Excessive (Vulnerable adult) charge - can anything be done?

Andy5H

Almost 80yo man been on an £11.24 /month contract since 2017 (unlimited texts, 500 mins talk time and 500mb data). Never since the contract started has he exceeded his limits.
For the past month, this man's wife has been in an NHS rehabilitation home after a fall at home led to her being in hospital for 2 nights.  Suffering from Parkinson's disease, his wife struggles ringing out on her mobile, but can manage answering calls to it.  Man rings his wife lots for support etc in the last month and exceeds his usual contracted limits.  The provider texts him 6 days after the February billing date to inform him he has already used his talk allowance for the Feb-March period (text received 17 Feb).  The man does not do anything about the text notification (which he now recognises was a mistake).  Next notification appears via a text on 11 March(next billing period) asking him to contact his mobile provider, which he does next day, when he is informed that he owes them £760. 
As you can imagine, this has been a huge shock for him and is causing a lot of stress.  He feels stupid he did not do something about this initial notification, but has been busy liaising with the rehabilitation home, supporting his wife, speaking to doctors, care workers and the hospital recently and driving backwards and forwards to the home to collect/return washing to his wife.  He contacted his provider on Saturday and after a long discussion, they offered a reduction of 10% and said a manager would be in touch next day to say whether anything else could be done.  Unfortunately, no contact took place yesterday and I suspect contact will not be forthcoming.
I feel this vulnerable man has been exploited with such an excessive charge and that someone from the provider should have been in touch to speak to him about the increase, way before it reached the amount it did.  Whilst I guess there is nothing that can be done legally, as the provider has not broken the law/contract, I wonder whether there are any precedents where something similar has happened that anyone can share or any other advice about ways to approach the providers from a moral point of view.   I believe the payment is due within a few days.
Many thanks,
Andy5H

Neil_Jones

If the provider isn't told the customer is vulnerable, they're not going to get involved with matters of the account if it starts racking up higher charges.  "Morals" don't really come into it unfortunately, it is the user's responsibility to manage their account properly and check they're on the right tariff for them.

Realistically if you go over your limits and your agreement with the provider boils down to we'll charge you for out of contract usage (in this case, 500 minutes talk time).  that's what you agree to.  First mistake was not doing anything with the notification in the first place.

I suspect that if 500minutes was used up in six days, it probably goes to say that on a similar scale one got through over 2000 minutes that month?  That's £300 assuming 20p a minute minus the initial 500 minutes, which might be a bit on the low side.

You're going to be pretty much at the provider's whim as to what happens next.  If that's all they offer, 10%, that's it.  Realistically as you acknowledge they've done nothing wrong.

JJ_Egan

Is he registered as vulnerable with them ??

If not how did they know he was vulnerable.

Marvel1

Andy5H said:

.  The provider texts him 6 days after the February billing date to inform him he has already used his talk allowance for the Feb-March period (text received 17 Feb).  The man does not do anything about the text notification (which he now recognises was a mistake).  

Enough said really.

pbartlett

shutting the door after the horse etc i know but he is on an appalling contract you can get more data and unlimited minutes for less eg with three...

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Andy5H

JJ_Egan said:

Is he registered as vulnerable with them ??

If not how did they know he was vulnerable.

No, the vulnerable came from me, it is not a medical diagnosis.  He is vulnerable because he has limited knowledge of mobile technology (particularly charges ) and for the first time in 55 years of marriage, has no wife at home to discuss things with, whilst running around like a loon trying to support his wife and maintain their home, ready for her return.

Neil_Jones

Andy5H said:

JJ_Egan said:

Is he registered as vulnerable with them ??

If not how did they know he was vulnerable.

No, the vulnerable came from me, it is not a medical diagnosis.  He is vulnerable because he has limited knowledge of mobile technology (particularly charges ) and for the first time in 55 years of marriage, has no wife at home to discuss things with, whilst running around like a loon trying to support his wife and maintain their home, ready for her return.

With all due respect, having "limited knowledge of mobile technology" doesn't make one vulnerable in the sense you've used it.  There are no end of 70/80/90/95 year olds in this country who are otherwise fully fit and healthy (for the  most part) and wouldn't even consider themselves vulnerable in any way, shape or form.  I dare say a good  chunk of them can and could work a mobile phone too, even if its just to make a phone call on it, never mind Candy Crush.

No, I think the term you want is not "vulnerable", but "overwhelmed".  Overwhelmed.  That changes the entire premise of the thread.  Doesn't change the basic fact the situation referred to is self inflicted, that's sort of what happens when you take your eye off the ball because you're distracted by other things, or if you never had to deal with them in the first place.

Andy5H

Thanks all for your comments. The lack of practical suggestions to whether anything can be done makes me think he’s going to have to pay the 90% offer and learn to be more proactive in future. 
In response to one comment, I disagree with the ‘overwhelmed’ phrase. All other aspects of his life have been organised and well managed independently despite the emotional roller coaster he’s been on.

Tokmon

Andy5H said:

Thanks all for your comments. The lack of practical suggestions to whether anything can be done makes me think he’s going to have to pay the 90% offer and learn to be more proactive in future. 
In response to one comment, I disagree with the ‘overwhelmed’ phrase. All other aspects of his life have been organised and well managed independently despite the emotional roller coaster he’s been on.

Then he might be quite offended that you are describing him as a "vulnerable adult" when it sounds like he can function perfectly well with everyday tasks. He just made a silly mistake by ignoring the text and people of all ages and technical abilities are capable of making the same mistake. 

ivinsp

Hi Andy, if he's on o2 your friend might want to consider a £6 goodybag (bundle/bolt on) with giffgaff (uses o2) and get unlimited calls/texts and 500 MB. 

If he's not with o2 then another virtual operator may have a similar non contract/payg deal

Paul

elsien

He might also want to set a spending cap for future reference.