High 3 Bill, advice please..

Willeh

I'm paying by direct debit and my 3 bill came today totalling at £116.
It says that I've used 580 minutes and have gone over my monthly allowance by 380 minutes; but I can recall when upgrading to this contract I had an allowance of 800 minutes. However, my bill says I have an allowance of 200 minutes.
I admit, this can be my fault as a result of a communication error but it too could be their fault.

If this is my fault then I'd happily go ahead and learn from the mistake, but would it be worth calling 3 up to try and reduce the bill or to split and add this bill onto the following bills? Or to use my text allowance to reduce this bill etc?

Suggestions highly welcomed, thank you.

stokefan

just ring them explain ther situation, explain that the contract was verbally agreed to be 800 minutes (dont blame yourself whilst speaking to them).

if that fails, im unsure whether you can negotiate with them, but im sure someone will be along to help soon

Willeh

Thank you for the reply. There's about 2 weeks left before they take the payment of £116.
3 customer services, no offence to them, won't do much I don't think as the last time I called them up I was on hold for an hour in total.
However, do you think writing a letter would do any justice? I clearly remember that despite them saying they would send me a letter to confirm the contract, I had received no such letter and thus I was in the belief I had 800 minutes.

Further suggestions welcome, thank you.

jasonwatkins

I think you need to establish when and how the 800 minutes was agreed.

Did you agree to upgrade the contract over the phone with customer services?

Was it agreed in a shop?

You need to get them to check back over your account to see when the new tariff began, and then check back further for any record of you agreeing to the tariff.

I think you're going to have trouble proving it mind - I know verbal contracts can be enforced in certain situations, but I think you're going to need at least something tangible to be able to go on.

Willeh

It was agreed over the phone with their customer services department but the biggest problem is that there's a chance this could be entirely my fault as I cannot remember if 200 minutes or 800 minutes was agreed. My mind is recalling 800 minutes but the bill is saying otherwise.
However, I received no letter to confirm my contract details and thus I was in the belief I had 800 minutes, even though I was told I would receive a letter. Again, they may use the 'but it's your fault you didn't write it all down' argument but I really can't remember them saying 200 minutes

HopeAndDriftWood

Write to them and state that you were given 800 minutes. If they can prove that you were only given 200, then you'll have to negotiate the bill. If they can't, then you were probably right, and they should edit your bill accordingly. After all, you probably wouldn't have used your phone as much if you thought you only had 200 minutes.

jasonwatkins

SaucySecrets wrote: »

Write to them and state that you were given 800 minutes. If they can prove that you were only given 200, then you'll have to negotiate the bill. If they can't, then you were probably right, and they should edit your bill accordingly. After all, you probably wouldn't have used your phone as much if you thought you only had 200 minutes.

I think that's the best idea really - you might initially have to agree a minimum amount to pay on the bill to keep the line connected while the issue is resolved though.

Willeh

Hmm, just got off the phone with 3 and I was told I was given and accepted the 'texter plan' which is £20 / month for 200 mins and unlimited texts + also a new handset. It seems like this deal is also on their website and no such deal with 800 mins exists. Increasingly, this seems like my mistake but I however did not receive a letter from them to confirm this deal and I guess in my mind the 200 mins was somehow replaced with 800 Should I still proceed with a letter?

Thank you all for all the help

jasonwatkins

Willeh wrote: »

Should I still proceed with a letter?

if you work under the theory that "it doesn't hurt to ask" them why not go for it?

they can only say no ...

HopeAndDriftWood

Yep, go for it. They change the deals available all the time. Neither me or my boyfriends deals actually exist for anyone else, they added 500 minutes, unlimited texts and free internet to an online deal to get us to sign up. It's entirely possible they added minutes to the online deal for you, too.

Had a similar argument with Orange last week about my boyfriends contract, wrote them a letter and they said the operator had forgotten to write what she'd given us in the box and immediately reimbursed us what they had charged.

Good luck!

Willeh

Thank you so much for all the advice everyone! Will write the letter tomorrow, oh and I'll do some searching myself, but does anyone have a 3 customer services address which 'works'? And by 'works' I mean they read it and give a reply? :P