In part one of this story we heard the story of my mobile contract problems, if you thought it was long-winded to read, imagine going through that hassle. Days of phoning and looking for companies to help me, eventually the problem was solved in just under two weeks. And here’s how…
As well as very immoral business practices the company in question’s awkwardness had actually worked against them, when I told them I hadn’t said I wanted to commit to a new deal they provided me with the audio file of my telephone conversation which they said proved that I had entered into a verbal contract with them. The verbal contract in question was a low, fast, muffled “thuscommittingtous” slipped in just before an answer to one of my questions.
However this proved to be their downfall, not only would that not stand up had I the inclination to take them to court, this company broke almost every SINGLE one of the rules laid down in the Distance Selling Regulations Act. This is how the lady at Trading Standards had been able to fix this.
Under the Distance Selling Regulations Act not only must the fact that the customer is entering into a contract must be made clear (which it wasn’t), but paper work confirming everything agreed must be sent in a timely fashion (it wasn’t sent at all) and the 14-day “cooling off” period, which apparently I went beyond, only begins once the paperwork is received. In the case that none is sent the consumer was a whopping 3 months to cancel the service.
The moral of the story is, when you have dealing with dodgy mobile companies, the Distance Selling Regulation Act, and Trading Standards are your friends, and you should be able to wriggle out of even the most awkward of situations.