T-mobile failing to honour 14 day cancellation

Alisdisgrace

Has anyone had any problems with T-mobile? My son ordered a mobile broadband dongle from T-mobile, having first ascertained that he could cancel within 14 days if the service wasn't satisfactory. He received the equipment on 21st November and emailed them on 30th November to say he wished to return the equipment as the service was inadequate. They acknowledged this on 4th December via email. He returned the equipment and cancelled the direct debit.

He has today received an invoice from them for £3431.10, confirming his contract has been cancelled but claiming he has to pay a £3 per day roaming charge for the length of the original contract, i.e. 2 years. This is clearly ridiculous, but I have no wish for him to go through a length battle with them as he is at university and needs to concentrate on his studies, not worry about a huge debt hanging round his neck which he shouldn't owe.

Any help would be appreciated.

TIA

keystone

Alisdisgrace wrote: »

................having first ascertained that he could cancel within 14 days if the service wasn't satisfactory. ............................This is clearly ridiculous, ...............

What does the contract that he has agreed to actually say? Thats the only thing that matters.

And two years @ £3 a day is nowhere near £3.4k. Its under £1.9k.

Cheers

Alisdisgrace

Thanks for your reply. Anything said prior to entering into the contract which encourages you to proceed is deemed to form part of the contract. So their confirmation that he had 14 days to cancel forms part of the contract.

I've looked at the emails he received after he took out the contract and they are very confusing, with links to other pages all over the place. It's very difficult to find out what exactly are the full t&cs.

I cannot understand how they came to the figure they are demanding. The bill says

Outstanding balance £15
Monthly plan charges -£25
New charges outside plan £2871.75
VAT £569.35

The new charges are then described as £3/day data rate cancellation £2871.75 (which comes out as 957.25 days - no idea how they come up with that).

Early termination penalty - free!

Bizarre.

macman

No mention of roaming in that plan? What is the name of the plan he took out?
Your son needs to discuss this himself with T-Mobile, if they agreed cancellation without an ETC then there should be nothing to pay other than the few days he used the service and any data charges accruing from that period. Possibly this has been triggered due to him cancelling the DD before a final bill was received?

Alisdisgrace

The plan he took out was a £15 pm 5GB monthly plan. He had the dongle for 9 days and they took the first monthly payment, so he was well within the data download limit during that time. He then cancelled because the service was so poor and they confirmed the cancellation. Then we receive this ridiculous bill.

macman

Which is why your son (the contract holder) needs to discuss this with them himself.
Sounds to me like the classic 'computer error'.

Buzby

So where does the 'roaming' come in? Was he abroad or on a foreign network? You can only be charged for the actual period of use not projected usage so ther are many hings wrong with this.

You are incorrect in your beliefs that statements form part of the contract entered into. Whilst you might attempt to prove that this does (should it come to court) you need proof (corroboration of a witness) and your son cannot assert this himself. Further, the T&C's state that no employee has the power to amend or modify the stated terms, which means if you could prove the 14 days offer was made verbally, it does not modify the offer.

This would not be an issue if an online purchase, but if he signed up on the vendor's premises this will not apply. Changes of mind will rely on their goodwill for cancellation, and as a used dongle has no value of note a cancellation is unlikely. Buyer remorse is common, and it is a valuable lesson.

There may be a charging error - but the contract will require their goodwill to cancel. You will not be taken to court though - simply his credit file will be fried (and it may already ave been done) so it is worthwhile checking.

Alisdisgrace

Actually contract law is clear that statements made prior to a contract form part of that contract. And we have it in writing because we tweeted their help line. So it's not just verbal.

I've hunted on their website and cannot find any reference to a cancellation period, which is worrying as the law states that they have to provide this information to a customer prior to the contract being entered into. However, as we have it in writing from their Twitter account, that isn't such a problem.

My son is an 18yo student in his first year at uni. He has no assets and his only money is what I give him, so they'll be whistling for the money anyway. I'd just rather he didn't end up in a protracted dispute with a company which doesn't seem to know what it's doing.

Thanks for your replies.

macman

We could speculate on the reasons for this bill forever. Or your son could possibly solve it with one phone call.
He's an adult and took out the contract, whether he has assets or not. So why not let him deal with it?

Alisdisgrace

He is dealing with it. He has written to them stating his case. I was merely trying to find out if anyone else had had similar problems and how they resolved it to save reinventing the wheel.

So sorry if that isn't allowed here.

macman

It is allowed. But the bill he has received is so absurd that it can only be a system screw up at T-Mobile. Which is why a quick call to CS can probably resolve it.
The bill will have been produced by the system and is not checked by human hand, any competent CS person seeing it will know that it is wrong, and can hopefully cancel it and rebill correctly.
No need to get into a written debate with T-Mobile unless they insist that the bill is somehow correct. Which they will not.
Since he already has proof that they agreed cancellation without charge, I'm sure that they will resolve this quickly.