Lowell Chasing for Debt I Don't Believe I Owe... Do I?

avocia

Hi everyone, bit of a saga here, but I believe I need to give as much information as possible if I'm going to get a valid/helpful response.

So about 2 years ago (September 2017), I was a PAYG customer with O2, and I had been for about 8 years. I was looking online for new phones as my phone at the time was getting old, coincidentally around this time a salesperson from O2 called me. (With the way advertising works these days I figured they'd seen me on my account browsing their site and used it to target calls.) Anyway, I was on a super old tariff and I knew it. (500MB data, no calls and 300 texts for £10 a month in 2017... lol) So the sales rep tells me I can buy a new SIM for £13 which will increase my data to 2GB and I'll get unlimited calls and texts. Then I just top-up as I have been and I get more for it. I figured if I got a new phone later when I could afford it then I'd probably need that data as 4G burns through a lot more, so obviously I jumped at it. Same money, more service for it, anyone would say yes. The important part here, is that at no point was I told this SIM was a contract/SIM Only plan.

Shortly after this, I found out during freshers week at my university that EE did 20% student discount on contracts, and Google had just announced the Pixel 2, so the original Pixel was going cheap, with a free Daydream VR Headset. I thought I couldn't be luckier, so I took that contract gladly (and of course have made every payment on time!) It was more data, got me a new phone, and had other perks, so I figured the £13 I'd spent on the SIM card was fine to waste.

In the end, the SIM card never actually arrives. I never bothered to call O2 and tell them this because I wasn't going to use it anyway since I had a much better thing.

About 6 months later, I start getting letters from Lowell saying I owe £192 for an O2 contract. I Googled the company, read nothing good about them, assumed it was a scam, left it at that. I kept getting letters monthly, and occasional automated calls. It all went to my parents address so I just looked through the piles of letters they'd sent every few months. Fast forward about a year and a half, and I get a letter saying they're going to begin considering court action, at which point I think - okay, time to put a stop to this.

I call them and ask for proof of the contract, they show me the contract and say I must have used the SIM card as it had airtime charges. I contact O2, they tell me the airtime charges trigger automatically and confirmed I had never activated or used the SIM. Lowell say this still makes me liable (apparently on the advice of O2.) And that an oral agreement on the phone suffices to sign a phone contract.

So then I get to the really important part, I never verbally agreed to a contract. At no point did the salesperson at O2 tell me that this was a contract. I believed I was continuing as a PAYG customer, and that I was just buying a new SIM - sure £13 was steep for a SIM card, but I was only paying it once, I didn't complain. So I ask Lowell for proof of the phone call. A transcript, a recording. Anything that shows the sales representative telling me I am taking out a contract.

They tell me they cannot ask O2 for such a thing and that it is my responsibility to show them this proof. Is it? And if this proof cannot be recovered - do I have to pay based on the other grounds?

Sorry for the lengthy post, and thank you in advance for any advice, I just really want these guys off my back. I'm good with money, have solid credit and it's an embarrassing shadow that seems to not be going away without a fight.

WhenIam64

I Googled the company, read nothing good about them, assumed it was a scam, left it at that.

The number of times I seen that ....

Contracts can be formed by writing, by verbal agreement, and by behaviour (deemed acceptance). Since you did not challenge, Lowell are within their rights to believe there was a contact and you accepted it. A lot of the debt they buy has "deemed acceptance" running through it.

They tell me they cannot ask O2 for such a thing and that it is my responsibility to show them this proof. Is it?

No the burden on proof is on them if they go to court but it is not a heavy burden (51%) and your ignoring it tilts the court decision their way.

Simplest approach is to use "deemed acceptance" the other way and tell them to issue a claim and that if they don't, you will take it as proof there was no agreed contract in the first place. In other words, they will be deemed to accept your version of events if they do not press their case.

Word of warning though. They do sit on these counter threats and then wait a while to see if you move and send a claim to your old address. Default CCJs are one on their main income streams.

So next time you come across a "scam" challenge it and keep the paperwork for 6 years.