o2 Mobile contract issue

aceniz

Sometime ago i entered into a monthly contract with o2. initially it was just a sim only deal. I eventually upgraded to their 'refresh' tariff which included a phone. During both terms i was having multiple issues throughout the contract whereby at my home, at my work, and around the town centre I was repeatedly unable to get a good service. Calls were dropping, texts were not getting to me, people couldnt call me, it was taking me like 6/7 redials to get through to anyone (even dialling a landline).
I repeatedly complained to o2 about this to which they blamed my sim card, blamed my handset, my reply was of course i'd had 3 different sim cards over the course, and used at least 3 different handsets.
I had discovered that o2 were having severe network issues in my area since the destruction of a building that house one of their cell masts. That mast was replaced onto another building with a 'micro mast' which kept overheating as i was informed of this by senior level o2 tech teams.
I complained and complained but got nowhere. I tried calling the ombudsman Otelo, who said they couldnt help me as the issues had been going on for over 9 months. I would have to get o2 to issue a deadlock letter, Which they refused. I subsequently refused to pay o2 for the remainder of the contract on the grounds that they could not provide adequate service at my home address.
They have now issued a court claim for the amount.
Would I be able to defend this on the grounds that they could not provide a minimum service level at my home address?

(NB Moderators, Feel free to move this to the correct forum and i will track it from my user panel. thanks)

SuperHan

You should never stop paying as this is unlikely to ever fall in your favour.

The problem you may have is under the Refresh deal you have two contracts - one for a handset and one for a SIM. While you may have some argument (and probably a poor one) for not paying the SIM amount, you did have the handset and should have been paying for that.

What does the contract say specifically about not being able to provide coverage? I assume their coverage checker says that you are in a coverage area? If they do not advertise to cover your area, you won't have an argument at all.

The other complexity is you continued to contract with them knowing coverage was pants. You knew exactly what coverage would be like when you took out the Refresh contract, so a court may find that it's your fault for not seeking a remedy at that time (by moving providers for example).

aceniz

unfortunately when i spoke to their higher complaints their reply was 'we dont guarantee full coverage'. At one point when i spoke to someone in tech, they informed me they had 27 congested sites in my area. How much of this was particular sites i used they couldnt tell me, but i knew which ones were theirs anyway. one time i was stood 50 yds from a major mast and had no signal, I walked on about half a mile before my signal came back.