HELP!!! Should I contact OfCom??

harding1985

Hi Guys,

hope you don't mind me posting in here (hope im in the correct forum), I need some advice.

Recently took a 24 month mobile phone contract out with mobiles.co.uk, unfortunately the handset turned out to be faulty (speaker fault), mobiles.co.uk said they can swap the handset but only offered me much lesser models than the Galaxy S as they said they don't have any further stock of this model, after a week of me chasing mobiles.co.uk through both email and telephone calls I finally got a returns number for full cancellation of the contract, I returned the mobile next day special delivery, this was 2 weeks ago yesterday, and I hadn't heard anything since yesterday despite me chasing every other day, Orange have since taken 2 direct debits, so i called mobiles.co.uk yesterday and they said that I'd need do speak with the network provider to cancel the contract and forward the final bill onto mobiles.co.uk to pay in full, sounds abit odd to me, I spoke to the network provider who say that if I terminated the contract there would be a charge of £460.00 and if this wasn't paid within 14 days then a debt recovery agency would be asked to collect this amount from me personally, they also mentioned this was not normal practice for a company to ask there customer to do this, the contract cancellation request needs to come from mobiles.co.uk themselves.

Now am I right in thinking the cancellation has nothing to do with me and is a job that mobiles.co.uk should complete?

The network provider surprising said I should contact ofcom and office of fair trading.

So im currently paying £25.00 per month for a mobile phone and contract I don't even own, FANTASTIC!

Any advice on this one please?

spiro

You contract is for line rental not a phone. As the handset was provided by mobiles.co.uk and you found it faulty within a few days they are responsible for repairing or replacing it. You do not have to accept a lower model phone.

If they give you the option to cancel the contract that is for them to deal with as you have a contract with them.

Silk

If it was the agreement that the contract was cancelled then it was down tomobiles.co.uk to cancel the contract.
Past personal experiance shows that they don't always do that due to incompetance of their staff.
Do you have any form of paperwork or emails that the agreeement was for them to cancel ???

harding1985

Hi thanks for the response, yes I have emails confirming that mobiles.co.uk agreed the cancellation, they even gave me a returns number etc.

Silk

harding1985 wrote: »

Hi thanks for the response, yes I have emails confirming that mobiles.co.uk agreed the cancellation, they even gave me a returns number etc.

In that case I would get back to the network and show them that the contracts were cancelled through their agent and insist that the cancellation goes ahead at no expence to yourself other than to pay for any calls or data used etc etc.
Should they not be willing to do that I would for the time being carry on paying the monthly fee and send mobiles.co.uk a LBA for the cost of the contact plus expences and unless they pay within 14 days issue a MCOL for the costs.
Its all part of the problems of dealing with a useless compay like mobiles.co.uk I'm afraid

harding1985

Thanks, ill check out the MCOL website :cool:

Just so frustrating..... Got a feeling this is going to be a looooong process

Silk

harding1985 wrote: »

Thanks, ill check out the MCOL website :cool:

Just so frustrating..... Got a feeling this is going to be a looooong process

Afraid so :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
I was lucky though as I had an O2 investigation team on my side from more or less day 1

macman

They should have offered you a repair or replacement handset. If the original is not available then an equivalent or higher spec phone should have been offered.

Silk

macman wrote: »

They should have offered you a repair or replacement handset. If the original is not available then an equivalent or higher spec phone should have been offered.

If a repair is offered it does not have to be accepted if it's faulty from day 1 or a short space of time and if you read the OP's post it seems they had no stock of a replacement and only offered a lesser model.

mobilejunkie

Silk wrote: »

In that case I would get back to the network and show them that the contracts were cancelled through their agent and insist that the cancellation goes ahead at no expence to yourself other than to pay for any calls or data used etc etc.
Should they not be willing to do that I would for the time being carry on paying the monthly fee and send mobiles.co.uk a LBA for the cost of the contact plus expences and unless they pay within 14 days issue a MCOL for the costs.
Its all part of the problems of dealing with a useless compay like mobiles.co.uk I'm afraid

It doesn't appear that straightforward. Apparently they "agreed the cancellation" - doesn't mean they actually cancelled it. They would want the phone back before so doing - and within a certain time frame and there doesn't seem to be anything to suggest that Mobiles.co.uk HAVE cancelled it. Under those circumstances the network will charge the full cost for terminating the contract.

The LBA should state that Mobiles.co.were responsibile for cancelling the contract as they agreed to do, since the phone was returned as soon as the returns number was supplied by them on the promise that they would so do. It may now be that only the contractee (and not the dealer) can cancel the contract with the provider - it seems to me that a written confirmation from Orange confirming the cancellation fee should provide the basis for a legal claim (plus court fees and statutory interest). I suspect a court might not be impressed if the claim is made without the cancellation being incurred, for then the fee has not technically been charged and the plaintiff is still getting the benefit of the contract (such as that is). I would suggest contacting a legal help line if you have one - especially regarding this point - before deciding whether to cancel the contract. Mobiles.co rarely go to court but you still need to have all your ducks in a row. What you really need (if they can't cancel the contract now) is a written agreement from them to pay the cancellation fee within (say) 7 days of you providing evidence that it has been incurred.

Quentin would be best for clarification on these issues if he's around!

macman

Silk wrote: »

If a repair is offered it does not have to be accepted if it's faulty from day 1 or a short space of time and if you read the OP's post it seems they had no stock of a replacement and only offered a lesser model.

I did read the OP's post-under the circumstances they should have offered a superior handset rather than agreeing to cancel the airtime contract.