Problems With A Bill

If you have received a bill from your mobile phone provider, internet provider or TV service provider, and you believe that the bill is incorrect, you have the right to challenge the bill. Double check the bill before you dispute it, to see whether there are any reasons why your spending may have increased. This may include; using your phone abroad, buying pay per view TV content, or exceeding your agreed bandwidth limit. You are responsible for any bills on a stolen phone until you report the phone to be missing. If you still think that the bill is wrong, then you should get in contact with the service provider to seek clarification and then dispute if necessary.

Disputing your bill

To seek clarification on your bill, you should call your service provider. They may offer you a suitable solution over the phone. If you want to dispute your bill, you are advised to put your complaint in writing and send it to your service provider using a recorded delivery service. Your letter should include your contact details, your customer number, a copy of the bill which you are disputing and an explanation of your dispute. You can highlight or underline the charges which you question, if you think that this might help to get your point across.

Make sure that you dispute the charge as soon as possible. If you fail to pay a bill on time, your provider can charge you a late payment fee. If the dispute is not upheld, then you will still have to pay this fee.

If the provider does not agree with you, or if they are unable to explain the charge to you in a satisfactory manner then you should launch a complaint through the company’s own formal complaints process. If you still don’t receive a satisfactory answer after going through the complaints process, then you may need to seek third party mediation.

If you have already cancelled your contract

If you get a bill from a company that you no longer use, you should contact them immediately to make sure that they don’t try to take any more money. You should also contact your bank if the company has a direct debit set up. This will stop any more money from being taken from your account. Ask the sender of the bill to refund any monies straight away, and let them know if you have incurred charges because of their error. If they do not rectify the mistake, you should launch a formal complaint through the company’s complaints policy.

If it is a shared bill

If you are the only named payer, the company should not pursue other people (housemates etc) for the value of the bill. You must chase them if they owe money to you. If your housemates are named on the account, then the company will chase them. If a company tries to pursue you for money owed for a bill that you are not named on, you should write to them to advise that you are not legally responsible.