Defaulted Account with 3 mobile - HELP !!!

ali82

Hi, I am a recent graduate and seriously need of some help!

During my final year at uni I really messed up my credit rating. I wasn’t paying my bills on time mainly due to me not having the money as I cut down my hours at work to spend more time studying.

In July 2004 I took out a mobile phone contract with 3 mobile as they offered 500 peak time minutes for £12.50, but unfortunately I brought my contact from a company that did not stick to its promises (Mobile Madness) and therefore lost out on £120 cash back owed to me :mad: . I wrote to them stating that they were in breach of the 'Supply of Goods and Services Act' which Consumer Direct advised me to do and had no response, Trading Standards and the ASA could not do anything about it either.

I wrote to 3 mobile saying that since they recommended this company on their website as a reputable company and they had not stuck to their end of the agreement that I would not pay until the situation was resolved, they said I had to continue paying. I did not pay and did not hear from 3, eventually my details were passed onto another company by 3 and they were asking for the outstanding amount, I explained the situation and was told my account would be put on hold whilst they looked into it, eventually they wrote to me and told me account had gone back to 3 and a few weeks later (July 2005) 3 wrote to me and told me my account had been closed and gave me the opportunity of returning in the future if I wished, I assumed this due to the contract ending, I phoned 3 to double check if this was correct and if their was any outstanding payment due and was told their was not and the account was closed. I thought this was the end of it and they had written off the outstanding amount as it roughly cancelled out the amount of the cash back :T .

2 weeks ago I decided to get my credit file to see just how bad it was and found that the account with 3 was shown as being ‘Defaulted‘, I called Credit Expert and was advised to write to 3 and see if this could be changed or removed as this account is drastically effecting my credit rating.

I have done so and am now awaiting a reply but I would like to know where you think I stand, did I handle the situation wrongly? And if they say they won’t change or remove the defaulted account what would my next move be? Can I take it further?

Today I went to get another new contract with 3 from another reputable company (why? - because they are such good value and reduced my monthly bills by about £40) and it was declined. Do you think this is because of my credit rating or the way the account was run with them before?

As a result of this situation I am unable to get any other credit to help me sort out the rest of my finances and since I have not found a job yet (still working part time and some overtime when it is available) the situation feels 10 times worse. :wall:

Please help, any advice would be appreciated!

Alison

(Sorry its so long)

moo842

i'm sorry, i don't know anything about defaults but i'm sure someone will come along soon to sort it all out, they're good at that on here!!

kevker

Hmmmm, 3. What a wonderful company. I too had all sorts of problems with them. I went for the same thing as you, mainly for the 500 minutes. But on getting the phone I could never get a network. So phoned them up and cencelled my contract (as they said you could do within 14 days). They then said they would send an envelope out to return phone.

Well, to cut a long story short this went on for several months, all the while getting bills etc which I refused to pay. Finally got to send the phone back and thought no more of it.

3 weeks ago received a final demand from 3 for an outstanding balance of £22.50. So phoned them up and got some snotty little schoolleaver who said if I didn't pay there and then, then they would send the baliffs round. I tried to be reasonable and said I sent the phone back. He asked for proof, to which I replied it was over a year ago and I had no proof. He then said, ok you can explain that to the baliffs.

This was when I dropped my bombshell on him. I said, it's okay, you can explain it to the Official Receiver. He said "oh yeah, and who's that then". It was quite stunning, his arrogance and ignorance. So I explained, I declared bankruptcy in May, therefore I would actually be breaking the law by paying them.

The moral of the story (and sorry for the long post), is make a note of everyone you speak to at 3, and don't speak to the first line people, insist on speaking to a supervisor as they seem to the be the only ones who can take any action.

And who said being bankrupt has no upsides.

ali82

Thanks for the advice; but all their call centres are in India! I can never get a chance to speak to anyone here let alone a supervisor

kevker

I think in the end I went through to their direct sales number, and they then transferred me to someone in this country. I agree with you, if you get put through to India you may as well hit your head against a brick wall.

sportbeth

Hmmm - this is interesting. When I got my 3 phone I did the same, got it from an online company. When I got my 6 months half price line rental back (the £120 you are referring to) it all went via 3 to get it sorted.
So surely then, 3 are in breach of contract? And there is some sort of contract law that states that if a contract is sold based on a sales pitch and then if this is negated then it allows the consumer to break the contract. Don't know if anyone can advise where that can be found. But I had trouble when a salesman told me I could break my contract for gym membership. When I then tried to stop the membership they tried to take me to small claims. I then mentioned this law and they backed down.

If not, if you bought it online or over the phone, why don't you try going through the distance selling regulations to see if that can help at all?

file_wizzard

Hi Alison,

Unfortunately regardless of the fact that there has probably been a breach of the sale of goods act by the retailer by misrepresentation or failure to provide the advertised product, you have also “wilfully & knowingly” committed a breach of contract with the creditor by not honouring your obligations under the terms and conditions of the original contract. ( this is however dependant on the timescaels involved from the orginal breach and any corective actions undertaken by the other party)

You didn’t state if your contract was with the retailer or “3” but this would of also effected your obligations to 3

If it is was with 3 directly and the retailer were merely acting as an agent on their behalf then yes 3 did owe a duty of care to you as a customer, but this would not mean that a breach of contract was warranted

I know this seems very harsh and unfair, as it would appear that you were originally the party who was subject to a breach, however in the eyes of the law what you should of done is continue to honour the original agreement ( subject to conditions ) and then instigated you own recovery procedures or as a last resort a civil action for the “loss”

It could be potentially be argued by 3 that they had not Knowingly allowed the retailer to commit an offence under the sale of goods act as they are merely providing the line / end service Ect.

It’s a little like buying a car from the main dealer on finance, then if a breach with the finance company occurs you trying to hold the main dealer (retailer) accountable.

In short a breach of contract has potentially occurred and this has been recorded in the form of a default

With regards to the inability to obtain further credit this will be directly related to the default.

However did you ever actually receive a default notice from 3? or was this registered by the debt collector you say they passed it to ? if so it may actually of been incorrectly recorded as 3 has subsequently closed the account.

ali82

I have just realized that I did not receive a default notice. I don't think it was registered by the debt collector as they closed the account and passed it back to 3, the letter said along the lines of this
"We can confirm that as a consequence of the query you raised, the account has been returned to our client, we have closed the debt on our system and no further action will be taken by us to recover the debt"

I think the contract was with 3, but it was the retailer was who was supposed to pay the customer the cash back.

I am going to the C.A.B tomorrow to discus my options

Thanks

limey_2

3 have a very long history of poor service and payment problems, you can see some of the ongoing complaints on https://www.blagger.com and typing 3 into the company search box

trencherpilot

3 customers have problems with service on the phone because they run on the back of the O2 signal and O2 customers have priority over 3. Therefore if you're on 3 and an o2 cust wants to make a call, you get cut off!

ali82

Today I manged to get through to 3 in Glasgow! I spoke to them and expalined the situation they said they probably will be able to get it changed over to a settled account (calling them back in a few days).

Does anyone think I should take it further even if they do change it as I have been unable to get credit since June due to this and I really needed it, or should I just count myself luckly and put an end to it?