GSM WORLD

>Hello all. I have a dispute with a mobile phone shop who sold me a
>contract phone about 18 months ago. The purchase was a cashback
>offer, requiring me to send airtime bills and a completed claim coupon
>in order to receive a payment each quarter. As I understand is common
>with these arrangements, the shop has been reluctant to pay the
>claims, but on each occasion I have eventually got the money from them
>after issuing a claim through the Court Service web site. Each time
>this has happened, the shop has admitted liability and paid up just
>before judgement was due.
>
>In the case of my latest claim, the shop has decided to dispute the
>claim and I have to decide whether to have the case transferred to
>Court to be dealt with. My reservation in respect of this is that the
>shop are claiming that they are not liable to pay me becasue I have
>breached one of the terms and conditions of the contract. They state
>that my bills from my network service provider must be paid by direct
>debit and currently they are not. This requirement does appear on the
>shops terms and conditions listed on their web site, but I am pretty
>sure it wasnt at the point when I bought my phone from them (although
>like an idiot, I seem to have lost the copy I downloaded at the time).
>
>What I would like to know is:
>
>1) If a stated requirement for direct debit payment of bills to the
>network service provider was in place when I bought the phone, might a
>court be able to say that it was irrelevant to the contractual
>arrangement between myself and the shop (i.e. it is just there as a
>small print clause to catch out the unwary)
>
>2) Considering that the shop has (eventually) paid all my previous
>claims and that my method of payment to the network service provider
>has not changed since the outset, could the shop be deemed to have
>accepted this as satisfactory and therefore be obliged to continue to
>do so?
>
>Any help or advice appreciated. I am not sure what level of costs I
>might rack up from my opponent if this goes to Court and I lose, so I
>think I could only proceed if there were some good indication that I
>would be very likely to win.
>
>Thanks and best regards, Jim.