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I wonder if you could give me some advice. In September last year, a friend of mine who had a gambling problem took out a contract for a phone with 02 via Carphone Warehouse. He quickly worked out that he couldn’t afford the phone so about a month later we returned the phone (still sealed in box) to Carphone Warehouse and wanted to cancel the contract. As it was outside the 14 day cooling off period, the shop advised us to speak to Carphone Warehouse customer services who advised us to speak to 02. As my friend has severe anxiety and depression and ongoing physical and mental health difficulties he couldn’t do the phone conversations necessary so I tried on his behalf with both companies but no-one would discuss the situation with me (I tried numerous times). And my friend couldn’t have the conversation with them.
A couple of weeks after we’d returned the phone it seems the 02 debt was passed to Lowell. Over the past couple of months they have been writing to him and phoning him daily multiple times about the debt, this has massively escalated his anxiety and stress. They have now set him a ‘pre-legal assessment’ letter saying he needs to get in touch with them to sort out payment. He has asked me to do this on his behalf.
In the interim, about 3 weeks ago we returned to the store where the contract was purchased to try and sort this out. It turns out that they still have the sealed phone and paperwork in the safe. We spoke to the manager who had advised that I send him a timeline of events and he would escalate it further up in the company. This has been done and today I received email confirmation that he’s forwarded this to the appropriate person within Carphone Warehouse.
He’s in a real mess financially and with other things going on, he took an overdose before Xmas and isn’t dealing with debts. I would just like to help him.
My question is: what should I do about Lowell? Should I contact them on my friends behalf? And what is a pre-legal assessment?
There seems to be mixed advice on the internet but I would appreciate people’s feedback on this forum.
Thank you in advance for your help.
