Is this enough to get out my 3 Contract

Scott_Hall

Hi

I really need help.

i have been with Three for 5-6 months now on a 24 month contract. WORST DECISION OF MY LIFE.

they have overcharged my bank account twice incurring me two overdraft fee's of £15.

which lead to me cancelling the direct debit because like i told them i couldn't trust there system. i told them from now on i will be paying cash but they turned round and said that would be an extra £5-£7 a month.

thats a extra £120.00 to £168.00 added to my contract over the 24 months.

which lead to them cutting my phone off.

they are making up the bills as they go my bill can range from £25-£54.25.

MY TARIFF IS ONLY £25.00 A MONTH.

my original tariff was £35 a month for the first month of the contract then i reduced that to £25.00 a month £15 for the contract and £10 for the phone.

i have sent them a letter of complaint threatening to go to watchdog/consumer advice on 29th november and still no word back from them.

they have cut my phone of last month round about the 22nd of november for maintenance work on phone mast.

i went into store and phoned to complain and they said the problem was out of there control however they still wanted me to pay for the week i couldn't use my phone(which i thought was extremely unfair paying for a service your not receiving).

AND THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN THEY PHONE ME TODAY ASKING FOR £47.57 TWO DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. WHICH TO BE HONEST IS COMPLETE BULLSH*T AND UNFAIR

I AM GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF GETTING MESSED ABOUT BY THREE AND WANT OUT THE CONTRACT ASAP IS THERE ANYWAY TO DO THIS WITHOUT INCURRING A CANCELLATION FEE. IT'S PUTTING ME UNDER ALOT OF PRESSURE AND UPSET.

any more info just ask.

thanks alot

JimmyTheWig

Firstly, I suggest you follow through your threat and go to watchdog/consumer advice. You don't want them to see you backing off from a threat otherwise they may not take you seriously in the future.

Now, lets look at the problems...
1. They've overcharged your bank account twice. Was this because the bill was wrong? Or the direct debit was for more than the bill? Or was it just that your bill was more than you were expecting?

2. They've cut you off. Just because of maintenance (I presume that this is in the contract that they can do this, but worth checking your paperwork) or some other reason (e.g. you haven't paid the bills)?

3. The bills range from £25.00 to £54.25. I presume that this is due to usage. Do you dispute the usage? Or the cost of the usage? Or is it just more than you were expecting?

4. Regardless of how long until Christmas, if you owe them money they are going to ask for it. Do you agree you owe them £47.57?

gjchester

Trying to address specific points..

Scott_Hall wrote: »

they have overcharged my bank account twice incurring me two overdraft fee's of £15.

Can you explan why were you overcharged twice? Was it they tried to take one higher than expected payment twice, or because your bills were higher than you expected on more than one occasion.

Without wanting to pry too much how much was the overcharge that made you go overdrawn? If you bank account was so close to zero that the over charge was just a few tens of pounds then you need to think about how you budget.

Scott_Hall wrote: »

which lead to me cancelling the direct debit because like i told them i couldn't trust there system. i told them from now on i will be paying cash but they turned round and said that would be an extra £5-£7 a month.

thats a extra £120.00 to £168.00 added to my contract over the 24 months.

which lead to them cutting my phone off.

Sorry thats standard practive across all networks, you pay be DD or you pay a surcharge. Why, because DD is cheaper to process and also it reduces the risk, if you get a high bill and you pay cash then you could just not pay it, with DD it's more chance of being paid and paid on time.

Your choosing to pay cash, you need move back to a DD or pay the extra charge.

Scott_Hall wrote: »

they are making up the bills as they go my bill can range from £25-£54.25.

MY TARIFF IS ONLY £25.00 A MONTH.

my original tariff was £35 a month for the first month of the contract then i reduced that to £25.00 a month £15 for the contract and £10 for the phone.

Not following you here.

The phone IS NOT part of the monthly payment. I can't see why you think you went from a £35PCM contract to a £15 PCM contract.

As Jimmy has said have you used more than the allowance, or by reducing the tarrif caused something to be dropped off the plan you use a lot.
You don't say what you have phone and contract wise, Has the move from £35 to £15/25 meant you 've lost the internet bundle, or had the minutes reduced and your still using them regardless. So if you have 100 minutes but used 200 you'll be paying them at out of bundle rates, hence the higher bills.

Have you asked Three for a breakdown of the bill to see why they are high?

Scott_Hall wrote: »

i have sent them a letter of complaint threatening to go to watchdog/consumer advice on 29th november and still no word back from them.

At the moment I have to say what for? It's not clear why you have been over charged from what you have said so far. Thats not to say there may be a problem, It just it's not clear why yet.

Scott_Hall wrote: »

they have cut my phone of last month round about the 22nd of november for maintenance work on phone mast.

i went into store and phoned to complain and they said the problem was out of there control however they still wanted me to pay for the week i couldn't use my phone(which i thought was extremely unfair paying for a service your not receiving).

You can still use it just not at that location. When you go to work unless you work from home chances are you are in another cell and the phone will be fine. Three are removing access to the Orange network that was used as a backup but thats not too relevent here.

Scott_Hall wrote: »

AND THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN THEY PHONE ME TODAY ASKING FOR £47.57 TWO DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. WHICH TO BE HONEST IS COMPLETE BULLSH*T AND UNFAIR

Again you need to ask Three what is it for. If you've not paid a bill or there is money outstanding then as Jimmy said so what if it's Xmas the amount is still owing.

Can you clarify the bits I've asked for, at the moment its not clear why you have been over charged.

Coming back on the removal of Orange, if thats the cause of the signal loss then you may be able to cancel the contract, you don't have any legal right to do so but Three are permitting people to do it as a goodwill gesture.
Try phoning them and saying you have a loss of signal, if it's down to maintainance of a mast rather than removal then you probably will get no-where but you may get it cancelled.

However PLEASE be calm and polite about it, if you come across as bluntly as the post makes you sound then the person on the other end is less likely to want to help. Be polite to the call centre person, if your nice they tend to respond better, be rude and you'll get nowhere.

Scott_Hall

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Firstly, I suggest you follow through your threat and go to watchdog/consumer advice. You don't want them to see you backing off from a threat otherwise they may not take you seriously in the future.

Now, lets look at the problems...
1. They've overcharged your bank account twice. Was this because the bill was wrong? Or the direct debit was for more than the bill? Or was it just that your bill was more than you were expecting?

2. They've cut you off. Just because of maintenance (I presume that this is in the contract that they can do this, but worth checking your paperwork) or some other reason (e.g. you haven't paid the bills)?

3. The bills range from £25.00 to £54.25. I presume that this is due to usage. Do you dispute the usage? Or the cost of the usage? Or is it just more than you were expecting?

4. Regardless of how long until Christmas, if you owe them money they are going to ask for it. Do you agree you owe them £47.57?

1. They overcharged my bank account twice because the bill was wrong it was blame on there part.

2. they cut me off because they where doing maintenance on there masts they said. but they should of gave me that week free due to not being able to use my phone.

3. i have never once went over my usage i am extremely careful when it comes to that. my bill is always £25.00. they have no interest at all they tell me to phone three helpline and they are no help what so ever.

4. i only owed £25.00 that was all.

Guys_Dad

Scott_Hall wrote: »

1. They overcharged my bank account twice because the bill was wrong it was blame on there part.

2. they cut me off because they where doing maintenance on there masts they said. but they should of gave me that week free due to not being able to use my phone.

3. i have never once went over my usage i am extremely careful when it comes to that. my bill is always £25.00. they have no interest at all they tell me to phone three helpline and they are no help what so ever.

4. i only owed £25.00 that was all.

Get a bill and check it. They can't just make up amounts without a breakdown.

If they have made a mistake and you can prove it, then they have to reimburse you or you can go to a higher authority, but you need the bills one way or the other.

jayme1

why are you being over charged? is it because you are using too many mins/texts? as you will likely have less on a £25pm contract than a £35pm one.

gjchester wrote: »

The phone IS NOT part of the monthly payment. I can't see why you think you went from a £35PCM contract to a £15 PCM contract.

a while ago 3 mobile worked like this you chose your contract say the £30 a month one and then you chose your phone and every phone had its own cost per month that ranged from free or an extra £2 a month all the way up to £25 or £30 per month. so if the OP is on that deal then yes he would be charged for the tariff and the phone.

spaceman5

jayme1 wrote: »

why are you being over charged? is it because you are using too many mins/texts? as you will likely have less on a £25pm contract than a £35pm one.



a while ago 3 mobile worked like this you chose your contract say the £30 a month one and then you chose your phone and every phone had its own cost per month that ranged from free or an extra £2 a month all the way up to £25 or £30 per month. so if the OP is on that deal then yes he would be charged for the tariff and the phone.

this must have nbeen quite a while ago, as i have been with 3 for 6 years and have not ever had a tariff for the phone

Wintermute

Phone them up, request a paper copy of your past few itemised bills and sit down and spend some time going over them and find out exactly what you're getting charged for and why. Ask them to confirm when your bills are generated and how long you have to pay them.

No offence meant, but it sounds like you simply don't understand what you signed up for. If you've currently got an agreement to pay £25 a month for airtime and a phone then your bill will always be at least that, but if you go over any of your allowances, call numbers that aren't included in your allowance (0845 numbers for example) your bills will end up higher and it's your responsibility to pay them.

Three won't just make up random bills, if there's charges on your bill there will be explanations for them, what explanations are they offering you for them then maybe we could help?

If the direct debit was taken earlier than you agreed or you were billed incorrectly due to an error at Three's end (which is very unlikely) then Three should refund your bank charges, but if your bills were correct and your direct debit was taken on or after the date you agreed with Three then they're your responsibility.

No network will cut you off for maintenance on a mast, if they have to do work on a mast it'll only effect you in a very specific area if you live or work in an urban area, if you travel any real distance you should pick up service from another cell site, for example I know there's at least 2 masts on my network in my area that I can get a signal from in my house. If they're calling you asking for money then it sounds more like they've cut you off for non-payment.

If they are calling you up asking you for money it'll be for a reason and it'll most likely be overdue, surely you would have asked why they want £47.57 and they would would have provided you with some sort of explanation? The time of year doesn't matter, if you owe them the money then they have a right to ask for it, if you don't want to pay it they'll just end up selling it on to a debt collection agency.

gjchester

Scott_Hall wrote: »

1. They overcharged my bank account twice because the bill was wrong it was blame on there part.

So you got a bill that was higher then expected (for whatever reason), and they took it from your account twice?

Taking it twice then you should have a case for claiming fees back for one lot of fee's not both

Scott_Hall wrote: »

2. they cut me off because they where doing maintenance on there masts they said. but they should of gave me that week free due to not being able to use my phone.

Sorry no.

You had use of the phone just not at all locations. The entire network was not down just one mast. Now I realise it may be the one you use most, but you still had use of the phone just not at home.

Scott_Hall wrote: »

3. i have never once went over my usage i am extremely careful when it comes to that. my bill is always £25.00. they have no interest at all they tell me to phone three helpline and they are no help what so ever.

Sorry this is where it gets a little odd. If you have never gone over your limit why are you being overcharged. As Guys Day says there has to be a reason, they don;t jsut add charges for a giggle.

If you haven't gone over your limit they have misbilled you, but you need to get a breakdown of why you are overcharged to work out why. Without that breakdown you can;t know for sure you have not exceeded your allowance.

Scott_Hall wrote: »

4. i only owed £25.00 that was all.

Again without the breakdown you can't say that for sure.