Returning a handset to Three and claiming back accessories costs

big_stu_3

Long time lurker, first time poster…

Three (bless their little cotton socks), have recently, as I understand it, stopped their network-sharing agreement with ?Orange, and now I have no signal at home. I make most of my calls from home, and in order to get any signal now I have to prop the handset up in a window. If I want to make a call I have to put it on speaker-phone and shout it. People struggle to get through to me, and when they do, calls frequently drop out. So it’s rather inconvenient and unsatisfactory all round.

When I phone up, they agreed that there were ‘Network Upgrades’ going on in my area, but that there was no scheduled date for these to be carried out, so the CS advisor suggested that this meant that they wouldn’t happen during 2009. So I was offered £5/month discount (off my £20 current tariff price), or cancellation without charge.

Having thought about this for a while, and deciding that £5/month wasn’t really enough considering how rubbish the service currently is, I phoned back to take up the cancellation offer, and was told at that point that as I had served less than half my contract term (upgraded on an 18-month contract in Jan 2009), I would have to return the handset. This was a surprise to me, and when I looked at the T&Cs on their website after the call, I could find no mention of such a requirement. Q1: Has anyone ever experienced this as a requirement before, and where does it specify this?

Then I realised that I had paid an upgrade fee for the handset in Jan (Nokia E71, £44 IIRC), and have since spent in the region of £50 on software and accessories (in-car charger, memory cards) for the phone, on the basis that I’d have the phone for the whole 18-month term of the contract. So Q2: Am I within my rights to claim these costs back on the basis that I paid out expecting to get 18 months use out of them and have only had 5?

Thanks all…!