Outstanding charge - t-mobile

zerno

OK. I'm hoping for some help here as I'm at my wits end.

approximately 5 years ago my girlfriend took out a pay monthly dongle with carphone warehouse on the t-mobile network. They were to charge £15 a month for unlimited internet (12 month contract).

After recieving the dongle we set it all up as per instructions and it didn't work. It would at best connect to the internet for two minutes before disconnecting.

So we took it back to carphone warehouse. They said it could be a problem with the sim card in it and replaced it.

Still no joy so back we went. This time they replaced the dongle as well.

That didn't work either.

We then proceeded to rack up about 40 hours worth of calls to t-mobiles customer support. They suggested that the sim and dongle might not be compatible.

We questioned them further and they agreed that the contract would be cancelled with nothing to pay as neither themselves or carphone warehouse could figure out what was wrong. (computer matched the right specs etc)

We sent the dongle back and that was the end of it. Until last year.

We were contacted by a debt collection agency asking for nearly £400 of unpaid t-mobile internet bills.

As both me and my partner were now with O2 we had no idea where this bill had come from. After a lengthy discussion with them we found out it was the dongle she had taken out years ago. We explained to them what had happened and they went off to talk to t-mobile.

T-mobile came back and said they had no record of the cancellation and that the debt still stood.

Since then we have spent a year going back and forth between t-mobile (who blame carphone warehouse but yet have no record of my girlfriend on any system), carphone warehouse (who say the contract is with t-mobile and they have no record of her) and the debt collection agency.

T-mobile have not responded to any letters we have sent and the only way to get in touch with them is via their customer services. Every call has resulted in us being told that they have no record of who she is, but a senior person will call us back. No call back.

We asked the debt collection agency if they could put us in touch with the person they are dealing with at T-mobile and we were told this isn't possible.

The agency at its worse was calling two/three times a week and sending letters. It's down to one letter/call/text a week.

Can anyone help with this conundrum?

Tixy

Hi

I would stop making any calls and start making sure all your communication is in writing so that you can keep a paper trail and they are less likely to keep fobbing you off with promises of returned calls.

If they ring you again I would ask that they put their request / information in a letter and hang up. And if they carry on ringing there is a template you can send to stop all calls and insisit all communication is in writing (which should also stop texts).

Who is it writing to you? the debt collector? What have they sent you so far (aside from letters stating that a debt exists?)

I assume you don't have anything in writing from 5years ago that mentions the contract was cancelled or anything about the issues you had with the service etc?

zerno

Hi Tixy.

I have tried writing to T-Mobile, but haven't had a response to any of the letters I have sent (last count was about 15 I think). The only way I seem to get any contact is over the phone where of course they fob me off.

I've asked the debt collection numerous times to contact me by post. They were originally contacting (by that I mean harassing) my girlfriend. She has suffered from depression in the past and every call/text/letter was getting her down. I wrote to them and spoke to them asking that all contact go through me, explaining her history of depression.

Their response was to ask me to provide them with a doctor's note to tell them she was depressed.

The letters, calls and texts to her have continued.

The letters the debt collector have sent all consist of "you owe us this much, payment is due now"

All the original paperwork from 5 years ago was shredded when my girlfriend moved house.

You can see the jam we are in!

Tixy

Have you ben sending your letters recorded delivery - if not try that and you may get more response.

Just asking the debt collector to do everything in writing won't make a difference - but if she sends one of these letters - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=11571485&postcount=4
they have to take notice of it, and they will stop the calls (and if they don't you need to report them).

zerno

I was sending them registered deliver but after the first few received no response I decided it was an unnecessary expenditure.

Thanks for the link to the letter, I'll get a copy of that printed to send them! Hopefully it will stop the harassment. I mean contact.