Pursued by a debt collection agency

worried_jim

fatbelly wrote: »

His girlfriend's age/status are irrelevant if he was the one who took out the contracts. How old was he at the time?

Old enough to contact a company, do due diligence and product research, agree terms and conditions and take the products and services. Definitely old enough to pay the bill.

fatbelly

Was he 18 or over at the time?

stu-vfr

Not sure, sorry.

sourcrates

stu-vfr wrote: »

Not sure, sorry.

How old is he now ?

how old was he when he took out the contracts ?

Can you ask him ?

stu-vfr

hollydays wrote: »

How many years ago?

Sorry, I'm not sure.

stu-vfr

bris wrote: »

Outrageous, how dare they treat unemployed people like anyone else. I agree with you, unemployed people should not be entitled to mobile phones or anything else for that matter.

Thank you for your reply. If you are trying to be humorous, try harder. I'm asking for advice not to be made fun of.

stu-vfr

arcon5 wrote: »

Based on your logic you've just condemned unemployed, single mums, stay at home parents etc etc a life without telecommunications. Not just that but with such logic why not refuse them broadband connections, music subscriptions and every other possible contractual agreement they could enter in to.

Teach your son to take responsibility for his actions by finding a legitimate solution to a problem he's found himself in. Such as a payment plan

That is absolutely not my logic and what a ridiculous thing to say!
I have asked for some advice and didn't ask for sarcastic statements or parenting advice from prats like you. PLEASE TROLL SOMEBODY ELSE!

zippygeorgeandben

stu-vfr wrote: »

What I would like advice on whether it is reasonable to suggest that the company was negligent by allowing him to have the contracts in the first place.
I look forward to any thoughts the community have. Thank you.

The company have not been negligent here. I don't think that posters are trying to make fun, just probably showing frustration that your son doesn't seem to want to take responsibility for a decision he made, whether 3 months ago or 3 years ago.
Lots of people on these forums accrue debt through absolutely no fault of their own, situations they cannot take control of and couldn't predict. Your son made the decision to take out not one, but two phone contracts despite having no money to pay for them. He would have signed contracts and credit checks would have been done at the time. He might be being a bit vague with the background as he may have filled out some of the paperwork creatively!

elsien

If he doesn't recall the details of the debt, he could send a "prove it" letter, to check the amount he's being chased for is correct. But at some point he's going to have to pay; can he afford it or does he need to sort out a payment plan?

stu-vfr

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

If you give more details we might be able to give more specific help.

However, this issue aside it sounds to me as though your son seems to think it's ok to not pay for things and it worries me that he might be bad with money and needs some education. Otherwise he could go to a payday loan company or do things that get him into more and more debt until it's out of control. This is a bad habit to have, so you need to make sure he knows. He could well have more debt already!

There is some great debt advice here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan

I don't want to go into to many details but he stormed out at 17 and refused to engage with either me or his mum. You are right in that he was an total idiot when he left home, he was stupid with money and credit etc and as result he is indeed thousand of pounds of debt.