Man's ashes taken to phone shop after company refuses to cancel contract

When someone dies, it can be really tricky getting a company to believe you. And so, to T-Mobile, who consistently refused to believe a widow when she'd told them that her husband had passed away. The mobile company wouldn't cancel his monthly contract, so she decided to prove a point.

She took his ashes into one of their stores.

Maria Raybould had been threatened with bailiffs by T-Mobile and told she had to pay a cancellation fee after her husband David died. As if she wasn't dealing with enough. After showing T-Mobile a death certificate, funeral bills, she decided to show them an urn full of remains.

Still, T-Mobile weren't having it and wanted some money from a woman who was clearly grieving.

She said: "I've been up to the shop with the death certificate, with a letter from the crematorium, the funeral bills – even his ashes. 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 that her son had got in touch with T-Mobile on the day after her husband’s death, trying to cancel the contract, but clearly, seeing a death certificate and everything else, it was all to no avail. Even after visiting with his ashes, she still received demands for bills and cancellation charges.

She added: "How dare they put me and my sons through this after all we have been through already. 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 have now said sorry for all this, blaming it all on an automated process that cancels the balance, which meant that letters were still being sent out.

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."