I was in an o2 contract in September when Free Mobiles 4U called and offered me a better contract with 3 Mobile. They said that if i took out the contract with 3 then they would pay my o2 bills until my o2 contract expired in December if i paid it and then sent them the final bill. In January i sent the final bill for £135 and they are coming up with all sorts of things to get out of paying me back the money, like they said they agreed they would pay the 3 mobile bills from Sep to Dec and not the o2 bills and have asked me to send the next 4 '3 mobile' bills but this isn't what i agreed. they then said they won't give the money back until I pay the bills on time but i have a direct debit with 3? can anyone help?

i would say never believe what they say, its all a scam, first they say come with us and we will settle the bill but then you have to pay it first? and then they denie it cause now you have a contract with 3 they dont care no more,

this is why i never trust deals like cash back etc etc which is very common in contracts,

learn from ur lesson i suppose?

Hi

I had exactly the same problem. In July 2007! I am still trying to get my money back. What I suggest you do is to contact your local trading standards office. I did this last week and they are in contact with the local ones in Swansea. They say that they will investigate this for me so fingers crossed I will now get somewhere.

I am owed £100. £40 cash back and £60 for 3 months bills that I paid before my contract ran out. They agreed this so that I would change over early before my O2 contract expired.

I sent in my phone bills as requested and they agreed to pay but only at the end of the 18 months. That ran out last December and I have been trying since then to get my money. I have contacted 3 but they do not seem able to do anything.

Let me know what your trading standards say. I am sure there are alot more people out there with this problem.

Thank you - i'm glad i'm not the only one. Luckily I work for solicitors so I have sent a threatening letter to them from work, if that doesn't work then i will contact trading standards. Its not on - they just keep coming up with more and more excuses as t y they won't pay. Let me know how u get on!

I presume they promised you all these things over the phone? Hope you get sorted.

Here is a list of bullet points of my dealings with these scammers:

I received a phone call from a company named freemobiles4u/3mobiles4you (early December). They informed me my current o2 contract was coming to an end and offered me some contract deals with their company.
>
> · I decided to go with one of the deals and gave my account details to Daniel Reese (Customer Service Manager).
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> · The phone arrived a few days later with a letter informing me I had to contact o2 to cancel my contract.
>
> · I phoned o2 to cancel my current contract and they informed me my contract was not due to end for another 4 months.
>
> · I phoned 3mobiles4you back and spoke to Daniel Reese explaining the situation. Daniel Reese explained the direct debit could not be cancelled now (which must have been a lie; requested to cancel within 3 days). He said the best thing to do would be to continue paying the £35 a month and each time a payment was taken, send him proof through the post that this money had been paid and he would send a cheque back for £35 until my o2 contract ended (giving me 4 months free in effect).
>
> · 3mobiles4you contacted me informing me I must pay £80 (or thereabouts) for insurance for my phone. It was paid by the same debit card.
>
> · Payments for the contract began coming out of my account for £35.
>
> · Proof was sent to the address Daniel Reese provided.
>
> · I started researching 3mobiles4you on Google and found many forums with complaints from customers. Not only receiving abusive cold calling from this company, but customers who are in the same boat as me; 3mobiles4you promising to return the money by cheque and not receiving anything at all for months.
>
> · I decided from what I had read I did not want to have this 18 month contract with this company and started to take action.
>
> · I contacted Yorkshire Bank and explained that 'H3G' (the direct debit name for 3mobiles4you) must not receive any more payments from my account as it is believed the company are scammers.
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> · Direct Debit to the company was cancelled on 04/02/2009.
>
> · Contacted Citizens Advice Bureau in Goole, an appointment was made with a trading standards officer on March 17th
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> · Attended the meeting with trading standards officer who explained a letter would be wrote explaining the difficulties regarding the contract with a request as a good will gesture to be released from the contract.
>
> · Received letter from ATDCS (Advanced Telecoms Debt Collection Services) explaining 3 had passed on my details in regards to the overdue bill.
>
> · Contact ATDCS, 3mobiles4you and 3 to explain why the bill had not been paid
>
> · 3mobiles4you - extremely rude and abrupt, spoke to Gareth Falconer who informed me 3mobiles4you would not pay the outstanding balance because the Direct Debit was cancelled - was told to take it up with 3.
>
> · Phoned 3 and spoke to Bariz(?) who was extremely helpful and apologetic about the situation. He explained the situation and advised I contact executive.office AT three.co.uk to see if the matter could be resolved i.e. 3 releasing me from the contract.
>
> Email sent to executive.office AT three.co.uk
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> After 3 or 4 emails from 3 without getting anywhere I contacted them once again through the phone.
>
>3 claim they are trying to take action against the company for such mis selling of contracts.
>
>I paid my bill to the Telecoms debt collection service to avoid future negativities on my credit rating. The debt collection service strangely enough have the same 'hold' music as 3 customer services. I am beginning to think this is one huge conspiracy!


I spoke to a national newspaper earlier tonight who are giving me a call in the morning to talk in detail about these scammers. The more informtaion we have on them, the more likely proper action will be taken against them.

Thanks
Mark

Note: This post has been moderated email address removed. Please ensure you read the moneysupermarket.com Community Standards and Terms of Service before posting. Thanks

Wow! I am not getting anywhere fast. I keep getting fobbed off with excuses as to why they won't give me the £137 back, which is the four months of O2 bills they promised to pay. Lukily I work at a solicitors so I have today asked a colleague in the commercial department to write a letter threatening legal action. Firstly I was told they would pay my 3 mobile phone bills not the 02 ones which they siad they would. Then they ignored another 2 letters. Then said that i would need to pay all my 3 mobiles on time before they would give me the money back. I have a direct debit with 3 so i think the bills are paid on time!! They refuse to respond in writing and only leave rude voicemails. I'm sick to death of the whole saga. Let me know if you get anywhere tomorrow morning! I'm sorry you're having the same trouble!

Hi

surprisingly it was daniel reese that i spoke to. I think that they are all called daniel reese.

I would be very interested in helping out with anything to do with them story wise as I have been trying for nearly 2 years to get my money from them.

I presume that we are not allowed to put our email address on here but if you can put the name of the newspaper and who to contact with the story then i will call them with mine.

I am sure that we are not the only people who have been scammed by them. They owe me £100 so multiply that up and they must have made a fortune by mis selling. 3 say they are not interested in the company as they buy the contracts off them to re sell.

Anyway i look forward to hearing what happens and if i can be of any help let me know.

My next course of action is court so i am sure the more the merrier!

Elaine

i didn't actually get a name but i wonder if who i spoke to was Daniel Reese?! i don't mind contacting the newapaper as well if need be. I will let you know if i get a response to my letter before action.

Hi Mark

I will reply tonight as I have all of the info at home. I am sure with the info i have found out we will have a good story as I think i am a long way down the timeline from you and so know more of the lies that are to come for you poor souls that are only starting out with these scum/scam!

Yes I am looking forward to taking them down this will me most enjoyable after all of the stress and problems encountered.

Elaine

I keep getting my posts deleted, probably because I am posting my email address on here. Is this an automated deleting? Or personal?
To see if I can beat the system I will attempt to write my post again without any hints at typing an actual email addy. Here goes:

Moderator - It's a personal removal process email addresses are only allowed in your profile, you were sent a notification to this effect when your last offending post was deleted. Please ensure you read the moneysupermarket.com Community Standards and Terms of Service before posting. Thanks

Note: email address removed to prevent spam. Please place your email address in your profile. To edit your profile, log-in in and go to the News & Community homepage and click on ‘Edit my community profile’ on the top right-hand side. Cheers.

Please give a breif time line of your dealings with this 'company', the more ammunition we have the more interested the investigations department of the newspaper will become. I am also setting up a Facebook group against these scammers so please keep checking back for details on how to get your name down! Thanks again for the support. I spoke to Daniel Reese last night, he asked me what my problem was and promised to send me the money, I explained it has become a matter of principle to take the company down due to all of the other customers who have been scammed. It's too long to type on here what went on in the conversation. Much appreciated, I'm sure together we can take them down.

Names given so far:
Daniel Reese (or Rees)
Robert Perry?
Daryl Jones
Gareth Falconer

They sound like a bunch of students who are on some kind of commision for selling 3 contracts, obviously they receieve a cut each month that the customers pay....
The other thing I discovered last night... The 'telecoms debt collection service' which 3 passed my details onto to collect my missed bill payments, they had exactly the same hold music as 3! Amy Winehouse's live recording of Rehab.... This is far far from coincidence. There is one huge conspiracy going on, if it means pulling the mobile phone company 3 down, then so be it.
This is the type of case I will become obsessed with until I have won! I just hope I have some fellow backers lol.


Regards Mark

I have just spoken to Daniel Reese. He said he nevere promised to the O2 contract for four months as they never promise to pay contracts. The mobile was disconnected in November for a week because the bill went missing in the post and was never received. After that incident a direct debit was set up so all bills would be paid on time. Daniel said that because there was a late payment you are now exempt from cashback. I said this was not a term when taking out the contract in September but Daniel said it definately was! It wasn't and they did promise to payback the O2 contract as this was the contract I was in when they offered me a new one. I have e-mailed Marcus with the hope he can do something with the information. Elaine maybe it is worth calling Free Mobiles 4U and speaking to Daniel as we now have a contact name?

Hello

I am not going to waste anymore time phoning this company. They will only come up with some more lies and excuses. David Edwards was the last one I spoke to who was the General Manager and there was no one higher than him! Thats what he thinks! I have just emailed Mark with a brief outline. Mark can you pass this on to any other interested parties. When they sell any objections they just promise the earth knowing full well none of it will ever be paid. I bet there was no mention of a third party paying this cashback? No and this third party will go bust before any money is paid and they will switch to a new one. Also the new one will have the same directors as the old one. Oh that is a surprise!

Anyway we will get somewhere and we need a national newpaper or watchdog to take the story up to reach the numerous other poor people like us who have been ripped off and to stop any more unsuspecting people!

Elaine

I agree we will get somewhere. The man I spoke to was so rude to me, told me he could terminate the call because I wasn't listening to him. He was talking over me! Anyway, you can get my e-mail of mark if need be.

Hello again.

Thanks for your Emails. I am trying to gather as many contacts as possible before I go ahead contacting the newspaper anymore. My girlfriend is a journalist at our local newspaper and has given me advice on how to compile evidence and the best way to approach the newspaper. She said there are many many cases which are just ignored, so I am attempting to go about this in the correct way.
The emails you have sent are ideal, and have been zipped up into a file. I could do with a few more contacts to build up the database.

As for trying to phone the company back becasue you now have a contact name.... it really is pointless. Everytime I speak to them I make sure I get a name and attempt to make my way to the highest member of staff, always ending up with Daniel Rees (who sounds about 15!).

I have emailed about 10 or 15 people more on various forums regarding the same issues.
I am away until Sunday now so will hopefully have more replies by Sunday night. If that is the case then next week will be the time to come forward to the paper in views to getting an article printed.
Remember any tiny little details you may remember, or that happens over the weekend let me know.

Regards again,
Mark