Cancellation of a mobile phone contact

Markjonty1

Hi,

Need some advice please. My daughter in law took out an iPhone contract with Tesco mobile on the 20th September this year. At the time, Tesco mobile told her there was a problem with a mast in her area that was being fixed. After a week she contacted them saying that the service was still bad. They informed her that the mast was fixed and she shouldn't have any problems. After no improvement, she contacted them again in October and they recommended a new SIM card to be sent to her. She was hesitant at first because she uses her number for her business but at the beginning of December decided that she have to try it. Tesco mobile said they'd send her a new sim in the post. That night her phone was without any signal at all. She got back in touch with Tesco who explained that she'd have no service as they'd swapped her number on to the sim that was in the post. After complaining they advised her to go to her nearest store and see if they could help. The next day she went to the store who gave her another sim and said they'd sort her number. When she got home the replacement sim had arrived but , of course, wouldn't work because the number was being swapped to the new sim! She was then again left without service for another day! She's now back with service but still very poor reception in the area around her home.

Basically, I'd like to know if she would be able to cancel her contract? In her first complaint, 7 days after she'd got the phone, she told them she was thinking of cancelling before the 14 days cooling off period only to be told it would be sorted. How does she stand now?

Thanks
Mark 

username

The options would be to either try a formal complaint in writing via the website https://www.tescomobile.com/contact-us/pay-monthly/pay-monthly-complaints or via the CEO of Tesco Mobile, Claire Pickthall.

As you have seen, telephone complaints get you nowhere - the staff will be keen to get you off the phone as soon as possible. Writing to the CEO might get you some results, or to a higher level department that can have some clout but it would be worth a shot, even if it elicits some discount off the line rental or other form of recompense.

You can also try and remedy the situation, by using a workaround like wifi calling so it runs off the wifi at home/office than trying to use the cellular network, so she can get calls and texts.

Obviously this won't be ideal when she is out and about and not in the range of the wifi.

I would think that she is unlikely to be able to cancel this contract via the normal routes, since any cooling off period is completely expired. Most offer max 30 days cooling off, and that is for distance sales.

sevenhills

Always better to try the network first, before committing yourself to a contract. I have signed up with Lebara, £3.18 per month.
Has your daughter not used the Tesco network before, which network is it on? Tesco may have the same mobile on a different network.