Help with a mobile phone account in dispute

jo1972

I hope someone can help.

My husband had a contract with 3 for his mobile phone contract. After he lost his phone at new year and they replaced it and locked him into another 2 year contract without explaining this was the case to him, he disputed the bill and said that he didn't want the contract or the phone but they said it was too late.

He has written several letters to 3 to explain that he wasn't willing to pay this bill and 5 subsequent ones now due to time lapsed for a phone that he doesn't even use, they have replied each time saying they were in the right and he does have to pay.

They have now passed the account on to various different places, a different DCA with different addresses everytime.

My question is, should he respond to the DCA and explain that the bill is in dispute, or should he continue responding with 3 even though they ignore the contents of every letter, or is there a template letter somewhere that states something that will make them actually respond with the facts?

Are they allowed to pass a debt on to a DCA knowing that the account is in dispute?

Please help, this bill is mounting up and up and now in default which is affecting his credit score.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Tixy

Hi

If he has formally disputed the debt then they should not pass it on - will post up a template for you .....

Edit - anoyingly all the letter templates I can find refer to the consumer credit act -which you cannot quote for a telephone debt. However they still shouldn't have sold the debt on whilst in dispute. The best I can find which you could perhaps edit is this one
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11636233&postcount=5 but you would need to edit it quite a bit to remove references to the consumer credit act and any request for the consumer credit agreement. In fact the letter you send to the DCA shouldn't need to say although that much, just that you have disputed the debt and you want the account to be returned to 3 for resolution.

jo1972

Thanks Tixy

DarkConvict

Correct they should not pass on disputed debts, instead if it goes to deadlock you take it up with OFCOM.

However, the company is correct. The phone and contract are separate. If you loose the phone you must keep on paying, you must use another phone or pay for a service you can't use. If the operator supplies a new mobile it will either be a one off purchase or a new contract with a free phone.
If you are disputing the new contract in that it was mis-sold you can ask for a phone recording transcript and/or the documents sent with the new phone. The new phone will very likely has documents stating this was a new contract.

Not using a phone does not mean your not liable for it, agreeing to a new contract on the phone is a verbally binding legal agreement. By not making payments and letting it default his credit file (and if you are linked to him (joint financial products/accounts)) will also be affected by late payments and default notice.