any advice

LegacyUser

Ihad a bill phone with the previous company i worked with, i requested to keep my number and heard nothing back. On leaving i checked with my manager who said no way. The phone stayed active and i used it just a tiny bit as i was still getting contacted through it. Its an android phone. My account has just been billed for an extortionate amount of money. After checking what happened it seems my employer took me off my plan but didn't disconnect the phone. So effectively i was in bill pay limbo where i had no plan but was charged for every single minute and text and of course data. I received no bill to inform me of charges or any notification whatsoever. Where do i stand with this?

tenchi-fan

a little advice please wrote: »

Ihad a bill phone with the previous company i worked with, i requested to keep my number and heard nothing back. On leaving i checked with my manager who said no way. The phone stayed active and i used it just a tiny bit as i was still getting contacted through it. Its an android phone. My account has just been billed for an extortionate amount of money. After checking what happened it seems my employer took me off my plan but didn't disconnect the phone. So effectively i was in bill pay limbo where i had no plan but was charged for every single minute and text and of course data. I received no bill to inform me of charges or any notification whatsoever. Where do i stand with this?

You weren't in "bill pay limbo". Your employer reduced to the minimum tariff in order to keep the subscriber number active but without the expensive data and calls packages.

Your employer clearly told you you were not permitted to use the phone, yet you used it anyway.

As the contract belongs to the company, you also had no right to receive any notification of charges. In fact, had you phoned up the mobile phone company it would be a breach of data protection regulations to give you this information.

You therefore owe your employer the money for any usage over the line rental fee.

edit: If the DD was set up from your own bank account, you don't owe your employer anything. Under the DD indemnity scheme you *could* ask your bank to bounce the DD given the amount is much larger than previous DDs and more than you could reasonably have expected. The mobile phone company would seek payment from the employer, who could in turn seek payment from you. It would also be pretty dishonest given that it was your error in judgement for continuing to use the phone after being told you were not permitted to.

Furthermore, as for notification of the large bill.. your employer would not have received notification that the bill was going to be large. The contract simply states that the charges will be in line with T&Cs. This is the main reason I do not have a bill phone!

Nody

Clearly you was not using it "a tiny bit" if you got a "extortionate" bill.

You was told you could not use the number or keep it and yet you did; yes, you are liable for it.

LegacyUser

Hi all, thanks for advice.

Some stuff i should make clear. My employer was the mobile phone company so the contract was in my name to my account. The employee package we had included free data and same network calls. All i was using the phone for were these. I was still having to contact work regularly as my p45 hasn't appeared. My manager told me i probably couldn't keep the number but hr would confirm whether i could or could not. They never contacted me. I was never told not to use the number, i was never told that the plan would change. What happenede to the plan was that i was just taken off the plan so i didn't have a tariff plan i was just charged for every minute, text and piece of data used

tenchi-fan

a little advice please wrote: »

Hi all, thanks for advice.

Some stuff i should make clear. My employer was the mobile phone company so the contract was in my name to my account. The employee package we had included free data and same network calls. All i was using the phone for were these. I was still having to contact work regularly as my p45 hasn't appeared. My manager told me i probably couldn't keep the number but hr would confirm whether i could or could not. They never contacted me. I was never told not to use the number, i was never told that the plan would change. What happenede to the plan was that i was just taken off the plan so i didn't have a tariff plan i was just charged for every minute, text and piece of data used

How much money are we talking about here?

First, stop the nonsense of saying you needed to use the phone to call the employer for your P45.

I think you are confused regarding whose name was on the contract.
If you are right and you are the contract holder, then it is illegal for the employer to make changes unless you provided authorisation for him to make changes to your account - in which case, ask the mobile phone company for a copy of this authorisation or recalc your bill as if the unauthorised change did not go ahead.

If you are only named on the account but the employer is the contract owner, then he can change the account however he likes without notifying you.

Once again, the direct debit indemnity scheme is available*. You should consider using it if the contract is in your name and the employer made unauthorised changes. Otherwise you're leaving yourself wide open to legal options for debt recovery.

*You are entitled to request a refund of any variable direct debit which exceeded the amount which you could reasonably have expected, subject to you so requesting your Bank within a period of 8 weeks from the date of debiting such direct debit to your account

D.McC

Hang on!! :eek:

You advailed of a discounted employee package while employed by the mobile phone company and you expected to keep that package / number and the phone which was probably purchased using an employee discount...


Me thinks you taka da pis*

LegacyUser

I asked to keep my phone number and to sign up to a regular package. They said they would let me know and if it wasn't ok my phone would shut down which didn't happen. I didn't use the regular minutes just the same network calls that were free to us. They messed up my leaving paperwork so i didn't get a p45 on leaving and am still having to chase them for it, they also never paid me my holidays and again i am chasing them for that as well. The account for the number is in my name but my package(while i was there was an employee package). I wasn't informed that the package would change or whether i could or could not keep my number. Pretty much i was just told to wait to hear. As i said i used the phone for the same network calls only but the phone is an android and connected to the internet a lot. I was never sent a bill and the money just came out of my account which is over 300 euro. As i don't have a bill i cannot see what i was charged for. The phone has been cut off now and hr have told me to deal with customer care regarding billing issues but care said to deal with hr as i was staff.

As i haven't been paid for my holidays or my overtime i am very short on money plus with this unexpected direct debit i'm in a bad way so i was hoping to receive some helpful advice to see if there was anything i could do.

Thanks to all with the helpful replies

tenchi-fan

a little advice please wrote: »

I was never sent a bill and the money just came out of my account which is over 300 euro. As i don't have a bill i cannot see what i was charged for. The phone has been cut off now and hr have told me to deal with customer care regarding billing issues but care said to deal with hr as i was staff.

Op, I told you about the DD indemnity scheme.

The rule under this scheme is the company is REQUIRED to inform you of any DD amount BEFORE it comes out of your account.

The company violated this, therefore you should ask your bank to bounce the DD immediately.

As for dealing with customer care - don't deal with the lackeys on the phone. Write them a letter instead.

Trashbat

Probably worth setting up a case with ComReg also.

They will advise you to lodge a formal complaint (which you can do over the phone) and the company will have 10 working days (i think) to respond, failing that ComReg will seeka response on your behalf.