Cancelling 3 Contract? - Advice Please

Up_To_My_Eyeballs

Hi there I hope I am in the right place I could really do with some advice about cancelling a 3 mobile contract
My partner accepted a contract offer over the telephone and the price just kept going up until it was about £60 a month :eek: so he took a contract out with vodaphone instead and seeing as his 18 months contract with 3 was up he decided to cancel. They rang him up and asked him if he wanted to have a new contract offer and he said no thanks as he had taken the vodaphone contract out and asked them how he cancelled this one. He was told to write in giving a months notice and asking for it to be cancelled.
We sent the letter off on the 7th sept he is billed on the 12th every month we gave them a months notice and said that the last payment would be the 12th october. The problem is now that they say they never got the letter and have charged him for nov, dec, jan & feb bills which is over £200
Can they do this? The phone hasn't even been used since last august! I wish I had sent it recorded delivery now but this just seems so unfair
Any help and advice is much appreciated

Up_To_My_Eyeballs

Bumping for advice please :A

Buzby

Until they receive it ( you you can prove that they did, you're really over a barrel. As you say it would have been best to send it by RD. However, what also works against you is by the 13th October your phone should have been turned off... why was it not noticed that service was still ongoing?

Your best bet is to send a copy of the ORIGINAL letter, (this time by RD) and ask them to note this is you resenting the original request. Ask them to note that the handset has not been used, so please refund the charges applies since October. Be nice, as they might see reason. If not, there isn't a lot you can do to force the issue, but at least you'll know there's only 30 days to go!

Up_To_My_Eyeballs

The phone had actually stopped working a couple of weeks after he took the new vodaphone contract out so it just sat in a drawer and obviously once we had sent the notice to cancel we thought no more of it.
It just seems so wrong when they can see there hasn't been any activity on the phone since august that they can charge us for 4 months extra for nothing. They have handed it over to a DCA so I'm not sure if resending the letter would help anything
Thanks for your time

Quentin

Are you sure you were talking to 3 when you were told to write in with your termination?

3 are happy to take notice to cancel over the phone.

And why has it taken 4 months before you have found out about this? Have they sent bills each month - and have they tried to take payment by DD?

How has this ended up with a DCA?

Up_To_My_Eyeballs

When 3 called him in August to offer him a new contract and he said no as he had just taken out the vodaphone one, he told them that he wanted to cancel his contract and they told him to write in and give a months notice, we have only ever dealt with vodaphone before and seeing as they ask for this too we assumed that was correct.
We heard nothing until January when we got a letter asking for the payment for decembers statement my partner rang them up and said that as far as he was concerned the account was cancelled they denied having the letter and said that he could cancel over the phone?? Which is really annoying as had the person said that in august this all would have been avoided. So he cancelled the contract then on the phone but said that my partner would be liable for another 30 days from there so taking it to febuary. He told them that he wasnt going to pay it as he had cancelled. They sent him a couple of notes in january asking for payment in full and now it has been passed to a DCA

Buzby

As I noted earlier, this boils down to who said what and when - and as for it being 'fair', do remember that you appear to expect them to disconnect a mobile that has no usage? This would put lots of us in a pickle as not all devices are used, but we expect them to work when we need them!

At least the fact there has been no calls backs up your assertion the contract was terminated. You can request (as part of the resolution process) a print out of all the information they have about your account, which will cost a maximum of £10. Reject any advances from the DCA, by saying the matter is in dispute and you are awaiting your SAR (Subject Access Request) from the network.