ID Mobile - Impossible to cancel 30 day contract

M4561

So I took out a 30 day rolling contract with ID mobile from a Carphone Warehouse shop which included a free Huawei MiFi 4G device. There was no upfront cost and the monthly charge was £20 (I have a screenshot of the deal).

I called ID Mobile to cancel the contract the same day I bought it, as I only needed it for my grandad while he was in hospital for a couple of weeks. I have an email from ID mobile the same day confirming the contract would be cancelled after 30 days.

The £20 Direct Debit went out a week or two later and I then cancelled the DD. After the 30 days was up, I tried logging into my ID mobile account, but I couldn't as it said was deactivated. Which meant I could also no longer see any statements/bills either. I didn't receive any final statements in the post or by email, and I assumed ID mobile had correctly cancelled the 30 day contract and so obviously no further charges were due. I have never heard from ID mobile since the day I called them to cancel.

Fast forward 6 months, and I am now confused to find from my Experian credit report that there is £8 outstanding and it is now "delinquent" (in arrears for more than 3 months) and affecting my credit rating . I called ID Mobile and they are basically saying that they confirm they received my cancellation on the same day and that they sent an emailing confirming it would be. But they charged me for an extra month (£20) anyway, then credited £14.50 as a "gesture of goodwill" and charged me £2.50 on top because I didn't have a Direct Debit?! Hello?? How does this work? I had already paid £20 for the first 30 days. That's all I wanted!! Which is why I cancelled on the same day I took the contract out!

What else should I have done to ensure I was only charged for the first 30 days like I wanted?

And the icing on top - I asked them to send me a bill in the post (bearing in mind I have never received a final bill from them) as I still couldn't quite believe what they were saying. And they want to charge me £2.50 to do so!!

Worst company ever goes to...?

FunTime

Possibly because they have a fixed billing date. So you would have been billed on a pro rata basis. The DD going out a week or two later should have been a clue.
You shouldn't have cancelled the Direct Debit. You were too hasty.
Better to have left it intact, allowing them to take the money and then refund what they owed you.
Then you would have been in a strong position to reclaim any monies if they overcharged.

Atasas

Indeed iD is organized by very experienced "beez-kneez-peeps" and will exploit EVERY single option to milk the money out of, without a care on the world for reputation or decency in doing business... unfortunately!

Whenever you try to talk to them- listen for when they "put you on hold"- they are having meetings between, as how to fob you off!... it is the time, as when you could pass over your "sublimed" messages to them.

All you can do, is demand record straightening, under no advisory terms for billing

M4561

Their fixed billing date should be of no concern of mine though.

I took out a 30 day contract for £20 on 06/02/2016. The contract starts on that day (the day the service is enabled). This is the same day I gave them the required 30 days notice to cancel. The service stopped on 07/02/2016.

They billed me £20 on 20/06/2016 to cover the period of 06/02/16 - 07/02/2016. They then tried to take another £20 in March (I don't know when and for what period as they refuse to send me a bill). So it's not even pro-rata, even if it had been for a couple of extra days (which it wasn't). I'm told £14.50 was refunded as a "gesture of goodwill". Gesture of goodwill for overcharging me? How about they just refund the £20 they overcharged me and keep their "gesture of goodwill" ?

FunTime

M4561 wrote: »

Their fixed billing date should be of no concern of mine though.

I took out a 30 day contract for £20 on 06/02/2016. The contract starts on that day (the day the service is enabled). This is the same day I gave them the required 30 days notice to cancel. The service stopped on 07/02/2016.

They billed me £20 on 20/06/2016 to cover the period of 06/02/16 - 07/02/2016. They then tried to take another £20 in March (I don't know when and for what period as they refuse to send me a bill). So it's not even pro-rata, even if it had been for a couple of extra days (which it wasn't). I'm told £14.50 was refunded as a "gesture of goodwill". Gesture of goodwill for overcharging me? How about they just refund the £20 they overcharged me and keep their "gesture of goodwill" ?

Seems that you aren't the only one:http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/huawei-4g-wi-fi-mifi-2ogb-data-30-day-rolling-contract-id-network-20-cpw-2306941?page=6#comments

Something wrong with your dates: They billed me £20 on 20/06/2016 to cover the period of 06/02/16 - 07/02/2016

It's a bit of a mess. They billed you in June for one day in February?

Either way, it's clear you owe them nothing, but how to get the mark removed. I think there's a more appropriate board here for that.

M4561

FunTime wrote: »

If they billed you on the 20th, that would correspond to the billing date. You should have waited for the final bill. Now you are the one with the headache..

Something wrong with your dates: They billed me £20 on 20/06/2016 to cover the period of 06/02/16 - 07/02/2016

It's a bit of a mess. They billed you in June for one day in February?

My bad - that date should read 20/02/2016. Not 20/06/2016.

Well I am still waiting for the final bill 6 months on. Would you recommend I was still paying £20/month too, while waiting for the elusive final bill and not receiving any service?

Like I said. I don't care what their fixed billing dates are. The first bill wasn't pro-rata. It was the full £20. Neither was the 2nd bill pro-rata. It they had to raise another bill (which I don't know why they would need to as the service had been fully paid for up to the date the service ended) then they should have correctly credited that bill with £20, on the account that it was already cancelled. Instead, for some reason that I still don't understand, they credit it with £14 odd pound as a "gesture of goodwill".

FunTime

M4561 wrote: »

My bad - that date should read 20/02/2016. Not 20/06/2016.

Well I am still waiting for the final bill 6 months on. Would you recommend I was still paying £20/month too, while waiting for the elusive final bill?

Like I said. I don't care what their fixed billing dates are. The first bill wasn't pro-rata. It was the full £20. Neither was the 2nd bill pro-rata. It they had to raise another bill (which I don't know why they would need to as the service had been fully paid for up to the date the service ended) then they should have correctly credited that bill with £20, on the account that it was already cancelled. Instead, for some reason that I still don't understand, they credit it with £14 odd pound as a "gesture of goodwill".

No, I am stating that it was have been easier to claim the money back than to get the bad mark removed.
I can imagine that you are more annoyed about that than anything.

They clearly messed it all up, but now you are suffering.

M4561

FunTime wrote: »

No, I am stating that it was have been easier to claim the money back than to get the bad mark removed.
I can imagine that you are more annoyed about that than anything.

They clearly messed it all up, but now you are suffering.

Yes, with hindsight it would have been easier to claim the money back than trying to get my credit report fixed. But once I had received confirmation from ID that the service would be cancelled and they had taken the initial £20, then I mistakenly thought they would keep their word and I was safe to cancel the direct debit. At the very least I thought they would send me a bill if they did mistakenly charge me for anything else.

I have disputed the report with Experian who will contact ID on my behalf, and I have also emailed a complaint to ID myself, before escalating to the ombudsman.

System

Get a PAC and move the number to a free PAYG sim (data or voice)
It should still have a phone number even if it's a data sim.