Mobile phone firm keeps asking to speak to my husband even though I’ve told them he is dead
Mrs H. L. writes: Can you advise me on how to stop Three Mobile ringing nearly every day to speak to my dead husband? BIG companies do seem to have a problem in accepting the death of a customer.
I receive complaints all the time about businesses that are told of a death and then send a reply addressed to the deceased customer. When you told Three Mobile your husband had died, you were asked to send his death certificate.
You did and it was returned promptly, but this did not stop the company from ringing time and again with the same request. Eventually, a letter arrived – addressed to your late husband of course – threatening debt collection proceedings if an outstanding bill of £21 was not paid.
When you complained, you were told to take the death certificate to a Three shop and ask staff to email a copy to customer services.
You did this and were told the account was now closed, but a month later the phone calls started all over again and Three denied seeing the death certificate.
Three has admitted to me its staff did not follow its own procedures correctly. The firm said: ‘We are sorry for the way Mrs L’s case was handled. This is not the experience we want Three customers to have. We would like to reassure Mrs L the account has now been permanently closed and any outstanding balance cleared.’ Good.