Business mobile phone contract

frenzy10

Hi! My husband has just renewed his contract from a mobile phone agent. It was too late for me to correct the wrong statement on the contract as it says 'Business Customer' when he is not. Also, he has been offered a very cheap phone (costs about £40) which will cost him to pay £23/month for 24 months. The phone arrived today and it says on the brochure that arrived with it that as a business customer, there is no returns period. Do we have the right to return the phone and cancel the contract? Please help, we need to sort this out as soon as possible. Thanks in advance!

grumbler

Cancel on what grounds? Unlike new contracts renewals don't have a statutory cooling-off period. 'Agents' know this well and are experts in taking advantage of this.

Re 'business contract', nothing stops anyone from getting one. For rogue 'agents' it's a good opportunity to quote the price without VAT thus making it seemingly smaller.

If they quoted the price without VAT and have not made clear that it was a business contract, you can try playing misseling card, but good luck with proving this.

frenzy10

You're exactly right about these rogue agents. They didn't even send a copy of terms and conditions of the contract. What I meant by canceling the contract is canceling the 'early' renewal and just carry on with the existing contract and wait till it expires. According to their records, his contract expires in October. For their own benefit, they insisted on renewing his contract this early. In this case, do you think we can ask them to revert it back to the previous contract and just wait before October?

The quote clearly shows it's a business contract and VAT is inclusive.

grumbler

You can ask, but they will most likely say no. Waiting till October will not change anything. Your new contract minimum term expires in two years from now (or from October?).

mobilejunkie

Er...it only "expires" if he gives 30 days' notice to run to the end of the term. If it that isn't until october, how do you know the orginal contract HAS been replaced and isn't still running??

grumbler

I don't understand what you mean.
The minimum term (not the contract) does expire without any notice.
And the OP did say that the contract was 'renewed'. IMO this cannot be interpreted as taking an absolutely new contract.

If it really is a new contract (I know, everything is possible with these cowboy 'agents') then it can be cancelled under the DSR.

frenzy10

The original contract was going to end in October, but the agent's strategy (and I think most of the agents do) is to offer a new deal months before the contract ends and make sure the customer sticks with them which, unfortunately, happened just the other day when my husband agreed to renew it.

Anyway, thank you guys and maybe the best we can do is ask them to change his account to 'Personal' instead of 'Business' - or demand for a lower tariff -- or maybe demand for a better phone.We'll see...

mobilejunkie

grumbler wrote: »

I don't understand what you mean.
The minimum term (not the contract) does expire without any notice.
And the OP did say that the contract was 'renewed'. IMO this cannot be interpreted as taking an absolutely new contract.

If it really is a new contract (I know, everything is possible with these cowboy 'agents') then it can be cancelled under the DSR.

The point is that you cannot trust ANY offer made if it was merely oral and "agents" such as this usually operate by cold calling. Whether the contract was "renewed" can't be certain unless it is confirmed by either future bills or the network after the event.

Bobbybaggio

@Frenzy10, did they make it clear it was a business contract and have you used the phone?

If your husband was on a consumer contract and been moved to a business contract the dealer needs to prove that he recognized this was happening. If they can't then your husband has the right to assume it's a consumer contract and covered by all the relevant regulatory/legal protections.

Speak to your network provider to see if they have a department who can investigate this if the dealer won't help.