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All hung up

Tuesday, 06 December 2011 08:31am

©The Star (Used by permission)
by ARTICLES OF LAW By BHAG SINGH

Can a service provider collect rental after disconnecting a customer’s line?

A READER has a query regarding the disconnection of telephone lines. He says that when a person’s telephone line has been disconnected, the following message is heard when he picks up the phone: “Sorry, your fixed line has been temporarily disconnected. Please settle your bill and call 100 for reconnection.”

He wants to know if the providers of telephone services (which I shall refer to as service providers) can continue charging rental even after disconnecting a subscriber’s line? If so, on what basis can they do so?

A customer in such a situation may feel aggrieved that he was billed during the period when he did not have the full benefit of the facility.

The provision of a telephone line by the service provider to the customer is a purely contractual arrangement entered into between the parties. What the customer is entitled to and what his obligations are, depends on the contract that has been entered into.

Most if not all service providers would have carefully drafted the contract. This would have been done with the help of their solicitors, taking into account difficulties that they faced in the past. They would have incorporated provisions to put themselves in a good position. This is quite normal as everyone wants to protect his own position.

Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that customers often do not even read the contract at all. The ordinary customer would find it too tedious an exercise to read the contract. This may be quite apart from the possible difficulty of access.

Besides, the conditions are usually in small print and the customer may find that it is of little relevance to him at that point in time. He may not envisage the day when he may default in payment.

This is not to say that even if the customer read the terms and found some of them to be unacceptable, he could have them changed. The service provider would seldom be willing to oblige because what is involved is a standard contract.

Given that it is a “take it or leave it” situation, it requires going back to the contract to examine what happens during that period.

Those who have defaulted will know that when bills are not paid within the stipulated period, they can still receive calls initially. However, outgoing calls are blocked.

If this is the case, part of the service is still available because incoming calls can be received. The customer still has the benefit of the service but is prevented from making calls. So charging of rental would still be in order.

It should be noted that the contract may specifically allow the service provider to charge rental even though both incoming and outgoing calls are blocked. But the service provider stands ready and willing to continue the service for the customer as long as arrears of any amount legitimately due are paid.

It would be different if the service provider had terminated the contract and the number is allocated to a different customer. In such a case, the contract would from that point of time have been brought to an end and there should be no charges.

The situation actually arises because the customer, oblivious to the contract, thinks that because his line has been blocked, he can just forget about the entire matter. He may fail to realise that the line is still there for him as long as he pays up the arrears.

When this happens, the proper thing for the customer to do is to make a decision to deal with the matter. The customer should either pay up the arrears or tell the service provider that he does not want the service anymore. He should not leave the matter hanging as this is to the advantage of the service provider.

A word of caution here: the customer could end up paying charges for a further period even though he has terminated the service. This can happen when the customer has signed a contract for a package where he agrees to use the services for a fixed minimum period. Here he will still be liable to pay for the unexpired part of the agreed contract period.

On the other hand, the service provider should also know that when the customer has defaulted and does not remedy the situation, it is likely that the customer cannot pay up. Is it fair to continue charging the monthly rental, contractual provisions notwithstanding?

The same reader points out that there are instances where a service provider has billed the customer for many years for not settling bills on disconnected lines.

He also complains about the activity of debt collectors for such billings.

In many cases where the customer does not respond, the charges would merely accumulate to make up uncollected and perhaps uncollectable accounts.

Such debts may be difficult to collect. This is because of the size of the debt and the expenses involved if legal action is taken. The option of engaging debt collectors is there but what the debt recovery costs is another matter to be considered.

It would be in the broader public interest for the service provider to stipulate in their contract that if payment is not made, then the service will be terminated. The service provider should then take action to terminate the service and allocate the line to someone else. In this way, more customers would not get unnecessarily indebted.

It may also be in the interest of service providers to provide that those who have had their line disconnected would in future be required to pay higher deposits on a new application.

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