Charging for not using!

saffyv

I am on a mobile contract that i have not used for the last 2 years. I have the phone still is there are some messages i cannot delete incase i need them for a troublesome ex. i took a new phone out and had the first phone reduced in payment. However, it seems that they are charging me a ridiculous amount of money for the first phone even though the contract of the second phone has been cancelled. not only should it have been reduced but the phone is not even turned on and so there is no way i could be running up a bill without realising. is there a way that i could claim the money back from the company for the money they should never have charged me in the first place?
Thanks for the help...
SaffyV

grumbler

saffyv wrote: »

I am on a mobile contract that i have not used for the last 2 years. I have the phone still is there are some messages i cannot delete incase i need them for a troublesome ex. i took a new phone out and had the first phone reduced in payment.

Unless it's PAYG, it doesn't matter whether you use the phone or not.

However, it seems that they are charging me a ridiculous amount of money for the first phone even though the contract of the second phone has been cancelled.

This makes no sense. You cancelled the second contract; the first remains active and they rightfully keep charging you. Why do you think that the amount is 'ridiculous'?

not only should it have been reduced

Why should it?

but the phone is not even turned on and so there is no way i could be running up a bill without realising.

How much? Is it not the normal monthly amount (adjusted for inflation) that you signed for?

is there a way that i could claim the money back from the company for the money they should never have charged me in the first place?

Difficult to say because what you say doesn't make much sense.

saffyv

Thanks for replying.
I had 2 contracts out and cancelled the second one as i still need the first. When i took out the 2nd contract my first one was reduced to £15. my issue is not that i am paying for it as im happy to pay the £15 incase i need the phone. However, my last two bills have come out as £95 and £78 and i don't know why. My query is am i able to claim back those amounts minus the £15 that i should be paying as they seem to be charging me for no reason?

grumbler

saffyv wrote: »

Thanks for replying.
I had 2 contracts out and cancelled the second one as i still need the first. When i took out the 2nd contract my first one was reduced to £15. my issue is not that i am paying for it as im happy to pay the £15 incase i need the phone.

Personally I wouldn't be happy to pay £15 p.m. just 'incase', but it's up to you.

However, my last two bills have come out as £95 and £78 and i don't know why.

Well, all mobile contract bills I've seen so far shown the total amount along with the breakdown of the charges.

My query is am i able to claim back those amounts minus the £15 that i should be paying as they seem to be charging me for no reason?

I think you can if the phone with the sim card in question was switched off and wasn't used by anybody.

saffyv

if you had met the ex you would pay the money trust me! lol! for some reason the money just comes out of my account but i have copies f the itemised bills online so i could probably prove it. I just wanted to see if i was being stupid and had no case. I appreciate your help! Thanks very much

Herongull

But you don't need to keep a contract going just because you want to retain some text messages.

The text messages are stored on the phone (at least this is true of modern phones) not on the sim, so unless you delete them you will still have them even if you cancel the contract.

As far as I know you will be able to access them without a sim - that is true for some phones anyway. Even if you need a "live" sim in your phone to access the messages, why don't you just get a PAYG sim that works in the phone??

If you don't need the money, why not donate £15 per month to charity rather than to a phone company.

macman

This is bizarre. You can copy the texts to wherever you want, or print them out, copy to a PC, forward them to another phone etc. You don't need a phone contract to keep them on the phone anyway, as pointed out above. Remove or deactivate the SIM and they're still there.
Your 2 contracts are completely separate, cancelling one does not cancel the other, or have any affect on it.
You don't explain why the bills are suddenly so high without use of the phone-so what does your itemised bill say then?
Your monthly rental is not a charge for using, it's a charge for service provision, whether you choose to use it or not.

Guys_Dad

saffyv wrote: »

Thanks for replying.
I had 2 contracts out and cancelled the second one as i still need the first. When i took out the 2nd contract my first one was reduced to £15. my issue is not that i am paying for it as im happy to pay the £15 incase i need the phone. However, my last two bills have come out as £95 and £78 and i don't know why. My query is am i able to claim back those amounts minus the £15 that i should be paying as they seem to be charging me for no reason?

Is there any explanation on why an unused phone clocked up £95 & £78 monthly bills? Have you queried this with the network or checked your bill?

I agree with the other comments about no need to keep the contract going, but surely you don't just accept a bill that you think is wrong without finding out why it is high? No one on here can answer that.

saffyv

I didn't know if i could get the messages off the phone and didn't realise that if you use another live sim you may be able to retrieve them again. I have no idea why i am being charged those amounts. I will query it but i wanted to make sure i had a valid reason to before i went ahead and did it. All of your comments have been really helpful! Thank you

basill

Try removing the sim card and see if you can still access the text message history. If you can it is safe to cancel the contract.

B