PHONE FIRMS FACE £500m PAYOUT CLAIM
22 Sunday Mail Mobile phone giants charging for handsets that customers have already paid off could face a flood of PPI-style compensation claims.
Campa igner s want networks to give refunds of £500million in the same way banks settled over payment protection insurance.
The move comes ahead of industry measures designed to cut phone bills.
About 1.4million users will be switched to cheaper deals from next month when their contracts end.
It follows concern that people on bundled deals keep paying the original price after the minimum contract period ends.
Phone regulator Ofcom says the rip-off contracts are costing customers on average £11 extra a month, or £132 a year.
New guidelines will mean they automatically roll on to a cheaper SIM-only plan, where they pay for airtime only, when contracts end.
Networks must also i temise each par t of the package at the point of sale.
Mar tyn James, f rom c ompl a int s w eb si t e Resolver, said: “If people have been overcharged, they should be refunded.
“Ofcom’s new rules will make things better for millions, who might have been overcharged in the future. But that still leaves the mi l l ions who have already been overcharged.”
Ofcom does not have powers to force companies to set prices or tariffs. There is not a legal requirement for customers to be refunded as they are not in breach of existing rules.
Banks were forced to repay more than £50billion over mis-sold PPI.
Amazingly, the couple’s f irst wedding took place in 1976 and ended in a painful divorce back in 2000.
And for nearly 15 years the pair, who had three children together, never spoke. They even stood at opposite sides of the football pitch when they watched youngest son Adam play.
They also managed to get through two of their boys’ weddings without saying a word to each other.
But it was tragedy that brought them back together, with Jan consoling Rob over the loss of his second wife.
It made the pair, now 61, realise life was too short for their rift to go on – and that the love sparked when they met at a Woolworths store as teenagers was still burning.
Rob said: “Jan was my first love and we will be growing old together as I definitely can’t afford another wedding – or a divorce.”
Jan, who had the ceremony she dreamed of second time around in 2017, added: “We married in a registry office first time. This time I wore a big white dress and we got married in a church.
“Our children, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild were with us. It was perfect and I’m back with my best friend.”
The lovebirds first met in 1974 in the days of flares and platforms at a Woollies store in Birmingham. Jan worked in the office and Rob in the stockroom. Soon they were dating.
Jan recalled: “Rob and I were just 16. I was a cashier and he was pretty much my bodyguard, going round the ti l ls with me col lecting money twice a day.
“He asked me out at a works Christmas dance. Our first date was watching a film we hadn’t realised was X-rated and there were quite a few men wearing f lasher macs in the cinema.
“We had to leave but we didn’t stop laughing.”
The couple moved in together at 17. “I fell pregnant and our parents weren’t happy but it was planned,” Jan said. “We were excited about the future.
“We got married soon after I turned 18 in September 1976.
“I had a white dress, but not a proper wedding one, and was fiveand-a-half-months’ pregnant.”
Daughter Cara was born on Christmas Day and the couple went on to have, Lee, now 38, and Adam, now 35.
But 23 years into their marriage, cracks started to show. Jan was made redundant from her job in Boots and started working shifts. She and Rob barely saw each other.
She said: “I loved working at Boots and had a bit of a breakdown after being made redundant. Rob was always saying he didn’t see enough of me in my new job. I was working
Jan said: “Adam played football and we’d go watch, standing at opposite sides of the pitch. We even made it through two of our sons’ weddings without talking. Lee was married first. Rob and I were with different people and just sat in different places. When son Adam had a wedding reception, again, we didn’t talk to each other.
“The only time we did was after we lost a grandchild. I was in hospital, crying. Rob put his arm around me and said, ‘ It’ ll be OK, sweetheart’. I don’t know why we