'Cancelling' mobile phone contracts

[Daragon]

Just thought I'd ask around here for some advice regarding the issue of getting out of a mobile contract once the duration of it expires.

Basically, I was with 3 on a 12 monther up until May of this year when the contract expired. Apparently I was still billed for an extra month however when I failed to cancel properly due to not being put through to their cancels department. In the same month however, giving plenty of notice, I WAS connected through to their cancels dept and requested the cancellation which I was assured was processed. Since then I manually had the direct debit canceled to prevent them taking more money if they fancied it.

Now here I am, middle of July with an overdue bill staring me in the face for just shy of £60 (the two months that I'd cancelled)! I'm not with Vodaphone, have been since the start of June and these ****ers at 3 just won't leave me alone! Is this legal?

[abigsmurf]

You believed the contract was terminated in good faith, you were told as such. Complain, if that fails threaten to take them to court. It isn't legal and they're deeply in the wrong.

[Daragon]

That's the thing tho, I REALLY don't want to go back on the phone to 3. I'm half expecting that it was the monkies working in their mumbai call centre that couldn't understand what I was asking for which leads me to believe why my contract wasn't cancelled (if indeed it wasn't).

Sadly, I have no paperwork to confirm the cancellation, so I've nothing to back up my claim if I do go to court with this.

[charlesr]

Why can't this sort of thing be done online? At least then you'd get an email saying it had been performed. I feel your pain.

I guess the answer to my question is so that you have to speak to someone who tried to change your mind.

[Jebus]

A lot of these companies still demand a cancellation in writing, via snail mail or email. I'm wondering if the person you spoke to on the phone "omitted" to tell you this.

[Skull Commander]

Having worked in a phone shop for a while, I always speak to someone on a phone AND send a letter/email. I also ask them to confirm to me by email when it's done.

[Daragon]

I wish I knew this back then.

I have no idea what I'm going to do about this whole mess, I'm not working atm so I can't afford (and shouldn't have to) pay this sodding bill and the only paperwork I have that proves I considered the contract cancelled was that I've not used the 3 simcard in two months (and my parent's phone bill to 3's customer service). Basically if this goes to court, I'd struggle to form a case.

[abigsmurf]

They will have you on record as calling, they will be required to hand over this info.

[saif]

Not sure you would struggle. Big companies always do this as they know that some people will pay for the trouble it would cause. Your case is tight as any reasonable person would have done the same thing - I am sure it would not be hard to bring doubt on any claims they would have that you had not cancelled correctly. You have acted as instructed.

[Taka]

They will have you on record as calling, they will be required to hand over this info.

They may even have your actual conversation recorded; O2 record every single one of their calls which saved me having to fork out ?400 for international data roaming charges.

[Daragon]

Having phoned them, they apparently have no record of me ever speaking to their cancellations team, which I DEFINATELY did not dream up doing!

[C']

And they definitely didn't give you any call reference or anything like that when you cancelled?

When I cancelled my Xbox Live Gold subscription a couple of weeks back it had to be done over the phone and I was worried about something similar happening but I was given a reference number relating to the cancellation which gave me at least some reassurance that I could track it.

[Daragon]

They didn't, they just told me that it had been dealt with.

When I phone up today, having to cancel AGAIN, the guy I spoke to gave me his details, despite me not asking for them. The last one however didn't.

My biggest concern now, is that this whole sorry mess will end up costing me my credit rating if there's no resolution. At the end of the day, I don't see how 3 can prove that (as they told me) I didn't speak to cancellations on the day in question, but then again I can't prove that I did either.

[Jebus]

As long as you are certain they didn't request it in written form, you should be fine, tell them that "from now on my solicitor will be dealing with the matter".

[Daragon]

I wasn't told over the phone to provide in writing otherwise I would have done, doesn't mean to say some small print somewhere that I've missed states that though.

As far as I'm concerned, 3 just say 30 days cancellation notice, and I've assumed the notice is given over the phone to the relevant department.