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Mobile phone customers struggling with faulty handsets and poor service face contract exit fees of up to £800, claims charity

Citizens Advice dealt with 21,500 complaints about mobile phones last year
39% of problems related to faulty handsets, 17% were for poor service and exiting contracts
People who sought their advice lost a total of £140,000 to 'theft' phone bills

By Camilla Canocchi for Thisismoney.co.uk

Published: 11:10 EST, 19 March 2015 | Updated: 04:52 EST, 15 April 2015

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Many mobile phone customers who get poor reception or do not to receive a service they were promised when they signed up to a long contract still face exit fees as high as £800, new research suggests.

Citizens Advice, which dealt with 21,500 complaints about mobile phones last year, said 17 per cent of the problems it had to deal with were related to poor service and leaving contracts.

This was the second biggest reason for seeking help after problems relating faulty handsets, for which the Citizens Advice said it logged 8,880 calls of help, or 39 per cent of the total.

High bills: Consumers who sought help from Citizens Advice lost a total of £140,000 on phone bills run up by thieves since March last year, the charity said

The charity, which gives free advice on consumer finances, said that while the number of mobile phone problems was similar to that recorded the previous year, as a proportion of the number of issues their service helps with, mobile phones have risen up the table.

It said that since September last year they now are the 4th most commonly reported issue after second-hand cars, building repairs and energy.

Citizens Advice found that customers could not end their contract earlier without paying an exit fee if it fell short of its promises as many agreements failed to specify a reasonable minimum service customers could expect.

It said that some customers who paid for contracts that included 3G or 4G but did not receive these were still told they could not exit them unless they paid up the whole remainder of the contract, sometimes up to £800.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH YOUR MOBILE

Stuck in a contract with poor service?

Citizens Advice suggests to speak directly to your supplier about the problems you have had, with evidence if possible, to explain why you should be able to leave the contract.

Faulty handset?

Retailers are legally responsible for ensuring anything they sell is fit for purpose and must offer repair or partial refund up to six years after purchase.

Received a shock bill?

Stolen phones should be reported to your provider and the police as soon as possible

If you are charged for unauthorised calls on a stolen phone you should try and negotiate with the network and see if they will reduce the bill

To dispute a bill, write a letter to your service provider. Send the letter to the service provider’s customer services department. Keep a copy of your letter.

If your complaint is not resolved satisfactorily, you could complain to the Telecommunications Ombudsman, if the company is a member.

This is because customers are signing up to longer contracts than they did over the past years, with the maximum two-year contract now being the norm among mobile users, Citizens Advice said. I

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said consumers can be ‘taken to the cleaners’ for ending a mobile phone contract that doesn’t deliver.

‘With mobile phones now an essential utility, longer contracts can be a good thing for consumers but only if their rights are protected when they sign up,’ she said.

The Citizen Advice also found that there was widespread confusion over who is responsible when things go wrong with mobile phones, with manufacturers, network providers and retailers often all failing to take responsibility.

Guy added: ‘Despite important work by Ofcom and Trading Standards to tackle poor practice, people are still passed from pillar to post when things go wrong.

‘Better information for consumers on their rights would encourage confidence instead of confusion among consumers who have a problem.’

Citizen Advice also found that 16 per cent of problems related to misleading sales practices, while 12 per cent to bill disputes, with callers often hit without warning by a sky high bill, some as high as £3,000.

The charity also renewed its call on the Government and providers to introduce a cap on mobile phone bills run up by thieves as it found that consumers who sought their advice lost a total of £140,000 since March last year when the government said the cap would be in place.

‘Nobody should be left to fall through gaps in regulation, so the Government should now look into simplifying how mobile phone users can get redress when they are treated badly.’

The Government suggested to cap the cost of fraudulent calls at £50 in late 2013. The idea was to make firms act like credit and debit card firms, which refund money lost to fraud as long as the customer has not been negligent.

The cap was meant to be introduced in the spring but, after months of wrangling between phone firms and the Government, it’s still not in force.

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