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Contract advice pls

Discussion in 'Contract Law' started by biscuit baron, Sep 22, 2011.

  1. biscuit baron New law student

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    Hi all,
    First post here.... hoped all you clever law students may be able to give me a bit of advice.... (not a case study or anything, but just some real advice needed!)

    I have a smartphone being provided through Virgin mobile on a pay monthly contract... and the consistently charge me too much via "aditional fees" at the moment it is approximately 50% of the time they get the bill wrong by as little as 30p or as much as £5.70

    I have spoken to their customer services and complained, and they said they would refund the money, but then they only refunded some of it. (short by £1.50) Since then they have repeatedly mis-billed me.... not a lot, but it is the principal of the thing.... if they do this to everyone, just imagine !!

    I have sent letters of complaint to the director of customer services explaining that this is not satisfactory, etc etc. and have never had a response. So I am now writing a super duper nasty letter of complaint to send to them recorded delivery, but wanted to know if I could threaten them with any kind of "breach of contract" clause.... I put this in the letter :
    If this is not resolved to a completely satisfactory level within 28 days or the end of my next billing month, (end of Oct 2011) I will be seeking legal advice as to whether you are in breach of contract, and will be looking to terminate our agreement ASAP whilst still retaining the phone.

    can I do this ??? where do I stand ?

    Any info you guys can give me would be gratefully received !

    Cheers,
    Andy.
    biscuit baron, Sep 22, 2011
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  2. slobrob Moderator

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    Hi Andy,

    I think the main thing you need to do is follow the complaints procedure outlining the issues and go from there, you could very well send letters of complaint to the director of CS but as you can see there is no response and that could be for a number of reasons.

    I had a similar issue with you when I used to have a mobile phone contract with BT back in the day - they never billed me for 6 months then laid a large sum on to me and expected to pay it off. I eventually complained to the correct department explaining it was a breach of contract and as a result they agreed to end the contract on the basis I pay the outstanding amount.

    In your case, what you need to do is outline the problem of your complaint along with all evidence (in this case could be your bills that you have been overcharged) and attach this to the letter and finally you need to explain what you want out of the complaint. You may need to say something along the lines of you are continuously being overcharged for several months in a row which is having a detrimental effect in which you have continuously chased this up and is getting to the point where you dont want the service anymore and as a result have your contract terminated as soon as possible due to the inconvenience of having to call each month and the poor service given.

    I would give them 14 days to respond at the very least acknowledging they have received your letter. Failure to do so I would then take it up with the next stage and call them asking for the details of their Alternative Dispute Resolution service (ADR) and then forward your complaint to them who will investigate. I do believe companies do not want to get as far as that because they do get charged for each complaint that is investigated. Failure to resolve to your satisfaction then I would recommend complaining to Ofcom which is your last option.

    In the meantime it might be best to have a look at the Ofcom webiste, it provides plenty of information

    http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/

    I would advise not to go all guns blazing, just write a formal but assertive letter explaining what you want to happen, if they offer you something like discount or money back and you do not wish to take up then write back to them explaining you do not wish to have that and assert that you want the outcome of what you originally intended or of course, tkae the offer they have given you.

    Please remember to send letters recorded delivery so you can trace them and see when they were delivered.
    slobrob, Sep 24, 2011
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  3. biscuit baron New law student

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    Hi Slobrob... thanks for the reply...

    I did as you said and sent another letter to them, but this time recorded delivery...

    which as mentioned previously had included the statement of :

    Sufficed to say that I am at the stage now, where:

    A. This is official notification that you have 14 days to respond to me before I contact whatever consumer programme/magazine/etc. I can find that will listen, and forward a copy to the Corporate Development Department of Virgin Management Limited.

    B. I expect not only the money I have been overcharged to be refunded to me, but also some form of compensation for the numerous amounts of time and effort I have had to waste in attempting to get a worthwhile response from you.

    C. If this is not resolved to a completely satisfactory level within 28 days or the end of my next billing month, (end of Oct 2011) I will be seeking legal advice as to whether you are in breach of contract, and will be looking to terminate our agreement ASAP whilst still retaining the phone.

    Since then, it has now ticked over to 14 days from receipt of the letter as of today, and I have heard nothing from them, and aslo I have had my latest bill whereby they have overcharged me again by £1.30 this time.

    So I guess its time to contact the ADR people. Would you suggest just leaving this in their hands until I get a response or cancelling my direct debit at the end of the Month too?

    Cheers again for the advice.
    Andy.
    biscuit baron, Oct 6, 2011
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  4. slobrob Moderator

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    Hi Andy,

    I would not suggest cancelling your direct debit, that in every person's mind is the first thing to do but at the moment you are still under a contract until a decision has been made otherwise. You need to follow the next steps and you must contact the ADR organisation who deals with Virgin Media issues. I believe it is OTELO and I have provided the link below. There is an option to make a complain online but also a number to call - I would suggest you call the number as you are likely to get all the answer you need in one go.

    The link below gives some more information on the process of complaining through ADR. It does go on to mention regarding a deadlock letter within 8 weeks however you have not receiving anything within 8 weeks? Anyway take a read of the page before contacting OTELO it might give you a better understanding of the procedures.
    http://www.adrnow.org.uk/go/SubPage_67.html#whi

    OTELO: http://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html

    also to note: if you are contacting OTEL, it might be worthwhile telling them what your looking to get out of the complaint i.e released from the contract due to such a poor service that has been ongoing for X amount of time and the detrimental effect it is having on you. They can then decide whether you can be released from the contract as a result.
    slobrob, Oct 9, 2011
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  5. biscuit baron New law student

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    It turns out it is CISAS that deal with Virgin Mobile, therefore as of today I have filled in their online complaint form, and sent it flying through the interweb to CISAS complaints hq.... so with any luck some worthwile progress will be made.

    Many thanks for the great advice. With any luck I will post back with a success story once resolved.

    But thanks again...
    Andy.
    biscuit baron, Nov 8, 2011
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  6. slobrob Moderator

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    No worries Andy, keep us informed of how it goes
    slobrob, Nov 9, 2011
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