Another rap over BT sales

SALES tactics used by Royal Mail for its new home phone service are under investigation by regulator Ofcom.

Despite being warned six weeks ago, Royal Mail has failed to introduce a code of practice. The compulsory code was part of a crackdown in April on misleading tactics by salesmen pushing phone services in which customers retain BT lines but are billed by other firms.

Ofcom gave the industry a deadline of May 26 to introduce codes governing how their staff operated. BT was a part of the Post Office until Margaret Thatcher split it off and privatised it in 1984.

The Post Office, which owns Royal Mail, re-entered the market in January and has 100,000 customers.

The Post Office admitted there had been 'isolated' examples of mis-selling. Royal Mail, controlled by the Department of Trade and Industry, could in theory be fined ten per cent of its revenues of almost £9bn for breaching Ofcom rulings.

The Post Office says it has a code, but it has not yet appeared on the phone service website.

Ofcom declined to comment at the weekend.