How to deal with an awkward mobile company?

After I cancelled my first contract with 3 because of bad reception my area, they phoned me back, promising a deal for 100 Minutes with a much better mobile phone. I thought I give it another try, and if it’s not better, give it to my wife to replace her pay as you go phone. The phone wasn’t better, having the same reception problem. My wife used it and we were shocked, when the first bill came in, being over £30 higher than expected. We had no written contract on this phone and only found out after this, that they charge ever phone call at a minimum of 1 Min. That means, that in fact after less than 2 Minutes all your Minutes could be used up. What happened is that my wife would often phone me during the day but not get through and hang up as soon as the answermachine would kick in. That meant, for each second she was already charged a Minute. On a day this could happen three to four times or more. That means, in less than a week the 100 Minutes were used up. Before with her pay as you go phone she did only paid £5 to £10, occassionally up to £15. Naturally, we were shocked as we expected that this deal should have given her more minutes for the money. In my book 100 Minutes means 100 Minutes all the time. Had they said, I would get between 2 to 100 Minutes, I would never have accepted the contract.

Then 3 Mobile suddenly stopped taking the money from our account and later we got threatening letters and phone calls to pay. Often they would phone asking personal details, your Name, Birthdate and Postcode without giving information about themselves, who they were, only saying, they worked on behalf of 3. Naturally I thought this a scam, somebody fishing for personal information. But eventually I phoned 3 up and they said that I canceled the direct debit. I said, I never canceled it. They insisted that I should pay right away. I said I want to first check with my bank, why they canceled the direct debit if they did. 3 was very unfriendly and pushy and I hang up. I went to the bank, and they said, the direct debit is still running. With this information I went back, but 3 still insisted, that I or my bank canceled it. I said, they must have made a mistake and should send me a copy of the cancelation letter of my bank or note or whatever they have.

After many phonecalls back and force and me writhing them a long letter of complained (also telling them, that I felt deceived, as I was promised 100 Minutes and never was told about the 1 Minute Minimum per call), I got another phone call, where they still insisted, that I canceled the direct debit. I told them again, that it is not canceled, I saw it on the banks computer, it is still running and I can give them the referencen number if they wanted. They declined. Then I asked again I wanted a letter from them stating that it had been canceled. The woman from 3 said this time, she was going to send me one. I’m still waiting for this. In the meantime we payed because we got fed up with the hustle and my wife felt the pressure of being threatened with court action. But I hate being bullied by companies like this, who don’t want to admit they done wrong and charge me now £4 on top for administration charges.

I also tried to cancel, but they said, that I would have to pay till the end of the contract. The not so funny thing is, I have never seen a contract. It was all arranged over the phone. I feel frustrated and angry about this company, there is no way speaking to them, all they want is the money and that’s it. They don’t care for their customers and I do feel powerless and bullied. Is there anything I can do about this? I know that I was stupid to have gone for this deal in the first place, but I still feel, there should be more rights for customers. Speaking to 3 is like speaking to a machine. And the worst is, that one wastes so much time trying to sort these things out, that one ends doing what they want, not because one believes it’s the right thing.