Widow takes husband's ashes to telco in bid to cancel phone plan

A widow in Wales took her late husband's ashes to a mobile phone shop to convince them to cancel his contract.

T-Mobile in Cardiff insisted on seeing a death certificate after David Raybould, 57, died of cancer on August 29.

The family said they complied but grieving widow Maria Raybould continued to receive bills for the $47-a-month contract followed by threatening letters about sending a debt collector.

T-Mobile even asked if her late husband wanted an upgrade.

Mrs Raybould, 56, told WalesOnline that on her third visit to the shop she even took her husband’s ashes to show the staff, in a bid to end the contract.

"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," she was quoted as saying.

But the demands for payment kept coming and just last week Mrs Raybould received yet another letter addressed to her late husband from the firm's customer finance department asking for an overdue payment.

T-Mobile apologised has since ended the contract and apologised to the widow, blaming the situation on a delayed automatic process that cancels the balance which resulted in the letters being issued.

"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," a spokesman said.