Mis-sold contract due to coverage?

Confor

Hi peeps, I'm new here so please forgive me if I click the wrong button and something blows up. Please also forgive how long this is gonna be but it's complicated! Here's the scenario:

I renewed my T-mobile contract less than a year ago, signing up to a new 2-yr deal including new handset. I'd been with T-mob happily for 10 years but, as I knew I'd be moving house in the coming months, I asked for a coverage check on my new area and was shown to be acceptable. I was told I'd have 14 days to try it out anyway and could pull out of contract if unhappy with reception.

Since I was moving 500 miles, I explained that I wouldn't be able to try it out in my new patch within that time frame but was reassured that the coverage map looked good. I now live on the South Kent coast and, in reality, the coverage isn't good at all. I'm stuck with a £45 contract that is little use. Monthly bill is regularly £60+ due to cost of collecting voicemail and international call rates as a result of phone flipping onto French network so even incoming calls are horribly expensive.

Of course, I complained to T-mobile many times but got nowhere.

Since then, however, the little coverage there originally was has deteriorated badly. Now I usually have to drive 10 miles from my home area to pick up a signal. It can take 2-3 days for a voicemail message or text to come through. Clearly no use at all. T-mob sympathise but say I'm stuck with it. They even refuse to reduce my tariff to a less expensive option with less call time.

To complicate matters, my credit rating isn't good due to long-term illness so I can't move providers (unless someone knows better..?) even if T-mob let me out. Plus, I have avoided putting in a landline in my new home in case that also involves another credit check, especially as I'd have no need for one if I'd a reliable mobile signal.

At the moment, I'm using an ancient handset on O2 PAYG but topping up £40-50 per month. Agony but coverage is good.

So... my questions (finally!) are this:
a) Can I rightfully claim to have been mis-sold my contract due to poor coverage and now a further reduction in coverage, given that I have no proof?
b) Is there a company who'll provide decent terms on mobile contract without needing credit check?
c) How can I get back the will to live??? lol

tabytha

Ask T-Mobile to remove the international calling option on your plan. This will automatically stop the phone attaching itself to the French network

Darth_Trader

Why am I not surprised this is about T-Mobile. I've got pretty much the same problem; although I live in the middle of a town, I'm in a ground floor apartment of a converted thick-walled Victorian building, surrounded by similar buildings on the side of a hill facing away from the mast. Moved here just after getting my mobile contracts, and don't have a BT line installed.

I asked the T-mobile guy in the shop if it was possible to get a mobile phone that I could also use as a USB modem. I was told it was impossible to do this, and that I should get a phone AND a 'web n walk' dongle, almost doubling the cost.

I asked if the dongle (2 year contract, and I'm 1 year in) would be as fast and as reliable as anything out of a BT socket - ALL my work these days is online, and any question of reliability would have meant getting the BT line installation done instead. Salesman said there is no difference in speed or reliability. I get 0.2-45 kbps maximum, and it isn't steady at this rate! So only a hundred times slower! And the connection is stable for maximum 90 seconds and then hangs, requiring 5-10 minutes of wrangling to get it back.

Oh and the phone (18 month contract, I'm 1 year in) displays 'Emergency Calls Only' for 90% of the time when I'm at home.

Confor - are you saying that T-mobile won't let you out of the contract? I hadn't considered they even had the option of saying no. I thought they just said it'll cost you however-much.....which of course you negotiate with your next provider to pay, or they don't get your custom. Sorry, I haven't got any of the answers, but believe me I feel your pain!!

Darth_Trader

Oh I should say, in the spirit of fair-play, that my problem with t-mob is in the selling techniques (and perhaps inability to get out of a dodgy contract) rather than the technology itself. None of my friends can get to my front door without losing all mobile reception - regardless of which network they are with!

Buzby

I'm afraid T-Mobile have acted fairly - in fact, as an upgrade/renewal you normally DON'T get the 14 days grace a new sign up would get. Networks do not guarantee 100% coverage, and whilst it 'may look' fine, these are just projections and no indication what you will actually get.

You've not been mis-sold, and no right of early termination. You've landed between the usual rock and a hard place, but as you found out the time to reseach a phone upgrade was AFTER you move, and not before.

rev_henry

I'd try contacting OFCOM and or OTELO, just to see what they say. I doubt you'll get out of it tbh, but its worth a try, just for their advice.

sporedude

Nothing you can do, Try writing to Customer Relations, But T-mobiles terms and conditions pretty much stops you from cancelling the contract.

bringmeshoes

this wson't help with your t-mob problem but may save oyu money on using payg. o2 sim only deals can usually be taken out if you have poor credit history so that may be alternative option for you

Confor

Hey thanks guys! Didn't expect quite so many helpful people jumping in so quickly!

Darth, feelin' for ya! No, T-mob haven't refused to cancel contract per se. From what I understand I'd need to buy myself out by paying for current tariff (£45 monthly) for remainder of the term with no service. I figure I'm better to keep it going and at least get use of a few of my squillions of free minutes when I'm within a reception area.

I'll check out everyone's suggestions. Thanks muchly! (The will to live is returning, even if only for the consumer companionship!) :beer:

redux

switch the phone to manual search and select T-mobile, which will stop the phone roaming to France

it may sound a bit daft, but you might forward incoming calls to your other phone - either do it manually each time you go home, or select divert on out of range; it would use up inclusive minutes, but at least you'd receive calls the same day

Confor

Ooh that sounds like a good plan Redux! Hadnt thought of that!

Tell me, which phone would be paying for the forwarded call... the t-mob phone that was called or the PAYG that I'd receive it on?