T Mobile £653 default - Have never been asked to agree to a T-Mobile contract!

[nat8808]

I supposedly purchased a phone and TMobile contract via mobiles.co.uk (part of Carphone Warehouse).

 

All T&Cs I agreed to related to mobiles.co.uk and at no point were there service contract documents from TMobile to review and agree to.

 

I received the phone and SIM card and a further copy of the T&Cs regarding mobiles.co.uk but yet again nothing from TMobile to review or sign.

 

Unfortunately I was kind of duped by Mobiles.co.uk by being led to believe I was being provided with a new Samsung Galaxy Note 3

(deal was the same price, similar photo) yet only provided with a Note 1 (2 year old phone!).

 

I cancelled the purchase as the deal was misleading and not as described

(not least of all because I was taken to the deal via a comparison website which stated it WAS a Note 3).

 

Despite this, T-Mobile has continued to bill me even though the SIM card was never registered.

They defaulted me (without the pre-requisit warnings) after one month so I've discovered on my credit file.

 

Now they are charging me for the full 24 months.. (as soon as I was surprised by the first bill in the post, I cancelled the DD)

 

So where is the contract with T-Mobile?

Surely it can't exist as I've not signed anything, not even ticked a box?

 

Neither have I been sent a T-Mobile contract in the post,

nor presented with a T-Mobile contract online to review and agree to by Mobiles.co.uk.

 

I' have taken myself through the purchase process again as far as I could without payment

and again you are not presented with a contract to agree to.

 

I seem to remember this was the case when I used MobilesDirect.co.uk for a Vodaphone contract

- the terms came in the post but nothing was agreed to

- I just let it be and got on with paying back then..

 

how do I show that no contract has been signed or been entered into with T-Mobile?

Do I need to make an SAR request or is there another official way to see evidence of a contract?

 

Has the contract been fraudulently signed by Mobiles.co.uk as if it were me?

 

I'd love to nip this in the bud before it gets to a DCA stage as that will be much more difficult

to remove from my credit file.

 

So any help would be greatly appreciated.

[BankFodder]

You will have to take a county court action. I can't imagine that talking to anyone or trying to reason with anyone will have any effect at all.

 

I suggest that you start off by getting every screenshot you can of the sign-up process.

Assemble all of the evidence you have as well as the screenshots. Check the mobiles.co.uk T&Cs very carefully - Frankly I expect that they will refer to the service provider - because CPW is not a provider.

When you say that you cancelled the contract - did you do this in writing? ... or on the phone?

Have you examined very carefully the contract which you do have?

Sending an SAR is a good idea.

 

Do I take it that you have never used the phone service at all?

 

However, at the very least you have a basis for voiding contract on the basis of not conforming with description - Sale of Goods Act. To my mind this is the easiest and most straightforward way of dealing with the problem - because the rest of it sounds very messy to me.

[nat8808]

Thanks for the reply.

 

When you say county court, you mean to place some injuction on debt collection or to have it removed from my credit file? I always think of county court as being for claiming money back that's owed..

 

I complained via the mobiles.co.uk customer service message box and was told I would need to return the package. I returned the package via special delivery but had to pay for the return postage - it was outside of the distance sale 7 day return for which the customer I think has to pay for return anyway as per their T&Cs, but I considered this to be regular consumer rights thing which would give me 3 months to return the goods. I must admit that due to being busy with work I didn't follow it up. Then I received the first T-Mobile bill, thought it strange so cancelled the direct debit just in case, then weeks later got the first demand letter and it appeared on my credit file as a late payment. This week I got a demand for the full 24 month term.

 

I will certainly go through the sign-up process again as far as I can and take screen shots. One would have thought any agreements would have been emailed or provided as proof.

 

As far as I can tell (I'll see when I run through the process again), the only thing I've agreed to are mobiles.co.uk's Goods and Service T&Cs (I guess that is a contract of sorts) which does not set out any amounts to pay for any future services (essentially is a receipt for £0.01 for the phone itself) nor even mention T-Mobile at all or anything to do with telecomunications other than a description of the phone with its IMEI number and SIM serial number.

 

In these T&Cs, "Services" and "Subscription Services" are defined but the latter is defined as ongoing payments for services provided by "Us" and "Us" is defined as Carphone Warehouse, citing technical support services as an example. All sections of the T&Cs are standard fair about Complaints, Returns, Call Monitoring, Limitation of Liablity etc etc

 

It would seem that Carephone Warehouse have carried out their role of providing me with a phone for 1p and then sent my info along to T-Mobile which goes straight into their customer database, completely bypassing the contract/agreement stage with T-Mobile.

 

As I say, this sounds familiar with Vodaphone/MobilesDirect.co.uk where I never signed anything to do with Vodaphone either BUT in that case Vodaphone had the decency to send me THEIR T&Cs seperately and I guess payment of the first bill constituted acceptance of those terms.. I've neither made payment nor seen any T-Mobile terms in this case.

 

With regard to SAR request - I suspect that there is no contract or any info other than my address and details of the cancelled direct debit. Can I request just a copy of the agreement under any other rights or is SAR the only one that obliges them to do so?

[nat8808]

And the SAR should be to T-Mobile? It would seem to me that I should tackle the problem directly with them first and then later discus mobiles.co.uk's poor service once it's established I've not entered into a contract with T-Mobile.