T-mobile excessive billing - £400 in 6 months!

CAJA

I switched to a T-mobile 18 month contract account via Carphone Warehouse some 6 months ago. During that time despite starting on Flext £25 and moving onto £35 Flext (month 3) allowance I have been consistently over billed - either by my spotting errors in their billing or by noticing their removing more from my DD than on the bill. Sometimes this has taken three months to be refunded, and after several calls to remind them. For the last 2 months on Flext £35 - that's ALOT of calls and texts allowance - that I have not even come anywhere near using up I am still being billed more than the agreed tariff. Sometimes some of their 'extra' charges are justified - I was billed for roaming on holiday...I occasionaly text my best buddy in Brussels etc.
I have just read on this forum that you can pay to get out of a contract and am now wondering if that may be the thing to do - in total in 6 months I have been billed just over £400. :eek:
I'm a meticulous MSE so you can imagine I'm pretty gutted. I am now using my partner's ) payg phone (which between two of us we are not spending more than £20 a month) as I am so terrified of using my phone and the consequent bills, which rather defeats the object!

Am I being naive about contracts or just being plain ripped off. Any advice/tips gratefully received.

reehsetin

have you got your weekly texts? itemised bills? to prove that the bills shouldnt be that high
twice ive had incorrect billing from t-mobile over almost 17months very annoying but not half what youve had

CAJA

Yes. Unfortunately that's something else they don't tell you have to pay extra for - itemised billing!

reehsetin

can you not check it for free online?

CAJA

That I don't know but I'll check for sure, thanks. I am not sure what I can really do because they say that the billing is right... They don't seem to see my side of the argument - that for example yesterday's bill was £20 over my agreed amount and yet I have a text message on the last day of my allowance showing that I had another £40+/- credit left.

chachi

sounds like you're doing a lot of 'non inclusive' usage then ... texts to non-UK mobiles, calls to non-geographic 08xx numbers, etc

CAJA

No, I do know, as I said in previous bill not to call 0800 0870 no's and not to send to non UK no's.

Pagan98

If you are disputing the bill, I would expect them to provide a itemised breakdown free of charge. If they don't offer a breakdown I suggest you complain in writing.

dc

Welcome Caja,
You have to get itemised billing, to sort the charging issues out.

What you are doing is like using a cash machine whenever you want/feel like without ever getting a balance check. Relying on memory and guessing doesn't work with money outflow.

Find the leaks and plug the holes.

I take it your minutes are X-net.

CAJA

Hm thanks dc but I use their balance checks at least a couple o times a week, that's just my problem, I am meticulous on where I'm at with my credit but the bills still come in as outrageously high when I have plenty of credit left over. The whloe point of moving to a contract phone was so that I could freely call and text.
I have now spent so much time, either on the phone with T-mobile and in both Carphone Warehouse and T-mobile outlets trying to get help opn getting to the bottom of their overcharging that I just want out of the contract now so I guess I'm looking for advice from any one else out there who has done this?

Pagan98 they won't supply full bill for free sadly.

RightRevBod

If they will not provide you free itemised bills, then you can get a copy of all your past bills (plus any other information in their system, such as notes on any refunds) for a total of £10 by writing a letter to them addressed to "The Data Controller". This should contain the wording "Subject access request".

In theory you send the request, and they then reply back to you welling you to send the fee (max £10). However you can speed things up by enclosing a £10 cheque. They then have a fixed period to supply you with the information you have requested. I think it is about 30 days, but cannot remember for sure. Google/someone with a better memory will be able to supply the exact time scale.

I would ask for the copies of all bills, correspondence, print outs from all internal systems with data about you, anything else you can think of.

If they do not supply the information, they are in breach of the data protection act. This is a lot of effort for them to produce, so they may just offer you free itemised bills. It is up to you if you accept this offer.

As regards them taking too much by direct debit, contact your bank and ask/tell them to reverse the direct debits under the "direct debit guarantee". I had to do this with Blueyonder for 6 months worth of bills once. Once you remind the person at the bank that they are responsible for direct debit errors, the money will be back in your account by the start of the next day. Do this each month that the bill is wrong, and you will soon have T-mobile contact you to discus.