help! need to escape my 3 phone contract!

maria82_2

so i have a three contract, that has about a year left (started an eighteen month contract about six months ago, stupid i know). but i have just finished uni and have alot of debt to pay off.

the thing is, i have just moved to hove and there is absolutely no reception in my house. If you go out onto the street you can get a little bit. but really, my phone is no use, cant ever have reception, or rely on important calls to my mpobile. surely there should be a clause somewhere, if your not receiving a full service from them?

think i will have problems proving that i never get reception in my house, but do in the street outside. i dunno?

any advice is greatly appreciated.

maria.x

Fedz

You obviously live in a borderline coverage area.

When not in a 3 3G service are your phone auto switches onto roaming (o2 / orange network).

If you have a poor 2/2.5G (roaming) signal it'll be next to useless :mad:

You can downgrade to the lowest tarrif but, be warned this is a painfully slow process with 3 as you can only drop one level at a time and in any given month so it might take 2 -3 months to get to the lowest tarrif at £20 p/m

You can just not pay the bill (cancel the DD) and ignore them but, 3 reserve the right to write a default notice to your credit file.

They are your options apart from calling 3 CS and pleading to the indian call center (who aren't bothered about customers woes).

Lesson learned - avoid 3 like the plague.

Hope this helps

pennypincher_2

They are your options apart from calling 3 CS and pleading to the indian call center (who aren't bothered about customers woes).

Lesson learned - avoid 3 like the plague.

Can't think of any network will let you out of the contract, most contracts are 18 month - lucky its not T-Mobile,you would'nt be able to downgrade til the last month of your contract.

maria82_2

not sure if anyone saw my last thread, or if i posted it properly.

i have an 18 month three contrct that started 6 months ago. i have just recently moved to hove and have absolutely no reception in my house. i want to get rid of the contract and go for a pay as you go phone.

any suggestions, cus three terms and conditions are very vague about what keeping their end of the bargain actually entails.

much appreciation for any advice guys!

Fedz

Your first post is fully understandable.

Your under contract. You'll have to see it out or stump up the money to see the contract out.

Maybe call 3 to see how much it costs.

I'm quite sure 3 won't have a 'getout clause' saying if you get no signal you can terminate your contact.

The only way out is if they change any contract terms and conditions that greatly negativly effects you.

Please refer to our other options posted earlier.

patwa_2

Hi there.

I'm a student also so I understand your situation.

Legally, you are bound by the T&C's of the contract, so you're locked in for another year.

What handset do you have? If it's 3, it's probably a good one, and a valuable ne at that. Of course, it'll be 3G?

So, I would say the best thing to do would be to sell the handset and not use the contract. Depending on what tariff you're on, you may be able to recover most if not all of your money back, that you will be paying to 3 over the next twelve months.

You may not believe this, but there are a lot of people who will buy 3G handsets, even though yours is most probably locked to 3, as mine is. So there's no worry there.

If you do choose to do this, I'd recommend then just not using the ontract, or better still get hold of a friends phone that is unlocked (or get a cheap one off ebay) and use that when you're travelling (might as well take advantage of the free mins you're getting). If you can't use the 3G features at home (where you'll doubtless spend most of your time) might as well try to get the best of both worlds.

Getting a default on your credit file is not pleasant, and it takes a LOT of explaining to get it removed.

Re: the Indian call centre, use the database on saynoto0870.com to find theirgeographical number (in Glasgow), call them up during working hours and speak with them. They are a lot more understanding than their Indian counterparts, although I doubt they're understanding enough to waive the contract.

A note of warning; If you are on a cashback deal, you may be penalised for changing your tariff to a lower level (surprise, surprise, not many will penalise you for UPGRADING, I wonder why ) so take care when doing this if this applies to you. Hence my suggestion of selling your current phone to cover the cost.

If you're on a cashback deal, you'll be recovering your money slowly anyways, so selling the handset is likely to net you a profit.

Good luck, and hope this makes sense and is helpful.

Cheers and take care.

Hussein.

shiirley

Re: The downgrading part.

Actually, the downgrade one level at a time thing is not true. I'm on 3 myself and one of the advisors in the call centre said that I can only drop one level at time. I put down the phone and rang again. This time, another sales advisor told me that I can downgrade immediately. At that moment, I demanded for a goodwill compensation and they gave me 5 quid. I got both the downgrade I wanted and the compensation money.

Hope that helps.

patwa_2

I know! It's amazing how uninformed some customer services reps are, I mean, having the power to negotiate 1 to 1 deals is one thing, but sometimes it's just ridiculous.

My friend got the following from 3 for £50 a month:
2000 any network minutes anytime
1000 texts anytime
200 picture messages
100 video messages
100 video talk mins anytime
£50 inclusive downloads

Initial price was £100 a month for half the minutes, half the texts, picure messages and video stuff and only £25 inclusive downloads. It took him just under 10 minutes to get it.

Cheers and take care.

Hussein.

Fedz

shiirley wrote:

Re: The downgrading part.

Actually, the downgrade one level at a time thing is not true. I'm on 3 myself and one of the advisors in the call centre said that I can only drop one level at time. I put down the phone and rang again. This time, another sales advisor told me that I can downgrade immediately. At that moment, I demanded for a goodwill compensation and they gave me 5 quid. I got both the downgrade I wanted and the compensation money.

Me and my wife both have 3 contracts. I rang to downgrade to the lowest tarrif as I got a o2 contract - they downgraded me straight away from the next billing month.

My girlfriend rang and they refused saying you can only downgrade one level in any given month but, after a protest they dropped it one level and refunded £10 and then the month after drop again so in effect it was as though they'd dropped it to the lowest tarrif.

Apparently (they said) it's in the T&C's but, as I don't have a copy and they couldn't quote it, they did the above.

Now (to me) if it wasn't true it's a lot of hassle and a long winded way around to get the same result (downgraded to the lowest tarrif).

We've only a few months left of the 3 contracts so we'll be giving notice, o2 are more forgiving and straight forward (given our experience).

Kind regards

HugoSP

Write to Eric Disney - Managing Director at the address on your bill.

Explain that the service to you is useless due to the restrictions and you would like the company to either investigate the problem in your area or consider terminating your contract out of goodwill. Explain that you are happy to return the phone if your contract is to be terminated.

I'm afraid it is their goodwill you're appealig to. You don't have a leg to stand on and a friendly dialogue with their executive office staff is your only chance.

I had a similar problem with Orange, though I had only had the contracts for soe 6 weeks and had been put through the mill with customer services. They offered to release me from all future charges wrt the contracts provided I returned both phones. I paid for the 6 weeks per contract only.

For this reason I would go back to Orange in the future.

H