Devastated parents branded phone provider Three 'inhumane' after the company refused to cancel their daughter's phone contract unless they coughed up £160 - despite the young woman having died. Rachel Pegler and husband Martin were heartbroken when their daughter Molly, 23, died unexpectedly in July last year and couldn't face contacting the network provider to cancel her phone contract until last week.
Builder Martin claims he phoned Three's customer service last week and explained that they needed to end the £25 per month contract as Molly had passed away. However 51-year-old was 'furious' when the call handler told them they'd either need to keep paying until September or pay £160.
Molly had been diagnosed with a hormone deficiency when she was 14 but her sudden death from heart failure on 24 July was a 'big shock' to her parents, who were there when she tragically died. Rachel, who was Molly's full-time carer, says the family have plunged into £30,000 worth of debt since Molly died as Martin had to take weeks off work to grieve and they faced huge funeral expenses.
However the added 'turmoil' of Three demanding they cough up for the contract left them further upset and added to their pain - leaving Rachel, 49, branding Three 'cruel' and 'horrible, horrible people'. Three apologised for the distress caused and admitted their customer service was not up to their 'usual high standards on this occasion'.
It was only after the family opted to shame Three on social media and brand them 'hideously disgusting' that the company then agreed to cancel the contract and waive the fee. Rachel, said: "Everything has been so awful, trying to sort things out. We've been paying the bill because you don't think about these things.
"Martin phoned them last week and explained Molly had died. He said we needed to close the contract and the guy said we couldn't, it's a legal contract and we needed to either pay £160 to get out of it or let it run until September when it ends on its own.
"Martin said his daughter is dead, the phone isn't been used and hasn't been since July. He was very upset. We're all still very much in turmoil with it all. They said there was nothing they could do, it's a legal contract and that's that. I got really angry. I didn't like seeing him upset like that. He was visibly upset.
"He works 12 hours a day. He doesn't need that on top of everything else. I was furious. We're absolutely skint, we're about £30,000 in debt. Martin had so much time off work because we couldn't cope with us leaving the house and we were in shock.
"It was an awful time. Funeral expenses are a hideous amount of money. We lost the car because it was a mobility car. The expense has been immense. We were both there when it happened and it was hideous. I think we've all got a bit of PTSD from it. Molly was the centre of our lives, I spent 23 years with her. I never left her. It's been such a big shock."
Molly was diagnosed with Hypopituitarism when she was 14 and suffered from heart failure on 24 July. Hypopituitarism is when you have a short supply of one or more of the pituitary hormones. These hormone deficiencies can affect any number of your body's routine functions, such as growth, blood pressure or reproduction.
The mum-of-four decided to take to social media to 'out' Three describing the company's decision as 'disgusting' and 'hideous'. She wrote: "This is disgusting. It has taken my husband six months to cancel our daughter's phone contract. She died suddenly in July.
"We now have to pay £160 to get out of her contract early. She has died you horrible horrible people. How is this ever right? Hideous."
Three replied to Rachel the same day where they apologised for her loss and urged her to message them privately. She says the company have offered to direct them to the bereavement support team to see if they can close the account without the charge.
Rachel said: "I outed them on Twitter saying they were disgusting and their customer service was awful.
"Then I private messaged them saying it wasn't humane and they can't talk to their customers like that. We've been their customers for 20 years.
"I was really fuming and to be fair to him he was very nice but it shouldn't have happened. He said there was a bereavement service and I said fair enough but why on earth weren't customer service trained to know that because it's quite important.
"I'm not happy that my husband is sat there on his own on a building site trying to get it sorted out. It's just wrong.
"I don't think the man he spoke to was aware that there was a bereavement service. You wouldn't think they would be so cruel to say keep paying or pay £160 to get out of the contract.
"All the kids have contracts with them so they get quite a lot of money out of us as it is. We've not asked for the money back from July because its our fault that we hadn't cancelled it but it would be nice if they could do that as a gesture of goodwill."
Rachel has written a book called Grandpa Bourbon, which she has dedicated to Molly in the hopes of raising some awareness of Hypopituitarism.
Rachel said: "The condition is very rare. I've been campaigning for ten years to raise awareness of it. She had been poorly for years but it wasn't expected at all.
"The book is dedicated to her and I would like the world to know how much we love and miss her. All proceeds now go to putting our family back together."
After the family's complaint on social media, Three confirmed they had closed the account, waived the fee and refunded £100 towards the previous payments, as well as sending a hamper to the couple as an apology.
A Three spokesperson said: "We apologise for the difficulty Mr and Mrs Pegler have faced in closing this account – our customer service was not up to our usual high standards on this occasion.
"We have since closed the account with immediate effect and waived the contract termination fee. We also offered Mr and Mrs Pegler compensation. We will be conducting further training with our team based on this experience."
