Tesco mobile bill - son racked up huge debt accidentally

aquarian3

Dear Moneysavers,

I'm really upset about this and wondered if there was something I could say to tesco as I want to complain but not in a horrible way because I honestly see both sides of the argument.

My husband, son (14) and myself have Tesco sim's on 30 day rolling contracts, which we've had for over a year, when we first got the sim's I was constantly checking our online usage as it's hard to determine what 500MB of internet time actually amounts to. None of us 'ever' went anywhere near our usage so I stopped regularly checking.

Then on Thursday my son, who had been off school ill for the 2nd day, told me he couldn't send any texts, after checking his phone settings I decided to call Tesco for some help. I was then told that the sim in question had gone over £325 in data charges and as our bill was in transition (being rolled over from one months allowance to the next) he had also run up - in 2 hours - over £280.

The man kindly said he could wipe off £246, as this hadn't been put on our bill yet, leaving £79 over his allowance for the new month, he explained to me that if we topped up £40, this would bring his new months account £39 over his allowed usage, which Tesco allow (up to £40), meaning his phone would get activated again within 6 hrs so he could at least use it to text and make calls, just not to use online. Unfortunately, we don't have £40 at the mo so we haven't been able to get his phone back on.

I tried explaining to the man that none of our sims have ever gone anywhere near our useage allowance and why didn't that ring alarm bells and trigger a call to the 'account holder' ie me? He said that when they send the sims out they don't know who has them and they just send a text to that specific number tellling them they're close to their allowance as a warning. I asked my son for his phone and found the text he was sent, but my son replied by saying he didn't understand what the text meant and because he never gets texts from Tesco he just ignored it.

I totally understand that Tesco don't know who in my family has the sim's and for all they know I've given one to the dustman, but if the account is experiencing unusual behaviour, why can't they call instead of sending a text to the number that's behaving unusual?

I told the man that a friend of mine had her phone stolen out shopping and didn't know it was missing until she got home, when she reported it stolen to her phone provider she was told a huge bill had been racked up in foreign calls. If that were my son - out shopping with his mates - whilst I was at home none the wiser to his phone being misused by a thief, a quick text or call from Tesco to me, the account holder, could have put a stop to the phone immediately, alerting all of us that his phone was no longer in his possession - similar to the new policy credit card companies employ if large purchases have been made out of the normal shopping tendencies of the card holder.

He replied by saying that no phone company has a policy like that because if the sim owner had been making calls to, say a dating site, they wouldn't appreciate being phoned by the phone company constantly asking if the sim was still in their control. He wouldn't get that this was 'unusual behaviour' for THIS sim, not normal behaviour that had gone slightly over the usage allowed!

I also tried explaining that my son has aspergers and admitted to not understanding that when we told him to use the wifi in the house and the 3g outdoors, that this meant the wifi was free and the 3g wasn't. Obviously that was a failing on our part for thinking he understood the difference. Again this made no difference.

The Tesco man sent the remaining £218.69 to the billing department to see if they would overturn it, but couuldn't put any notes on the account explaining that my son has aspergers and because he was off sick on this particular day, had sat in bed watching YouTube attached to the 3g and not the home wifi, hence going over his unlimited 500mb but fair usage allocation.

I'm just upset that this is a one-off, none of us have EVER been anywhere close to our 500MB in over a year being with Tesco and they can clearly see this, yet a phone call later that evening by the same Tesco man (who was doing his uppermost to be helpful) gave me the bad news that this amount is still remaining and they won't wipe it.

I thanked the man over and over again for wiping part of the bill off because I know he didn't have to, it's just that we are on Income Support and we can't afford to pay over £218.69 on the 21st Feb, so I wondered if anyone had any constructive advice on whether it's worth emailing Tesco? the best email address to write too? and what you guys think is worth saying to Tesco?

I do know there will be some people who will say that my son ran up the debt so we should just suck it up and pay, if we had the money to do so then I wouldn't be here. I do see both sides of the argument; they sent their obligatory text to the sim in question warning them of the limit looming and that's all they have to do. I guess I'm just annoyed that as the account holder they couldn't see fit to give me a call or send me a text instead of the person running up the debt and only cutting him off when he had gone over £300? Why leave it THAT long?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Lisa

MissKeith

I'm really sorry but I think Tesco have done more than enough to help you. It's an awful situation to be in but why on earth would you give your son an uncapped contract when it was very clear that he had no understanding of how it worked? Tesco offer capped contacts, I would suggest you switch to one as soon as possible.

I honestly don't think you have any recourse with this one.

grumbler

aquarian3 wrote: »

...I want to complain but not in a horrible way because I honestly see both sides of the argument.

It's definitely not what you want to hear, but honestly, I don't see anything serious on your side.

• The bill could have been much bigger. Be grateful that they cut the line before it reached four figures.
• They even sent a warning that your son simply ignored.
• "didn't understand what the text mean", "aspergers and admitted to not understanding" ? Fine. You know this well, but decided to give a contract phone to him. Does he have your credit card to? There are good PAYG deals around and even Tesco offer capped contracts.

5lugger

As you seem to already be aware Tesco have no contractual obligation to help, so whilst the other two posters might be correct, it's not terribly helpful for you. The answer might lay in appealing to the "moral" side of Mr Tesco's conscience.

Clearly the best thing to do is be honest, explain your situation and that you genuinely cannot afford to pay. If you have been a long term customer (even with other Tesco products) mention this as it can establish a relationship and loyalty that you have with their business. I'm assuming that this is a one off thing, and nothing like this has happened before, you will also need to give some assurance that it won't happen again!

Cant offer any guarantee that they will be able to wipe the entire debt, but in my opinion I would be looking for them to offer something, in your circumstances, as a gesture of goodwill.

If you dont feel confident of success taking this on yourself, perhaps contact your local CABX who might also have some advice.

Either way, good luck.

MissKeith

5lugger wrote: »

Cant offer any guarantee that they will be able to wipe the entire debt, but in my opinion I would be looking for them to offer something, in your circumstances, as a gesture of goodwill.

They've already met the OP halfway by wiping £246 off the bill. Quite frankly, why should they offer anything more? It's not their fault that the OP gave the contract to a minor who ignored the warning text they sent. As I said previously, it's an awful situation but Tesco have been more than generous.

Guys_Dad

I am genuinely sorry for your current predicament. I also think you have taken a responsible stance on this and are not blaming everyone but your lad.

As said above, Tesco have been pretty good by all accounts, and I think you haven't got much more leeway with them, but give it a go.

Certainly acknowledging their help to date and asking if there is anything else they can do is worth a shot.

I would also check up on their site and also the other networks to see what their excess data charges are. From memory, they were pretty high. See what O2 charge - I think that is who they piggy bag off - please correct me if I am wrong - and if the charges are different by some significant amount, try that tack.

Lastly, get a capped contract for your lad. It's no good saying after the event that you made a mistake giving him a non-capped mobile facility - you know that now.

But do expect that you will have to make some significant repayment, I fear, and, of course, your credit record will show any deferred or unpaid payments.

5lugger

MissKeith wrote: »

They've already met the OP halfway by wiping £246 off the bill. Quite frankly, why should they offer anything more? It's not their fault that the OP gave the contract to a minor who ignored the warning text they sent. As I said previously, it's an awful situation but Tesco have been more than generous.

Every little helps.....

I think we both agree its a bad place for the OP to be, hence her asking for help. Telling her they have already been more than generous and its her own fault could be viewed as not being helpful.

Perhaps one of those posts you should just read and not comment on.......

robbies_gal

but how do you help someone who admitted they were wrong?

im sorry but giving someoine a phone who isnt capable of understanding things is jsut a license to open your house and invite everyone in to take things

you either get a capped contract or switch to payg where theres no possible way to over spend

no network phone the sim holder up when theres high activity like they say it could be something theyre doing as a one off and would get irrated by phone calls asking them to stop the account

custardy

after reading your post it seems you expect Tesco to take your parental responsibilites
I frankly astounded you weren't posting a thread praising Tesco for wiping out £246 that you owed
seriously,thats more than many live off a week,and Tesco wiped it out for you
giving a contract to any 14 year old is risky.
accept your mistake and start spending money in Tesco.you owe it to them

thegoodman

custardy wrote: »

after reading your post it seems you expect Tesco to take your parental responsibilites
I frankly astounded you weren't posting a thread praising Tesco for wiping out £246 that you owed
seriously,thats more than many live off a week,and Tesco wiped it out for you
giving a contract to any 14 year old is risky.
accept your mistake and start spending money in Tesco.you owe it to them

I agree. It is very nice of Tesco to write off £246.00. Most main network would have made the OP to pay for it.

What I cant understand is Tesco offer PAYG and fix (capped) planes. Sou why go for one which is open plan?

I dont know what OP want from Tesco?

gjchester

The OP has said the plans were over a year old, prior toa few months ago only a few tarriffs were capped.

If it's never been a problem the OP may not have thought about capping them.