How long is a 24 month contract exactly?

pepsimax31

Hi everyone. Have a small issue with my mobile provider so thought I would check here for peoples opinions.
I've never let a phone contract run its course, I usually upgrade as soon as I can. Decided to let my current one finish then was going to pick up a cheap sim only deal with another provider.
My 24 month contract started 9th March 11 yet my allowance stopped during the afternoon of 7th March this year. Is this incorrect or am I miscalculating?

mije1983

pepsimax31 wrote: »

Hi everyone. Have a small issue with my mobile provider so thought I would check here for peoples opinions.
I've never let a phone contract run its course, I usually upgrade as soon as I can. Decided to let my current one finish then was going to pick up a cheap sim only deal with another provider.
My 24 month contract started 9th March 11 yet my allowance stopped during the afternoon of 7th March this year. Is this incorrect or am I miscalculating?

Your contract never finishes, it just reaches the end of it's minimum term. If you didn't do anything it should still be ongoing.

Did you tell the network you were leaving? When you say your 'allowance stopped' what do you mean? You couldn't use your phone?

pepsimax31

Thanks for your response, I'll explain further. Around a couple of weeks ago I asked them to switch me over to a PAYG when my contract expired as I didn't know what happened and I didn't want to pay the monthly fee I have currently been paying. I assumed that I would then be able to receive calls but not make any until I top up. This is what I wanted as I intended to leave them but still needed people to contact me. I sent 4 texts early evening on the 7th and made one call on the 8th. As I was able to make that call I assumed I was still under contract. I then phoned the provider to ask for my pac code. Upon making the call it alerted me to having just under £7 in credit. Not knowing how I got this I asked. The PAYG department said it was a credit left from my last bill so they credited it to my PAYG account and upon speaking with the contracts department they said that its a fee you pay to switch over to a PAYG but then is credited to the account.
Going back to the original call I made to them they originally told me my contract expired on March 8th and they made no mention of any fee being taken to switch to a PAYG.
Hope this makes some sense.

Added note: They confirmed for me the 4 texts sent and the call the following day were paid for from my PAYG account so were not covered under my contract.

macman

It appears that you were switched before your minimum term expired-normally the next working day after you submit your PAC?

pepsimax31

Thanks. That's why I asked the original question. My contract started on 09/03/11 but ended on 07/03/13. Is this incorrect or am I miscalculating?

Zeitgeist

The minimum term may have been calculated as being 2 x 365 = 730 days in length.

Due to the leap year in 2012, 730 days from 9th March 2011 is 7th March 2013. If you say day 1 is 09/03/11, day 730 would be 07/03/13.

mobilejunkie

They never count the days - only the dates. Unless you fight to have the contract terminate on the correct day they will terminate 30 days' from the day you give notice - and then you will get an early termination charge as well. If that hasn't happened, why worry?

macman

pepsimax31 wrote: »

Thanks. That's why I asked the original question. My contract started on 09/03/11 but ended on 07/03/13. Is this incorrect or am I miscalculating?

You can still use a PAC to terminate before the end of your minimum term. In theory, you would then be charged an ETC for the 2 days, but in your case this doesn't seem to have happened.

pepsimax31

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't request PAC until I realised my allowance had been stopped and I had been switched over to PAYG. As detailed in my second post, I am trying to claim a refund of the £10 but they are unable to because I have started to use it. Had I not used it they would have returned it to me. Which is why I asked the original question whether I had my allowance stopped before the official end of my contract. May seem trivial to some but its principle as I have been a contract customer of this company for over 15 years.

pepsimax31

In case it helps anyone in the future, a contract runs by dates, not an amount of days. I spoke with someone in the executives office and they confirmed this and refunded my money. He actually doubled it as I should never have had this problem in the first place.