O2 charging early cancellation fees on a rolling monthly contract

Yazoo32

Need some help and advice

I have been with O2 for many years and have been happy. My 12 monthly contract ran out this year right before the iPhone 5 launch so I wanted to move to a rolling monthly contract ready to upgrade the handset. O2 convinced me to stay with them and gave me a suitable interim tariff. The iPhone 5 proved a disappointment for me so decided to cancel O2 and move to 3 for their data plans. However the operator stated I would be subject to early cancellation fees, even though they had told me I wouldn't. As I had done the upgrade through on-line chat I had the transcript and referred to it where I was told no charge would occur, yet I was being denied this. Now they tell me I am on a 12month contract when it was monthly as I had requested.

Below is the extract where I ask about the contract

Me: If I take this and say next month I find a new hadnset and tarrif I can transfer with out incurring any additional costs, whether its to O2 or another provider?

O2: Yes, you will be eligible to upgrade in next week also

From this I believed I could cancel the contract. Am I wrong with this?

MrSilk

So you thought you could take out a new monthly rolling contract and get the iPhone 5 more and less free.. cancel the contract without an early termination fee and keep the iPhone???

DUTR

Yazoo32 wrote: »

Need some help and advice
Below is the extract where I ask about the contract



From this I believed I could cancel the contract. Am I wrong with this?

You believed how you wanted to believe it, you can always cancel a contract , but there may and more than likely will be , early terminations fees.

[Deleted User]

It does say you will be able to Upgrade - Nothing about cancelling.

Sorry but they will probably hold you to to the contract.

Dxxx

iritchie

Personally, I see it rather differently, based on the transcript alone (and without knowing what sort of cirumstances occurred afterwards.
).
This is the primary reason:

Me: If I take this and say next month I find a new hadnset and tarrif I can transfer with out incurring any additional costs, whether its to O2 or another provider?

O2: [Yes,] *An example of being missold the contract

[you will be eligible to upgrade in next week also] *just distinguishing that this is an additional comment added to the answer to his question, which was simply "Yes".

However, personally, I would say if you have taken an iPhone handset from them just a month ago, you couldn't possibly have expected to get it completely free and it would be naive to thinkso.
If you paid anything towards the cost of the handset then I think you may have a reasonable case only based on that part of the conversation alone.
Obviously other chats will have taken place and if anything contradicts this then the case is weakened/non-existant.

iritchie

Just reading this again, this portion of the conversation may show where you're completely wrong also, depending on what preceded this portion of the transcript;

Your question was answered (you didn't post the rest of the conversation, so I don't know what the "this" is you're referring to) then separately, you were advised you could upgrade in the next week.
If you took the iphone as "an upgrade" then the advisor made it clear that this was separate from whatever preceded this portion of the conversation.

Hope this helps, but without more information, I can't really say either way and in any case I'd say you would be lucky to get any sort of handset free of charge anyway, let alone a £600 iPhone.

I suspect they were referring to a rolling 30-day contract without any additional committment, but not the handset, which you opted for, and which was classed therefore as an upgrade.

Yazoo32

just to clarify, I did not upgrade to an iPhone 5 as it was not what I wanted, sorry should have made this clearer. I wanted a rolling monthly contract whilst I decided whether I wanted the iPhone 5. I didn't and I kept my old handset. Now I want to move to a better tariff but its not with O2.

Herongull

It reads to me as if "this" refers to the new (rolling) contract.

If you didn't take the upgrade option, then it seems clear to me that you can exit in a months time without any penalty.

Did they subsequently send you any paperwork or whatever about the new contract? What did it say?

If not, then the chat defines what was agreed and (unless there is significant stuff elsewhere in the chat), and it looks like an open and shut case.

PS There is a legal principle in contracts that if they are ambiguous they are usually interpreted in favour of the other party (ie not the party who wrote the contract).

Emy1501

I suspect O2 have stuck you on one of their 12 month sim only deals which are normally £5 a month cheaper than the 30 day one.

I suspect What the person was replying to was that you could upgrade to the IPhone without any problem. They only said you could upgrade and did not mention the bit about moving to another network

Herongull

But they answered "yes" to the question about going elsewhere without penalty

iritchie

Yeah, with no iphone involved, which would only have muddied the waters, you've taken them at their word that you could move without penalty "if you found a new handset and tarrif that you can transfer with out incurring any additional costs, whether its to O2 or another provider".
Their answer is a pretty clear "Yes".
You didn't take them up on the offer of an upgrade and opted to change tarriffs based on the information you were provided with; which was advised to be a non-committal tarriff change only.

Fortunately you retained the transcript with the sales advisor, or it would be difficult to prove otherwise.