Hi,

After reading some of the horror stories you see on here I thought I'd share some tips and advice.

1. Normally verbal contracts are not binding. However, as these call centres record ALL sales calls, and your consent can be noted, then contracts agreed over the phone are legally binding and enforceable. Be aware of this before agreeing to anything.

2. Under the Distance Selling Regulations, when you agree a contract over the phone, you have between 14 and 28 days to cancel your contract, and you don't have to give a reason. Anything else the seller tells you in this respect is untrue.

3. When you recieve a phone call from a sales team purporting to be from your provider. Remember to ask them explicitly if they are phoning from your provider. Quite often 3rd party sellers user cleverly worded scripts to make it sound like they are representing your provider when in fact they have nothing to do with them.

In fact, some service providers don't even operate outbound call centres. For example, I received a phone call one day from an agent claiming to be from my service provider and offering to upgrade me. I asked them why they were phoning, because my brother worked for them, and I knew for a fact that they did not have an outbound call centre. They changed their tune and said they were representing my service provider. When I then stated that I also knew that my service provider didn't have any contracts with 3rd phone sales, they hung up. ;o)

If you end up a victim of this it can cause you no end of hassle and money.

4. If possible, always phone the service provider (i.e. Orange, Vodafone, TMobile, O2, 3) in order to set up a contract. Quite often they can offer you deals just as good if not better than the 3rd parties. Additionally, it means you have one point of contact should you wish to make a complaint. You'll have seen from many posts that the cashback offers 3rd parties sell are incredibly hard to claim on or receive any money.

mrstella0:

Normally verbal contracts are not binding.

That's news to me.

This is apparently the legal postion on verbal contracts. My understanding is that if you enter into a mobile contract, there is a credit agreement, so companies have to confirm in writing details of both the credit agreement and contract terms and conditions you have entered into. I suspect most companies would send these details as part of their normal process, although some customers probably throw these away before reading. (keep everything you may need to refer to later)

Under law there are two basic terms that constitute a binding agreement. The verbal agreement will be binding if there was an agreement on the services to be performed and an agreement was reached on remuneration for this service. This agreement can be reached by a verbal exchange in person, via telephone or via an email.

There are certain contracts and agreements that must be made in writing and these will include the sale of property, tenancy agreements, copyright transfer, and contracts for consumer credit. In some cases, verbal agreements will not be upheld in court, not because of the lack of a written agreement but because the terms of the verbal agreement were not clarified.

huckster

mrstella - 2. Under the Distance Selling Regulations, when you agree a contract over the phone, you have between 14 and 28 days to cancel your contract, and you don't have to give a reason. Anything else the seller tells you in this respect is untrue.

The above statement is also not entirely correct it's Seven days..... also under the DSR's quoted below a service once started is not always cancellable. Under the DSR....a mobile phone service activation once started will fall into that excluded category..

In most cases, the Regulations provide a 7 day cooling off period and a right to cancel during that period. The Regulations also allow traders to state the conditions and procedures for withdrawal, but require information about these to be supplied to the consumer.

The right to cancel allows the consumer time to examine the goods or services, as they would have when buying in a shop. The cooling off period starts when the contract is concluded and ends 7 working days after the day the goods are received (for services, 7 working days after the order is made). However, if a service starts immediately, before the end of the cooling off period, the consumer must be informed (in a durable medium) that they will not be able to cancel once it starts.

The cooling off period and right to cancel do not apply to contracts for:

• goods made to the customer's specification;
• perishable goods (flowers, fresh food);
• CDs, DVDs, and tapes with software, audio or video if unsealed;
• newspapers and magazines;
• betting, gaming and lotteries