"false" retention deal with 3 - do I have any consumer rights??

Simran

Apologies if this type of query has already been covered elsewhere or if it belongs on another board.

I have been with 3 for many years and recently came to the end of a 12 month contract with the iphone 4. I called up retentions and asked if I could have several deals/discounts including a good offer on the iphone 4S.

I had little luck on this but finally got talked into signing up to an iphone 4S on the One Plan for £35 per month - what did it for me is that the guy from 3 offered me a 20 month contract as an incentive instead of the usual 24 month contract but with a lump sum up front payment of £279.

I asked him to confirm this a couple of times i.e. that I would only be on a 20 month contract rather than a 24 month one, and told him clearly that I was signing up on the basis of this fact, as that would mean a saving to me of 4 months rental (which at £35 per month = £140). He confirmed that this was the case.

I received the new iphone 4S, gifted my existing iphone 4 to my wife and have started using the new phone extensively. I then received a letter from 3 confirming the terms of the contract, but it specified a contract term of 24 months, not 20 months!!

I have had various long unhappy calls with the 3 escalation team who have said that the original conversation was not recorded and the notes say that I have signed up to a 24 month contract, and that there is no possibility that I could have been offered a 20 month deal as this does not exist!! They seem to be saying that there is nothing they can do other than enable me to upgrade after 20 months but say that I cannot cancel the contract with 3.

I feel defrauded as it appears that I was talked into signing up on the basis of false information. Do I have any consumer rights to enforce the contract, and does anyone know how I can escalate further eg name & address of someone at 3?

Many thanks!

Tony5101

if there's no recording of the conversation, and due to the fact that 20 month contracts don't exist, I'd say that you don't really have anything going for you at this point.
There'd be no harm writing a letter of complaint though, at least that way you have registered your dissatisfaction and it may actually turn out that the person that did your upgrade may have done this with someone else too...bit of a longshot...but at the end of the day you'd be in no worse a position than you're in now.
I'm assuming that it's too late to cancel your upgrade?

grumbler

Next time don't hesitate to record important telephone calls or to demand a confirmation in writing before agreeing to anything.

Simran

Thanks Tony5101 - correct there are no 20 month agreements but 3 have in the past done deals in order to retain me as a customer, so I went along with this thinking that they were doing another deal to retain my custom. So I would argue that this was a verbal contract and the fact that I was on the phone to them for so long shows that I was trying to get a deal with them, failing which I could have switched to another provider. I thought there was some way to enforce verbal/oral contracts?

Thanks too, Grumbler - I fully agree that these type of conversations should be recorded; I recorded my initial "complaint" conversation to 3 when they told me they would need to escalate the issue, but could not record the next conversation when the escalation team told me there was no mention of the 20 month concession as I was at work. Just wish I would have recorded my initial chat so there would have been no doubt!!

Tony5101

You're right Simran, verbal contracts can be enforced...but at this point in time you have no evidence of what the contract was that you were "offered". A call recording would have been your solution, but unfortunately you don't have one.
Not much more I can offer really, apart from registering your complaint in writing. As I said, it might do you some good if anyone else has complained about being offered 'non-contracts' and it is traced back to the same operator/agent.
Good Luck!

chanz4

Has the account been given a credit at all?

robbies_gal

are you postive they said you could cancel at 20 months rather than upgrade at 20 months?

Mickyk

1st of all, I work for Vodafone Retentions, and in this scenario, if there was no call recording (which is highly suspect, as we have to record all our calls as it is the contract after all) then we simply have to go by what the customer is saying.

So I would push the fact, say to them if they have no call recording then they have no record of you agreeing to any new commitment at all, you didn't sign the new agreement, and they cannot prove otherwise.

jenniewb

Similar happened to me! I was sent the wrong phone (a handset that was 2 years out of date, the actual phone they promised it turned out they did not even sell and the contract was different to what I actually got). Mine gets worse: I called up 3 on my landline (no mobile signal in my home but thats a separate issue) I was told by a guy on the line that I had to try the handset before returning it otherwise they would not accept it as a return. I turned it on with the guy on the phone then just turned it off. I didn't inset the sim or do anything as I was adament I didn't want this handset. He then says to me "ah but you turned it on, you can't return it now you used it and if you try to we will charge the full account to your bill plus postage fees and reselling fees. I tried to talk over him to say I had just followed his instructions but he wouldn't stop talking and repeating the same thing.

I did try to get help from consumer rights who agreed it was wrong but said there was nothing they could do. It appeared that as soon as I inserted my sim, that was when it wasn't returnable not when I simply pressed the on button. I tried calling 3 to get things like a written copy of the phone calls and I was told they were 'lost. I was told they would not accpet the handset back because by then (3 weeks later) it was too late.

3 IMO are the worst company to deal with. I've been through asll but T-Mobile and now just have no mobile. I don't think every staff member is as bad at 3 but there do seem to be a hell of a lot of them within that customer call center!

Back to your question OP, I don't know if there is anything you can do but I would still report it to both trading standards and consumer rights. If you have the money you could try a small claims court but I don't know how they work or if you'd get anywhere. If I had the money I'd want to pull them through it just to make a point and exorcise my anger at them.

merlyn217

In my experience, it is not uncommon for retentions deals to have changed in the favour of the phone company by the time you receive the hard copy contract.

Last time this happened to me (when I had just come to the end of a contract), they also said there was no recording of the phone call.

I simply said

"Oh great! The call where 'XXX' was agreed was the same call where I agreed to renew my contract. That means that there is no record of me renewing my contract. In that case, I'd like to give 30 days notice to terminate my contract."

Low and behold.....20 mins later - call back - all sorted.

Not sure if that would stand up in court, but frankly it doesn't need to - it simply provides an incentive for them to pull their finger out.

Maybe you could give it a try!?

Simran

Apologies for the delay in commenting, I had been on holiday for the past week; by way of update, after several calls to the Sales Escalation Team explaining that I had been induced to enter into a contract on the basis of relying on false and/or misleading information which amounted to misrepresentation, I would insist for specific performance by 3 of that contract, the Manager at the Sales Escalation team agreed to put me on the 20 month contract which I had been promised, and confirmed that I could give 30 days notice to cancel after 19 months.

I asked him to send me e-mail and postal verification of this, to which he has agreed.

Many thanks all for your invaluable help!