Three - terminating my contract - and an interesting outcome!

igdirect

This may be a long read, so apologies in advance!

My Three contract was due to end on the 15th October so I contacted Three Customer Services department by telephone on the 10th August to give notice of my wish to terminate my contract at the end of the minimum period of my agreement. I said I was giving early notice as I would be on holiday during September. Much to my surprise my notice of intention was refused on the grounds that the notice period required was 30 days, with a maximum of 38 days, and that the earliest I could give notice was the 5th September 2015. I said again that I would not be able to contact Three during that period because of my holiday. The advisor then said that if I gave notice earlier than that I would be penalised with an Early Termination fee. I said that I was not terminating my contract early but simply giving notice that I would not be renewing at the end of the minimum term. Despite my protests, Three would not budge so I ended the call to double check the Terms and Conditions - it's lucky I did...

Section 10.1 paragraph (c) of the Three Terms & Conditions states:
“(c) ... if you want to end the agreement at the end of your Minimum Term or any time after your Minimum Term has expired, provided you give notice to Three Customer Services at least 30 days before the date you want to end the agreement. A Cancellation Fee will not be charged.

After reading this I contacted a legal advice line that comes packaged with my home insurance. The chap I spoke to said that if Three refused to accept my early notice (in other words 62 days falls within the reasonable interpretation of "at least 30 days") then they would be breaching their own terms and conditions. he advised that I call them back, repeat my request pointing out the relevant T&C paragraph, and if they refused again, to get that in writing.

I decided to do so using Three webchat as that meant I would have written copy immediately. True to form, my notice was refused and the advisor refused to answer my questions about the "at least 30 days" statement. Three even sent me a transcript of the webchat! I had my evidence that they were not obeying their own T&Cs.

After further advice, I decided to call Three and terminate my contract with immediate effect on the grounds that the relevant paragraph constituted an essential part of the contract and as the Three representative refused to accept my notice without penalty the contract was breached. Of course, Three said that I could not do that, but I went ahead and confirmed the immediate termination in writing, got my PAC number and cancelled my direct debit for the remaining two months.

To cut a long story short, Three then began contacting me daily about the cancelled direct debit, early termination fee, and outstanding balance. What was quite amusing was that they called me and asked for my password each time. I refused as I was not going to give password information to a complete stranger who called me out of the blue! The caller then protested "but how can I deal with your account if you don't give your password". Well, durrr...

After a week of harassment I then called the Three head office in Glasgow to say that if Three did not stop pestering me then I would seek legal redress. Surprisingly, the guy I spoke to agreed with me that the T&Cs did allow for early notice but that "accepting more than 30 days notice was not Three's policy".

Soon afterwards, Three called me and said that they were agreeing to cancel my contract without penalty and with no further payments to make, despite there being two months to run on the minimum term. I received a letter confirming this today.

So, if anyone else has tried to give more than 38 days notice to Three to end their contract at the end of the minimum term, bear in mind that they have no right to refuse that early notice according to their own T&Cs. If they do refuse and try to charge an early termination fee, then Three have breached their own contract and you are entitled to end the agreement immediately without penalty! Three will refuse to discuss the T&Cs and threaten you, but stick to your guns!

diamonds

Congrats, someone using common sense and terms to equalise their position.