EE keeps billing my father even though he has dementia

MY FATHER has vascular dementia and has been in a home since March.

Two months before this, he took out a mobile phone contract, as well as broadband and landline, with EE. The first payment was on January 31.

I told EE of his condition and that he was in a home. I was told that if I sent a doctor’s letter, no cancellation fee would apply. The letter cost me £35. My father was then sent a bill for £215.56.

I phoned EE, but the password I had does not match the one it holds. After a heated discussion, it said it had made a mistake and I should go to my bank for a direct debit indemnity. I did this and got a refund.

My father has now had another bill for this amount. I am at my wits’ end.

S. B., Cardiff.

Money Mail has had considerable success tackling companies who treat bereaved people poorly. But just as much compassion must be shown to those handling the affairs of elderly parents.

In cases such as yours, where the parent has dementia, it can almost be worse than bereavement. our parent is there, but we must watch them fade away from us.

And when we try to tidy up their financial affairs we can face barriers from unsympathetic, obstructive and cold-hearted firms. I think it is justifiable to question how your father was sold these contracts in the first place.

If he was two months away from being admitted into care it would probably have been obvious to whoever sold the contracts that something was amiss.

When you made contact, ee should have done everything to smooth the path. As for the GP’s letter — does ee really think somebody would lie about such an issue to get out of a contract? If so, that tells us much about their approach to customers.

ee did finally do the right thing when I made contact. you have now received a call from its executive care team and an assurance that the contract will be cancelled without charge.

WE MOVED to Scottish Power in February. We told them we would need a gas meter as we were having gas central heating installed from June 6. We then had two bills dating back to February onwards, so I told them we didn’t have any gas then.

When I rang I was told we didn’t even have an account. Scottish Power has been shocking but to change supplier our gas meter has to be registered. This has not happened.

I have taken this up with the ombudsman, and Scottish Power said they would sort everything within 14 days. It didn’t. Again I complained to the ombudsman. They told me they had spoken to Scottish Power and I had to ring its ombudsman team.

When I called the staff hadn’t a clue why I was ringing.

L. W., Stockton-on-Tees.

SCOTTISH POWER says your gas meter was installed on March 31 last year but admits there was an issue in registering it on the national database. Apparently this was sorted as part of your ombudsman complaint and you were awarded £230, closing that issue. But there remains a £276.56 gas bill. this relates to the period before your gas and electricity account were combined. the bill covers the period from April 11 to november 26. Although you would have used no gas in the first two months you would have used it from June.

no payments were made towards the gas account during this period. you accept this. Scottish Power has apologised and reduced your bill to £150 as a goodwill gesture. you have accepted this offer.

I HAD a mortgage many years ago with Alliance & Leicester. I know there was payment protection attached to it but I sold the property and repaid the mortgage in 1999.

I contacted Santander and they said they could do nothing without the account number. After all these years I have only got the address of the property. They continue to fob me off.

G. L., Portsmouth.

I THINK it’s a trifle unfair to accuse Santander of fobbing you off when you have only now got round to complaining despite the PPI scandal being covered in the Press since the early 2000s.

Alliance & Leicester itself was fined £7million for its part in the controversy in october 2008 — a story which received prominent coverage in the Daily Mail and other papers. Santander took over Alliance & Leicester in July 2008. I doubted they would be able to help but asked them to take another look just in case.

they tell me that after an extensive search they are unable to locate the mortgage account or any PPI policy. they also received information from Aviva, which ran the PPI policies, confirming there is no trace of one for you.

In line with the Data Protection Act, Santander points out it is only required to store records for up to six years after an account is terminated or a financial relationship ceases.

If you don’t have details of your mortgage from 19 years ago perhaps you shouldn’t be surprised that Santander doesn’t have any record of it either.

While payment protection rightly has an appalling reputation I note yours was to cover a mortgage. MPPI was very different to the PPI flogged with credit cards. Alliance & Leicester’s fine related to PPI sold with personal loans.

the government encouraged buying MPPI with the aim of protecting mortgage payments and keeping people in their homes if they lost their job or became unable to work. this was at a time when it was pulling back on state benefits for mortgage interest paid to those who lost their jobs. So even if you had MPPI it may not have been mis-sold.

having said that, Santander stopped selling MPPI in January 2012.

WRITE to Tony Hazell at Ask Tony, Money Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB or email asktony@dailymail.co.uk — please include your daytime phone number, postal address and a separate note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Tony Hazell. We regret we cannot reply to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.