Blood and stones

Son has/had contract for 18 months with 3G. Phone stolen 3 months ago. He is
now unemployed and simply cant pay the contract of £23 a month on a phone he
does not have. He phoned and told them so. They have obviously sold the debt
to a debt collection agency who are demanding £72 and are threatening legal
action. It was 3G that screwed up his bank account and made him overdrawn
taking £60 from his account when they should have taken a lot less by the
time they put the money back he had incurred charges of £128 and rising by
the day. Hell of a mess. I would appreciate any advice you could offer.

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› See More: Blood and stones

On 2008-08-20, Citizen142 <[email protected]> wrote:
> Son has/had contract for 18 months with 3G. Phone stolen 3 months ago.

Presumably not insured ...

Were the police informed?

> He is
> now unemployed and simply cant pay the contract of £23 a month on a phone he
> does not have. He phoned and told them so. They have obviously sold the debt
> to a debt collection agency who are demanding £72 and are threatening legal
> action.

Pay up. Otherwise things will only get worse.

You haven't said whether or not the contract was still within a 'minimum
contract period' but presumably it was; if so the company is probably
entitled to recover all of the money due to it within that minimum period
- plus a cancellation fee and any other additional costs they've incurred,
such as debt recovery. This will be set out in the terms and conditions
of the contract.

Make sure that the contract has in fact been cancelled and that no further
payments are falling due. 18 months at £23 a month makes £414 in all;
how much of that has been paid so far?

> It was 3G that screwed up his bank account and made him overdrawn
> taking £60 from his account when they should have taken a lot less by the
> time they put the money back he had incurred charges of £128 and rising by
> the day. Hell of a mess. I would appreciate any advice you could offer.

That's a seperate issue. If the company did use a Direct Debit Authority
to withdraw money from your son's bank account without first giving him
notice (eg sending a bill or posting the information to his on-line
account or whatever the usual arrangement was) then your son has some
grounds for complaint.

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-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

"h.tees" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Citizen142" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Son has/had contract for 18 months with 3G.
>
> So how long was the contract for - 18months by any chance?
>
>> Phone stolen 3 months ago.
>
> Was it really stolen or did he sell it and try to claim the insurance?
>
>>He is now unemployed and simply cant pay the contract of £23 a month
>
> Well that's too bad, tough! That happens to a lot of people.
> Don't buy things you can't afford.
>
>>on a phone he does not have. He phoned and told them so.
>
> They have heard it all before and are not interested - he entered in to a
> legal contract.
>
>>They have obviously sold the debt to a debt collection agency who are
>>demanding £72 and are threatening legal action.
>
> That's fair enough and he knew that would happen if he REFUSED to pay.
>
>>It was 3G that screwed up his bank account and made him overdrawn
>
> No it wasn't, it was your son's fault for not having sufficient funds to
> cover
> direct debits. It is no one elses fault he is out of work and unable to
> manage his finances. If you were any kind of father you would help him
> out. Oh don't tell me - you probably scrounge benefits.
>
>> taking £60 from his account when they should have taken a lot less by the
>> time they put the money back he had incurred charges of £128 and rising
>> by the day.
>
> Tough, he owes the money. He can claim charges back if he can prove
> the company took more than what was the agreed figure on the bill.
>
>>Hell of a mess. I would appreciate any advice you could offer.

Get another basic 3G phone and put the SIM in it.

>
> Stop being tight and help him out, stop crying on a newsgroup and tell him
> to get a job. This might teach him not to agree to things he can't
> afford.
> You didn't do a very good job of teaching him about responsibility by the
> sound of it.
>
> The advice I would offer is "JOB CENTRE". Give him that piece of advice.
>
>

Gee what a sad story, but then I reflected: -

In 1986 I bought my first portable phone*, it cost £2k +VAT. The rental was
£25 per month (probably plus VAT) and daytime calls out cost 25p per minute
(likewise), with NO freebies. I moved it from Voda to Cellnet in 1987 after
the former hiked off peak calls by 67% and still have the same number over
two decades later.

So this guy has what is probably a free high feature phone, hundreds of free
minutes and texts a month for £23 inc. and pleading hardship to pay a bill
of around a fiver a week?!? He could offer to wash a neighbour's car or
windows to get that.



* I still own this phone, although there is no [E]TACS network for it to run
on. It was heavy at ~500g, but did fit in a shirt pocket. It is on loan to
the Science and Industry Museum.

Have you ever thought of joining the Nazi party?

Citizen142 wrote:
> Son has/had contract for 18 months with 3G. Phone stolen 3 months ago. He is
> now unemployed and simply cant pay the contract of £23 a month on a phone he
> does not have. He phoned and told them so.

When this phone was stolen, presumably he told them at the time. At that
point, I'd have expected them to ask about a replacement phone. But he
could have got one second-hand I suppose.


> They have obviously sold the debt
> to a debt collection agency who are demanding £72 and are threatening legal
> action. It was 3G that screwed up his bank account and made him overdrawn
> taking £60 from his account when they should have taken a lot less by the
> time they put the money back he had incurred charges of £128 and rising by
> the day. Hell of a mess. I would appreciate any advice you could offer.

He is legally committed to paying the money. Unless there was insurance
(household insurance may well cover it) he has to pay the line rental.

The bank charges caused by 3 are a different matter, and he ought to bre
able to get 3 to pay them.