Breaking a contract

Ube_Astard

Does anyone know of or have experience of what has happened if you return the phone mid contract as you beleive the terms of that contract to be unfair? I have one of these cheque back ones and am having trouble and considering just sending the whole package back.

chocolateypie

Define "unfair"

If it's them not holding up their end of the deal then you can argue to take it to court.

If it's just you not liking the contract (hate the phone, think their prices for web browsing is unreasonable etc) then no, you will have to stick it out.

In most cases, if you think the T&Cs of a contract is unfair, the simple solution is don't sign on the dotted line...

diesel9181

in most cases they will continue to bill you til the end of the contract regardless. anytime ive wanted out early ive reduced the tarriff to the minimum (eg £20/month) and just paid it til the end of the term. some competitors even pay the money for you if you switch. i think phones 4u have a £100 cashback at the moment (although im sure it has some catches) if you do cancel your contract say you are moving and dont get a signal where you are going to so they dont get awkward.

JAYMARSH2005

Have to agree with the above post on this one, your stuck with it I'm afraid, a contracts a contract and unless they have breached it then theres nothing you can do

thefirs

It's important to realise that you are entering into two contracts with a cashback agreement.

The primary one is with the network, with whom you agree to pay the monthly rental in return for network service. If that service were to break down for an unreasonable time or their charges were to increase by a heavy amount then you might be able to argue that they have broken the contract and you are justified in ceasing payment or seeking compensation. Note that poor reception in a particular locality is not in itself good enough reason, as no network will warrant universal service.

The secondary contract is with the reseller. In return for your entering into the contract with the provider via their agency, and provided you comply with their T&Cs re submission of bills etc, then they agree to provide cashback. If they are failing to fulfill their part of that, then your remedy is via the courts service, not via the network. The network will continue to insist on their pound of flesh for the minimum period of contract unless they agree to alter their T&Cs on discretionary grounds.

The cashback merchants have a vested interest in delaying payments and using every legal trick in the book to avoid paying out cashback. They will trouser the commision from the network anyway, but the commission is not going to be enough to pay out every customer, it can't possibly finance a single one of those "12 month free" deal. There is some anecdotal evidence that they are resorting to delaying payments and imposing more and more difficult T&Cs in order to trip up the unwary claimer, and no doubt some customers just give up in shear frustration at their tactics.

kltpzyxm

If you are thinking about "downgrading" your tariff, then you need to check the T&Cs of your contract with the reseller very carefully to ensure there is no penalty clause reagrding this. My reseller does have such a clause, and breaching this clause within certain time frames (within 3 months of connection on some networks & 6 months others) renders me liable to the full recommended retail prices of the items contained in the package. Presumably this would be the rrp of the phone and the free gift.
Hope this helps