 7 days.

I base this all on the article, so hopefully somebody Belgian can clarify it further.

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Belgacom: gedwongen bijkomende diensten

Belgacom
Onze leden klagen vaak over de bijkomende (gratis of betalende) dienst die Belgacom instelt (type comfortdienst, antwoordapparaat, forfait) zonder hun toestemming. Nu blijkt dat de operator een beroep doet op een telemarketingbedrijf dat contact opneemt met de consumenten om hun die diensten aan te bieden. Zelfs als de klant zegt dat hij niet is geïnteresseerd of gewoon wat informatie vraagt, stuurt Belgacom hem een brief waarin het bedrijf de zogenaamde activeringsaanvraag bevestigt. In die brief staat bovendien dat de klant niet van zijn keuze kan afzien. Algemeen beschikt de klant immers over een bedenktermijn van 7 dagen om van zijn teleaankoop af te zien.Artikel 80 van de wet op de handelspraktijken sluit dat recht uitzonderlijk uit wanneer de uitvoering van de diensten al is begonnen – mét de toestemming van de consument – vóór het einde van die 7 dagen bedenktijd. Dat is uiteraard niet het geval voor de bedoelde diensten.

Wat kunt u doen?
Wilt u geen gebruik maken van en/of niet betalen voor dergelijke dienst en heeft u nooit uw toestemming daarvoor gegeven, dan stuurt u een brief naar Belgacom waarin u zegt dat u nooit met hun voorstel heeft ingestemd. U maant het bedrijf bijgevolg aan om de betreffende dienst onmiddellijk uit te schakelen. Betaal in geen geval de eventueel gefactureerde diensten en licht dat weigeringsprincipe toe in uw brief.
Source: http://www.test-aankoop.be/map/src/314121.htm
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Hi Hal2000, thanks for your reply. We will write the letter as you suggest. I have been dealing with customer service by phone and will not hesitate to go into arbitration with the company if the charges persist, but a letter will be a good in-between stage. Unfortunately, due to some jaw-dropping incompetence or bad intententions from Belgacom customer service line (hard to tell which), we believed the matter was resolved on my boyfriend's first call to customer service a few days after we received the Internet + TV package, which it was not. We've certainly passed the seven day limit, let's put it like that.

The nasty thing in this affair, for us, is that the Belgacom shop had our personal details because this was the shop we'd been to a little less than a year ago to subscribe to ADSL and to get a land line in, upon first arriving here. It's hard for me to see how we could have avoided giving the company, and the shop, our personal details in a case like that! We feel that we've played by the rules and that Belgacom is trying overtly to defraud us, with a method that looks uncomfortably like identity theft.

The other incidents we've heard of rolled out in different areas, not from the Avenue Louise shop, so I'm wondering if this is a systemic problem - especially in view of the utter unhelpfulness of Belgacom's customer service line in dealing with it. Again, it's hard to tell what is incompetence and what are bad intentions when it comes to their service line.

Any luck Jessica?

It looks like Belgacom is becoming more customer friendly, so I hope it all worked out.