Extreme Lengths
The article is from The Telegraph newspaper.
Widow takes dead husband's ashes into mobile phone shop after firm refuses to cancel contract
T-Mobile apologises after widow Maria Raybould is threatened with bailiffs over her late husband's phone contract
Maria Raybould has visited the store three times to try to convince staff that her husband has died Photo: Media Wales
By Tristan Kirk - The Telegraph
A widow took her dead husband’s ashes into a mobile phone shop to get them to cancel his monthly contract.
Maria Raybould, 56, was threatened with bailiffs by T-Mobile and ordered to pay a cancellation fee after her husband David, 57, died from cancer.
But despite showing the mobile phone giant the urn full of ashes, a death certificate, and funeral bills, it still refused to end the contract.
Mrs Raybould, from Cardiff, continued to receive threatening letters from bailiffs, and suffered a panic attack when she confronted T-Mobile staff.
"I've been up to the shop with the death certificate, with a letter from the crematorium, the funeral bills – even his ashes”, she said.
“I took in everything I could.
"I lost it in the shop. I gave them 20 minutes to sort it out. I went outside and had a panic attack.
"When I went back in the girl told me she had spoken to the manager and they were going to stop the contract.
“Then I had another letter about the bailiffs."
Mrs Raybould said her son called T-Mobile the day after her husband’s death to try to cancel the contract, but was told they needed to see a death certificate.
She visited the store three times to try to convince staff that he had died, but continued to be inundated with demands for £129 in unpaid bills or a cancellation charge.
Mrs Raybould said: "It's gone downhill since then. I've had texts since then asking if David wanted to pay an extra £2.50 for broadband and letters saying that bailiffs would be coming."
Mr Raybould died on August 29 after a long fight with cancer. Before his death he was paying £26 a month by direct debit for a Samsung Galaxy mini SII on a T-Mobile contract.
Mrs Raybould said it had been easier to bury her late husband than to get his phone contract terminated.
"How dare they put me and my sons through this after all we have been through already?”, she said.
"I wouldn't want anyone to go through what we have gone through over the last few months. It was easier for us to bury him than sort this out."
T-Mobile has now apologised for the mix-up, saying there was a delay to the automated process that cancels the balance which resulted in the letters being issued.
A spokesman said: "We apologise to Mrs Raybould for any distress caused at this difficult time. We can confirm that the account has been closed and the balance cleared."
