Belligerent T-Mobile / Everything Everywhere

High_Lander

Hi all

I've had 3 T-Mobile contracts in my life. 1995 - 1999, 1999 - 2012, and 2001 - 2012. I've given them thousands of pounds worth of business, and now they're taking me to court.

It all went wrong when I bought a 24 month contract for an LG Optimus Black. This phone was never right - in fact it is by far the worse phone I've ever owned. T-Mobile coverage is pretty rubbish in the Highlands, and whenever this phone lost signal, which it did frequently, I had to reboot the phone to get network again. I sent it for repair and was told that I had rooted my phone and so they were refusing to repair it. I have never rooted my phone. I do not have root access and have only ever downloaded software from Google Play. I found an app which does a report on your phone to confirm root status - sure enough it confirmed my phone wasn't rooted.

When I disputed it, I was told I'd have to send the phone away to an independent repair centre for a report to prove it hadn't been rooted. I was pretty disappointed with their attitude. I really couldn't be bothered, so I just put up with the crap phone on the crap network and having to reboot the phone every time I needed to use it.

Then, last autumn, the phone became more broken. It would crash and need the battery removed to reboot it to make it work. I ended up having to do this 3 times a day. Then it failed completely.

So I went back to my local T-Mobile branch to explain the situation They kind of shrugged. Seems all they do is sell stuff, customer support comes in a distant second. So I was offered a telephone since mine didn't work to talk to customer services. I spoke to people in the Phillipines for over an hour. They had a pretty poor grasp of english. Eventually I got through to a supervisor who told me that I was "not allowed to dispute the case". Shortly after that they hung up on me.

I lost patience at this point. I handed the phone, charger and SIM along with a note of my phone number and the report which confirmed my phone wasn't rooted to the confused looking sales assistant . I informed him that T-Mobile were in breach of contract, that I was returning their equipment, and that I would cancel any further payments to them.

Despite written explanations they are now threatening to take me to court for £81. I'm tempted to pay it just to get them off my back, but then I think why should I? Why should I let myself be pushed around like this?

I can't afford representation, so if this goes to court it will be me up against a global telecommunications giant - and ultimately it's a case of my word against theirs. If I lose then my credit rating will take a hit. It's all a bit stressful.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

19lottie82

High_Lander wrote: »

I'm tempted to pay it just to get them off my back, but then I think why should I? Why should I let myself be pushed around like this?

Because, your credit rating will get trashed (not just "take a hit", as you put it).

Sure, take this further, but keep paying while you do it. Cancelling your DD will get you nowhere I'm afraid, well nowhere good anyway.

Have you been to the citizens advice?

Try contacting LG directly, as they will be involved with the supply / repair / repalcements of handsets, Tmobile are just the middlemen.

High_Lander

I gave all the gear back to T-Mobile and went and got myself a proper phone from Vodafone.

Silk

High_Lander wrote: »

I lost patience at this point. I handed the phone, charger and SIM along with a note of my phone number and the report which confirmed my phone wasn't rooted to the confused looking sales assistant . I informed him that T-Mobile were in breach of contract, that I was returning their equipment, and that I would cancel any further payments to them.

Despite written explanations they are now threatening to take me to court for £81. I'm tempted to pay it just to get them off my back, but then I think why should I? Why should I let myself be pushed around like this?

I can't afford representation, so if this goes to court it will be me up against a global telecommunications giant - and ultimately it's a case of my word against theirs. If I lose then my credit rating will take a hit. It's all a bit stressful.

I doubt very much they will take you to Court, they will pass it on to debt collectors who will hassle you to get paid.

Of course meanwhile they will trash your credit rating as lottie has pointed out.

The problem you also have is that handing over the phone means you have lost control of the evidence so to speak. Added to this of course is that no network guarantee's coverage 100% of the time and as the bill is for network supply not a phone purchase you are unable to dispute it.

High_Lander

Yes, it was a mistake giving them the phone back.

The debt has been passed onto Moorcroft who are pursuing me. I've told them that I will not pay them and given them a full explanation as to why.

I'm not too worried about credit rating, as long as I don't get a Sherrif court judgement against me. That would well and truly destroy my credit rating.

The contract is for goods and services. They were refusing to honour the guarantee on the equipment and so were in breach of contract as far as I am concerned.

grumbler

High_Lander wrote: »

I'm not too worried about credit rating, as long as I don't get a Sherrif court judgement against me. That would well and truly destroy my credit rating.

It has been destroyed already by a simple default. You are unlikely to get a contract with another mobile provider in the next 6 years, let alone a competitive mortgage or a credit card.

The contract is for goods and services. They were refusing to honour the guarantee on the equipment and so were in breach of contract as far as I am concerned.

The lenders don't care about the reasons. All they care about is the records in your credit files. You can try to force T-mobile to remove the default, but are extremely unlikely to succeed.

High_Lander

Well, I don't often use credit anyway - since the damage has been done already I'll see this through to court if necessary.

Reminds me of the movie "Brazil" where the Michael Palin character is about to get tortured.

"Don't fight it, son. Confess quickly! If you hold out too long it'll jeopardise your credit rating."

Silk

High_Lander wrote: »

The debt has been passed onto Moorcroft who are pursuing me. I've told them that I will not pay them and given them a full explanation as to why.

If Moorcroft's are involved it sounds like they have bought the debt so you will just have to put up with them pestering you as it's now out of T-Mobile's hands.

High_Lander wrote: »

Well, I don't often use credit anyway - since the damage has been done already I'll see this through to court if necessary.

As I said earlier theres little chance of it getting to Court but as it seems the debt has been sold on it must have been going on for a while now and damage already done

19lottie82

You have made a very stupid mistake.

Even if you rightly, or wrongly percieve that they have broken the T&C's at their end, it gives you no right to decide that the contract is no longer valid, and you can legaly decide that it is cancelled.

Youdon't use credit much? I doubt you'll be using it much at all for the next, up to six, years.

My OH has a trashed credit history due to a joint debt with his ex wife and believe me, you wouldn't believe the problems it throws up in day to day life.

But I'm sure you'll find out. I hope it was worth it.......

gjchester

High_Lander wrote: »

I lost patience at this point. I handed the phone, charger and SIM along with a note of my phone number and the report which confirmed my phone wasn't rooted to the confused looking sales assistant . I informed him that T-Mobile were in breach of contract, that I was returning their equipment, and that I would cancel any further payments to them.
Any advice would be really appreciated.

As others have said you've no idea what happened to the phone after you handed it over.

A mobile phone contract really is two contracts one for the supply of hardware, the other for the airtime.

Under the hardware contract you have rights to have the phone repaired or replaced and if they said it had been rooted then you should have taken the phone to an independant repairer as they had advised. You don't say you did, just downloaded some software, and that you could not be bothered to do anything else.

The other side is the airtime contract, that still runs regardless of the handset, if you hadn't hit the minimum term then there may be early termination fee's due which is probably what the £81 is for (or at least the starting part without any debt collector fee's on it).

Had you hit 24 months on the LG Black contract?

High_Lander

19lottie82 wrote: »

You have made a very stupid mistake.

Even if you rightly, or wrongly percieve that they have broken the T&C's at their end, it gives you no right to decide that the contract is no longer valid, and you can legaly decide that it is cancelled.

Youdon't use credit much? I doubt you'll be using it much at all for the next, up to six, years.

My OH has a trashed credit history due to a joint debt with his ex wife and believe me, you wouldn't believe the problems it throws up in day to day life.

But I'm sure you'll find out. I hope it was worth it.......

Hey, wow - thanks for all the support sweet heart!