A question for Mungler or any other legal experts

[proud dad]

How is the word "Limit" defined in English law with regards to a "call limit" on a mobile phone contract? Is it defined as in the Oxford English Dictionary as :- A point or level beyond which something does not or may not extend or pass?

 

Does a clause in the T&C stating that, "The credit limit does not act as a bar and you may be able to incur charges which result in you exceeding your credit limit. If this happens, you will still be liable to pay for all charges incurred in excess of your credit limit" overrule the call limit?

 

Long story short, my Aunt has incurred a mobile phone bill of £409 for a call that was 19 hours long, even though she thought that the maximum amount she could be billed in 1 month was £50 due to a call limit.

Edited May 30, 2014 by proud dad

[Fisherman Mike]

The word means the same in both contexts..

 

I assume you have exceeded your credit/call limit and have to pay for the additional credit/calls at a enhanced rate ?

[Mungler]

19 hours? How, the battery life won't do 18 hours whilst on an open line / call.

 

What's the background. I'm intrigued.

[Fisherman Mike]

How is the word "Limit" defined in English law with regards to a "call limit" on a mobile phone contract? Is it defined as in the Oxford English Dictionary as :- A point or level beyond which something does not or may not extend or pass?

 

Does a clause in the T&C stating that, "The credit limit does not act as a bar and you may be able to incur charges which result in you exceeding your credit limit. If this happens, you will still be liable to pay for all charges incurred in excess of your credit limit" overrule the call limit?

 

Long story short, my Aunt has incurred a mobile phone bill of £409 for a call that was 19 hours long, even though she thought that the maximum amount she could be billed in 1 month was £50 due to a call limit.

Was the call limit in time or money ?

[fenboy]

What ever did she find to talk about for 19 hrs

[proud dad]

My Aunt had a faulty cooker delivered from Currys and tried to get in contact with them on the bank holiday just gone, there was no answer so she hung up or so she thought.

 

The next thing she knows she received a call from Talkmobile telling her that her phone had been blocked until the outstanding balance of £409 has been paid.

 

When she signed up to the mobile contract with Carphone Warehouse she was under the impression that she would never receive a bill above the £50 call limit that was stated on the contract

 

It now turns out that Talkmobile are saying that there is a 72 Hour delay before they receive information that the customer has gone over their call limit.

 

She is nearly 80 and as you can imagine she is sick with worry over this.

 

I have been in contact with Talkmobile and after a lot of too and frowing they have reduced the amount to £170 which we are grateful for, but my Aunt still feels she has been duped as she was of the understanding that she could never exceed the £50 limit.

 

We seem to believe that there is a fault with the Samsung galaxy ace she has, that sometimes prevents her from ending a call .

[OJW]

I think you may be better off arguing it from another angle rather than on the term "limit". When she signed the contract theres a presumption she read the small print, where she was probably warned about calls exceeding the limit. I think you can also set a call bar limit yourself. In any case they should have a responsibility to protect their customers from making accidental calls like this especially if they allow you to exceed the limit. Have a look for some case law on similar topics, theres been loads in the news about kids accidentally running up huge bills, maybe some of those instances went to court, and if so, if any protection was offered to them it may be that the same type of protection could be extended to a vulnerable old lady. Please note I'm hypothesising here, just my 2pence.

Edited May 30, 2014 by OJW

[pegasus bridge]

I'm staggered that a call would last 19 hours without cutting off due to 'call failure'!! Hope you get it resolved.

[guest1957]

My Aunt had a faulty cooker delivered from Currys and tried to get in contact with them on the bank holiday just gone, there was no answer so she hung up or so she thought.

 

The next thing she knows she received a call from Talkmobile telling her that her phone had been blocked until the outstanding balance of £409 has been paid.

 

When she signed up to the mobile contract with Carphone Warehouse she was under the impression that she would never receive a bill above the £50 call limit that was stated on the contract

 

It now turns out that Talkmobile are saying that there is a 72 Hour delay before they receive information that the customer has gone over their call limit.

 

She is nearly 80 and as you can imagine she is sick with worry over this.

 

I have been in contact with Talkmobile and after a lot of too and frowing they have reduced the amount to £170 which we are grateful for, but my Aunt still feels she has been duped as she was of the understanding that she could never exceed the £50 limit.

 

We seem to believe that there is a fault with the Samsung galaxy ace she has, that sometimes prevents her from ending a call .

Without even going into the meaning of the words you could try to argue that the approach taken is a breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations given that the qualifying language was buried in the T+Cs.

[proud dad]

I'm staggered that a call would last 19 hours without cutting off due to 'call failure'!! Hope you get it resolved.

 

Thanks, so was I to be honest, I thought that if there was no answer the call would eventually cut off, it seems not.

[LondonLuke]

Being customer services it may have been an 0845 or similar which are not covered by the average contracts included minutes

[proud dad]

Without even going into the meaning of the words you could try to argue that the approach taken is a breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations given that the qualifying language was buried in the T+Cs.

 

I will give this a try, however, all the replies I get from Talkmobile seem to be company policy replies.

Being customer services it may have been an 0845 or similar which are not covered by the average contracts included minutes

 

Possibly, but no one has mentioned this when I have been in contact with them.

[phaedra1106]

That is disgusting, surely an open line will cut off a lot faster than 19hours, usually it's around 10 minutes or less.

 

 

Handy hint for those with kids on a monthly contract . . . . .

 

Switch to 3

 

They may not be the best mobile company but they're the only ones who would let me set a zero credit limit on my daughters account.

 

This means once she's used her monthly allowance of minutes, texts and data she can't run up any additional airtime so no surprise bill at the end of the month (which happened before when she was with with Vodaphone & O2).

[HDAV]

Mississippi had an ace with loads of faults I guess the call was answered by an automated desk " press 1 for blah press 2 for blah" and kept the line open.

 

Tricky one do some research you need some case law to back you.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/lawyers-personal-battle-with-tmobile-over-bill

 

Best I found on my quick search on my phone.

 

If the 72 hour delay was not explained at the outset you may have a case.

Edited May 30, 2014 by HDAV

[toontastic]

 

 

Handy hint for those with kids on a monthly contract . . . . .

 

Switch to 3

 

They may not be the best mobile company but they're the only ones who would let me set a zero credit limit on my daughters account.

 

This means once she's used her monthly allowance of minutes, texts and data she can't run up any additional airtime so no surprise bill at the end of the month (which happened before when she was with with Vodaphone & O2).

Thanx, that's handy to know.

[Twistedsanity]

If you want to get results from companies I have found twitter to be amazing at getting them to jump through hoops , open an account, vent your spleen in front of half of the world and sit back and wait , where twitter is concerned they definatly don't like it up em mr Manwaring and seem ever so keen to remove any issues from the public viewpoint

[Fisherman Mike]

If you want to get results from companies I have found twitter to be amazing at getting them to jump through hoops , open an account, vent your spleen in front of half of the world and sit back and wait , where twitter is concerned they definatly don't like it up em mr Manwaring and seem ever so keen to remove any issues from the public viewpoint

Very true but its an equally effective platform to evidence a successful libel case as well.... so be careful to vent the facts.?

[spanj]

How is the word "Limit" defined in English law with regards to a "call limit" on a mobile phone contract? Is it defined as in the Oxford English Dictionary as :- A point or level beyond which something does not or may not extend or pass?

 

Does a clause in the T&C stating that, "The credit limit does not act as a bar and you may be able to incur charges which result in you exceeding your credit limit. If this happens, you will still be liable to pay for all charges incurred in excess of your credit limit" overrule the call limit?

 

Long story short, my Aunt has incurred a mobile phone bill of £409 for a call that was 19 hours long, even though she thought that the maximum amount she could be billed in 1 month was £50 due to a call limit.

Talk mobile by any chance ? I am mid argument with them about exactly this and their "virtual" network. I take it this means they can charge virtually what they want !!