New 08 Charges on t-mobile reason to cancel ?

stiffnuts

Can anyone please let me know if you can cancel t-mobile contract early due to new 08 charges coming in from 1st May

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/uk/08-09-price-changes/

Thanks

Sid_Harper

this has been talked about before; charges associated with 08 numbers are not 'part of your plan' and so not part of your contract - well that's the gist of what I remember reading, don't know how much truth there is in it as I've left them and never called any off my mobile anyway

Not sure what the costs were before, but if you're on Flext you're better off unless you run out of allowance.

stiffnuts

Sid_Harper wrote: »

this has been talked about before; charges associated with 08 numbers are not 'part of your plan' and so not part of your contract - well that's the gist of what I remember reading, don't know how much truth there is in it as I've left them and never called any off my mobile anyway

Not sure what the costs were before, but if you're on Flext you're better off unless you run out of allowance.

but they put the cost up for dialing 08 numbers, surely this is to ones detriment

sporedude

You wont get out of cancelling, As said in the previous post, 0800 arent part of your contract/plan, If you call to cancel they'll tell you its part of their terms and conditions.

stiffnuts

sporedude wrote: »

You wont get out of cancelling, As said in the previous post, 0800 arent part of your contract/plan, If you call to cancel they'll tell you its part of their terms and conditions.

okay thanks

ermepb

Hello there!

I am in the same situation as stiffnuts and I do not fully understand the reasoning behind the statements of Sid Harper and sporedude.

Sid Harper says that "charges associated with 08 numbers are not 'part of your plan' and so not part of your contract". sporedude says that "0800 arent part of your contract/plan, If you call to cancel they'll tell you its part of their terms and conditions."

When I signed the contract with T-Mobile I signed the whole package, meaning a monthly payment, a specific amount of minutes and txts, charges for calls not included in the package, and their Terms and Conditions. As far as I can see (and I am not a lawyer), this "package" included specific charges for 0800 and 0845 calls. The conditions offered by T-Mobile to me as a customer and accepted by me are now binding for me as a customer and for T-Mobile as a company.

To sum up: If they change some bits of the package, in my opinion they are changing the package and this would be a reason to be able to cancel the contract without a penalty fee.

Having said this, the Terms and Conditions of T-Mobile are extremely one-sided:
7. Changing Charges and terminating this Agreement
[...]
7.1.2. We can suspend, change, increase the price of or withdraw part or all of the Additional Services on giving active users of the Additional Service a reasonable period of Written Notice. The change will then apply to You once that notice has run out.
7.1.3. We can suspend, change or withdraw Your Price Plan or Price Plan Services. We will give You Written Notice one calendar month before We do so. The change will then apply to You once that notice has run out.
7.1.4. We can increase any Price Plan Charge. We will give You Written Notice one calendar month before We do so. The change will then apply to You once that notice has run out.
[...]
7.2.5. A cancellation charge won't apply if You are within Your Minimum Term and:
[...]
7.2.5.2. You are a Consumer and the change that We gave You Written Notice of in point 2.11.2 or 7.1.4 above is of material detriment to You and You give Us notice to immediately cancel this Agreement before the change takes effect; or
7.2.5.3. The change that We gave You Written Notice of in point 7.1.4 is an increase in Your Price Plan Charge (as a percentage) higher than any increase in the Retail Price Index (also calculated as a percentage) for the 12 months before the month in which We send You Written Notice and You give Us notice to immediately cancel this Agreement before the change takes effect.

So basically you have a right to cancel if the "Price Plan Charge" is of "material detriment" to the customer (7.1.4) and T-Mobile can do whatever it wants to the charges and existence of "Additional Services" (7.1.2) and "Price Plan Services" (7.1.3). According to the definitions of the T-Mobile T&Cs, I would say that calls to 0800 and 0845 are Price Plan Services:

'Price Plan Charges' charges for the Price Plan Services which comprise the Monthly Charge for the Price Plan and the charges for Services once any Allowance is used up;
'Price Plan Services' inclusive Services supplied with Your Price Plan, the charges and terms and conditions for which are set out in the "What It Costs" booklet for that Price Plan;
'Additional Services' optional/extra Services which can be added to Your Account, the charges and terms and conditions for which are set out in Our "What It Costs (Non Standard Charges)" booklet and Our customer literature;

I got this T&Cs and I accepted when I signed the contract. Having read them now carefully, I think they are a shame. I may understand that T-Mobile may change the terms of "Additional Services", which are added to the package. But I think it is not fair at all that T-Mobile may change and even suspend "Price Plan Services" which were a part of the package I signed. As a former Three customer I checked their T&Cs. With Three you can cancel your contract whenever the change is of detriment to the customer as soon as the detriment concerns more than the Additional Services.

I guess I signed away my rights by accepting T-Mobile' T&Cs. Being rather new to the UK, is there something you can do against such one-sided T&Cs? Having lived for many years in Germany, T-Mobile's home country, I am pretty sure that such one-sided-ness in their T&Cs would not be possible in Germany...

Sorry for this long message and grateful for any answers and comments!

Sid_Harper

08xx nos are not part of your price plan hence not part of your contract. The Ts & Cs allow them to change the cost of those calls. That's the point of my (and sporedude's) posts. Unfair? Yes. Unreasonable? Yes. True? Sadly, also yes.

chuckley

only worked on 02 (but even they were difficult!!!!!) all the rest had it exclusive.

man i miss the old 02 dayz.

ermepb

Sorry, I beg to disagree. Even if they are not part of the price plan, they are part of the contract package because the T&Cs are part of the contract.

However, as I tried to make clear in my previous long message, as far as I can see T-Mobile has the right to change those charges even if the change is in detriment of the customer. See the carefully crafted paragraphs and compare them to the T&Cs of Three, which in this particular point are much more customer friendly than T-Mobile's.

I arrive at the same conclusion, but my argument is different. I make this argument not just for the sake of it, but because it may play a role for future changes. For instance, presently you can send MMS from abroad without paying any roaming fee with a Flext contract. If T-Mobile decides to start charging for them, this may be a reason to cancel the contract.

Best regards

stiffnuts

this is not clear cut. There was a big thread on hotuk deals about this last year when a similar thing happened. We may be able to cancel but you will have to see it all the way including to the ombudsman . I dont know if I can be bothered. There terms are definite breach of unfair contract regs.

ermepb

stiffnuts, this is exactly my point: I also think that their T&Cs are extremely one-sided and unfair and I am happy to hear that they may be in breach of "unfair contract regulations". I was hoping that something like this would exist in the UK, too.

Having said this, I still have a lot of contact with Germany and the new Flext tariffs include calls and txts to many European countries - this is a huge improvement for me and I want to praise T-Mobile UK for this. As far as I know, none of the other mobile companies in the UK offer such a similar deal. So I may switch to the new Flext 2009 and not bother to lose my time discussing their T&Cs with T-Mobile CS...