O2 / iPhone - Do they ever cancel a contract early out of goodwill?

Leigh73

Hi guys,

I'm in such a pickle here.

Took out a contract with O2 last November '08, and a second contract with them May '09, when things had picked up with work.

I was made redundant last month, and I just can not afford either of these contracts. Both iPhone £35 a month

Sold the first phone last year..what was I thinking?

Sold the second phone last week..Yep I know..it doesn't help, when I've been hardly thinking straight with mental health problems, and a drink problem to boot. Have stopped drinking, and am getting help for that, so now I'm starting to think a bit more clearly for the first time in a long time. It doesn't help however, that I have had other debts mount up since a relationship breakdown recently :-(

Anyway, what's done is done.

I bit the bullet and called O2 on Friday, and the guy told me, that the best they can do is, re the first contract (Nov '08), they can lower that to the lowest iPhone tariff (£30 per month instead of £35), and the same for the other contract (May of this year).

I asked him if they could at least let me cancel the one (May's) contract early, entirely as a gesture of goodwill, seeing as my accounts were both all up to date and not in arrears / due to my redundancy, but he said not.

This is really stressing me out, as I just can't afford even £60 a month on two phone contracts (which I'm not even using) let alone £35

I know I've been stupid, but I would really appreciate some advice as to whether I have any other options available, regarding cancelling at least one of the contracts early without having to pay 18 months of line rental :-/

Have any of you ever had your mobile companies agree to do this?

I'm considering putting a letter together, rather than just calling, but I feel I'm dreaming..

Many Thanks,

Leigh x

Leigh73

Most ridiculous of all, is that I don't even have the phones / a phone to show for it! :-/

Where do I go from here with O2?

Thanks again.

nobby24

Sorry to hear about the mess you're in but I'm sure one day it'll all be sorted. There is on here a forum called 'Debt-free Wannabee' where you might get better advice. I thin k personally I would ring O2 and explain the situation as you have here, but good luck.

agsnu

O2 had to pay for your phones from Apple, and by all accounts they're paying pretty close to full whack. They give the phones to you up-front on the grounds that you'll recompense them enough for them to make a profit over the 18 months. For them to terminate the contracts this early, they would be making a loss.

It is unfortunate that your circumstances have changed, but I don't think O2 would be willing to let you shirk your responsibilities. Surely if you sold the phone you would have got a couple of hundred quid from that, you could use that to pay the line rental on the contracts for a couple of months while you sort yourself out.

fergies_army

O2 will offer you the oppourtunity to buy out the contracts at this stage thus cancelling them, as there is two they may knock 10% off or so as good will (dont hold breath though)!!!

You dont say if 18month or 24 month contracts, but will cost around a good £800 to buy them both out, if you still had the money from the sale of the phones surely this would about cover it?

There are loads of similar threads on this board people trying to get out of contracts due to cash problems, its normally tough, you signed up for it have to live by the consequences!

Leigh73

Thanks Nobby - Going to call O2 tomorrow / today! Thanks for pointer re DFW board :-)

Agsnu - Fair point. Thanks.

Fergies_army - Both 18 month contracts. Money gone sadly, as was drinking v heavily at the time. Thank goodness Im now sober and getting help to stay that way, as I was also looking at losing my flat. Since sorted though :-) Have other debts to get a handle on now :-/ Fair enough what you say re contracts - never again will I sign up to one!

My aim is to keep on top of both (new job starting next Monday :-D), but save and pay off 1 of them (9 months to run) asap.

Thanks again all,

Leigh x

MRC_2

Hi, the best thing you could do is call them and downgrade your tariffs. Downgrade both tariffs to the lowest options of £15pm by going down a tier each month.

If you cancel now, you'll be hit with high term fees and won't be offered any discounts because you have 2 phones.

Andyblizz

MRC wrote: »

Hi, the best thing you could do is call them and downgrade your tariffs. Downgrade both tariffs to the lowest options of £15pm by going down a tier each month.

If you cancel now, you'll be hit with high term fees and won't be offered any discounts because you have 2 phones.

There are no £15 a month Iphone contracts. Cheapest is £30 a month.

duckbrfc

Leigh73 wrote: »

Thanks Nobby - Going to call O2 tomorrow / today! Thanks for pointer re DFW board :-)

Agsnu - Fair point. Thanks.

Fergies_army - Both 18 month contracts. Money gone sadly, as was drinking v heavily at the time. Thank goodness Im now sober and getting help to stay that way, as I was also looking at losing my flat. Since sorted though :-) Have other debts to get a handle on now :-/ Fair enough what you say re contracts - never again will I sign up to one!

My aim is to keep on top of both (new job starting next Monday :-D), but save and pay off 1 of them (9 months to run) asap.

Thanks again all,

Leigh x

This is a problem that lots of people get into. 18 months doesn't seem so long when life is rosy, but 18 months times your monthly phone bill amounts to a large amount of money unfortunately. Like many of the people on here have said, O2 have to pay for the phones from Apple, then you have to take into account the bidding that they had to go through to get the contract from Apple in the first place, and you realise that they work on pretty tight margins. In addition, with a company the size of O2, speaking to someone who has the authority to cancel your contract is nigh on impossible.

The only glimmer of hope I can say is that I used to be with Orange. I moved to an area where reception was at best sketchy and at worse horrendous. They allowed me to cancel my contract, which had 6 months to run, on the proviso that I paid them 50% of the cheapest tariff, which was about £7.50 a month at that time. This won't help unless you've got a really bad signal, but thought it was worth mentioning

Good luck, I'd cut it down to £30 immediately and try saving the money elsewhere if I was you

78mjt

Agree with the above post - downgrade your deal to £30 a month and try to save the money elsewhere. Sometimes there are just no ways out of these things, so you'd be better advised to spend your time saving this cost on something else.

Good luck, it sounds like you've had a bad run, but at least you're prepared to do something about it, and that's the most important thing

MRC_2

Andyblizz wrote: »

There are no £15 a month Iphone contracts. Cheapest is £30 a month.

As a goodwill gesture and the fact that they aren't using the iphone then some people would move them down to normal tariffs due to this.