Why Does Everyone Want To Get Out Of Their Contact Early?

Jakg

I can understand getting a new phone - but it seems like an awful lot of hassle. Or do you get to keep your extisting phone even if you get out of the contract early due to T&C changes?

What if you go through a cashback contract where they stipulate you have to pay £200 if you cancel the contract early to the cashback company itself?

Do you have to prove you are disadvantaged (i.e. T-Mobile Roaming Charges), or is it just that you could be disadvantaged if you wanted to use that service?

esuhl

Generally, it is not possible to get out of a contract early. It's down to the network provider's discretion to void a contract, and why would they want to do that and lose money? Usually, the only way out of a contract is to comply with the terms - sometimes you can make a one-off payment equivalent to the remaining line rental, for example.

Usually, the phone would be yours to keep - you own it from the day you receive it. Its cost is subsidised by line rental, so if you breach the contract by not paying your monthly bill, the network operator can sue you to recover the money.

Sometimes there are legitimate reasons that a contractual period might end prematurely. When I was with T-Mobile, they suddenly wanted to charge extra for paper billing. The Ts&Cs stated that the contract could be cancelled without penalty if the cost of the service increased above the rate of change of the retail price index (or something similar). Despite T-Mobile behaving like criminals and telling people they had no right to do this, a number of people were successful in cancelling their contract.

The contract you have with the retailer (regarding cashback) is separate to the one you have with the network. So in my case, I could cancel the contract "without penalty" from T-Mobile, but would no longer receive cashback, leaving me out of pocket. I'm not 100% sure what your rights are in such a case - I think it's a bit of a legal grey-area and there has been a lot of discussion about this on a number of websites (including this one, if I remember rightly).

In my case, I told T-Mobile that I was legally permitted to cancel the contract, but as that would leave them out of pocket, it would be in their interests to negotiate a discount with me in order for me to waive my right to cancel. We struck a deal, and I ended up in net profit at the end of the contractual term.

However, the appalling way that I was treated by T-Mobile's staff when trying to excercise my legal/contractual rights means that I will never ever sign another contract with them.

Hope this helps...

Protocol45

In answer to why people try to quit early. In my case I would love to end my contract with T-mobile. Not because of the price, but because the main place I go, work, has 0 signal. My phone is useless 75% of the day and think how much of my £40 month contract is wasted because I get no signal. I can't afford to pay off the remainder which is about £300. And as I said, I like the deal, its just I cant use it :P
I wish I could get a refund on all the time I can't get a signal or something. Or say to them, my phone is almost unusable so I'm paying for nothing. I would love to cancel but It looks like I will have to ride it out and then find a different carrier who will no doubt charge more and have a terrible service, all to get signal at my workplace.

sporedude

Protocol45 wrote: »

In answer to why people try to quit early. In my case I would love to end my contract with T-mobile. Not because of the price, but because the main place I go, work, has 0 signal. My phone is useless 75% of the day and think how much of my £40 month contract is wasted because I get no signal. I can't afford to pay off the remainder which is about £300. And as I said, I like the deal, its just I cant use it :P
I wish I could get a refund on all the time I can't get a signal or something. Or say to them, my phone is almost unusable so I'm paying for nothing. I would love to cancel but It looks like I will have to ride it out and then find a different carrier who will no doubt charge more and have a terrible service, all to get signal at my workplace.

Thats more your problem than T-mobiles =\