Talkmobile refusal to help/terms and conditions not adhered to

kmmnffc

Hi,

Hopefully you can help or give advice on what to do regards talkmobile and their total lack of understanding regards the issue I have at the moment. I have chatted online to them and was told they had escalated the matter and I should expect a call with 48 hours. After 2 weeks of no reply I rang them, The gentleman on the phone was firm and I was not put onto his supervisor/manager to discuss the matter. They stated they do not offer an sort of payment plan and the sum needed paying straight away or the phone will be cut off, it has already been cut off for sending texts or ringing people, although texts phone calls are still coming through on my phone for the time being.


Here is the issue I have. My 16 year old son has issues with gambling, He maxed my credit card 6 months back to the tune of £800, which I couldn’t claim back as I had left my card for him to have easy access to. I would have paid anyway as I feel I am my son’s dad so have a duty to pay off any debts as he is still a Minor and worried he may get done for fraud if I make a complaint??.


After this I have blocked all sites on my router and made sure he has zero data on his pay monthly sim (I spoke to the lady when setting it up and she put a note on his record to allow 0 data on his 3G phone) My son rarely goes out and when he does he goes to his friend’s house who also has the same issues as my son regards betting and having spoken to their parents they also have full blockage on adult related sites, and his phone is very old so has no option to connect to the internet.


My phone was coming up for an upgrade and I chose talkmobile as they had a Sony Aqua for £12.50 per month which I felt was a very good deal. However my son used my phone to access gambling sites via my 4g and paid for these gambling sites via my phone, I hadn't a clue you could do this so did some talking with talkmobile and it was with is a company called Boku who deal with gambling sites along with other sites which are much more legitimate. My main issue is he raked up £400 and the only reason I knew is when outgoing calls were blocked. I told the webchat team that when I signed up I had a £50 maximum limit (this is in their terms and conditions) so how could charges go all the way up to £400 and I not be informed of an issue on my account, I asked for a breakdown and all charges were to Boku.


As I said at the start, it is my son that has caused these charges so it only feels right I pay for his errors, I have made sure my son has paid for his stupidity and had both his mobile phone and laptop removed indefinitely at least until this matter is resolved. I asked talktalk for a payment plan and they refused outright and demanded full payment, I will not be able to pay £400 in one go, so I checked all their terms and conditions and these two stood out the most which may help my case??


Their Age restricted content states that :-


Your Talkmobile phone is automatically set to block access to all age restricted content.
Age restricted content is anything that has been classified as 18+ by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), or any 18+ sites that might contain any of the following:
• Adult humour
• Pornography
• Alcohol/tobacco
• Gambling
• Violence/hate/racism
• Weapons
• Cult/occult
• Illegal drugs
• Personals/dating
• Chat/instant messaging
We block this content in accordance with the OFCOM code of practise and UK and EU regulation in order to protect underage and vulnerable people from potentially harmful content.
The content block means that you can protect anyone under the age of 18 from seeing any potential adult content. This could be useful if you have children who have Talkmobile phones, or if anyone underage has access to your phone.

I checked the age restriction policy and pornographic sites were blocked but no gambling sites at all were blocked. Is this a breach of their terms and conditions??

They also have an allowance limit in their terms and conditions which state :-

The allowance limit is designed to protect your account from someone using your phone fraudulently. Once you hit £50 of billed usage we'll restrict your services. This means you won't be able to use your phone but you'll be able to receive inbound calls and texts. To remove this restriction you need to make a payment to bring you below the £50 allowance limit. Then you can carry on using your phone as usual.

Is this another breach of their terms and conditions?? as they allowed my account to go all the way up to £400 until they cut me allowing to make calls or send texts, thus making me aware of any issues and getting into contact with talkmobile, at no time did I receive any correspondence from talkmobile about this £400 debt.


As I stated at the beginning I feel I should pay for my sons issues with gambling as he is a minor and I have a duty or care (I am in contact with a charity who have said they will may with his issues) the issue is talkmobiles refusal to even get in a discussion regards a payment plan which has really annoyed me mainly due to ineptitude on their part and my fault for leaving my phone lying around so my son had easy access to it. but with the age restriction block on I felt it would be fine.

I know this is long winded but I have no clue of the law and was wondering if it was worth writing to their complaints department to hopefully resolve the matter and sort a payment plan out??

Also is there a template letter at all that covers things like this? I am, awful at raising points and writing a coherent letter.

Thanks for your help and if you have read all of this you will need a cup of tea lol.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I know morally I should pay them back in full as it was a member of my family, but if their terms and conditions were adhered to I would only be looking at a £50 bill instead of £400. Also their total refusal to sort a payment plan has forced me into a corner.

Thanks,

Kirk

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

kmmnffc wrote: »

Hi,

Hopefully you can help or give advice on what to do regards talkmobile and their total lack of understanding regards the issue I have at the moment. I have chatted online to them and was told they had escalated the matter and I should expect a call with 48 hours. After 2 weeks of no reply I rang them, The gentleman on the phone was firm and I was not put onto his supervisor/manager to discuss the matter. They stated they do not offer an sort of payment plan and the sum needed paying straight away or the phone will be cut off, it has already been cut off for sending texts or ringing people, although texts phone calls are still coming through on my phone for the time being.


Here is the issue I have. My 16 year old son has issues with gambling, He maxed my credit card 6 months back to the tune of £800, which I couldn’t claim back as I had left my card for him to have easy access to. I would have paid anyway as I feel I am my son’s dad so have a duty to pay off any debts as he is still a Minor and worried he may get done for fraud if I make a complaint??.


After this I have blocked all sites on my router and made sure he has zero data on his pay monthly sim (I spoke to the lady when setting it up and she put a note on his record to allow 0 data on his 3G phone) My son rarely goes out and when he does he goes to his friend’s house who also has the same issues as my son regards betting and having spoken to their parents they also have full blockage on adult related sites, and his phone is very old so has no option to connect to the internet.


My phone was coming up for an upgrade and I chose talkmobile as they had a Sony Aqua for £12.50 per month which I felt was a very good deal. However my son used my phone to access gambling sites via my 4g and paid for these gambling sites via my phone, I hadn't a clue you could do this so did some talking with talkmobile and it was with is a company called Boku who deal with gambling sites along with other sites which are much more legitimate. My main issue is he raked up £400 and the only reason I knew is when outgoing calls were blocked. I told the webchat team that when I signed up I had a £50 maximum limit (this is in their terms and conditions) so how could charges go all the way up to £400 and I not be informed of an issue on my account, I asked for a breakdown and all charges were to Boku.


As I said at the start, it is my son that has caused these charges so it only feels right I pay for his errors, I have made sure my son has paid for his stupidity and had both his mobile phone and laptop removed indefinitely at least until this matter is resolved. I asked talktalk for a payment plan and they refused outright and demanded full payment, I will not be able to pay £400 in one go, so I checked all their terms and conditions and these two stood out the most which may help my case??


Their Age restricted content states that :-


Your Talkmobile phone is automatically set to block access to all age restricted content.
Age restricted content is anything that has been classified as 18+ by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), or any 18+ sites that might contain any of the following:
• Adult humour
• Pornography
• Alcohol/tobacco
• Gambling
• Violence/hate/racism
• Weapons
• Cult/occult
• Illegal drugs
• Personals/dating
• Chat/instant messaging
We block this content in accordance with the OFCOM code of practise and UK and EU regulation in order to protect underage and vulnerable people from potentially harmful content.
The content block means that you can protect anyone under the age of 18 from seeing any potential adult content. This could be useful if you have children who have Talkmobile phones, or if anyone underage has access to your phone.

I checked the age restriction policy and pornographic sites were blocked but no gambling sites at all were blocked. Is this a breach of their terms and conditions??

They also have an allowance limit in their terms and conditions which state :-

The allowance limit is designed to protect your account from someone using your phone fraudulently. Once you hit £50 of billed usage we'll restrict your services. This means you won't be able to use your phone but you'll be able to receive inbound calls and texts. To remove this restriction you need to make a payment to bring you below the £50 allowance limit. Then you can carry on using your phone as usual.

Is this another breach of their terms and conditions?? as they allowed my account to go all the way up to £400 until they cut me allowing to make calls or send texts, thus making me aware of any issues and getting into contact with talkmobile, at no time did I receive any correspondence from talkmobile about this £400 debt.


As I stated at the beginning I feel I should pay for my sons issues with gambling as he is a minor and I have a duty or care (I am in contact with a charity who have said they will may with his issues) the issue is talkmobiles refusal to even get in a discussion regards a payment plan which has really annoyed me mainly due to ineptitude on their part and my fault for leaving my phone lying around so my son had easy access to it. but with the age restriction block on I felt it would be fine.

I know this is long winded but I have no clue of the law and was wondering if it was worth writing to their complaints department to hopefully resolve the matter and sort a payment plan out??

Also is there a template letter at all that covers things like this? I am, awful at raising points and writing a coherent letter.

Thanks for your help and if you have read all of this you will need a cup of tea lol.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I know morally I should pay them back in full as it was a member of my family, but if their terms and conditions were adhered to I would only be looking at a £50 bill instead of £400. Also their total refusal to sort a payment plan has forced me into a corner.

Thanks,

Kirk

I accept your child is a minor. I am unsure what issue ps your son has. But I have highlighted the paragraph where you kept your mini your credit card.

Unfortunately, a credit card is not confectionary.

Then later, you upgraded your phone, and allowed your child, a minor, to gain access to it! Phones are quiet easy to lock these days, and as your minor had prior issues with regard using your credit card, why did you not get a simple PAYG. As this is your phone, how do you expect your provider to know that it can be used by your minor? And no it should not be an automatic block either, as I do visit gambling sites and others myself.

Horse, door, bolted and stable spring to mind.

SuperAllyB

Pay of his debts? Give him a good hiding, tell him to get a job and make him pay off his own debts!

d123

kmmnffc wrote: »

They also have an allowance limit in their terms and conditions which state :-

The allowance limit is designed to protect your account from someone using your phone fraudulently. Once you hit £50 of billed usage we'll restrict your services. This means you won't be able to use your phone but you'll be able to receive inbound calls and texts. To remove this restriction you need to make a payment to bring you below the £50 allowance limit. Then you can carry on using your phone as usual.

Is this another breach of their terms and conditions?? as they allowed my account to go all the way up to £400 until they cut me allowing to make calls or send texts, thus making me aware of any issues and getting into contact with talkmobile, at no time did I receive any correspondence from talkmobile about this £400 debt.



Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I know morally I should pay them back in full as it was a member of my family, but if their terms and conditions were adhered to I would only be looking at a £50 bill instead of £400. Also their total refusal to sort a payment plan has forced me into a corner.

Thanks,

Kirk

You should have carried on reading the T&Cs, the part about a £50 out of plan limit carries on a bit and says the following:

3.8 Please note that the Out of Usage Alert doesn’t function in real time and therefore you may be able to incur Charges which result in you exceeding your Out of Plan Usage (“OPU”). If this happens, you’ll still be liable to pay for all Charges incurred in excess of your Out of Plan Usage.

http://talkmobile.co.uk/current-tsandcs/

kmmnffc

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

I accept your child is a minor. I am unsure what issue ps your son has. But I have highlighted the paragraph where you kept your mini your credit card.

Unfortunately, a credit card is not confectionary.

Then later, you upgraded your phone, and allowed your child, a minor, to gain access to it! Phones are quiet easy to lock these days, and as your minor had prior issues with regard using your credit card, why did you not get a simple PAYG. As this is your phone, how do you expect your provider to know that it can be used by your minor? And no it should not be an automatic block either, as I do visit gambling sites and others myself.

Horse, door, bolted and stable spring to mind.

The credit card was paid off by me without informing the credit card company. He would have been done for fraud otherwise. I have done as you mentioned above and put a passcode on my phone now. My son looks does have a PAYG which I felt had sorted him out and had no trouble for 6 months off him. The issue is he looks 19 and those crack addict machines in the bookmakers started the gambling addiction in him. I am getting him help and stopped all electronic gadgets that can be used to get online.

Are you saying that the terms and conditions on talkmobile site are wrong then? as it states that :-

ge restricted content is anything that has been classified as 18+ by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), or any 18+ sites that might contain any of the following:
• Adult humour
• Pornography
• Alcohol/tobacco
• Gambling
• Violence/hate/racism
• Weapons
• Cult/occult
• Illegal drugs
• Personals/dating
• Chat/instant messaging
We block this content in accordance with the OFCOM code of practise and UK and EU regulation in order to protect underage and vulnerable people from potentially harmful content.
The content block means that you can protect anyone under the age of 18 from seeing any potential adult content. This could be useful if you have children who have Talkmobile phones, or if anyone underage has access to your phone.

I check the terms and conditions so didn't even worry about my son being able to access gambling sites. Wouldn't you feel the same if you read that in their terms and conditions? It is there in black and white and I struggle how you can argue that they shouldn't be blocked. On other phone companies their terms and conditions may be different, thus allowing you to access gambling sites??

kmmnffc

SuperAllyB wrote: »

Pay of his debts? Give him a good hiding, tell him to get a job and make him pay off his own debts!

Apart from the good hiding part I fully agree. I have found him today a 7.40am paper round added to his 4.00pm he does after college. I have told him I want half what he earns each week until he has paid half off which is £200, and told him he is lucky I didn't include the credit card from 6-8 months back.

kmmnffc

d123 wrote: »

You should have carried on reading the T&Cs, the part about a £50 out of plan limit carries on a bit and says the following:

I did read that part of the terms and condtions, but the time frames when these debts were build up were over 13 days as there was a limit of £30 per day unless you verify a card which my son will never find or get access to, surely 13 days enough time to flag a warning to talkmobile?

Look I am not getting out of paying the money but I can pay £400 in one go, I rang and they refused outright to enter into any paymnet plan, hence me asking for advice on here.

I know I seem a bad parent but I am in the process of getting him help and removed all electrical items and any temptation.

sorry if I unset anybody into thinking I was trying to get out of paying that isn't the case but £400 is a big price to pay in one go for me and I don't want to go to these loan shark places, bbut it may be my only choice once I hear back from their complaints department.

Thanks and sorry for any upset

Guys_Dad

I read your posts as you being prepared to pay off his charges, so I don't think anyone has suggested that you were trying to avoid it.

If talktalk had agreed a monthly pay-off, whose name the contract is in would be showing on Experian and Equifax as "amount outstanding" until the debt was paid off and that would affect the credit rating. For that reason, it is best to get it paid off if you can.

A contract is a contract and there is no mention in it for making part payments, so I think your heading is a little harsh.

System

If you feel strongly enough regarding both, the limit and 'adult' filter, then follow through with the Talk mobile's complaint process and (probably) onward to the relevant ombudsman. That should give you some breathing room.

Otherwise, you could pay the bill and then raise a small claims action against Talkmobile for the amount above what you think you should pay.

Vodafone (Talkmobile is their subsidiary) aren't known for good customer service.

Thebigin644

Unfortunately mobile phone providers have no obligation to give any payment options to you. However if you go down the route of the complaints team you may be lucky enough that some one will help. There is information on Ofcom's website under "cant pay? Manage your debt" hopefully that can help a bit.


The problem with the terms and conditions are its usually worded to cover themselves from exactly this type of situation, so I am not sure you will get too far with saying they have broken them. However it may be worth doing it and asking them to prove that they haven't, test there knowledge of there own terms.


If you do need to pay it off in one go I would suggest looking through the MSE website for short term loans advice.


I hope you can get this sorted.