Problem with EE

ljwilson_2

Hoping someone can give me some advice. A friend of mine's 15 year old daughter has had an EE sim only account for some time. My friend has always made the payments and the contract expired in Feb. There has been some problems, not being able to access online account etc. They are not renewing the contract but on the final bill they have been charged for £227.25 for data, she only used 261.8MB of a 1GB allowance. They have been trying to sort this out with EE and in the letters sent the daughter has given authorisation to my friend to deal with this. EE eventually responded with a letter to the daughter telling her that as she is under 16 fraud may have been committed! They wont discuss the matter with my friend either, who just wants to get the matter cleared up as they don't want any repercussions for the daughter. What can they do? Thanks in advance. Lorna

Silk

Who's name is on the actual contract the daughter or your friend ?


If it's the daughter was the correct details given at the time of taking out the contract ie. age ?

ljwilson_2

Daughters name is on the contract, age was not asked when contract was taken out

grumbler

OK, if she really wasn't asked then it's EE's employee who committed the fraud.

Silk

ljwilson wrote: »

Daughters name is on the contract, age was not asked when contract was taken out

She would have to give date of birth as far as I'm aware

macman

If she's under 18 then the contract is invalid and unenforceable. 15 year olds cannot make binding contracts. If she falsified her DOB then it is potentially fraudulent.
But this doesn't really add up. How did she pass the credit check?

Anoneemoose

She would have had to have given DOB to when processing the application. So I would hazard a guess it is the daughter who has committed fraud.

If she is still under 18, they will not be able to enforce the contract however they usually put a fraud marker on her credit file for 6 years.

Anoneemoose

grumbler wrote: »

OK, if she really wasn't asked then it's EE's employee who committed the fraud.

You cannot take a contract without giving this information at some point. So I would hazard a guess the daughter has given the wrong info. She WILL have been asked.

Also, how was it done? Online, over the phone, in store?

macman

She would have been only 14 (or less) when the contract was taken out in Feb 2014, assuming a 12m minimum term. If done in store, don't the staff ask for some ID or proof of age and address? Utility bills? And who handed over the bank account details for the DD-mum or daughter?
I suspect we are not getting the whole story here.
If EE are going to trash her credit record anyway then there is no incentive to settle the bill, even if it's valid.

[Deleted User]

I would suggest that the daughter starts by explaining how she got the SIM in the first place, truthfully. In most cases like this, if she was never asked for her date of birth, their systems will have a random date, as made up by the employee. If she's told them porkies, the day and month will be right, but the year will just be a few years out.

If they have the day and month of her date of birth right, there are good grounds to ask her how they found that out without asking, and without her telling them.

Also, if your friend has "always made the payments", then your friend knows the contract exists. If it's been paid by direct debit, then her daughter must have had access to these details. If it's by paper bill and giro slip, then your friend must have known that an account had been set up.

I get the feeling there's a lot more to this than may meet the eye.

Marktheshark

There is some case law on diligence on forming contracts and where a party that is knowledgeable and makes an offer and thus forms a contract with a person who can not legally hold a contract such as mental capacity or age then it is void outright at onset.

Basically, if you offer a contract to anyone not legally able to enter one, its your loss, you should check the information first.