Pensioner paying amazing mobile costs!!

philgadd

My father suffered a massive stroke and my mum died, thus he struggles speaking verbally and uses text to communicate.

Last october, Virginmobile offered him a contract for £10 a month. About 3 weeks ago I found him crying as he never had the money to live.. Virginmedia instead of charging him 120 quid for the year have charged £1280!!! sometimes £162 a month (all text charges)!! in return this called returned DD's and his bank santander were charging him £150 a month etc.. After a quick visit to santander they repaid around £450 in charges (fantastic), but virginmedia are refusing to see the light and their 'Duty of Care' here. I stated that my mobile phone company ring me and offer cheaper tariffs if they see any type of over use..

As my father has always worked and on state pensions, he was giving up buying food to pay these debts. I am currently waiting for a mgr from south africa at virgin to contact me again..

Has anyone got anymore advice to help? Should I escalate this to the media and offcom etc?

Thanks

DUTR

philgadd wrote: »

My father suffered a massive stroke and my mum died, thus he struggles speaking verbally and uses text to communicate.

Last october, Virginmobile offered him a contract for £10 a month. About 3 weeks ago I found him crying as he never had the money to live.. Virginmedia instead of charging him 120 quid for the year have charged £1280!!! sometimes £162 a month (all text charges)!! in return this called returned DD's and his bank santander were charging him £150 a month etc.. After a quick visit to santander they repaid around £450 in charges (fantastic), but virginmedia are refusing to see the light and their 'Duty of Care' here. I stated that my mobile phone company ring me and offer cheaper tariffs if they see any type of over use..

As my father has always worked and on state pensions, he was giving up buying food to pay these debts. I am currently waiting for a mgr from south africa at virgin to contact me again..

Has anyone got anymore advice to help? Should I escalate this to the media and offcom etc?

Thanks

He is your Father, and he got you into this world, so now it is time for you to take care of him, you manage his phone bills for him, and you can nip these issues in the bud before they get too large.

grumbler

Don't know about the last Oct, but currently £10.99 rolling contract includes 5000 texts (3000 for £5).

If this is not sufficient, switch him to another provider offering unlimited texts:
chitter-chatter - for £6
giffgaff - for £10

However, using a mobile for sending 170+ texts every day from home is a hard job. If it is his main way of communicating buy him a cheap PC to send texts in a more comfortable way.

zagfles

First off check they're charges for outgoing texts, rather than reverse charge texts. Search this forum for reverse charge texts, you should be able to get your money back if was these.

If he just sends a lot of texts without understanding the cost, it's probably best if he goes PAYG, there are loads of PAYG deals where you can buy a text pack that'll give him oodles of texts (sometimes unlimited) for a limited period, usually 30 days. He can then buy one of these every month, and be completely confident there won't be any nasty surprises when the bill comes, as it's all pre-paid.

Contracts are a very bad idea unless you completely understand the T&Cs and tariff - there are several posts a week on this forum from people who've run up bills in the thousands.

Humphrey10

zagfles wrote: »

Contracts are a very bad idea unless you completely understand the T&Cs and tariff - there are several posts a week on this forum from people who've run up bills in the thousands.

Not true - I have never had any idea of how many minutes, texts, and data my contracts have covered, and yet the only extra charges I have ever had have been for 0845 numbers etc that are not covered by the contract. It's not rocket science.

OP how many texts a month does your dad send, how many are expensive ones (eg chat lines, entering prize draws on TV etc), and how many are picture texts (these also cost more depending on the contract)?

philgadd

Hi Everyone, thanks for the replies..

Ok, the texts are 15p each and he sends them to family and friends and also sends jokes etc (think its his way of communicating as he gets a little lonely in the daytime). As you can imagine, I now monitor his bills and have access to his bank account just to supervise where i can without being intrusive.

Surely the supplier has a 'duty of care' to its senior customers, hence a phone call to him 10 months ago to offer a change of tariff would have saved him 1100 quid?

Rusty!

They're in business to make money...

Techhead_2

I'm pleased that we don't live in a country where we allow mobile phone companies to care for the elderly. You are taking the wrong tack at the moment. That duty falls to relatives and friends. I know its difficult to find yourself having to be a parent to your own parent (I've been there).

Practically, I think you need to politely and calmly explain the situation to Virgin. Ask if they could, as a goodwill gesture, retrospectively add their most generous text bundle. Going forward I would take charge and put your father on an appropriate tariff with sufficient texts.

If I was able I would liaise with other family about taking some of the burden from your father and put plans in place to asses his ability to manage his affairs. Sadly, you may find that you have to step in more frequently in future.

scheming_gypsy

philgadd wrote: »

Surely the supplier has a 'duty of care' to its senior customers, hence a phone call to him 10 months ago to offer a change of tariff would have saved him 1100 quid?

They'd also expect that an adult is fully aware of how much they're spending. A child who isn't paying the bill, yeah maybe but an adult is fully aware that they're spending too much money when they're getting £162 a month bills.
You say they could have called him 10 months ago; but he could have asked somebody to call them as well. Like Rusty said, they're in it to make money and not to babysit people who ignore the warning signs.

philgadd

Thanks again for the replies guys..

After his stroke, ne seemed to have the same common sense (being a brain injury) and when he told me he was getting a cheap phone I thought it was a good idea. But, he just assumed he had to pay those fees and never said a word.. Now we are aware of the problems we have put quiet processes in place to monitor his affairs.

The bank were try sympathetic to his situation so I am confident Virginmobile will assume the same stance.

Techead - great response, I have been pretty calm, although it is quite frustrating getting a response from call centres in India and south africa..

Again, santander, face to face were fabulous.

zagfles

Humphrey10 wrote: »

Not true - I have never had any idea of how many minutes, texts, and data my contracts have covered, and yet the only extra charges I have ever had have been for 0845 numbers etc that are not covered by the contract. It's not rocket science.

So you've been lucky, or not used your phone much. Generally I find it's a good idea to understand what you're signing up for.