Charged for unused broadband service

G

gg66

Registered User
Messages
45
Interested in others thoughts on this..

I joined three in January 2014 on a 12 month contract by ordering a mobile dongle for broadband at a monthly fee of about 20 euro.

I haven't used it since 2015 and I recall cancelling it. I don't have a record of this.

Since then a monthly fee has been taken by DD from a bank account (one I don't monitor so I didn't notice).

The amount at some point was also increased to 29 euro per month. I received no notification of this by post or otherwise.

I have received no monthly bills during this period and only became aware of it when a DD failed.

I have not downloaded or uploaded any data in years. It has not been used.

On speaking with them they say:

- I need to notify them of cancellation, they have no record of it.
- I have been on an eBill and could view my bills online. I have not account access for this and received no email notification or otherwise
- They say I would have received SMS notifications. As I don't have the dongle I could not receive this and not even sure I can on a dongle.

So.. as I see it I've been billed for a service Im not using, I've never received an bill or confirmation of payment, I never received notice of change of contract or had an option to cancel.

Thoughts?
 
Unfortunately not using it isn't grounds for appeal here. You need to prove you cancelled, and have this in writing. Make sure you send that in asap.

Have you changed email addresses since? Any chance the fee increase notice went to a spam or other folder?
 
You say you recall cancelling it. How was this done?

How was the increase in monthly amount communicated to you? All increases in contracts have been sent out to me by letter.

Do you have a mobile phone? The SMS notifications should of be seen as a text message.

I think you will need to prove that you did indeed cancel your contract back in 2015 to get any sort of response or compensation.

Non use of the dongle alone will not entitle you to a refund. I'm sure 1,000s of memberships/contracts are inactive in Ireland and still being paid for. It would be nice to see a change to this where the providing party must get authorisation to continue providing a service following say 6 months of inactivity
 
Thanks for the replies.

I don't have any proof of cancellation.

I have no record of receipt of any contract change by email or otherwise.

I suspect the notifications may have gone to the number on the Wi-Fi dongle. Nothing to my mobile.
 
gg66 said:
So.. as I see it I've been billed for a service Im not using, I've never received an bill or confirmation of payment, I never received notice of change of contract or had an option to cancel.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

You are an adult and in the adult world we assume you are capable of managing your own affairs.

You ordered the service, you failed to keep a note of the cancel action or monitor the transactions on your bank account. And now you thing you should not have to pay and the company is somehow in the wrong?????

Time to grow up.
 
On one hand, the OP should be monitoring their bank account, ensuring that cancellation requests are actioned and ensuring that they have online access to view their own bills.

On the other hand, the mobile provider should be providing email notification of bills, should have actioned a cancel request and ideally should have sent a postal letter of the service subscribed to which some providers do at least once a year.

If you are certain that you cancelled, could you request a copy of the audio recordings from the prior conversations with the mobile provider?
 
Jim2007 said:
You are an adult and in the adult world we assume you are capable of managing your own affairs.

You ordered the service, you failed to keep a note of the cancel action or monitor the transactions on your bank account. And now you thing you should not have to pay and the company is somehow in the wrong?????

Time to grow up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for dropping by. I'm well aware of my own oversights. Questioning the providers.

No one else is being rude. You bring the tone down and it tends to be catching. Grow up
 
CiaranT said:
On one hand, the OP should be monitoring their bank account, ensuring that cancellation requests are actioned and ensuring that they have online access to view their own bills.

On the other hand, the mobile provider should be providing email notification of bills, should have actioned a cancel request and ideally should have sent a postal letter of the service subscribed to which some providers do at least once a year.

If you are certain that you cancelled, could you request a copy of the audio recordings from the prior conversations with the mobile provider?
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm following up with requests for copy of contracts, communications including phone records.
I cancelled it in a 3 shop when purchasing 2 new phones on a separate contract. Doesn't seem to have gone through. And when I wasn't receiving comms had to reason to think otherwise.
 
CiaranT said:
On one hand, the OP should be monitoring their bank account, ensuring that cancellation requests are actioned and ensuring that they have online access to view their own bills.

On the other hand, the mobile provider should be providing email notification of bills, should have actioned a cancel request and ideally should have sent a postal letter of the service subscribed to which some providers do at least once a year.

If you are certain that you cancelled, could you request a copy of the audio recordings from the prior conversations with the mobile provider?
Click to expand...

It is very simple the best person to manage your money is yourself, if you choose not to bother then you have absolutely no one to blame but yourself.
 
gg66 said:
I'm following up with requests for copy of contracts, communications including phone records.
I cancelled it in a 3 shop when purchasing 2 new phones on a separate contract.
Click to expand...

If you cancelled in a Three shop then surely there would be no phone conversation?
 
Jim2007 said:
It is very simple the best person to manage your money is yourself, if you choose not to bother then you have absolutely no one to blame but yourself.
Click to expand...

The best person to manage your money is normally yourself (or sometimes it is best for people to get their partner to do it if their partner is strong at it), however the reality is that most people are crap at managing money and consumer protections are needed. A company should provide adequate notification of bills and adequate notification of subscribed services. This does not discount personal responsibility but safety nets are needed too.
 
Make a data access request from them under Article 15 of GDPR and see what it throws up .
 
gg66 said:
Thanks, I'm following up with requests for copy of contracts, communications including phone records.
I cancelled it in a 3 shop when purchasing 2 new phones on a separate contract. Doesn't seem to have gone through. And when I wasn't receiving comms had to reason to think otherwise.
Click to expand...

This should help your cause as you can establish what date that you tried to cancel the contract. I would use the fact that I have multiple other contracts with them as a small bit of leverage. They may not refund the full amount but you could possibly get a credit to be used against your next bill.
 
Thanks, I'll gather as much information as I can from them and take it from there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top