Phone contract rip-off

PHK

Neil_Jones said:

rippedoffcustomer said:

Some years ago my husband signed up to Vodafone to get a first phone for our daughter. He took out a contract which included a handset and a package deal and paid just over £25 per month. He assumed it would reduce automatically when the handset was paid off, but in fact they have continued to charge every month. This has been going on for 4 years now and we have only just realised. Obviously we feel really stupid for not being more on the ball and for letting this happen. The money was coming from the joint account so I am also kicking myself. I think I thought my dh had a contract for something with Vodafone.
We spoke to them one evening this week and have cancelled the contract, but they still insisted on a month's notice period and would not refund anything. The customer services guy basically told my dh that he had agreed to the contract, so there was nothing to discuss. 
I now realise this is common practice by several mobile phone companies. There is also a court case being pursued by somebody called Gutmann.
I just wanted to make others aware and stop it happening to them, and also to see if there is any advice anyone can offer.
Many thanks, 

Its not a rip-off if its caused by your own apathy that you did nothing about for four years by your own admission.

Sorry but simple as that.

Plus Vodafone send messages to the phone periodically advising that you're outside the minimum term.

How likely is it that a reasonable person wouldn't notice £25 coming out of their account and not respond to the messages. Highly unlikely. 

sdduk

Once your minimum term 12/24mths contract finishes it goes to a rolling contract until you give them 30days notice to cancel its been like that for years.

Not having ago at you but may be you should check your bank accounts to make sure you do not have anything else coming out that shouldn't be its easy to miss stuff if you don't check your accounts regular.

You don't even have to talk to the providers now when your contract finishes unless you want to stay with them you can move your number to another provider by Texting PAC to 65075 to your provider and then give the Pac to the New Provider and then the contract ends automatic also when you get the Pac code it will have whether you owe them money or not to your old provider.

If you want to stay with your provider you will have to ring them or go on there Chat to talk to them.

Neil_Jones

PHK said:

Neil_Jones said:

rippedoffcustomer said:

Some years ago my husband signed up to Vodafone to get a first phone for our daughter. He took out a contract which included a handset and a package deal and paid just over £25 per month. He assumed it would reduce automatically when the handset was paid off, but in fact they have continued to charge every month. This has been going on for 4 years now and we have only just realised. Obviously we feel really stupid for not being more on the ball and for letting this happen. The money was coming from the joint account so I am also kicking myself. I think I thought my dh had a contract for something with Vodafone.
We spoke to them one evening this week and have cancelled the contract, but they still insisted on a month's notice period and would not refund anything. The customer services guy basically told my dh that he had agreed to the contract, so there was nothing to discuss. 
I now realise this is common practice by several mobile phone companies. There is also a court case being pursued by somebody called Gutmann.
I just wanted to make others aware and stop it happening to them, and also to see if there is any advice anyone can offer.
Many thanks, 

Its not a rip-off if its caused by your own apathy that you did nothing about for four years by your own admission.

Sorry but simple as that.

Plus Vodafone send messages to the phone periodically advising that you're outside the minimum term.

How likely is it that a reasonable person wouldn't notice £25 coming out of their account and not respond to the messages. Highly unlikely. 

I remember the post on the old forum years ago where somebody somehow managed to lose something like £10k on a PAYG tariff and claimed they hadn't noticed any of the payments for 10 years and wanted to know what they could do about getting a refund.

After I'd finished rolling around on the floor laughing the response was "tough, your loss.".  And I think this was back in the days before the automatic reminders, which might be a good indication of how well thought out that idea was