3 network, taking 4 months to connect my phone.

Sillychuckie

Hi there. Posing this question on behalf of a friend:

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Hi. I purchased a mobile phone contract from 3 in November '06. I had to pay a £100 deposit due to a poor credit rating, but they accepted my payment and delivered a phone the next day.
The phone was not connected.
I have called them 20 times and visited 4 different shops on 5 occasions.
Still to this day, the phone is not connected. :mad:

The contract has not officially started yet because they have not connected the phone... nor are they charging me yet.
They say they are unable to connect it due to an internal fault, so I must return the phone and order a new one under their latest contract terms.
(The phone and sim card must be somehow 'tied' together, but they sent out the wrong batch and can't replace one. They aren't agreeing to send a replacement of both either.. so its 'keep waiting', or 'cancel').
Their current deals are far less better value than the one I ordered so I am reluctant to cancel it.

I am going to write to them (first time) demanding they send me a new phone and sim card that will work, under the original terms of our initial contract.
Am I right in thinking that they are duty bound to honour their original contract agreement?
It is ridiculous how long this is taking to sort out and even months later, they can only say "we know there is a problem, but we dont know how long it will take to fix. call again next week... or, you can still cancel everything and send the phone back".

I'm reluctant to cancel as:
a) I'd miss out on the excellent deal they are no longer offering.
b) I don't trust them to give me my £100 deposit back after I have sent the phone back.

Anyone have any thoughts about what I might try, or write that I might not have thought of?
Any decent quotes... or section X of abc (such as statuatory rights act of 1994... or something) that I could use for abit more firepower?

Any tips welcome. Thanks.