T-Mobile Are Literally Nearly Killing Me

Ifeellikegivingup.

Hey there

I'm looking for any advice or guidance that anybody could give me please and apologies in advance of this post, as I think it's going to be a novel....

Okay, so my circumstances are a bit extreme, but earlier this year my partner was suddenly killed. We have a little boy who has a disability and in order to have some support, we moved from our home in the north to the south of England to stay with my parents.

It was a difficult time financially, as not only did we lose an income, but I had to use my salary to cover funeral expenses, etc. and I fell behind with my TMobile account. I'm ashamed to say that the whole account was at the back of my mind during these months.

I managed to find a new full time job here and luckily we found a good school which my son has settled into. We decided to sell our property and stay in the south of England. I managed to sell the house quickly and decided to either rent or buy here, as my son needed a bit of stability and my parents house is very small and we have already taken advantage of their hospitality.

I had notified all my utility companies, including TMobile that I had moved to England. Luckily enough we managed to sell the property quickly and I went back to the property to start packing. It was difficult to go back, but this was made worse by a pile of bills from TMobile, who had continued to correspond with me at my 'old' address.

As soon as I realised I had the debt, I tried to contact TMobile to pay it off. I say try because it is impossible to get through to them. I frequently dialed 150 from my mobile - at 25p a minute to speak to a customer service advisor - or 0845 from landlines. I'm not sure if you have ever attempted to contact TMobile, but they should be prosecuted under the Trades Descriptions Act for using the term "Communications Company"

They:

* Use an automated telephone system to deal with their customers
* Their Board of Management refuse to deal with customers
* They treat their customers with contempt

After several attempts of trying to contact TMobile, trying a different combination of numbers to try to get through to a human being, I finally reached the Customer Services Dept. By this time I realised that I had been given a default and asked the lady whether if I paid the total outstanding amount off, TMobile would be willing to move the default as a goodwill gesture. She agreed and said this would not be an issue.

I then wrote into TMobile to have confirmation of this. I was subsequently informed by telephone that this would not be possible.

I was also 'warned' that if I tried to complain or argue against this decision to anybody higher than one of the Customer Services Managers, I wouldn't get anywhere, as they are the most senior people within the organisation who deal with customers and their decision is final.

Madly enough and out of sheer desperation I wrote to the Managing Director, Richard Moat and received the reply that follows shortly.

During this period of time, I also tried to contact Customer Services through the TMobile website, but the facility to leave a message was often down. I was also contacted by another customer services representative who informed me that they would be willing to reinstate my mobile service, only to transfer me through to the Billing team, who informed me that it was too late to do this.

The final kick to my stomach from TMobile was when I was informed that if I had paid my bill in full just two and a half weeks earlier, they would not have defaulted me. What they don't seem to be able to comprehend is that I had been trying to get through to them for 4 weeks to pay the debt off, but due to their automated services, system faliures and being given the wrong advice - I just couldn't get it done.

So now I have a default, I am unable to find any living accommodation. I am working my notice at my new job and will soon be dragging my son away from his school and my parents, who have given him so much love since his dad died. We are having to move back north.

The decision not to remove the default is apparently because I missed a payment on my mobile bill in October 2009, but the payments started again in November.

Below is the final response from the lady who clearly runs the company:

Thank you for your letter to Richard Moat, our CFO and Deputy CEO regarding the default on your credit file. Richard is aware of your complaint and has asked me to respond on his behalf.

Further to speaking to you 14 October, I did inform you any further correspondence received would be passed to myself to deal with. Regrettably, due to Richards?s position he is unable to speak to customers personally.

Having reviewed your account you first experience payment difficulties from October 2009. In November, our Collections Department explained the impact of late payments against your credit file.

As previously explained I am unable to remove the default on your credit file, as this would not show a true reflection of your payment history. When you agree to a contract, you also agree for us to provide an accurate account of your payment history to credit reference agencies.

Please accept my apologies for the difficulty you have had when trying to contact us. Your comments have been passed to the relevant department to investigate this further.

I can confirm we do not provide deadlock letters, however, once your initial complaint is greater than eight weeks old you can contact CISAS directly.

I appreciate you have experienced a very difficult time recently and I would like to express my sincere condolences to both you and your son.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact Richard. I understand this may not be the answer you were looking for; thank you for the opportunity to clarify our position.

Kind regards

Suzanne Harle

If anybody has any further suggestions of how I can get out of this mess, I would be so grateful for any advice. At the moment, I am only living for my son. I fully accept that it was my fault for not keeping up with my mobile bill for a while, but I really feel that not being able to get through to them to pay the bill was a huge factor in me getting this default.

I have tried to get a deadlock letter so I can approach the ombudsman, but they won't even do that for me. If there are any experts out there, then please please help and thanks so much for reading......

Accountant_Kerry

I think you have had a reasonable reply from them tbh, bearing in mind that you can pay your bill many ways and you don't have to speak to an advisor to do this. You have had a reply from the top of the company.

The only other thing you can do is contact ofcom.

I would recommend you speak to the credit reference agencies, you can put a note on your credit file explaining why you have this default, people who credit check you can then see this and take your explanation into consideration. A small default from a mobile company shoudl not effect you being able to rent a property etc.

Sorry for your situation don;t let these things get you down. as long as you have paid the money the default will show as satisfied and a note on your credit file to explain, the default then shouldn't cause you to many problems. If you have late payments on other things as well as this default that is where you will come unstuck. I wish you all the best.

ruggedtoast

Ifeellikegivingup. wrote: »

If anybody has any further suggestions of how I can get out of this mess, I would be so grateful for any advice. At the moment, I am only living for my son...

This isn't really anything to do with T-Mobile or your (minor) credit default.

You have been, and are going through, an extremely hard time which is making this seem out of perspective.

It's entirely understandable how you feel, but you badly need to get some proper help at this point.

I would recommend contacting CRUSE

http://www.crusebereavementcare.org.uk/

If you explain the situation they will prioritse you for a counsellor.

Its likely and normal that you're feeling very depressed, so a trip to the GP would be a good idea as well.

As far as your credit file goes its a minor default, as Kerry says, and shouldnt affect you passing the reasonably forgiving credit check for a tenancy. You could also try a private rental through the paper.

Good luck with it, try and put the T Mobile thing behind you.

carrieparkinson

they wont remove it as technically its correct.. (its not circumstantial) however once paid it will show as a default satisfied...... on the flip side if u can prove that u changed the address before it happened its more likely they will remove it as its their fault for not sending mail to your new address.... (its easy to update an address on their systems... i worked for their cs and collection teams)

globetraveller

Oh dear- poor thing. You have had such a traumatic time. Really- the Tmobile situation is not worth all the worry you are putting into it. The default is minor and can be explained and has been put right by you. Concentrate on what is important now. I have a feeling that you are transferring all the grief and anger you are now going through onto something "safer" to concentrate upon- if that makes any sense.
Take care of yourself and your little boy and I wish better times ahead for you.

robt_2

Ifeellikegivingup. wrote: »

The final kick to my stomach from TMobile was when I was informed that if I had paid my bill in full just two and a half weeks earlier, they would not have defaulted me. What they don't seem to be able to comprehend is that I had been trying to get through to them for 4 weeks to pay the debt off, but due to their automated services, system faliures and being given the wrong advice - I just couldn't get it done.

This is the crux of the matter. As far as they are concerned, it doesn't take four weeks of trying in order to pay a bill - there are many ways of doing it.

I genuinely don't know how it can take four weeks of trying to be honest.

The default is correct I'm afraid - but it is by no means the end of the world. Once it is paid, it will be marked as 'satisfied'. It is very minor compared with everything else you have been through.