Mobile Company - Grounds for Cancellation of Contract?

_Kaiser_

Hey all,

Right if this violates any of the charter then I'll apologise now (:o) and feel free to edit/delete as required

Just over a year ago I moved to my mobile co's top-rate package. Actually I moved 2 accounts, figuring that this particular package offered the best solution for the high amounts of calls/texts on the 2 numbers. Both accounts are in my name and paid by Direct Debit.

For the first 6/8 months of the contract, every other month there was a billing issue - either the Direct Debit wasn't taken, wasn't taken correctly or there was some other issue resulting in one or both numbers being suspended until I discovered it and spent the morning/afternoon chasing it up (Customer Care is appalling - you spend 30 mins arguing with an agent before you finally get them to put a team lead on).

Things came to a head when again one of the accounts was locked out - this time for being in CREDIT (I'd been given several hundred euro in compensation/credit by then). At this stage I demanded a solution and spoke to a Call Centre manager who (it seemed) WAS actually able to address the problems - finally!

Then 2 months ago the bill arrived in the post 2 days before it was due... I let it go, figuring it had just goten held up and as the money was there anyway (as it's always been), it wasn't a big issue. Direct Debit came and went as normal.

This month the same thing happened so, thinking "here we go again", I called in and after the usual arguments to get to someone in charge, agreed that I would pay the bills manually from now on and they could cancel the direct debits. By the time this was agreed, and having spent days to get to that point, I also asked for the contracts to be released without charge given this latest problem, the history on the account of similar problems, and the stress and frustration and wasted hours I'd spent to get even this far.

The direct debit cancellation was agreed to and (I was told by another Call Centre Manager) put in place for THIS month's bill so I duly paid my bill as agreed - only to then have the company take the money anyway!

That was 12 days ago and despite assurances that it'll be refunded "tomorrow" (since Friday last), it's still not back in my account and I've wasted more fruitless hours chasing it up.

The latest offer from the company is two month's credit on both accounts and a suggestion that I check my bills online because they can't resolve the delivery delays as (as far as they're concerned) the bills are issuing on time.

This to me does nothing to address the actual issues...

1. I still haven't gotten MY money back (this isn't more "credit" - thia is MY money that I needed for my rent this month)

2. It does nothing to address the actual problem of bills not arriving - instead it puts the onus on me to find out what I owe, pay to do so (as part of a broadband subscription), and the inconvenience of paying them manually (which Direct Debit is supposed to eliminate - but what can I do?)

3. It does nothing to address the appallling customer service issues and time I've spent chasing people to do their jobs

Oh and they're refusing to release the contracts.


So, as far as I'm concerned, they have failed to hold up their end of the deal - they haven't managed any aspect of their billing operations correctly, there's been the loss of service every time they suspended the account without warning and as a result of their error, and they've left me out of pocket and waiting nearly 2 weeks while they pass the buck back and forth between departments.

Comreg haven't been much real help (although very nice) and I gather they don't have the authority to dictate a resolution anyway, the Financial Regulator can't get involved because its Comreg's area, and so I'm left with the only solution of going legal to try and get out of the contract.

FLAC reckon it worth calling into their centres to discuss, but I had a look at the Terms and Conditions on the Company's site and it seems filled with lots of nice open-to-interpretation and change clauses.

So, am I wasting my time or is it worth pursuing?

source

Lodge a complaint with ComReg, they will tell you what you can and can't do in this situation. Also what the operator is obliged to do in situations like this.

_Kaiser_

foinse wrote: »

Lodge a complaint with ComReg, they will tell you what you can and can't do in this situation. Also what the operator is obliged to do in situations like this.

Been there, done that

Went through the story, got a case number, and really just advice (most of which I already knew having worked in and dealt with callcentres and their escalation procedures for years). The guy did stress that they can pursue it if I didn't get an answer, but really what the company offers as a resolution is entirely up to them - so not much use in this case unfortunately

Tom Young

Regulation 17 of the Universal Services Regulations allows for contract set aside if a material term is changed in a consumer contract.