Tricky Three situation - they've got me by the credit reports

Leeroy909

TL;DR: Three cancelled my service due to a miscommunication and are charging me for the full two years. How do I avoid the charge and keep my credit report intact?

Morning folks, here is the full situation. I requested a PAC from Three and received it in an SMS with the following information: "If you switch today, the total charge you'll have to pay is £170.92. This includes any cancellation fees and your outstanding out-of-allowance charges".

I wasn't actually trying to switch provider, just to port that particular number to a different SIM, and the message doesn't actually say that using the PAC automatically cancels the entire service, so I ported the number. Three are now charging me the full £170.92, and of course they have me by the credit report. I opened a complaint to Three, and I'm getting nowhere with that. I'm now considering whether to go the ombudsman route, or make a claim in court.

I'm not au fait with credit reporting; can companies basically say what they want on credit reports? Do you just have to bend over and take it or is there any recourse for disputes? What happens when companies make egregious mistakes (which never happens of course)?

Here is the full complaint I made to Three:

I am writing to raise a new complaint.

I requested a PAC from yourselves. I received the PAC in an SMS with the following information "If you switch today, the total charge you'll have to pay is £170.92. This includes any cancellation fees and your outstanding out-of-allowance charges". This message doesn't actually say that using the PAC automatically cancels the entire service, and there's nothing in that wording that implies I consent to that cancellation and the resulting charges.

However, when the phone number was ported, the service was in fact cancelled at the aforementioned cost, which should not have happened.

There is no reason to assume that everyone who wants to move a phone number to a different provider also wishes to cancel the original service; and most phones these days have dual-SIM capability, allowing you to use phone and SMS services from one provider, and data services from a different provider. Indeed, this is exactly what I was trying to do, because Three has the cheapest unlimited data services available, but atrocious phone network service. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has wanted to do this whilst retaining a phone number for the SIM card used for phone calls, and in fact, as you can see from the following information, almost all modern phones, including all the latest Iphones and Samsung phones have dual SIM capability:

https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/dual-sim-phones?sort=default
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iPhone_models
https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/dual-sim-psim-esim-phones/

If SIM service is automatically disconnected when a phone number is ported, there would be no way to do this. Considering that when any new SIM is activated, it is automatically assigned a new number, there is no reason why this shouldn't also happen when a number is ported away from a SIM, and there was nothing in the wording of the SMS above that explicitly said the service would be cancelled.

There is no reason that either restarting the service with a different number, or just waiving the illegitimate charge altogether wouldn't be possible.

As you can imagine, this unwarranted cancellation of my service was highly disruptive to both my day-to-day and working activities. I am therefore requesting either that the service I originally had be re-instated under the same terms (which is linked to a 5g router and data SIM service), or that the service remains cancelled with the cancellation fees waived. Either is fine, but it is not acceptable or reasonable for me to pay a large cancellation fee for a service that I did not request to be cancelled.

Please respond to this complaint in writing

Kind regards

savergrant

"I requested a PAC from yourselves. I received the PAC in an SMS with the following information "If you switch today, the total charge you'll have to pay is £170.92. This includes any cancellation fees and your outstanding out-of-allowance charges". This message doesn't actually say that using the PAC automatically cancels the entire service, and there's nothing in that wording that implies I consent to that cancellation and the resulting charges.

However, when the phone number was ported, the service was in fact cancelled at the aforementioned cost, which should not have happened.

There is no reason to assume that everyone who wants to move a phone number to a different provider also wishes to cancel the original service"

I think most people's understanding of 'switching' is moving from one supplier to another. You have asked them to release your number so that you can be supplied by another network, and they have informed you that there will be a charge if you proceed. You chose to proceed.
There is no facility to swap numbers between different networks without terminating a service.
On some contracts you may be able to terminate the airtime contract but keep paying for the handset repayment. Your contract should specify if this is the case 

Ayr_Rage

I believe Three are correct and they gave you the warning when you requested the PAC code.

savergrant

For future reference a possible way around this happening again is to request a second payg sim from the same provider, then request a number swap. Once your preferred number is attached to the payg sim you can port it without penalty. Of course you need a co-operative provider to be able to do this.

At any stage before the port process started did you clearly communicate to three that you did not wish the service to terminate? Can you evidence this?

If you did not believe that using the pac would end service on your sim what did you think they meant by quoting you £170 to 'switch'?

Leeroy909

Thanks for your responses everyone. I can't believe I'm the only person who has ever wanted to make use of a dual SIM phone to switch their number to a better phone SIM but their data service, but looks like I made an expensive assumption.

saajan_12

Leeroy909 said:

Thanks for your responses everyone. I can't believe I'm the only person who has ever wanted to make use of a dual SIM phone to switch their number to a better phone SIM but their data service, but looks like I made an expensive assumption.

This isn't really about dual sims, and I think your complaint reads as very confusing as a result of focusing on this. I've wanted to switch a plan between family members, which would require porting a number and getting a new number on an existing contract. However my read of the PAC messaging is that this isn't how it works, and a PAC code does both (switch and cancel). 

Would have been much better if you'd asked before using the PAC code, but I think your best bet now is to ask (nicely) if they can reissue you a number and continue the contract. I think that's more likely than demandign the cancellation fees back. 

penners324

You'll have to pay up.

Switching to a new provider closes the original service down.

CouldntResist

Once you switched the number from Three, what number did you think they would be billing your SIM on? Their message about what costs will be incurred if you continue seemed quite clear to me.

In your scenario we would await posts along the lines 'I switched away via the PAC and I found I was still being billed later as they assigned a new random number to the SIM and kept my service live for years. I thought PAC swap ended the service completely, none told me I had to cancel it....'

MEM62

CouldntResist said:

Once you switched the number from Three, what number did you think they would be billing your SIM on? Their message about what costs will be incurred if you continue seemed quite clear to me.

That just about sims it up.  OP, you don't have a claim against Three.  By using the PAC code you terminated the agreement against that SIM.  The fact that the number was transferred to another Three service is irrelevant.  

Exodi

saajan_12 said:

Leeroy909 said:

Thanks for your responses everyone. I can't believe I'm the only person who has ever wanted to make use of a dual SIM phone to switch their number to a better phone SIM but their data service, but looks like I made an expensive assumption.

This isn't really about dual sims, and I think your complaint reads as very confusing as a result of focusing on this.

I was about to say this. The OP reads as if the whole purpose of dual sims is to allow multiple separate call and data providers, so that the mere existence of dual sims phones is confirmation that he is right (to be honest, I hadn't even considered this as a function).

The only purpose I've used dual sims for is to have my business number and my personal number on the same phone (as every company I've worked for provides a company mobile and it's annoying to walk around with and charge two phones everyday). The only purpose I've witnessed someone use dual sims is my parents when they moved to France (and they dual-simmed UK and French sims in their handset).

I think if I was considering an edge-case scenario like the OP, I'd at least have asked them after receiving the warning text...

savergrant

There are a number of reasons for going dual sim, but wishing to move your number but keep the service operational is not one I have heard of before.
As said above it is possible to swap numbers between sims on the same network if the network allows this. Once the number is transferred you could then port it to another network. Many new contracts will allow you to continue paying for a handset deal after ending the airtime plan.