[Closed] Mobile phone contract problem advice.

I'm sure my contact with company A ended when it became company B?

Nope the contract can transfer over.

You need to fight this on the basis that you did not consent to the renewal, unfortunately, knowing mobile companies, you will not have an easy time of this. CAB/TS may help.

If the contract was renewed through deception you have grounds to tell them to piss off surely?

They *may* have either recordings of the telephone conversations or copies of the documents used to renew the contract in 2009. You should be able to use them to prove that it was not you who authorised the renewal. I suspect that if you deny (in writing) authorising it, the burden of proof lies with them.

there was probably something in your original contract about it being able to be assigned to the new provider, though it would be useful to be able to see that contract and see what if anything it said about assignment - there may have been a clause saying you had to consent to it, in which case the assignment may be invalid on those grounds.

unless the contract was made in the name of your company and the employee could be seen to be an authorised representative of the company in extending the contract then he should not have been able to renew it on your behalf - a third party can't burden you with contractual obligations without your consent/authorisation. if they claim you extended the contract, insist they prove it. if not, you are not obliged to honour the contract you did not make/consent to.

Invoice the little fraudster and threaten to report him to the police.

EDIT Oops, sorry, didn't read your post correctly and you're not asking about that. Yes, they can assign your contracts to a new company.

I'd say you need to persu the ex-employee for fraud.

They know it wasn't me, they're not denying that. As far as they are concerned he was acting on my behalf.
Basically the guy was having an affair and his mobile was the only way he could stay in touch.
Like I said to their solicitors I've had the same mobile number since the day I started it's on all the business paperwork and I'm not in the habit of buying very expensive phones for ex employees and their girlfriends.

As above, transferring the contract to another company is almost certainly perfecly legal (basically unless they really made a silly mistake with the original contract) - happens all the time in IT/Comms industries.

Whether he's entitled to get a new mobile for himself in your name is debateable since he was working for you at the time (as I understand it) and I guess a lawyer would be the best person to explain the legality of that.

As above, suggest you tell the ex-employee that you're going to the police unless he coughs up - with the gf's new phone being there too (presumably she's never worked for you?) it seems pretty clear cut that he's done something dodgy.

This sounds more like a criminal matter - not dissimilar to him taking out a loan on your company's name and pocketing the cash. Have you been to to police yet? Cheeky ****er!

unless the contract was made in the name of your company and the employee could be seen to be an authorised representative of the company in extending the contract then he should not have been able to renew it on your behalf - a third party can't burden you with contractual obligations without your consent/authorisation. if they claim you extended the contract, insist they prove it. if not, you are not obliged to honour the contract you did not make/consent to.

It was contracted in my companies name/person name as a sole trader. Though the guy wasn't employed by me when he re newed it. He had access to the old statements and renewed it.

what was his role at the company? and is the contract in your name privately aside from the company dealings or your name as named proprietor of the company? either way, the grounds on which they allowed him as your proxy to extend/set up the contracts sounds pretty dubious.

i'd ask them for proof of the correspondence/contact grounds on which they extended the contract and let them know that as far as you're concerned they had no authorisation from you to extend it or importantly for him to be allowed to act on your/the company's behalf.

I can't understand how they can say they 'thought he was acting on your behalf'. He wasn't and you never gave them a reason (it appears from your OP anyway) to suggest he might be allowed to. Surely it is their cock-up for allowing him to fraudulently get a new contract and another phone.

Hope you get it sorted.

on the basis of your reply before mine, then, i would say phone provider very much in the wrong for failing to get required company/your authorisation for extension, and pretty indefensible.

ex-employee in the wrong both against you and arguably criminally in fraudulently setting up the contract. i'd write letters to both with words to that effect.

I employed him in sales, though he was laid off a year before he renewed it.
Yes the contract is in both my company and personal name.

I believe the contract was confirmed via electronic mail? though not through the business email.

He has also opened accounts in my name and forged my siganature on letters to my bank and accountants.

FRAUD! Go to Rozzers & pursue him through small claims.

well i'd write explaining that you don't think you're contractually bound by that contract, and ask for copies and proofs of everything that they feel implies that you are. and another letter to employee explaining why you feel he defrauded you and explaining that you are going to report him to police and will hold him liable for any costs incurred by the fraudulent contracts.

best case is that they can't prove a valid contract and you will not be bound by anything. less good case would be that the contract is held valid and you have to recover contractual and possibly legal costs from ex-employee who is also charged with fraud.

This sounds like the ex employee needs to hauled up on criminal charges is he's forged all that other stuff too.

Contact the Police. It's fraud.

I don't know why you're trying to search for a minor technical contractural 'out' against the phone company. As far as they are concerned the contract was extended in good faith. Your behaviour seems very odd.

Put it anotherway. If you had a client turn round and refuse to settle an account with you on similar grounds but did not involve the Police what would you think?

Inform the phone company's legal department that fraud has been commited and report it to the Police.

Is this employee a friend?

He has also opened accounts in my name and forged my siganature on letters to my bank and accountants.

Jeez! And you're still wondering what to do?! Tell the mobile company that the contract is invalid - ask for evidence for them to prove otherwise - they won't be able to.

Then get on to the police!

mk1fan - Member
Contact the Police. It's fraud.

I don't know why you're trying to search for a minor technical contractural 'out' against the phone company. As far as they are concerned the contract was extended in good faith. Your behaviour seems very odd.

it's not a minor issue for oldgit - if it's a valid contract his company owes them that money, if not it doesn't. it makes no difference whether it was extended "as far as they're concerned" or not; it matters whether or not it's a legally binding contract and it sounds very much like they would have a hard time proving that.

I think you need to re-read what I put. People seem to be blaming or holding responsible the phone company for this, not the fraudster.

The phone company extend the contract in good faith due to the intentional deception of this [ex] employee. Trying to find an error in the contract itself is not the first way to deal with this. Contacting the Police and reporting the fraud is.

yep point taken about needing to take action against said employee, but if i was oldgit i wouldn't be trying to find fault against the phone people for the sake of it or to make them a scapegoat but because they sound like they have extended the contract without authority which makes them culpable for their attempts to wrongly extract money from oldgit's co.

hence the two-pronged approach i suggested above to cover the different ways it may yet pan out. definitely go after the ex-employee either way.

edit to add - confirming that the phone co. is at fault for the contract extension is also a far faster way for oldgit to defuse the attempts to chase him for the money, while everything else gets sorted with the police and the ex-employee.

I see what you're saying but if the Police are investigating the contract as fraud then the phone company can't persue monies.

How does this sound.

User - 'This contract has been extended fraudulently and I'm not paying.'
Phone Company - 'Really sir, have you reported it to the Police?'
User - 'No.'

Trying to get out of a contract - rightly or not - and THEN contacting the Police is very odd behaviour. 'Clutching at straws' springs to the mind of an impartial party.

i did not know that about the barrier to the phone co pursuing the cash while police investigated. in that case i concur, though i would be inclined to term it "covering all bases" as opposed to "clutching at straws"! 🙂

You certainly want to be in contact with the phone company and formally write to them stating that you didn't personally or authorise a third party to extend the contract.

But the first call has to be to the Police.

so what's the update?