Mobile Phone Contract get out

[claimitall]

Hi all

 

Just a quick question for anybody who can help me with this. I have searched the forums but without a definative answer.

 

My OH had a 12 month contract with T Mobile. Her phone was stolen and she reported this to T Mobile who said they would cancel the old sim send out a new one and charge £10 for it but would not replace the phone. Ok no problem, sim arrived but wouldn't work in new phone bought from local tesco. Phoned T Mobile - oh no it wont work in any other phone except one that we will sell to you at an exorbatant price. Ok i will cancel contract cause you cant provide a service. You cant

 

They are now continuing to charge a monthly fee for a phone i dont have and have sent late payment details to CRA's cause i stopped the DD. they are now threatening to charge balance of contract. if i do nothing they will treaten court action, DCA etc and defaults on credit file.

 

I do not have a written signed contract with them as it was renewed over the telephone and they have confirmed this.

 

Where do i stand ?

[buzby]

Not in a good position, although the information you were given was wrong. Mobile phones are usually sold locked to a particular network. The Tesco phone you bought will only work with a TESCO SIM card. What you need to do is either buy a T-Mobile pre-pay handset, and throw away the SIM supplied with it. OR purchase an unlocked phone that can be used on any network. Your replacement T-Mobile SIM will work with this.

 

Your network service contract covers the SIM only, not the handset - so whether you have a phone or not, the charge is levied and must be paid. If it is disconnected for non payment your credit record is flagged with the default. You do not have to have signed a contract for it to be enforceable, as use of the service and payment of bills is deemed acceptance of it.

[lawbunny]

Hey, your T-Mobile sim card will work in any T-Mobile handset or any unlocked handset. You can request a "subsidy pin" (unlocking pin) from the network who provides the handset, or you can just try purchasing an unlocked one (Carphone Warehouse etc are good for this). This means that you can either go and purchase a T-Mobile pay as you go handset and just put your contract sim in it, or you can get a handset from another network and ask that network to unlock the handset - but be aware there will probably be a £10/£15 charge for this.

 

The only problem with an unlocked handset is that T-Mobile will be unable to guarantee that it will work with their sim card. You would need to get all of the settings for picture messages etc from T-Mobile, but they will only be able to provide you with this info if it is a model of handset which they also provide ie if T-Mobile do a Samsung D900, you can purchase a D900 from any network, unlock it, and T-Mobile should be able to give you the correct settings.