Three iPad Contract Issue

jkpan

Hi all,

I signed a 24 month contract with Three in September 2012 for an iPad +15GB broadband and was paying £29 a month.

I was under the assumption that as I was paying for both the device and data that the contract would be automatically terminated last month. However, my account has been debited this month as well for the whole amount. I called Three and they told me that they cannot change my contract unless I ask for it and they will continue charging £29 although I have already paid off the device! I asked them to cancel the contract but they will still charge me for the next month (30 days to cancel).

Has anyone had a similar experience? any tips? anything I can do? I cannot understand how they say that they can charge me £29 per month for ever as per the "terms and conditions", when I had a fixed term contract and part of the price was to pay off the tablet! Surely as I have paid off the device the least that could have happened (if not an automatic contract termination) would be a plan downgrade...

Many Thanks!

Jkpan

Silk

Most contracts are minimum term not fixed

Do you have proof it was fixed?

grumbler

Your assumption was plain wrong.
Your contract wasn't "fixed term".
24 months was the minimum term of the contract. All utilities contracts are open-ended and last until you or the provider cancel it.

And the monthly price wasn't explicitly split into two parts - for the service and the device.
O2 is the only network that offer contracts ('Refresh'?) where the two costs are shown separately. When you finish paying for the device, the airtime contract still goes on until you cancel it.

wiogs

jkpan wrote: »

Hi all,

I signed a 24 month contract with Three in September 2012 for an iPad +15GB broadband and was paying £29 a month.

I was under the assumption that as I was paying for both the device and data that the contract would be automatically terminated last month. However, my account has been debited this month as well for the whole amount. I called Three and they told me that they cannot change my contract unless I ask for it and they will continue charging £29 although I have already paid off the device! I asked them to cancel the contract but they will still charge me for the next month (30 days to cancel).

Has anyone had a similar experience? any tips? anything I can do? I cannot understand how they say that they can charge me £29 per month for ever as per the "terms and conditions", when I had a fixed term contract and part of the price was to pay off the tablet! Surely as I have paid off the device the least that could have happened (if not an automatic contract termination) would be a plan downgrade...

Many Thanks!

Jkpan

The 24 month minimum term contract has come to an end and you are automatically put on a rolling contract unless you tell them otherwise. Which you have now done.

Lesson learned, at a price unfortunately.

d123

jkpan wrote: »

Hi all,

I signed a 24 month contract with Three in September 2012 for an iPad +15GB broadband and was paying £29 a month.

I was under the assumption that as I was paying for both the device and data that the contract would be automatically terminated last month. However, my account has been debited this month as well for the whole amount. I called Three and they told me that they cannot change my contract unless I ask for it and they will continue charging £29 although I have already paid off the device! I asked them to cancel the contract but they will still charge me for the next month (30 days to cancel).

Has anyone had a similar experience? any tips? anything I can do? I cannot understand how they say that they can charge me £29 per month for ever as per the "terms and conditions", when I had a fixed term contract and part of the price was to pay off the tablet! Surely as I have paid off the device the least that could have happened (if not an automatic contract termination) would be a plan downgrade...

Many Thanks!

Jkpan

Why would you assume your contract was fixed term?

Mobile contracts have generally been minimum term type contracts with 30 day notice periods for many years (and before that, some contracts had even longer notice periods).

Never assume when you don't know the answer, it almost always tends to end badly for the person making the assumption...

grumbler

d123 wrote: »

Why would you assume your contract was fixed term?

To be fair, it's a common delusion that mobile operators benefit from and, as a result, deliberately cultivate.

'3' routinely use misleading expressions like "Contract length: 12 month", "Contract length:12 month contract" etc. So do most (all?) other providers.

Would it be that hard to say 'Minimum term' instead?

d123

grumbler wrote: »

To be fair, it's a common delusion that mobile operators benefit from and, as a result, deliberately cultivate.

'3' routinely use misleading expressions like "Contract length: 12 month", "Contract length:12 month contract" etc. So do most (all?) other providers.

Would it be that hard to say 'Minimum term' instead?

True, but rather than just assuming, surely the OP could have spent five minutes checking the T&Cs in the contract they signed?

chanz4

no too excited about the poor pad

jkpan

Hi guys,

Many Thanks for the replies! I have cancelled it now so the damage is minimal. My only two issues are:

1) that the paper I signed stated "contract length:24 months" not minimum length or anything like that, but you are right I should have checked the T&Cs

2) that the same paper stated that out of the £29, £25 were for the broadband package and £4 for the device. So if the contract was for 2 years to pay off the device how did the price at least not change afterwards? but I am guessing that this is more of a rhetorical question...

grumbler

jkpan wrote: »

2) that the same paper stated that out of the £29, £25 were for the broadband package and £4 for the device. So if the contract was for 2 years to pay off the device how did the price at least not change afterwards? but I am guessing that this is more of a rhetorical question...

Well, if the paperwork clearly says this, I'd complain and demand 2x£4 refunded on principle.