1p Mobile.....can they do this ?

y3sitsm3

Ginarooky said:

Ok, thank you for the replies, so if I understand correctly, they can take the money, they can also change the original contract, which they have done, and not be in any way responsible for that ? ( such as having to cancel and refund if I want that)

I am interested in how to spend the money on something else as UsetheForce suggested, how do I do that ?

Yes, its actually very easy to build up a lot of credit with them if you don't use it very often.

It seems to me they have devised the perfectly legal conjob !

As for taking my deceased fathers money, that is just disgraceful, whatever it says in their contract ( that would be the one they can change any time to suit themselves it seems ?)

So if naming and shaming them is all I have left..so be it, whoever else does the same is not doing it to me, so they can take the flak at the moment..I am thinking of some very effective " headlines" at the moment.

I hardly see how my father can now use it...do you ?

They can change it at any point, and you have the option to leave if you don't like the changes which is the same as any other contract.  Of course, where customers are tied in to a particular contract length, companies typically won't change the contracts as the customer will typically be free to leave. As their profit is worked out assuming the contract runs the full length, they're obviously reluctant to change it and let customers leave, losing them money (although in some cases that will be less than not changing the contract.)

Of course, with a PAYG contract, there is typically little to lose by changing the contract, people are free to leave at any time anyway, but that doesn't make it wrong for companies to change their T&C's if required.

Ultimately this is down to making a poor choice of PAYG provider, rather than any sort of scam or ruse on their part.  With minimum top up requirements, you really shouldn't be using them unless you're actually going to use at least that amount of text/data/calls in a 4 month period.

Whether your father can use it or not is irrelevant.  Those are the terms he signed up to, and it was a poor decision on his part (or whoever coerced him into using them) especially as there was never, as far as I'm aware, the potential for a refund on the table.

getmore4less

There is no need to drop the father's sim just find someone that can use it.

Wonder if there is a market for a SIM with credit a number could be ported onto it.

Neil_Jones

Ginarooky said:

Ok, thank you for the replies, so if I understand correctly, they can take the money, they can also change the original contract, which they have done, and not be in any way responsible for that ? ( such as having to cancel and refund if I want that)

I am interested in how to spend the money on something else as UsetheForce suggested, how do I do that ?

Yes, its actually very easy to build up a lot of credit with them if you don't use it very often.

It seems to me they have devised the perfectly legal conjob !

As for taking my deceased fathers money, that is just disgraceful, whatever it says in their contract ( that would be the one they can change any time to suit themselves it seems ?)

So if naming and shaming them is all I have left..so be it, whoever else does the same is not doing it to me, so they can take the flak at the moment..I am thinking of some very effective " headlines" at the moment.

I hardly see how my father can now use it...do you ?

I'm going to suggest here the monkey was "taken" but when your father was alive in anticipation of need of a service.  That doesn't make it theft.  It's a shame your father has died in the meantime and now can't use it himself but building up a credit of £100 on a PAYG tariff should be a sign that it isn't the right tariff for that user.  There are other providers that offer PAYG but don't require minimum top up every x days.  That's not the fault of 1p Mobile, that's whoever set it up for him (your good self?).  Just because its right for you and costs peanuts per call doesn't make it right for everybody.

You can text to donate to charity, most charities have text details on their websites.

merchcon55

This is a copy and paste - worth investigating:

If you’d like to use your Pay As You Go credit for purchases elsewhere, the UK’s four largest mobile networks allow you to do this through either Boku or Payforit. You can use your Pay As You Go credit for purchases on the Google Play Store, PlayStation Store, Windows Store, Spotify and others (look for the “carrier billing” option when paying for your purchases).

Blackjack_Davy

y3sitsm3 said:

Whether your father can use it or not is irrelevant.  Those are the terms he signed up to, and it was a poor decision on his part (or whoever coerced him into using them) especially as there was never, as far as I'm aware, the potential for a refund on the table.

Because it was the recommend option for the cheapest low usage PAYG sim on MSE so people went for that without reading the small print or comparing tariffs or whether the recommendation was actually good value or not because Martin's word was "good enough"

Norman_Castle

Ginarooky said:

I hardly see how my father can now use it...do you ?

I'd treat it as part of his estate which can be inherited. If you resent the mobile company keeping it donate it via text donation to a charity he would have supported.

I recently donated some payg credit and found the cancer research text donation simple to use.

y3sitsm3

Blackjack_Davy said:

y3sitsm3 said:

Whether your father can use it or not is irrelevant.  Those are the terms he signed up to, and it was a poor decision on his part (or whoever coerced him into using them) especially as there was never, as far as I'm aware, the potential for a refund on the table.

Because it was the recommend option for the cheapest low usage PAYG sim on MSE so people went for that without reading the small print or comparing tariffs or whether the recommendation was actually good value or not because Martin's word was "good enough"

More fool those who mindlessly sign up for things without doing a basic level of research then.

d123

Blackjack_Davy said:

y3sitsm3 said:

Whether your father can use it or not is irrelevant.  Those are the terms he signed up to, and it was a poor decision on his part (or whoever coerced him into using them) especially as there was never, as far as I'm aware, the potential for a refund on the table.

Because it was the recommend option for the cheapest low usage PAYG sim on MSE so people went for that without reading the small print or comparing tariffs or whether the recommendation was actually good value or not because Martin's word was "good enough"

Martin Lewis sold this website almost a decade ago (2012 iirc), if you want any advice regarding this, it’s don’t trust any celebrity making product endorsements on the internet without doing your own research.

Ginarooky

Thank you to those who suggested ways of spending it. I prefer to donate it all to charities than let that lot have it for nothing

To those who feel it is ok ( and you do) for any company to take money off people who have deceased by some small print excuse, shame on you.

Neil_Jones

Ginarooky said:

To those who feel it is ok ( and you do) for any company to take money off people who have deceased by some small print excuse, shame on you.

Some of us actually read and understand what we're signing up to and thus don't moan about it later.