Contract (not)expired

speedway82

Hello,

A cousin of mine signed a contract with Tesco Mobile a couple of years ago for 12 months. He's then left the country, before the 12 months have even passed, for a few years and is now back. During his time away he's used no data, no minutes, texts, nothing. The sim has been 'dead' for years. However, Tesco have been charging him £15 each month as it (obviously) seems the contract changed to a rolling contract at the end of the initial 12 months. Thus, it has now cost him hundreds of £s (for nothing in return). Does he have any chance of claiming that money back? And what would the procedure for that be?

Many thanks for any help with the above!

d123

speedway82 wrote: »

Hello,

A cousin of mine signed a contract with Tesco Mobile a couple of years ago for 12 months. He's then left the country, before the 12 months have even passed, for a few years and is now back. During his time away he's used no data, no minutes, texts, nothing. The sim has been 'dead' for years. However, Tesco have been charging him £15 each month as it (obviously) seems the contract changed to a rolling contract at the end of the initial 12 months. Thus, it has now cost him hundreds of £s (for nothing in return). Does he have any chance of claiming that money back? And what would the procedure for that be?

Many thanks for any help with the above!

No, they will be billing him until he gives his notice to terminate.

The sooner he does that, the sooner they will stop billing him,

joeluken

As above NO.

The 12 month contract period is just what's known as the minimum term. That just means you can't normally leave within this period without paying a early termination penalty. After the minimum term the contract dosn't expire or stop it just continues as a monthly rolling contract being billed as normal.

Sounds like your cousin didn't understand the terms of the contract and it doesn't make any difference if the service was used Tesco can continue billing £15 per month forever until it or your cousin terminates the contract by giving 30 days notice or your cousin requests and actions a PAC.

macman

The SIM should still be live unless they've eventually cut off the service due to non-payment. If he cancelled the DD or closed the bank account and they have cut it off, then he's almost inevitably had late payments and defaults recorded against his credit file, so he needs to do an immediate credit check. In that instance, his credit record is now trashed for the next 6 years. However if the payments have continued, then there is no harm done, and the price of £180 or so is an absolute bargain by comparison. No chance whatsoever of a credit, as the service was available for him to use if he wished.
It wasn't a12m contract, it was a 12m minimum term.
Did he not once look at his bank statement during his 12m away though?

speedway82

Thanks for the help guys. Only one quick question so I fully understand, what does it mean to request and action a PAC?

d123

speedway82 wrote: »

Thanks for the help guys. Only one quick question so I fully understand, what does it mean to request and action a PAC?

The PAC is a Port Authorisation Code, you ask the old network to supply it and you can then move that mobile number to a different network. You simply give the PAC to the new network on a working day and the network arranges for the old number to transfer to the new SIM card on the next working day.

Porting a number onto a PAYG sim is the surest way of guaranteeing that the old account is definitely terminated, so can be a good idea even if the number isn't all that important to retain.

[Deleted User]

speedway82 wrote: »

it has now cost him hundreds of £s (for nothing in return). Does he have any chance of claiming that money back?

macman wrote: »

The SIM should still be live unless they've eventually cut off the service due to non-payment. If he cancelled the DD or closed the bank account and they have cut it off, then he's almost inevitably had late payments and defaults recorded against his credit file,
Did he not once look at his bank statement during his 12m away though?

Since the thread question is largely about recovering money which the cousin has already paid, I doubt he needs to worry about late payments and defaults!
He was also away "for a few years", not 12 months.

joeluken

speedway82 wrote: »

Thanks for the help guys. Only one quick question so I fully understand, what does it mean to request and action a PAC?

A explained above the PAC allows you to move number to say PAYG sim. Requesting the PAC from Tesco is the first step and you get 30 days to use it.

If you don't action it i.e. use the PAC to move the number to another provider nothing changes at Tesco and the contract will continue as before. Hence it's vital to "action" the PAC within the 30 day period as just requesting it from Tesco doesn't change anything.