I took Tesco Mobile to court for bad reception and won hundreds of pounds – here’s how I did it
A DAD took Tesco Mobile to court and won after complaining about his phone signal.
Derek Oram, 71, lives alone and was forced to drive for miles to find enough signal to speak to family and friends.
He wanted to break his contract and get a refund but the supermarket phone company refused, saying his smart phone must be faulty.
Last month a judge ordered Tesco Mobile pay £400 compensation - but the firm haven't paid and have been issued a County Court Judgement.
The pensioner told The Sun: "Almost every day I was driving around trying to find a little bit of signal.
"Sometimes the phone signal would suddenly drop out, so I had to drive to another spot and try again.
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"The Tesco Mobile calls took so long sometimes I was having lunch in the car.
"I was pleading with them to let me off the contract but they wouldn't budge."
Retired engineer Derek wanted compensation and a refund totalling £400 for the payments he had made during his six months with the mobile firm.
He contacted the ombudsman and Tesco terminated the contract in October last year.
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Derek, of Brighton East Sussex, later applied to the County Court Money Claims Centre and was awarded the fee in January.
How to complain about phone providers
According to here is how to complain about your mobile phone provider...
Complain to the company
Try to resolve the dispute by explaining your problem and what you want done about it. If your mobile phone provider has its own internal complaints procedure, follow it.
Get a letter of deadlock
If your mobile provider refuses to do what you ask to sort out the problem, ask for a ‘letter of deadlock’ to show you've done all you can to resolve the complaint.
If the mobile company fails to respond to this final letter within a reasonable period of time (say, 14 days), you can take your complaint to the ombudsman.
Contact the ombudsman
There are two ombudsman services that deal with mobile phone complaints - Cisas and Ombudsman Services: Communications.
Find out which one your mobile provider belongs to, as this will be the one you'll need to use to escalate your complaint.
He has since signed up with a rival company and has good signal.
Derek added: "Tesco Mobile deserves this because of their incompetence. It was months of complete chaos.
"Suddenly chatting on the phone to my friends and my daughter became a nightmare.
"I was sick of it."
Tesco Mobile are challenging the £400 fine made by the County Court Money Claims Centre.
The firm said: "We apologise for the issues Mr Oram experienced.
"As the UK's least complained about network, we take all customer concerns seriously, which is why we had already resolved this with Mr Oram directly by agreeing to cancel his contract, applying credit to his account, and offering a goodwill gesture which he accepted.
"The court erroneously failed to acknowledge our defence against Mr Oram's subsequent claim, resulting in a default judgement which we are now investigating."