Three increasing charges at end of contract?

Rettu

I received an email from Three informing me that as my 12 month contract has ended they will no longer be able to offer me the price I'm currently paying (£11 a month).

Worryingly, they have told me if I do nothing I will be placed on a monthly rolling plan costing £20 a month.

Alternatively, I have the option of taking out another 12 month contract at a price of £16 a month - £5 more than currently for the same plan.

I think it is probably unlawful for Three to end my current terms *and* place me on a rolling £20 a month contract if I do "nothing".

I can't find anything in my existing contract that states that Three can increase the price by 81% at the end of the 12 months. The contract suggests that if I don't do anything, the plan will just continue.

Is Three's behaviour in refusing to roll over a contract price beyond the end of the contract unusual? Is raising the price in such a manner without explicit agreement or a contract facility to do so unlawful?

It is interesting that Three does not automatically move people to lower price deals at the end of contacts!

I think this is arbitrary and unlawful behaviour.

Rettu

Ah! I see that they are actually threatening to move me to a £23 a month contract - a 118% price increase!

ThisnotThat

It's not unlawful and it's covered in the terms and conditions.

They've warned you that they're going to increase the price. If you have a problem with the new price, haggle with them or move to a different proivider.

jbrassy

It's not unlawful what they are doing. It happens for other services, for example when the fixed rate expires on your mortgage, you automatically get on to the much higher standard variable rate. 

The best thing you can do if you're unhappy is switch. My 24 month contract with Three recently expired and I moved onto a much cheaper sim-only deal with Smarty.  

Rettu

ThisnotThat said:

It's not unlawful and it's covered in the terms and conditions.

They've warned you that they're going to increase the price. If you have a problem with the new price, haggle with them or move to a different proivider.

It’s not covered in the terms and conditions: there is no facility in the terms and conditions for Three to move an account to a different price plan without user consent. 

Neil49

Rettu said:

ThisnotThat said:

It's not unlawful and it's covered in the terms and conditions.

They've warned you that they're going to increase the price. If you have a problem with the new price, haggle with them or move to a different proivider.

It’s not covered in the terms and conditions: there is no facility in the terms and conditions for Three to move an account to a different price plan without user consent. 

I suggest that you read section 4.2 of the terms and conditions where it basically says that they can give you 1 months notice if they want to discontinue your package.

Unfortunately I can't copy and paste the relevant section

http://www.three.co.uk/terms-conditions/paym-and-payg

Jon_01

Rettu said:

ThisnotThat said:

It's not unlawful and it's covered in the terms and conditions.

They've warned you that they're going to increase the price. If you have a problem with the new price, haggle with them or move to a different proivider.

It’s not covered in the terms and conditions: there is no facility in the terms and conditions for Three to move an account to a different price plan without user consent. 

Once you're out of the minimum term they (or any network) doesn't need 'user consent', the same way you don't need their concent to move to another network.

As Neil says above, it's covered in the T&C...

4.2 We may change any of the terms of your agreement, including our Packages or prices, on the following basis:
(a) we'll let you know at least one month in advance if we decide to:
(i) discontinue your Package; or
(ii) make any changes to your agreement which are (in our reasonable opinion) likely to be of material detriment to you. You can end the agreement for such changes as explained in Section 10;
(b) we may need to change or introduce new Charges in respect of our Outside of Allowance Services. If we do, we'll let you know at least one month in advance unless we believe such changes are not (in our reasonable opinion) likely to be of material detriment to you and you don't (in our reasonable opinion) regularly use the Outside of Allowance Services affected;
(c) we may change or introduce new Charges in respect of Additional Services or Add-Ons. We'll publish any changes on our website. If any Add-ons affected have a recurring Charge, we'll let you know at least fourteen (14) days before the Charge changes.

Rettu

Thank you. But they haven't discontinued the package - the package still exists. They are increasing the price from £11 to £23 on the basis that they will start a *new* contract for a new new rolling monthly plan.

My position is that there is nothing in the contract that allows them to increase the price in this way and by this amount if I do "nothing".

There is nothing in the contract that states that I am agreeing to the charges if I do nothing.

The wider issue in terms of fairness and regulation is that they do not automatically move customers to a lower charge when one is available out of contract.

I will probably complain because there's a bigger issue about keeping customers on expensive plans (no longer available) when a cheaper equivalent is available but moving them to a more expensive plan when a cheaper one is no longer available.

TheMilkmansDad

Has the 12 month expired or (I assume) expiring in a month? If so then you've only signed up for 12 months, once that ends you either leave, renegotiate with them or default to their standard tariff.

Is this your 1st 12 month contract? if not, what happened at the end of your last fixed term contract?

jon81uk

Phone them up and haggle a new contract.
Find the price you want on their website and ask for it.
Or see what other providers can offer and switch to them.

I had a similar email a few months ago, the packages they wanted to move me onto were more expensive. I called up and managed to get the same price I was paying before, but on a new 24 month contract.

will-he-payitoff

3 have done this every year to me, I call them up and haggle a better deal. Last time i went from 4Gb for £9 pm to 12Gb for £8 pm