Too many mobiles and enough communication… a salutary tale

As a family of six – we are heavily armed with mobile phones. Gone are the days of the landline, the answerphone, the pay phone not-to-mention the idea that thinking our kids are safe.

Now we all have phones including our kids.

And with phones comes contracts and with contracts comes direct debits from companies who frequently change their names – so Orange becomes EE becomes T Mobile becomes Virgin becomes 02…

And so my bank account is plundered each month by various said firms with various direct debit and for varying amounts. All of which I assumed were correct and logical and each month waved the money goodbye. The price of safe kids…

Until this week when my New Year financial audit threw up a glaring anomalies – we have more DD’s than mobile phones.

Needing to understand this better, I found myself listening to Bruno Mars down the phone while a lady from EE looked in to it for me.

And what follows is not easy to admit to because it turns out that two of the Holland boys have old phone contracts that are still running 3 years after the phones have been dispensed with.

So to clarify – I have been renting 2 phone lines for nothing – for almost 3 YEARS.

At a cost of nearly £900.

I put it to EE that if no calls have been on either line for nearly 3 years – then they must have realised that the lines were inactive and that they could have advised the customer (me) of such.

I was speaking to a manager at this point – and he agreed that my point was a good one and indeed valid.

Buoyed by this, I suggested that he might repay the funds to which he almost laughed – which is doubly hurtful because some might say that ‘almost laughed’ has been the story of my career.

So parents out there – you know when your kid demands a new bloody handset? Because their old handset that they used to love but has suddenly become embarrassing?

Make sure you cancel the old contract – or you’ll get fleeced like I have been for years.