T-Mobile are trying to get more money than was agreed during the sale of the contract!

[pipin101]

I used to have a £25 p/m contract with T-mobile which would not allow me to go over my allowed minutes or messages. This was a good system for me except that I wanted a slightly larger allowance for my next contract with them. When the contract was due to end one of their sales personnel said he could reduce the contract to £15 a month for twice the minutes and messages - I bit his hand off. However he never said that I would be allowed over my agreed minutes (unlike before) and that as a result I would be fully charged for them. Being somewhat neive I never asked about this clause because I didn't know they let you go over your agreed limit in the first place (the previous contract was my first). Anyways they are now insisting that I pay them loads of money that I can't afford and have started sending theatening letters and have suspended my account (which had about 3/4 of my allowance left). However I maintain that as the full terms and conditions of the agreement were not laid out in full over the telephone by their employee that the verbal contract is now void and I am in fact entitled to cancel the contract alltogether without penalty charge or ETF (which I think could also be unlawful when bearing in mind recent claims against UK banks). Therefore I spoke to their collections department and went through all of the costs for the last couple of months, separated what was agreed and what was not and payed what I owed according to the verbal contract laid out over the phone by their staff (They should still have a recording of this conversation as they often say they reord calls for training purposes). However they still said I owed them the money I wouldn't pay and refused to re-activate my account (which still had about three quarters of my allowance still on it). Incredibly they expect me to pay for that as well even though effectively they aren't even offering the service anymore. Do I have to pay these crooks? Can I wait them out until they take me to a small claims court and win on the grounds that the contract is unlawful? Will this affect my credit history? What do I tell the bailifs if they come knocking? Please help me. Thanks for reading.

[BankFodder]

Frankly I don't think that you are going to make any headway on this.

It is a question of evidence and you don't have any. You are another person who tries to do things on the people who are much more experienced than you wihtout recodring your calls.

I agree that unless it was said to you that you may have been entitled to assume that the new contract was on the same terms as the old one save for the pasrt which was explained to you on the phone.

 

You could tell this to a judge and he might support you.

 

However by the time you get to that stage, things will have escalated as they are already doing.

Yes it will destroy your credit history and you could certainly find yourself being contacted by debt collectors.

[lawbunny]

Not got a chance really.

 

The verbal contract is not void. You would have been sent out T&Cs and price plan info when you upgraded, and a DSR letter explaining that if you were not happy with the terms of the contract then under Distance Selling Regulations you could cancel within the first 7 days. This is why you are given this cooling off period: to give you a chance to check everything and make sure you agree.

 

You did not just agree to pay £25 per month, end of. You agreed to pay £25 per month line rental PLUS any extra call charges which you incur; so the title of your thread is misleading.

 

The ultimate issue with the call charges is that whether you were aware you could go over your allowance or not the fact of the matter is that your DID go over; the call charges are correct, therefore you should pay. It is your responsibility to check how much allowance you have left throughout your month - you can do this in multiple simple ways. You may have an argument to say that they should switch you on to a ufix plan instead so you would be cut off after you use up your allowance - but you would not get the call charges refunded, as you did make these calls so the charges are correct.

 

You clearly do not understand the difference between a penalty charge and paying correct charges which you are due to pay. An early termination fee is not a penalty charge: when you signed up for your contract you agreed to x months at £25 per month - if you want to cancel early then they will happily stop your sim card and your account immediately, but you still owe them the rest of the line rental for the remaining months.

 

If you do not pay your bill (regardless of your reasoning for it) then you will get cut off. End of.

 

You would have been better calmly asking for their complaints escalation process and following that than simply stopping paying: you are now being pursued by a debt collection agency and your credit rating will have been destroyed. If you wish to complain formally I suggest you email [email protected] (include your name, telephone number, and password - or address if you do not have a password).

[pipin101]

Cheers BankFodder. Fair enough Lawbunny, you are obviously T-Mobile 'til you die, sorry to offend you. However I still didn't agree to pay extra charges, but I guess by not reading the T&C's etc properly consitutes the same thing. I must point out that you should have read my post properly though. Thanks for the input.

 

I actually thought that an ETF is a penalty charge because whether or not it is agreed in the contract it has to be for a service. If the line rental is no longer in use then what is the charge for? The company wanting to make sure they get their money right? If it is based purely on the contract agreement isn't it irrelevant as it is unlawful? Can anyone help with this? Lawbunny?

[buzby]

That's rather unfair - they're no more 'for' one network than another. If it makes you feel any better - ALL the networks would have handled this in the same way.

 

Going back to your original contract, I'm unaware of ANY T-Mobile contract that did what you say - capped at a set rate and no more calls allowed. Can you remember what they called it?

 

The replacement tariff would have been and the relevant minutes and texts known. As you didn't take note of this, they are certainly entitled to charge for any services 'outside of the bundle'. Surely you would have seen this after the first month, and been able to modify your usage?

 

Finally, on the termination charge, the cost is not only for 'service' but a major element of this is repaying the subsidy on the new phone you were provided with. The cost of this is paid back over the minimum term. Even if they switch off your service, the fees for the remaining months will still be due, and are totalled up and presented to you for payment.

 

Since the contract is effectively terminated, they DO give a small rebate on the call bundle because you won't be using it but this seldom is worth more than £4 or so per month.

 

If you cannot see into the future (and who can?) a phone contract is a mugs game in this financial climate. A PAYG SIM will keep your costs under control. And if you get a T-mobile one, it'll work with your existing handset.

[pipin101]

Thanks for the info Buzby.

 

The original contract I was on was called U-Fix25.

[xuntitledx]

I agree with the above posts and unfortunately, T-Mobile will argue that you should have managed your own account better.

From the sounds of it (please correct me if I'm wrong) but the fact that your service has been suspended and you have debt collectors involved makes it seem that you have defaulted on your payments for more than 1 month. If you had received your first bill after the switch and noticed the difference then you could have queried this at the time and they may have been able to offer you some more support.

[lawbunny]

Believe me, I'm not 'for' them, I'm just pointing out the way things are.

 

If you will note, I did actually admit that I understand you may not have been given all the details of your new contract, and provided a complaints email address, so I was actually trying to help.

[pipin101]

Cheers, just seemed a bit provocative is all. But it doesn't really seem as though I have much choice but to pay them. They are suspending my service tomorrow and will reconnect when I pay up.