Were Meteor in the right here?

bowsandarrows

A year ago I signed up to a €35 one year contract with Meteor and was told multiple times I'd have free meteor calls and texts with that.

So I get a bill last week for €139. After a few phone calls I'm told my meteor to meteor calls/texts were only for a year and ran out a month ago.

I can see their point that it was only for a year, but it bothered me that they offered to give me them again straight away for another year. I asked them if I had asked for the offer to be extended at the start of last month would they have extended it and they said they would have. So if I had any idea my offer ran out I could have saved myself a hundred quid.

I also got charged €12 from my bank for going over my direct debit.

Just wondering do I have a leg to stand on here? Everybody says I should have kept ringing them until I got some of the money refunded but Meteor says I'm not due anything.

cookie1977

What do the T&C's say for your plan. If it's in there then you probably dont have much of a leg to stand on. You could lodge a formal complaint about unhappy you are but it's up to meteor to then.

If you get the free calls and texts again make sure that if it's taking you into another contract that you're aware of this.

Africa

Id go to your bank and get the money back if you can, and tell Meteor to go F8ck themselves. This is really back handed and poor form in my opinion.

chopsey

plenty of other great offers on monthly bill pay now tell them your heading to O2 or Vodafone and see how long it takes to get your 104 euro back?

Dublin_Gunner

I personally don't think its correct that they can automatically enter you into a new contract without informing you of it first.

Especially not when the terms of the contract are so drastically different (its not the same contract at all really).


However, I'd be certain that within the T&C's it states something similar to "when the initial 12 months of this contract offer expire, you will no longer avail of free meteor to meteor calls. The monthly charge will however remain the same."

Or some other BS that cover's their a$$, and places the responsibility on you.


Caveat Emptor.

Coriolanus

Tell them you're moving to another provider if they're not willing to waive the hundred odd. If they won't, move provider and good riddance.

Sponge Bob

The contract was for one year and an 'add in' applied for the year. The add in expired when the contract expired.

This is a separate issue an O2 is constantly expiring add ins and clattering people with charges in the 13th month.

They all be made should text a month before expiry to CLEARLY inform people of what will happen.

lala88

Im with Meteor bill pay and same plan as the OP and they say that if you change your plan during your contract or it ends you dont have want ever extras you signed up for till you start a new contract.

Its good to see the useal of people saying to use treats to get what you want....

krudler

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The contract was for one year and an 'add in' applied for the year. The add in expired when the contract expired.

This is a separate issue an O2 is constantly expiring add ins and clattering people with charges in the 13th month.

They all be made should text a month before expiry to CLEARLY inform people of what will happen.

thats meant to happen with o2 but rarely does

NeitherJohn

I'm on an 18 month Smart 50 contract. My free texts ran out at the end of December unbeknownst to me and got a bill for 180 odd in January.

I rang them up and they said the free calls and text promotion "fell off" my account and they put it back on.

They also adjusted the bill. They told me the amount due (the normal amount I pay each month) on the phone so I paid it the next day in a Meteor shop to make sure they didn't touch my direct debit.

All sorted now!

foggy_lad

They clearly state at the time of signing up for all these promotional freebies and reduced cost monthly charges that they are only for X months or 1 year etc so they have done nothing wrong here, after the 12 months your contract ended and they placed your account onto their basic pricing package as stated in the terms and conditions.

It would have been nice and good customer care to text or ring you prior to the expiry of your contract and let you know that you could extend the contract but this would not benefit meteor and they have now made a bit more profit off you by charging you €100 for calls.

You should ring and ask to be put through to cancellations and tell them you are giving a months notice and will be porting your number away from meteor to o2 or Vodafone and give it a few days to see if they actually want your custom.

Sponge Bob

But the promotional freebies are often as important to the customers as the core contract, eg free nn to nn calls for 12 months. The core contract is but a foundation on which one collects freebies.

Then freebie goes, customer rings o2 or meteor in a panic when they see the bill and end up in a retroactive new 12 month contract to get rid of the bill shock...o2 and meteor don't mind do they.

I'd say O2 are even worse than Meteor at this carry on because a lot of Meteor deals are in the core contract. Same with eMobile, you get the goodies as standard not as add ons.

Once mandatory customer controlled price capping comes in on the 1st of July on all accounts with ROAMING ENABLED you will be able to log in and set a maximum cap on your bill of say €35 or €50 and the phone will stop working when you reach it.

Least there won't be any more bill shock.

foggy_lad

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Once mandatory customer controlled price capping comes in on the 1st of July on all accounts with ROAMING ENABLED you will be able to log in and set a maximum cap on your bill of say €35 or €50 and the phone will stop working when you reach it.

Least there won't be any more bill shock.

Afaik this only applies to phones which are roaming so using your phone in Ireland you wont be able to set a limit.

Sponge Bob

foggy_lad wrote: »

Afaik this only applies to phones which are roaming so using your phone in Ireland you wont be able to set a limit.

No , the limit is inclusive of Irish originated charges but Roaming Must be enabled in order to get the RIGHT to limit. Bet the operators will get sticky on enabling roaming from now on.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/227

foggy_lad

Sponge Bob wrote: »

No , the limit is inclusive of Irish originated charges but Roaming Must be enabled in order to get the RIGHT to limit. Bet the operators will get sticky on enabling roaming from now on.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/227

What do you mean by "sticky"? they usually look for a deposit from newish customers at the moment but won't need to do this if customers can limit their spend whilst roaming, they can't really deny or refuse to enable roaming?

Sponge Bob

Foggy me lad, it is as clear as mud and will be less so when Comreg gets the oar in.

cookie1977

To be fair Meteor offer a usage alert for home and abroad. It's by no means perfect but it does help. More though could be done.

Legislator

Did the original direct debit instruction state an amount of €35 per month. If it did they Meteor were not authorised to debit you 139.

Did you receive advance notice of the new amount from Meteor. If you didnt you should request a refund from your bank for the full amount stating the reason 'no advance notice recieved'

cookie1977

Legislator wrote: »

Did the original direct debit instruction state an amount of €35 per month. If it did they Meteor were not authorised to debit you 139.

Did you receive advance notice of the new amount from Meteor. If you didnt you should request a refund from your bank for the full amount stating the reason 'no advance notice recieved'

The original direct debit wouldn't have stated an exact amount as mobile bills can be dynamic like electricity or gas bills. But they should have received the bill 14days in advance of the debit going

foggy_lad

cookie1977 wrote: »

The original direct debit wouldn't have stated an exact amount as mobile bills can be dynamic like electricity or gas bills. But they should have received the bill 14days in advance of the debit going

They usually show an irregular payment amount on a monthly payment cycle but the 4 debits meteor had active on my account some time ago were all different amounts and some were irregular another bi-monthly another was quarterly, it seems when you upgrade or change or extend your contract the shop staff will put through another DD mandate to get their commission? regardless of you already having one or several already active DD instructions on your account.

But Legislator is correct in that this amount is way beyond the normal monthly payments previously charged so meteor should not have put through the DD without first investigating the charge which should have involved informing the customer!

cookie1977

Maybe the OP should have written to the bank saying the bill was in dispute. I'm a little confused though as the OP said

I also got charged €12 from my bank for going over my direct debit.

Do they mean they had insufficient funds and this was the charge? If so did they not notice/get the bill 14 days in advance of the debit going? Or worse was this some sort of strange charge for going over a debit???

bowsandarrows

Thanks for the input everybody, I talked to them and the best they said the best they could do is a €50 good will credit gesture off my next bill. They've put back on the free meteor to meteor calls. Then they said they'd "give me" €15 off my bills in future with a "special €20 deal", but I've known about that deal for ages, anybody can sign up for it, I just never got round to it.

Do they mean they had insufficient funds and this was the charge? If so did they not notice/get the bill 14 days in advance of the debit going? Or worse was this some sort of strange charge for going over a debit???

I got the bill two days before the charge. The direct debit went through a day before I got paid for the month and put me just over my overdraft limit so I presume the charge was for this?

Legislator

You are entitled to a minimum of 7 days advance notice and you would still be entitled to a refund.

Sponge Bob

10 days minimum notice of DD

cookie1977

The Originator will inform the Payer in advance of the amount and date of the collection. The minimum advance notice is 14 days unless the Originator and Payer agree a shorter period. The notice can take the form of an invoice or a one-off notice detailing a series of payments over a period of time.

http://www.ipso.ie/section/DirectDebitScheme

YumDeiseMum

Cancel your DD and pay your bills cash in store. I've been paying Meteor this way for years and theres never been a problem.

foggy_lad

YumDeiseMum wrote: »

Cancel your DD and pay your bills cash in store. I've been paying Meteor this way for years and theres never been a problem.

I have tried by phone and email to cancel the DD on my meteor account but they just seem to set up DD not cancel them, I cancelled one myself and got my bank to cancel one that was active last week but they told me there was a third which for some unexplained reason was not showing in my online banking list of Direct debits but the bank assured me they had cancelled it.

Meteor took an unauthorised debit payment on 30th may even though there were no active debits on the account and i had cancelled all debits woth both my bank and Meteor, they just set up a new debit with a different number and took the money, (possibly no coincidence that a few days previously I had emailed to confirm that the debits had been cancelled and telling them that I had also cancelled all debits with my bank.)

foggy_lad

foggy_lad wrote: »

Meteor took an unauthorised debit payment on 30th may even though there were no active debits on the account and i had cancelled all debits woth both my bank and Meteor, they just set up a new debit with a different number and took the money, (possibly no coincidence that a few days previously I had emailed to confirm that the debits had been cancelled and telling them that I had also cancelled all debits with my bank.)

that's not on at all, that's an unauthorised DD and they're abusing the scheme
get it reversed and report them

foggy_lad

bluewolf wrote: »

that's not on at all, that's an unauthorised DD and they're abusing the scheme
get it reversed and report them

Ulster bank say I must prove the Direct debit was cancelled and that it was unauthorised, they just don't want to know at all!

All debits were cancelled and i then told meteor yet again that i wish to pay in the post office and that i had cancelled all the debits which were active on my bank account and a few days later Meteor have set up a new debit on my account without my permission or knowledge.

I was beginning to think that there is some connection between Meteor/Eircom and Ulster bank but i see now that they use Bank of Ireland, so it must be that the bank staff just don't want to be arseed doing their job?

you emailed them to confirm they were cancelled, that's all there is to it
it is a matter of the bank not wanting to do their jobs, don't let it go
meteor also need to give you notice they're going to charge etc etc

foggy_lad

bluewolf wrote: »

you emailed them to confirm they were cancelled, that's all there is to it
it is a matter of the bank not wanting to do their jobs, don't let it go
meteor also need to give you notice they're going to charge etc etc

They have at least 10 days notice of me cancelling the debits and switching to paying in the post office. There is little i can do when my own bank refuses to do anything without "proof" of me cancelling with Meteor, I no longer have the emails sent between us but Meteor should have all those on file!

slimjimmc

foggy_lad wrote: »

They have at least 10 days notice of me cancelling the debits and switching to paying in the post office. There is little i can do when my own bank refuses to do anything without "proof" of me cancelling with Meteor, I no longer have the emails sent between us but Meteor should have all those on file!

http://www.ipso.ie/section/DirectDebitScheme

This is ridiculous from Ulster Bank.
It's got nothing to do with Meteor, the DD is an instruction from you to your bank (usually via the vendor). If you instruct your bank not to process DDs then the bank is obliged to follow your instructions not Meteor's. It's none of the bank's business what debts you have or what method you choose to pay your bills.
You should instruct the bank in writing not to process any more DDs from Meteor and to cancel your DD facility with Meteor. If UB continue to release payments without your authority after a reasonable period they could be in deep #@%*. The only reason you need to inform Meteor is so that they know not to keep making requests, but even if they did your bank is no longer authorised to pay them and shouldn't.

You could also threaten to close your accounts and move your banking elsewhere. Banks are crying out for customers.

foggy_lad

They want me to close my account because it is one of a few Step accounts which offer most of the benefits of a current account with free banking:D They would prefer to have me paying quarterly fees.

dub45

slimjimmc wrote: »

http://www.ipso.ie/section/DirectDebitScheme

This is ridiculous from Ulster Bank.
It's got nothing to do with Meteor, the DD is an instruction from you to your bank (usually via the vendor). If you instruct your bank not to process DDs then the bank is obliged to follow your instructions not Meteor's. It's none of the bank's business what debts you have or what method you choose to pay your bills.
You should instruct the bank in writing not to process any more DDs from Meteor and to cancel your DD facility with Meteor. If UB continue to release payments without your authority after a reasonable period they could be in deep #@%*. The only reason you need to inform Meteor is so that they know not to keep making requests, but even if they did your bank is no longer authorised to pay them and shouldn't.

You could also threaten to close your accounts and move your banking elsewhere. Banks are crying out for customers.

You are right in what you say in theory. But the reality is particularly in the case of UB's behaviour that no matter how badly they behave (and they are totally in the wrong here) they have nothing to fear from anyone.

There are no consequences in Ireland for banks or companies that do not comply with dd rules - the only ones who ever suffer are the bill payers. Simple fact proved time and time again. Lob on the fees there lads!

IPSO's website proudly proclaims:

Over 110 million direct debits are processed every year in Ireland

And yet most bank staff (including supposedly senior staff) do not have even the most rudimentary understanding of how the scheme works or most importantly the basic knowledge of how to cancel a direct debit!!!!

It is hard to read this with a straight face (from the dd scheme rules about the so called obligations of the paying bank)

must assist its customer, to the extent practicable, in the resolution of disputes arising under or
pursuant to the Scheme

Isnt it great to think that Ulster Bank are there to assist you?:eek:

Anyway if there was any properly regulated dd scheme Eircom, Meteor and emobile would have been suspended from it with immediate effect when it emerged earlier in the year that through sheer negligence a considerable of customer data have been lost through the theft of laptops. The data of these laptops had not been encrypted as per company policy.

If a Company cannot comply with its own policy in relation to data security then it should not be in the dd scheme. I am sure the sponsoring banks didnt even raise the issue with them.