Phone Contract Problem

[DawseyY2K]

Would this be best going to Three or the Agency after me? As you can see from previous emails courtlink UK is refusing to accept my dispute, can they even do that, is there a more formal way. I'm thinking a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) will slow them down?

 

From reading this thread can anyone see any grounds for dispute as there not accepting mine. He's saying I need to give him 'acceptable' grounds to dispute on?

 

What can I do about that, if they don't accept my dispute cant they carry on with chasing the money and court action etc? Or am I safe to just ignore these guys and just deal direct with three and ICO?

Edited May 8, 2008 by DawseyY2K

[Darren]

Send the SAR to 3 with the £10, send a copy to the DCA.

 

I think the fact that they did not send you a new sim and they stopped sending you bills, means they accepted your cancellation of contract, and that is acceptable grounds for dispute, but thats just my opinion.

 

Until you get the info from the SAR you wont know what the charges are

[DawseyY2K]

Cheers, guess that's the next step then. Will get on it.

 

I've also sent a email too the executive office. They actually responded! saying its being investigated. Lets hope they sort it internally and save me some time.

[DawseyY2K]

Now I'm really confused what to do... Executive office/Customer services has finally got back to me.

 

Hi Adrian

 

I’m sorry to know that you had to write to us again about the cancellation and the balance on your account.

 

I can understand how upsetting this has been for you. We sent you an email on 31 May addressing all your concerns but I believe you haven’t received it. So for your convenience, I’m explaining the details once again for you.

 

Your contract end date was 30 November 2005. To cancel you need to give us 30 days’ notice. It looks like the confusion was caused by the fact that we have no record of you cancelling in November 2005, when you reported your phone stolen. Because of this your contract remained active and you were charged for monthly line rental, even though you haven’t used the services since then. However your account was closed on 19 January 2007 due to non payments and this is the only account, I was able to find with your details.

 

You called us on 13 May 2005 to change your billing address to ** Bertelin Road, Stafford, Staffordshire, ******. But on 26 September 2005, your monthly bills were returned to us. So due to the security reasons we stopped sending you bills. As we were unable to send you bills and also there were no payments made on the account, your account was passed to debt collection agency.

 

The charges applied on your account are correct, so I’d ask you to contact CARS to make payment of £501.54 as soon as possible. After this amount is cleared, we’ll be happy to update your credit file. But the payment history shown on the file will be a true reflection of how the account was managed. I’ve also arranged to send you a letter via post with the same details. You should receive this letter within five working days at your billing address.

 

I hope I’ve explained you clearly the details about the cancellation and the balance on your account. But if you still have any more questions, just ring us on 333 (free from any 3 mobile) or 08707 330333 (national rate) from any phone.

 

Your views and opinions are important to us. Please take two minutes to complete our short survey at http://www.three.co.uk/responsesurvey. Your feedback will help us deliver a better customer experience.

 

 

Regards

 

They seem to be admitting that there was an error when I asked for the account to be cancelled when I reported the phone stolen. There saying no record of cancellation.

 

Looks like they sent a bill somewhere incorrectly causing it to be returned. The address they have is correct but they say it was returned maybe a next door neighbour got it or something. Due to it being returned they stopped sending me bills. No bloody wonder I never new anything about it!

 

So they admit a mistake and admit they never sent me bills but are still expecting me to pay the £501!

 

What step should I take now? I never sent a sars thinking they might sort it themselves. Any advice? what should I do?

Edited July 2, 2008 by DawseyY2K

[gyzmo]

Well there is certainly culpability on their part. as a matter of common decency they could waiver the majority if not all of the bill. I will try to compose a letter tomorrow for you if you like.

[DawseyY2K]

That would be very much appreciated. Thank you so much.

 

// Ade

[locutus]

So you contacted 3 at the time of the theft, they know you contacted them and they didn't send out a sim card?

 

I'd send the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) and also request the SIM number that was active on this account between Nov 2005 and Jan 2007 as the last one was stolen and no other was ordered!

 

This all smells a little fishy to me... for security they didn't send you the bills, yet now a DCA contacts you... how can they do that if they don't know your address?

 

PS... make sure you keep an eye on your credit file!

Edited July 2, 2008 by locutus

[DawseyY2K]

They already marked my credit history sadly. Bigger reason to get it sorted, lucky for me its not a issue at the moment but it will be soon if its not fixed.

 

In regards to the Sim. There saying due to me not taking insurance they wouldn't send a new sim card. I'd have to pay for it. I'd also have to pay for a new phone. Hence why I cancelled the contract. It was a 12 month contract that ended in November, when I reported it stolen. I figured I could start a new contract and get a new phone and sim. Of course they ignore the logic.

Edited July 2, 2008 by DawseyY2K

[fredbassett]

Hi,

 

If your mail was returned then yes its possible that they stopped the paper bill being sent out to you, however the sensible thing for them to do (and especially if the account is already suspended due to a stolen bar) would be to cancel the contract for non-payment after a certain period of time i.e. three months. It seems absurd that they would let the debt increase for such a lengthy time as this will go into their bad debt provisioning and all companies aim to have as minimal bad debt as possible (well reputable ones would at least!). If they have passed the debt to a debt collection agency then they may very well have performed some sort of search and trace on you (i.e. checking credit files/electoral roll) to ascertain where you live. I would certainly write to their Customer Relations Department highlighting your concerns and explaining that they could have minimised the debt by cancelling the contract sooner and as they will be able to see from their records you haven't used the phone so would they consider a goodwill gesture of reducing the amount owed and also remove the default from your credit file. Explain that you were unaware of this debt etc and that you belive there to be failing on both sides (they shouldn't have let the debt get so high before cancelling the phone for non-payment and you should have double checked that you did cancel the contract). If their customer relations dept don't help then ask for a Deadlock letter and take the matter to Otello. When you write to Otello make sure you mention the impact this has had to your credit file. If you get no joy with Otello then take the matter to the Information Commissioners Office. I am aware of times when the Information Commissioner has come down on the side of the consumer and agreed that a default has been incorrectly registered under circumstances when it has been a case of a consumer being willing to pay, but just not being aware of the fact that they needed to pay. Make sure you highlight the fact that the bills were held and that you received no phone calls to alert you to this debt. Good luck!

[gyzmo]

Right - here's the letter. It will need editing (typos and something that may be more uited to you) but it should be enough. I would put at the top a statement such as "this is not acknowledgement of any claimed debt". If they continue, then I would let them. Do as stated before and do a SAR and seek further assistance. Letting an account run for over a year in my mind is unconscionable. I fail to see how 3 are justified in their actions. Good luck.

 

Sirs

 

Following your latest correspondence, I am at a loss as to how you can possibly conclude I owe the sums you claim.

 

I will again re-iterate the circumstances. the phone was stolen on [date] and I reported this to you on [date] at which time I also informed you that I wished to cancel the contract. I was infomed tha this was not a problem and the advisor gave me the impresion that no further action was taken. You are also aware that I informed you of a change of address on [date] - notification of which you seem to have disregarded or failed in some way, by your own admission, resulting in the old address still being on your systems.

 

You can see the natural consequence of this, and you have indeed highlighted as much. You were still sending correspondence to me which I was incapable of receiving. I therefore could not possibly know that you were still attempting to charge me for a contract which, as far as I am concerned was cancelled.

 

 

As an aside, I fail to see why, when mail is being returned to yourselves numerous times and with no correspondence or payments being made, it had taken you well over twelve months to cancel teh account - an amount of time which by any standard is unreasonable.

 

I have at all times acted in good faith, but your actions in this matter are unjustifiable. Even IF you had not received notice of cancellation, then your own admission of the service not being used, especially following the theft of the phone, would be evidence of contractual cessation. In any case, the timeframes involved cannot be reconciled.

 

I trust that you will see this matter for teh unfortunate and innocent circumstnces that they are and that you will discontinue you claim for the amounts alledged to be owed. However, should you pursue the matter, I am more than prepared to vigorously defend myself in court.

 

I therefore look forward to written confirmation that the debt claimed has been withdrawn and that pursuance of legal action wil not be necessary.

 

Yours etc,

[DawseyY2K]

Thanks you ever so much. Written in a manner far better then I could.

 

One thing of note. Just wondering how it should be changed if at all needed, you wrote...

 

You are also aware that I informed you of a change of address on [date] - notification of which you seem to have disregarded or failed in some way, by your own admission, resulting in the old address still being on your systems.

I'm not sure if this is the case. The billing address that it was changed too ** Bertelin Road, Stafford, Staffordshire, ****** is correct. My letters should of gone there. But there saying the month after I cancelled in September it was bounced back. I'd guess the letter got sent to my old address or a neighbour bouncing it back to sender.

 

Should I leave it as you put or re write it in some fashion...

 

You are also aware that I informed you of a change of address on [date] - notification of which you seem to have disregarded or failed in some way, by your own admission, sending the letter to a fault address resulting in the receiver to bounce the bill back to sender.

would that be better? just would like your opinion my spelling and grammar is terrible :o

 

As an aside, I fail to see why, when mail is being returned to yourselves numerous times and with no correspondence or payments being made, it had taken you well over twelve months to cancel teh account - an amount of time which by any standard is unreasonable.

From the last email they sent me, the way I'm reading it, after I cancelled in November, the bill they sent out in September (1 bill) was bounced back to them and they cancelled. Without informing me etc.

 

Personally I know that letter's were going to my old address, which my step mum was bouncing back to senders instead of holding onto for me . This is what lead me to correct the billing address in May. There saying in September it got bounced back so an educated guess would suggest it got sent to the old address which my step mum bounced back.

 

So should I write this differently to comply with what there saying? i.e remove the numerous times bit since there saying only one letter got bounced back?

 

As an aside, I fail to see why, when mail is being returned to yourselves and with no correspondence or payments being made, it had taken you well over twelve months to cancel teh account - an amount of time which by any standard is unreasonable.

And lastly when I write to them should I include, correspondence to date, i.e. a copy of the email they sent me, the original letter sent and supporting documents from wescott? I'm just thinking someone new will be receiving the letter when I send it to head office.

 

sorry not trying to be petty just want all the angles to be covered so they cant through something back at me.

 

Again thanks for the help!

[gyzmo]

Not at all - it's my fault for not reading posts properly.

 

Most of the letter can be shortened in this case. where reference is made to correspondence, delete it and simply state that you did not receive correspondence from them.

 

I would hold off sending all correspondence to them at this point. They should have full records. if not, it's their fault.

 

the main emphasis of this saga is their failure to cancel and allowing the account to run for so long before doing anything. In my view, it should have been stopped much much earlier certainly no more than 4 months).

[locutus]

I'd also point out that for you to recieve the service that they want you to pay for you would NEED a SIM card never mind the charging you for it issue, the only way you could continue recieving service from them is with a SIM card... it's an essential part of the contract. They were made aware by you that you didn't have one. Also, they didn't provide you with a new one... Why? could it be because the contract was verbally canceled at that time? Even if they say you needed to give 30 days notice, the maximum that can come to is 1 months line rental (around £30 I believe you said) as you could not make any calls!

 

I'd also request the default be removed as this is 100% their error, also put them on notice that you will take this matter to the county courts including claiming any higher interest on any borrowings that you have had to pay should this continue. I'd personally give them 14 days to get it sorted, then start looking into taking the court route.

[DawseyY2K]

holding off on that letter for the moment, or maybe a quick edit since there's been a development.

 

ICO have now contacted me asking for all correspondence and a few other things.

 

I should perhaps put this into the letter, surely they will give up now soon as ICO throw there weight around.