Contract over the phone, and insurance excess.

EthelbertHumphry

Can a contract be signed over the phone? Surely the customer needs to know about the terms and conditions first, even if they don't read them they should be sent a copy, will my dad have been sent a copy that he forgot about?

Second question is should a company tell you that there will be an excess before they send you a 'clone phone'?

Background:
Dad is complaining about Orange and how crap they are but I think he is not being reasonable. He often assumes there is a certain way businesses should do things and if they don't then it is their fault not his.

Mum's phone stopped working, dad said to orange "the phone is not holding a charge", they then sent a new 'cone phone'. But it did not work as well and it didn't come with a battery. He got really angry that they didn't send one but I said they they may of unstead what he said as meaning that the phone was not working. If someone told me 'the phone is not holding a charge', I would send a new phone not a new battery.

But just now he noticed that they charged his account about £50 instead of about £17 and he phoned them up and was told that it was because of the excess on the phone. He was not happy, he said Orange are terrible and I said, well did you not know about the excess and he said no, I said did you not read the contract when you signed it, he said he "did it all over the phone". He thinks they should tell you about the excess. I said, "I do to, but they probably don't have to", and he kept saying they do as if he knows the legalities of business. He even raised his voice at me and got quite hostile. That fact that he expects to be told about things in the contract before they directly affect him just instantly shows me why he is in credit card debt. "I should have been tutored about the interest on interest by the bank!!", no mate.

gjchester

Verbal contracts carry the same weight as written ones but proving them later can be an issue.
Without knowing exactly what was said it hard to know how this was done, but even if he didn't;t get read the T&C (and probably would not have been) they would have been sent with the phone or a copy of the contact, or he would have been asked if he agreed to the t &C, if he agreed without reading them its his fault not anyone elses.


IN terms of the problem, again without knowing what the conversation was its hard to know what was done, Why did they send a phone not a battery? Pass, I can only assume the way the conversation went it sounded like he was claiming as a loss or damage not a fault, but again without know what was said its hard to tell.


Good luck trying to explain it all.

EthelbertHumphry

gjchester wrote: »

Verbal contracts carry the same weight as written ones but proving them later can be an issue.
Without knowing exactly what was said it hard to know how this was done, but even if he didn't;t get read the T&C (and probably would not have been) they would have been sent with the phone or a copy of the contact, or he would have been asked if he agreed to the t &C, if he agreed without reading them its his fault not anyone elses.


IN terms of the problem, again without knowing what the conversation was its hard to know what was done, Why did they send a phone not a battery? Pass, I can only assume the way the conversation went it sounded like he was claiming as a loss or damage not a fault, but again without know what was said its hard to tell.


Good luck trying to explain it all.

Thanks, and yea he basically told them weeks ago that the phone would not hold a charge, no matter how much charging, the phone would stay at 0% or sometimes charge for a bit but lose power quickly after that. Most of the calls including that one was to an Indian call centre, so that poor call centre guy probably though sending a new phone was the best idea because of their 'cline phone' program. I don't know how they didn't ask questions that would indicate the battery is the fault.

macman

Batteries are not covered under the usual 12 or 24m handset warranties, so the solution is to purchase a new one, if that is the fault.