Hi, Here is the situation...
Apr 2004 - take out a contract with Carphone Warehouse contract. (100 deposit paid)
November 2004 - I call up to cancel the contract (costing me too much! - I lower the tariff from, 30 to 16) - they say fine - we can use your 100 deposit to pay off the remaining months (works out to 6months almost exctly) - so fine I think - I have paid off the contract and it's all done with.
They originally sent me bills via post - I signed up to the online billing and instead I recieve bills via e-mail. The bills still come but alays say '0 - you do not have to pay anything'. Fine - the bills stop after a year in April.
Check my statement in August 2005 (I don't always check them properly as they are so far out of date) - I notice a charge from CPW.
I call up and they say after the 100 was paid off I carried on at 16... because I did not write in to confirm cancellation of contract! I say that I was never told to write in and was told on the phone I was free from the contract. Guy basically sticks with his story so I hang up. (why would anyone pay off 6 months in advance and also not use the SIM for almost a year other than to cancel the contract?)
I send a letter cancelling the contract.
Call the bank today and they cancel the Direct Debit but guy says that this is it and I should get my money back off CPW. Investigation tells me that possibly they have broken the agreement of DD* so the bank should refund me. (because they took money without giving me notification via a bill / and just because they were taking money without my consent!)
So can anyone advise? Should the bank be giving me the money back? The guy in November DID NOT tell me I had to send a letter, otherwise I would have - also they stopped sending me bills- had they done this I would have stopped the contract straight away.
Bank is Natwest. I haven't called up CPW yet as I was hoping Natwest would give me back the money.
*from CPWs POV they are legit in taking my money as I didn't send a letter even tho it was their employees fault so I don't know if the bank will see this as taking money in error.