Small Claims Court For £10 ?

jasonwatkins

I know the title is as ridiculous as it sounds, and I certainly understand that a lot of people would say "it's only £10" but it's kind of the principle of the matter.

I signed my mum up to a mobile phone company last year (An MVNO, not one of the 'big' ones) for their sim-only data sim to use in a tablet i'd bought her. She wanted to know if she could pay for the full year up front, which would have been £60, so I asked them and they agreed. It was a 30 day rolling contract, but they said it was ok to deposit enough credit to cover 12 monthly payments, so I did.

In June, I took advantage of an online glitch with another MVNO to get my mum a new data sim until Christmas that would only cost £1 a month , so I rang the first company on the 8th of June to give my 30 days notice, which they accepted.

They told me that any remaining credit would be repaid and be in my account by the end of June. This didn't happen, so I rang them again and they assured me that it would be in my account by the first monday in July "at the latest".

This also didn't happen, so I rang them again and I was then informed that once my 30 day notice period was up on the 8th of July, I'd have to wait a further 15 days before I was actually repaid, which takes us until the 29th of July.

That came and went and I still haven't had any money repaid and, as of today, it's now two months since I gave my 30 day notice to leave and they still haven't refunded me.

Now I know it's "only" £10, but I want to try and recover this money if possible, because it's my mum's money and I didn't give this company permission to basically keep it - and they shouldn't just keep it anyway.

So i'm looking at Small Claims Court, but would it even be possible to launch a claim for such a small amount ?.

And if not, are there any other legal avenues I can take ?. I've sent off a complaint to OFCOM but I would ideally like another option.

Thanks nice MSE people

Valli

Given you have complained to OfCom you need to await their decision.

arcon5

Lol

jasonwatkins

Valli wrote: »

Given you have complained to OfCom you need to await their decision.

Thanks. Could it be feasible that Ofcom could essentially order them to repay the money ?

arcon5 wrote: »

Lol

Interesting. What's so hilarious about this then ?

Valli

Have you followed the guidance on the OfCom site? (Now I'm properly awake) as OfCom don't handle individual complaints.
It is possible to go to dispute resolution ADR if you're no satisfied.
To go to small claims you would need proof that you are owed money by them.
Before going to small claims you would need to send a letter before action. The cost of bringing the action is more than you're claiming but you can add the cost of bringing the action to the claim.

jasonwatkins

Valli wrote: »

Have you followed the guidance on the OfCom site? (Now I'm properly awake) as OfCom don't handle individual complaints.
It is possible to go to dispute resolution ADR if you're no satisfied.
To go to small claims you would need proof that you are owed money by them.

I'll have to check, to be fair, as I was so annoyed that I fired off the email without properly checking to see if i'd read all of the points.

I can certainly produce various printouts of correspondence i've had with them and them confirming the date I gave my notice and the fact that there is money to be repaid, so I certainly don't think they can claim otherwise.

steampowered

In theory I suppose you could go to small claims court, though the fee just to issue a claim would be more than £10.

If you aren't getting anywhere with customer service, it might be worth putting in a formal complaint or even a 'letter before action'?

jasonwatkins

steampowered wrote: »

In theory I suppose you could go to small claims court, though the fee just to issue a claim would be more than £10.

If you aren't getting anywhere with customer service, it might be worth putting in a formal complaint or even a 'letter before action'?

Thanks

I've long been aware that the fee will far outweigh the cost of what they actually owe me, but, as i've said, it's the principle of the matter - which is unusual for me since I'm never normally this principled !

Part of the reason I posted this thread in the first place is that I'd actually had a response from their online "help" team telling me that I now need to "create a ticket" for this "specific query" - even though the person who actually posted this particular response is the same person from a month ago who confirmed my account was closed and that my refund was being processed.

So it was a bit of an angry thread in that respect

Now that calmer heads are in play, I will absolutely write a letter before action now.

jasonwatkins

Well looks like it's no longer needed as i've just been notified that the amount has now finally been refunded to me, and i've received email confirmation of that.

Obviously seeing is believing, but i'll leave things as they are for now.

Thanks for all the responses, much appreciated.