Phone insurance kept charging me.... help?

JackNco

Hey all

Big fan of this website although its the first time ive needed to ask something. Let me explain the situation im in and maybe some of you can help me?

I made a bit of a mistake about 6 years ago. I got a phone contract through Phones4u. Now that was all fine it was through a vodafone contract and thats all fine.

Heres where it gets complicated.

The insurance for the phone (which I dont have a memory of signing up for, but that doesn't mean i didn't this was nearly 6 years ago after all) came out of my account every month. I canceled the contract after calling up phone4u and asking to do so who put me on to vodafone to cancel it.

but the payments kept on coming out, now back when all this was happening was about 19 and as you can imagine i wasn't paying much attention to my bank account, i didn't even open bank statements back then half the time. now when i finally did start looking at them i though the charge was a monthly fee for having the bank account so never questioned it till the bank offered to stop it when i went over my overdraft limit.

So a third party company connected to phones4u never actually stopped taking my money.

They have also admited to me on the phone earlier that they don't have a copy of the paperwork I may or may not have signed so when it comes down to it. I don't remember signing up for it and they have no proof that I did.

Thats 69 payments of £7.99 totaling £551.31.

They have said that as it was an 18 month contract that's 407.49 after the contract ended and have offered to meet me half way at £204.00

I nearly took it but then again I don't remember signing the paperwork and even if I did and even if they can find it, that's still only half of what they have had off me since I asked to cancel it.

What would you good people do?
Take the 200 and count my lucky stars or push for the full 550?


Thanks for your time

John

dacouch

Hopefully one of the legal bods can advise you on what money you are entitled.

You are paying nearly £94 a year to insure a phone that is probably already covered by you or your parents (If your living at home) home insurance. If you have home insurance it costs about £20 a year to include cover for personal effects eg jewellery, mobile phones, cameras and personal belongings away from the home. This would cover your phone if you have it or if you add it to your policy. So if you want to cover your phone in the future save yourself some money and add it to your home insurance (It might already be covered)

The home insurance tends to give wider cover although they don't normally cover unauthorised calls if you lose your phone but you can stop this by ringing your phone company to report it stolen and / or putting a pin number on international and premium calls

JackNco

well no my point is i canceled everything with them. I have no idea if i even had insurance on my phone back then, they have no paperwork yet kept taking money even though I asked to cancel everything.

chuckmanley83

Honestly, I think I'd cancel it, take the 200 and be happy.

JackNco

even though they took way more than that off me and i may not have signed up for it in the first place?

geordie_joe

chuckmanley83 wrote: »

Honestly, I think I'd cancel it, take the 200 and be happy.

I'd fight for every penny back! That's how these companies make money, taking money they shouldn't and hoping you don't notice. And when you do notice they hope you won't fight too hard to get it back.

If they have offered half then they have admitted they were wrong. If they were right they would not have offered a penny!

JackNco

geordie_joe wrote: »

If they have offered half then they have admitted they were wrong. If they were right they would not have offered a penny!

Thats my thinking, especially as a first offer in a 10 minute phonecall. I guess pressing the matter with them should only increase the number.

Plugling

I have just had the same thing happen to me..

I have noticed that I have been paying Direct Debits to an insurance company for the last 4 years for a mobile phone that I only used for about a month.

Firstly I don't remember agreeing to insurance (although I do remember that it was all done in Phones4u and they made the deal very difficult and complicated).

Secondly, I cancelled the phone contract after about a month (and had to pay off the remainder of the years outstanding balance), so would have expected any insurance to have been cancelled automatically. Wouldn't that make sense?

I have spoken to the insurance company and they have said that they are separate to the mobile phone companies so people need to cancel their insurance separately from their phone contract.
I have obviously filed a complaint and they have said that they will get a customer service representative to ring me in the next 48 hours.

I am really angry about this, as I have never had any correspondence from them, and on my bank statements it appears as 'Policy Admin Service', which could be anything! (Why don't they make it clear which company they are?!) They have been taking £7.99 from my account every month for the last 4 year, totalling £383.52.

I can't honestly remember if I agreed to paying insurance or not (but it's not the kind of thing I would do, as I know it's all a con really), but I am so angry that they have not been in touch (don't send any correspondence or anything!) and just quietly take £7.99 a month....forever!

JackNco, can you please let me know how you got on, or get on, with them. It sounds like you've had exactly the same problem as me...

Cheers,

Plugling

JackNco

well the refunds department will get back to you within "48 working hours" which basically means a week.

They offered me 50% of what I paid since my contact ended, I found out today that they lied to me about that amount. so i was offered £204 of the £431.46 (511.44 with interest) I had to call O2 and find out when I switched over to them because phones4u and "Policy Admin Service" had no idea about that.

Once you say you don't remember signing anything they will say they need to pass you on to someone else and they will call you back in 24 hours. since i first got the phone they have had £551.31 (£680.98 with interest) and the more they mess me about the harder im going to push back.

has it been more than a week yet?


I think they might have to contact you ill have a look through the data protection act and get back to you.


John

JackNco

The 4th principle of the data protection act of 1998 (came in to force earl 1999) states that "data" has to be kept up to date and accurate. the fact that i was not contacted in nearly 6 years kind of suggests that is not being kept up to date. seeing as they were insuring a phone which has not been in use for more than 4 years and were not communicating properly with the people who sold me the phone.

In my case they say that they also have no record of me "not getting paperwork from them". the letter was apparently not sent recorded delivery but it was not returned to them and that's what they called proof. they also have no record of me signing the paperwork to state that I wanted insurance on the phone.

With a company like phones4u they are a middle man. so I can only assume they guarantee to sell a set number of products or services to customers so they can buy them at a reduced price. so there sale personal will be pushed hard to sell these things. its no real stretch of the imagination that some people might be fudging paperwork to hit sales figues and keep there jobs.

Plugling

I got a phone call back at the end of yesterday from the insurance company. It seems they have taken 49 months-worth of direct debits, at £7.99 each.
They gave me 2 options:
a) They would contact Phones4U and see if they can supply the 'mandate'/documentation that I apparently signed 4 years ago agreeing to the insurance. If Phones4U CAN'T supply that paperwork within 3 working days, then I will get a FULL refund. OR if Phones4U CAN supply that paperwork within 3 days, then I won't get ANY refund.
b) They offered me a 'goodwill gesture' solution, and offered me 50% of everything, i.e. approx £200. However, this meant that they would not investigate further, and they would not release any more of my money back to me.

They said I was not allowed to agree to the goodwill gesture AND request that they request the paperwork from Phones4U.

I did not really know what to do, but I eventually decided to call their bluff, and see if they could get the paperwork off from Phones4U. I now have to wait until Friday to see if they can find this paperwork, and then I'll know if I get a) £400 back, or b) zilch.

Do you think I've done the right thing?
If they CAN find the paperwork, and tell me I'm not allowed any sort of refund, will there be anything I can do?

Thank you!

Phil