3 - charging for text delivery receipts

chattyuk

JudasPriest wrote: »

I'm told, from someone who understands these things better than I, that technically this is very clear-cut. Whatever position(s) Three are trying to argue on the phone, it boils dows to this:-

1. "Additional Services" are clearly defined as a service above and beyond that sold to you as your package or talk-plan, and are purchased in addition to the above.

2. Whilst not specifically defined anywhere by Three, "Core Services"(their term) must therefore be assumed to be anything that came as a part of your package at the time of agreeing the contract.

SMS delivery reports don't show up on past bills at a zero-charged rate - and therefore can't be an additional service under Three's criteria. Never been billed, never been itemised. That's not an "Additional Service", and the scope of their terms and conditions allows the customer to leave the contract if changes are made that don't relate to an "Additional Service".

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm happy to chase this as far as I can. I've written to them today via recorded snail-mail, and indicated that I require the matter to be resolved by the 5th June 2011, as I cannot continue using their service without acknowledging my acceptance of the mentioned changes - which come into force on the 6th.

You're right. Additional services should cost in addition to the core service. If message reports are an additional service (and three charged 0p for them) then surely they would have to come up on our bills as 0p. This is similar to inclusive minutes. We get a set amount of inclusive minutes and so when we make calls they appear on our bills and are charged at 0p. Three have no where to hide now!

JudasPriest

Father-in-law is a contract law specialist for IBM. I'm going on his advice and, frankly, would stake my house on his opinion. He's very good.

Three won't want it to go to court, as they'd lose. They'll try to quietly release people who maintain their stance from their contracts rather than face the prospect of going to court and being liable for out-of-pocket expenses to customers as a result of taking equivalent services through other providers.

Watch this space.

ACDeag

Rusty! wrote: »

Tesco don't support proper delivery reports at all. No-one using O2's network does.

O2 (and therefore Tesco as well) do, you have to put *0# before the message, *0# does not appear on the text at the receiver's end.

Rusty!

That's not a 'proper' delivery report. It's their botch job which is a text sent to you, rather than the GSM standard one.

It's the one thing I don't like about being on Giffgaff :rotfl:

kingofherts

These have to be classed as an additional service, and therefore not part of the contract even though the previous cost was 0p

When the contract is initally taken none of the handsets are set to automatically generate delivery reports, its a service that the user consciously 'chooses' to activate, Three are simply saying that if you 'choose' to use this service from the date you will be charged 1p per report.

I'm assuming that Three incur a cost from these reports so are asking the people who 'choose' to use it to pay for it rather than getting the entire customer base to subsidise it.

JudasPriest

kingofherts wrote: »

These have to be classed as an additional service, and therefore not part of the contract even though the previous cost was 0p

Could you tell us why they have to be?

kingofherts

Seeing as you must have skim read my post

Delivery reports are a service the user 'chooses' to activate, the default setting is off, if it were a core service the default setting would be on and the user would have to choose to turn it off

chattyuk

kingofherts wrote: »

Seeing as you must have skim read my post

Delivery reports are a service the user 'chooses' to activate, the default setting is off, if it were a core service the default setting would be on and the user would have to choose to turn it off

What has the default setting on a phone got to do with it being a core service? Its just an option you can choose in your settings.
What happens if you get a sim only tariff and put it into your unlocked phone? How can message reports be classed as an additional service without being told by three?

JudasPriest

I didn't skim it, I just wanted you to clarify what you meant. Did you read Three's definition of an additional service? It disagrees with your view on delivery reports being an additional service.

What about voicemail? Or the 18+ filter? None of the services I've mentioned are - currently - a chargeable option, and none of them meet the criteria of an additional service. They are all user-configurable, and the use of them was included in the price of the monthly plan.

Does this mean they are not a core part of the contract, in your eyes? Nor a core part of the agreement to provide such services?

Three clearly define what is classed as an additional service. The use of delivery reports was discussed in the shop prior to me taking out the contract - they told me they were free. I noticed 20p of charges on my account on the first day, and telephoned customer services to check what had caused it, and specifically asked about delivery reports(coincidentally, I'd received around 20 reports at that point, so needed to check I'd not been misled) - again, it was confirmed to me that they were free, and Three didn't charge for them.

So they can't be an "additional service", as Three state that these are chargeable outside of your regular contract. Nowhere does Three state what constitutes a core service, nor do they mention it in the terms and conditions as far as we can see.

three.co.uk/Pay_As_You_Go/Add_ons

(Sorry that's messy, as a new user I can't post links.)

Those are additional services, though called "Add-ons". You purchase them seperately, they weren't free of charge at the point of purchase. Add-ons for pay monthly customers aren't listed on the website, from my quick glance, but are listed in the price guide.

Even now, looking through the Three price guide, I see "Add-ons" for mobile internet, BlackBerry, Text(not delivery reports), international saver, TV channels, and a video pack. At the bottom of the page, it states "additional services", so I think they're pretty clear that the above are additional services.

If delivery reports suddenly appear on that page tonight, they'll become an additional service and wouldn't be a part of the core package for people starting a fresh contract.

If they do appear on there, then what were they before?

How about voicemail, and the adult filter? If not additional services, do they represent a core part of the service purchased? Three only define what an additional service is - nothing more. And that really is all we need, from what I've been told.

nsabournemouth

Think some are getting carried away with this. It's 1p! What you will also find is that most people don't use text messaging as much as they do the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp or even BBM.

Delivery reports are not accurate anyway and are as pointed out always turned off as default on your phone so you opt in to use the service so it is an additional service.