A man recently asked the online community if he was right to turn off the phone service he still shared with his ex-boyfriend after his ex repeatedly ignored his requests to pay his fair share of the payments.
Here’s what he had to say.
“So I have been on my phone plan for 1.5 years after dropping off my family plan to be on my own. In October 2021, I decided to add my boyfriend at the time as a way to help him out, as his service was not the best,” the man said.
They set up a cost for the boyfriend’s phone, which included service fees and scheduled payments for the devices.
The pair broke up in April 2022 but agreed to remain friends. During that time, the man continued to send his ex-boyfriend the payment schedule, and the ex kept paying his share of the phone bill.
Around November 2022, the man noticed that his ex would dodge some of his texts regarding the phone bill. He then mentioned that he was going through a rough patch financially.
The man told him that he understood but asked him not to ignore the text messages, which only worsened things.
In December, the ex started dodging his messages again and finally admitted that he couldn’t afford to pay, so the man covered his ex’s part of the phone bill and asked him to pay it back when he had the money.
The man recounted, “January arrived, and he said he was going to take care of it and pay me back. The due date of the phone bill came, and I was getting charged for it. I told him to pay me two months of back pay plus the current amount. He decided to ghost me.”
The man’s mother texted the ex, threatening legal action, and he finally sent the money for February only, promising to pay the man back later.
The man and his mother both reached out to the ex two weeks ago about paying for March, along with the two months of back pay. They received no response from him, even after mentioning legal action, turning off the service, and declaring the devices stolen for non-payment.
They even offered the option of returning the devices or setting up a payment plan, but they still got no response.
The man was getting fed up and said, “I decided to do one last thing. At 12:00, I wrote him a message stating that if he did not respond with any form of a resolution by 20:00, he would have all services turned off, and all devices declared stolen. Eight hours came and went with no response.”
So, he turned off all his devices, as he said he would, and reported them stolen to the service provider. This terminated the phone plan immediately on all devices.
The man thought he would sleep well, but his conscience kept him up for part of the night, making excuses for his ex. So, he turned to Reddit to ask if he was wrong to do what he did or if others believed he had no choice.
One user responded, “NTA. You gave notice, and he promised to compensate but didn’t. If he drags his heels on all of this, you are not required to continually subsidize him. Sack his service. You probably learned a lesson: not to take on other people’s liabilities for yourself.”
Another commented, “NTA, turning it off makes sense. What does he expect? Are you to cover his phone bill indefinitely? Just a side note; keep your mother out of it, though. Threatening legal action is extremely unwise. It’s the sort of thing best left to lawyers. Especially unwise if it’s an empty threat. Threatening to sue can be a form of blackmail.”
A third said, “NTA. He tried to steal from you. Temporary problems happen, but the least he can do is warn you and not ghost you.”
How would you have handled such a situation with an ex-partner? Do you think the man did the right thing by terminating the phone plan?
