Is This Man A Good Pick For Secretary Of...
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No best answer has yet been selected by Gurkhaman. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.There are a number of points in this story to clarify before anyone can give authoritative advice in this matter.
If the 30 days notice of cancellation was within the contract conditions, then you have to be aware that the contract does not terminate from the date of stating your intention to do so, but 30 days (if that is the case) from either the notice of that cancellation or receipt of the notice to cancel, whichever, if any, is stated in the contract. Your contract with Vodafone is irrelevant to this matter.
The debt collection agency may not hold detailed explanations of how the alleged liability has arisen, although by a process called "factoring" they may have purchased the debt from O2. However, as your actions and the original contract were with O2 then you should ask the O2 Accounts Department for an explanation of the liability. You should also look for and retain all account statements, advices and demands for payment that O2 has sent you, especially those since the expiry of your 30 day cancellation. These will be vital evidence if you are to be able to challenge a mistake or false demand from O2.
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Did you cancel the Direct Debit following your letter to O2 in July? If you did this may well have left outstanding charges. You can't assume paying by DD you zeros your account at any given point without an O2 statement to demonstrate this. You said you entered a 12 month contract in August 2003, so this will have expired during August 2004. Your letter of July 31st 2004 saying you wished to cancel in 30 days time seems redundant.
Sending a letter cancelling at some time in the future, does not absolve you of charges until that period has elapsed. Even though you made no calls on the O2 system after sending your letter, O2 may have charged you for some service that, so far as it was concerned, it provided for you during this period. That you did not use the service is irrelevant. O2 may say that the charge is for a service provision. You may have cancelled a payment method to O2 before it was able to collect legitimate charges. That it is requesting payment suggests that the Direct Debit was cancelled.
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The Debt Collection Agency want your money, as they have probably purchased the debt from O2, and will encourage you to negotiate with them to the exclusion of others concerned. Although in Law you have no contract with this agency this should not prevent you from asking for details of the alleged charges. At the same time contact O2 for their answer to the same question. If you still think the charge is wrong then you must take all your paperwork, including original contract signed by you and the O2 representative, the statements of account, including those sent to you after you served your notice of cancellation, and any other correspondence between you and O2 and you and the Debt Collection Agency to your local Citizens' Advice Bureau. Inform the Debt Collection Agency that you challenge the charge and are refusing to pay whilst seeking Legal advice. You will gain a "reasonable" delay in the proceedings to allow you to take advice. Unfortunately by using Answerbank, you cannot provide any proof as to why you think O2 should not have charged you this money, and alternatively why O2 think they should. Do as I suggest without delay and do not expect long-distance Internet advice to solve your dispute. I'm sorry to sound harsh, but I will make no more comments on this matter.
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Hippy - Thanks again for your helpful reply. It was not my intention to be able to solve my dispute with O2 through long-distance internet advice, it was merely to seek advice as to what action I need to take as this is the first time this has happened to me. I did not cancel my DD in July, I cancelled at the end of August 2004 after checking that August payment had been taken. I shall do as you suggest and write to both O2 and the Debt Collection Firm asking for details of the alleged charge. I shall also seek advice from the Citizens Advice Bureaux. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
Gurkhaman.
Hello Vittel,
Sorry to hear that you have had trouble with O2 also. I have heard of other people in similar situation, it seems that these companies like to employ 'bully-boy' tactics when very dissatisfied customer wish to terminate their account because they fail to provide good advice and service in the first place!! I totally agree with you about writing to a Consumer Rights agency like Watchdog to highlight these companies bad practices, so that other people do not suffer. If you would like to do this, I shall be happy to do it with you. I can't see any private messaging facility here, so if you like, I would be happy to provide you with my contact details. Please let me know.
i forgot to mention their web address is www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog