Huge Mobile phone bill

andyk49

Fortunately this is not my problem but a problem of a good friend, who is not on the Internet.
In November 2010 he took out a mobile phone contract for his 16year old daughter.
Sadly this daughter is a bit of a problem and has been in the care of social services for much of the time since then.
The contract was set up so that the Phone company took the monthly payments direct from his daughter bank account as she had started work.
It would appear that the payments started bouncing and the FIRST he knew of this was when he received a letter dated 25 July from Tesco Mobile saying that the phone use had been suspended.
He called Tesco and was told
1)that they had repeatedly sent messages to the phone!!!---a lot of use as it was not him as the named user.
2)They couldn't tell him the total amount as they were not doing a final bill until 8 September???? What was wrong with the 8th August---or was this a attempt to get £30 more out of him.

3) The only information that he could glean was that the bill was in excess of £600
4) Even though his name and address were on the contract, he has not seen a single bill, nor any other correspondence until the letter of 25 July.

Any advice would be appreciated.

macman

In short, he is fully liable for the bills, as he is the account holder-it's irrelevant if the DD was set up on his daughter's account. Once she stops paying (which is presumably what has happened-she's either cancelled the DD or has no funds to pay it), any debts are down to him.
The account may be set up for online billing rather than paper billing, in which case he needs to check the online account, which he presumably has access to. Whose email contac was on the acccount?
Presumably they wrote on 25/7 because they can no longer message to the phone.
Why has he not chased a bill before now, if the contract started in November 2010?
Quite mad to allow a troubled teenager a contract phone, why not PAYG?
I can't see that Tesco have done anything wrong here.

grumbler

• He took the contract on his name.
• Tesco make it clear that they don't provide paper bills.
• It's not Tesco's business that he gave the mobile to his daughter and was unable to get the messages.
• It was his decision to set the DD on the daughter's account, not to check the bills and not to make sure that the bills get paid.
• If the phone has been suspended it's not a rocket science to predict the next bill. Just add the monthly payment to the previous bill.
• ...
• ...

macman

If I was in that position I'd be wanting the phone service to remain suspended...once it's back on again she can carry on ringing up (literally) potentially much larger bills.

Guys_Dad

Advice - get him to check his credit record.

andyk49

He realises how stupid he was, particularly as she had always been what can only be described as , a daughter from hell.
BUT
If Tesco wrote him a letter on the 25th July saying that it had been suspended, why on the 28/29th would they not give him a balance and more so why would they not give him a final amount until 8th September??? adding another month to the problem???
I will check with him this evening, but my understanding was that it was for overuse of the Internet, over a number of months.

macman

Presumably because that is the date of the next billing cycle.

DUTR

andyk49 wrote: »

He realises how stupid he was, particularly as she had always been what can only be described as , a daughter from hell.
BUT
If Tesco wrote him a letter on the 25th July saying that it had been suspended, why on the 28/29th would they not give him a balance and more so why would they not give him a final amount until 8th September??? adding another month to the problem???
I will check with him this evening, but my understanding was that it was for overuse of the Internet, over a number of months.

There is no BUT Andy, it's your friends bill and he is responsible for it.

On a personal level if your friend is not responsible for his own dealings then how can he possibly nuture that on to his daughter?
All he can do is learn from HIS mistake.

grumbler

"Suspended phone" doesn't mean "terminated contract". The phone is likely to be disabled for making calls, but able to receive calls/texts. He has to pay Tesco the current balance plus all monthly payments till the end of the contract minimum term. If he wants to terminate the contract he has to pay all future payments in advance.

macman

Indeed-the phone remains in contract until either May or November 2012, depending on length of contract. The contract remains enforceable, regardless of the arrears owing.

Naf

andyk49 wrote: »

If Tesco wrote him a letter on the 25th July saying that it had been suspended, why on the 28/29th would they not give him a balance and more so why would they not give him a final amount until 8th September??? adding another month to the problem???
I will check with him this evening, but my understanding was that it was for overuse of the Internet, over a number of months.

As above, suspended only means that the SIM's ability to send texts, make calls and access internet services has been stopped, the monthly contract continues running regardless.
Without knowing the details of the conversation he had with Tesco, its very easy to get the current balance, but some charges can be out of date by up to a month (usually only usage abroad though), so this could be why they were unable to give him an exact figure of the full balance owing. Unless 8th September is the contract end mark, even the figure given then will not be everything as there will still be the monthly contract to pay until the contracted period is up; even if the phone remains suspended.