unfinished contracts left over - what to do?

abd08

Hi all,

We have 3 sims on a "sim only" contract. They are now really of not much use to us, as the 3 people they were for have been made redundant.

There's about 6 months left on each one, and at GBP21+VAT per month per sim, am wondering what I can do about it.

Vodafone say they can't help.

Thanks!
Raj

Jon_01

Either find someone that can use them, or pay them off or cut them in half so they can 'walk away'. Your bound by the contract, there's are no loophole to close it early without paying it off. . .

Im_just_careful

Is it possible to negotiate 3 6 month contracts to say 1 24 month contract with Vodafone ?

mallymal

Funny isn't it, people have been using the term "contract phones" for years, and it's only when they look into ending the arrangement early, they realise what a strict contract it is.

We're in a similar pickle with our 15 year old daughter, who after various PAYG models, was desperate for a shiny new Samsung on contract. So last christmas I stumped up the £20 a month or whatever, on an 18 month contract... thought that was quite a nice present (£20 x 18 months = £360).

But here we are 12 months in, and according to her the phone is "s**t! " (it was her choice). It's not faulty, just not as jazzy as posh friend's iPhone etc.

Has ANYONE managed to explain to a 15 year old that you cant just stop suvch a contract, unless you pay a 'pay off fee' - 6 months @ £20 or whatver.

kids.... who'd have em!

Sorry, no help at alll with prevous posts, but wanted to share my views!

cheers
mal

Vodafone

Hi Raj!

If you have taken twelve month contracts out for your Sim only price plans then the only way to cancel them early would be to pay off the remainder in one disconnection fee.

Hey Im just careful,

The contract lengths that we offer are either twelve, eighteen or twenty four. If you would rather have a shorter contract then we can negotiate on that however you will find that the shorter the contract you go on, the more expensive the monthly price will become. Therefore the cheapest monthly price will always be on twenty four months.

Hope this helps!


Thanks

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

pardal51

mallymal wrote: »

Funny isn't it, people have been using the term "contract phones" for years, and it's only when they look into ending the arrangement early, they realise what a strict contract it is.

We're in a similar pickle with our 15 year old daughter, who after various PAYG models, was desperate for a shiny new Samsung on contract. So last christmas I stumped up the £20 a month or whatever, on an 18 month contract... thought that was quite a nice present (£20 x 18 months = £360).

But here we are 12 months in, and according to her the phone is "s**t! " (it was her choice). It's not faulty, just not as jazzy as posh friend's iPhone etc.

Has ANYONE managed to explain to a 15 year old that you cant just stop suvch a contract, unless you pay a 'pay off fee' - 6 months @ £20 or whatver.

kids.... who'd have em!

Sorry, no help at alll with prevous posts, but wanted to share my views!

cheers
mal

Don't get me wrong, I am not criticising, but if it was my daughter I'd make her 'earn' the Samsung or iphone and explain to her that after her doing something to earn the gadget, i.e., helping at home, charity work, etc that in life things as not easy as she thinks. I would go through the contract with her and make sure that she understands that within certain period she cannot change the handset and would have to do something equivalent to £X/mth to get this handset. Technology develops fast. The best smartphone today is s**t tomorrow. People need to understand the value of things. Kids need to be well educated. (don't take this personally, it is just my personal opinion of general society).

Im_just_careful

Heidi,

I get the concept of contracts which have a finance element to them to pay for a phone being cheaper over a longer period.

Clearly you know what you are talking about when you say that Vodafone would not negotiate 3 x 6 month SIM only contracts into a single longer contract for a business customer since you work for Voadfone.

I observe however, that it is that kind of inflexability which makes people detest mobile phone companies.

It is a short term behaviour in that customers consider it unreasonable and encourages churn.

Personally I would never get a contract mobile but then I'm just the sort of mean person that no mobile network wants !

TwistedPsycho

Just a thought, but can you reduce the tariff you are on for business contracts like you do with consumer ones?

I know last time I threatened to leave Vodafone I just phoned up once every 6 weeks and said "I am no longer able to afford the full tariff, can I please drop down one" which they did until an eagle eyed call centre worked asked WHY I was doing this a few times in quick sucession.

Cue a grovelling Vodafone manager and their retention tactics - saying that I am impressed with VF at the moment, so I can not moan too much.

gjchester

TwistedPsycho wrote: »

Just a thought, but can you reduce the tariff you are on for business contracts like you do with consumer ones?

Depends on the price plan. Most current ones will be the your plan ones ( or YP on the bill) and cannot be changed for the life of the contract.

Gadget envy tends to blind us to the actual reading of the contract!

Wintermute

Im_just_careful wrote: »

I observe however, that it is that kind of inflexability which makes people detest mobile phone companies.

It is a short term behaviour in that customers consider it unreasonable and encourages churn.

Personally I would never get a contract mobile but then I'm just the sort of mean person that no mobile network wants !

I don't think anybody can blame mobile phone companies for expecting customers to honour a contract that they enter. Combining contract isn't just as simple as saying "okay, you're paying x in total over y months, we'll let you combine those accounts and you can pay x in total over z months", networks have set tariffs and contract terms, if they didn't there'd be an infinite number of different tariffs making things extremely complicated.