Lyca Mobile Unfair Terms & Conditions

deckhanddave

Hi all

Some time ago I purchased a Lyca Mobile SIM. About March I topped it up with £10.00. I bought it for use abroad in Europe and on my return I misplaced the SIM. I knew it was in the house so didn't worry about it. I found it last weekend and put it in the phone. Shock! Horror! it had been cut off. I contacted Lyca and was told it is in our terms and conditions that if it isn't used for 90 days we will cut it off and credit is not refundable. We would have sent you a text message to warn you. Duh! It wasn't used because I misplaced the SIM. So obviously I didn't get the text. I pointed this out to them and also suggested this might be in contravention of the Unfair Contract Terms And Conditions Act 1977. They haven't bothered to respond.I briefly spoke to the Ombudsman's office and they said they didn't think I had a case on the face of it as it was in the terms and conditions. I mentioned the act and they changed their mind slightly saying to follow the complaints procedure and then send it to them. Does anyone on here have any knowledge of the act? If so, is there a specific section that might deal with this case? Any advice would be appreciated, bar saying don't bother. It may be a hopeless case but it doesn't make Lyca right in what they do. I thought those days of mobile airtime suppliers stealing back paid for minutes were long gone. I am so fed up with companies playing free and easy with my money and believing they have more right to it than I that I am now fighting back. Next one Cellular At Sea.(Will be a separate post). I beat O2 with the Ombudsman now to try against these.

punkthemonk

I found out the hard way too, had a sim from them which I forgot in an old phone, had some money on, not £10, maybe £2 or £3 left but same as you lost them.

System

The majority of providers have this policy although the length may vary up to 6 months.

d123

deckhanddave wrote: »

Hi all

Some time ago I purchased a Lyca Mobile SIM. About March I topped it up with £10.00. I bought it for use abroad in Europe and on my return I misplaced the SIM. I knew it was in the house so didn't worry about it. I found it last weekend and put it in the phone. Shock! Horror! it had been cut off. I contacted Lyca and was told it is in our terms and conditions that if it isn't used for 90 days we will cut it off and credit is not refundable. We would have sent you a text message to warn you. Duh! It wasn't used because I misplaced the SIM. So obviously I didn't get the text. I pointed this out to them and also suggested this might be in contravention of the Unfair Contract Terms And Conditions Act 1977. They haven't bothered to respond.I briefly spoke to the Ombudsman's office and they said they didn't think I had a case on the face of it as it was in the terms and conditions. I mentioned the act and they changed their mind slightly saying to follow the complaints procedure and then send it to them. Does anyone on here have any knowledge of the act? If so, is there a specific section that might deal with this case? Any advice would be appreciated, bar saying don't bother. It may be a hopeless case but it doesn't make Lyca right in what they do. I thought those days of mobile airtime suppliers stealing back paid for minutes were long gone. I am so fed up with companies playing free and easy with my money and believing they have more right to it than I that I am now fighting back. Next one Cellular At Sea.(Will be a separate post). I beat O2 with the Ombudsman now to try against these.

Every network has a term about disconnection if not used for a certain period, the network can't be expected to keep a dormant sim live forever.

Go and find a more realistic windmill to tilt at...

Techhead_2

!!!!!! wrote: »

The majority of providers have this policy although the length may vary up to 6 months.

Its not so much a policy as their way of implementing Ofcom conditions of their licence.

Service providers need to ensure that they manage their allocation of numbers (to prevent a number shortage) They have to make sure that unused numbers are returned to the pool.

They are also expected to make sure that they report only active subscriber numbers.


I think it would be difficult to argue that this an unfair term when:

It is done to comply with regulator requirements.
Almost all other providers also do this. Those that don't do a similar process where the number can be recovered for a period after disconnection.
It is in the terms and conditions.
The Ofcom site mentions the general principle.

I think the only possible approach would be to say that 90 days is at the shorter end of the scale - but that will depend on how long the SIM went unused.

sinizterguy

I don't understand how the term is unfair.

Are they supposed employ someone to babysit your SIM ?

deckhanddave

My My aren't you lot a pleasant supportive bunch! Find other Windmills to tilt at:rotfl: Babysit your SIM:rotfl: Well I'm smiling:) & :j

I just had a new response from Lycamobile copied and pasted below,

Refer clause 3.3, 3.4 & 3.5

As per the current setup, all successful top up are irreversible. However we can transfer the credit to another SIM card as a special one off request if the credit was not used by the current subscriber.
If you wish to get the process the credit transfer request, please get a new Lycamobile number and revert to us with the number to check and process your request.
Once again accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. Feel free to contact us if you have any question or need any help.

I may be premature in counting my chickens before they hatch but I prefer to be optomistic and ignore such rude replies as sinizterguy & d123. They don't exactly contribute anything of value to a web forum with such terse responses but I guess it makes them feel good.:beer:

macman

For 'rude', read 'I'm throwing my toys out of the pram because I didn't receive the replies I wanted to'.
The rules regarding PAYG SIM's and numbers have been established for years: i.e. use it or lose it. There aren't enough numbers to go round if everyone has several SIM's stashed 'somewhere in their house'.
You've been generously offered a credit which the provider is not obliged to give you, so what exactly is your complaint?