Meteor Mobile Issues

MMart

Hi All,
Could anyone help me with an issue I am experiencing with Meteor.
I signed up to a bill pay account for €25 per month. I signed up to the account for my daughter who was travelling in Australia and I wanted to have a phone for her when she came home.
We set the account to come from my daughters direct debit however we have found that the direct debit was not being taken by Meteor.
After four months they cancelled the account - further to this the phone was not used at any point up to this date as my daughter was still travelling at the time.
I contacted Meteor and explained the situation, I asked if I could pay o/s balance and re-activate the account. At first I was advised this was possible and that I would have to call back the next day to speak to their finance team. I called back and was then advised that this is not correct that I would have to pay the o/s balance + a cancellation fee of over €700 and once I have this paid they would then reactivate my account... and enter me into a new 18 month commitment.
I have no problem with the commitment but I do not feel it is right to add a cancellation fee to an account on this basis.
I have been emailing their customer support and they seem to be basically copying and pasting their emails as I seem to receive the same response to different queries, the only new information I received is that they had now passed my debt to H.J. Ward debt collections even though I was in "dispute" with them about the balance on the account.
Could anyone give me advise on this?

foggy_lad

Deal only with Meteor and if they chose not to deal with you there is little else to be done!

It seems like extortion that they have cancelled your account and expect you to pay a cancellation fee rather than have you pay what was owed and just continue the contract but obviously doing it this way gets meteor an extra €700 for providing no service at all!

As for "Hugh J. Ward"(huge A ward) they are not "real" solicitors as most people know solicitors but are just a debt collection agency who use a solicitors name to make themselves sound more important and make it sound like they have more powers than they actually have!

They are just a small office somewhere that prints off standard letters and posts them out periodically and may also have telephone staff that ring people to remind them of their debts.


Contact Meteor in writing and tell them you wish to reactivate the same contract and pay the outstanding balance but will not be paying the cancellation fee as they had cancelled the account due to their own negligence in not taking the Direct debit.

If they don't agree to this which is a very reasonable resolution then I would just ignore tham and sign your daughter up to a different company and have the direct debit come out of your own account.

What possibly happened is the Direct Debit Account name did not match the customer account name so the debit may well have been cancelled by Meteor.

MOH

The original contract was for 18 months at €25/month?

And the direct debit was set up, but they didn't take it, and then they cancelled the contract from their end but are trying to charge you a €700 cancellation fee for a contract worth €450?!

That certainly doesn't sound right. The NCA might be able to advise you.

foggy_lad

MOH wrote: »

The original contract was for 18 months at €25/month?

And the direct debit was set up, but they didn't take it, and then they cancelled the contract from their end but are trying to charge you a €700 cancellation fee for a contract worth €450?!

That certainly doesn't sound right. The NCA might be able to advise you.

They are possibly also adding in an extra charge for the handset?