Cancelling Mobile Phone, Broadband Contacts After Death

LenGlover

My wife's uncle died in February.

As I understand it (second hand from my wife) he had an all singing all dancing contract with 2 mobile phones, internet and landline which his widow (a lady in her mid seventies) no longer wants or, more importantly, needs.

She apparently telephoned them to cancel but a salesperson hassled her into keeping part of the package. She later (not sure how much later) decided it was too expensive and tried to cancel the whole thing, her original intention, only to be told she cannot.

What if anything can be done? I don't know the name of the company but feel livid that these thieving bastards can and do exploit grieving elderly widows.

I'm hoping Bournemouth sees this. Do Trading Standards have any teeth at all because to me this is a scandalous situation and shouldn't be allowed to happen.

North Lower Neil

This may well not be much help Len, but it's worth finding out how long ago she did agree - a lot of contracts can be canceled within 14-21 days.

Hope it works out.

BlackForestReds

In who's name is the contract? If it's in the name of the deceased then it should be quite simple, if it's in the name of the widow (even as a joint account) then it will be a bit trickier.

I presume you have a death certificate? If so find out the name of the phone company, google the name of the CEO and send him a polite summary of the conversation along with a copy of the death cert and see what happens.

Also you need to get hold of a copy of the contract, most contracts have a clause in them about what procedure to take after the contract holder dies.

Greg

In cases involving hassling old people (and elderly widows even more), it sometimes is enough to write them a polite letter explaining how angry you are about how your elderly relative was hassled into something they didn't want or need, and drop in a mention of how you are planning to write to OFCOM about their unacceptable behaviour.

It has worked for me in the past.

Wilma

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

Some advice is available on the Ofcom website. There are strict rules for 'vulnerable' customers, which includes elderly customers. Telecom companies are signed up to one of two ADRs, which should deal with any complaints, you can find out which scheme they are signed up to here:

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

Alternatively, a bit of clever googling will discover the email address of the CEO, and a quick email outlining the problem usually results in it being sorted ASAP.

LenGlover

Thanks for the responses.

I'm a bit stuck in that I only have half a story. Like a lot of people (me included to be fair) she doesn't like asking for help and divulging too much personal stuff eg the name of the company (!) so I need to make some further discreet enquiries.

Bournemouth Addick

Hi Len, I'll pm you later (or stick it under Activity for all to see!) but basically Ofcom is the way to go with this if she's not getting anywhere.

Problem = proving what was said by whom in short but there's usually a solution to be found.