Cancellation Charges when Contract Expires

indecisive

Can anyone please help me with a query.

Both my sons have 18 month contracts with 3G which expire tomorrow.

We went to their shop in Watford today and they made no effort to give any acceptable upgrades or retain our custom.

The boys asked for their PACs but we were told to call customer services for them but not to cancel at that point because otherwise the boys could not retain their old phone nos. On expiry of the 18 month contracts we were told they would go on the normal £30 pm tariff and once we transferred we would only be liable for rental up to the date of transfer.

Relying on this we went to Carphonewarehouse and the boys now have O2 contracts. We called 3G for the PACs and were told that we would be liable for 30 days' rental ie £60 for both as that is their policy and is in their terms and conditions. Although no opportunity to read these before we signed was given.

As far as I am concerned this is a penalty and should be unenforceable but I don't know what to do. Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Lazee_Wolf

30 days notice for cancellation is pretty standard across all industries and not requesting a contract to read before signing is really your own responsibilty.

Woby_Tide

indecisive wrote: »

Both my sons have 18 month contracts with 3G which expire tomorrow.

On expiry of the 18 month contracts we were told they would go on the normal £30 pm tariff and once we transferred we would only be liable for rental up to the date of transfer.

It's not an 18 month contract, it was a 1 month contract with a minimum term of 18 months. As the previous poster says, read your contracts. You've just signed the same with O2(though possibly with only 12 months minimum term).

alnsv1000s

Also double check with Three as I recently had a customer whom ported out of Three and they wanted to charge 30 days notice from the date they ported out and not when notice was given.

If anyone can get evidence of this for me, as their standard practice I can pass it onto Ofcom.

indecisive

Fair point about asking for and reading a contract before signing but this is not really realistic when you have pages of small print to get through and are in the shop with the so-called "special offer" which expires on the day and an eager assistant hovering over you. I would like to know how many people actually do read a contract in such circumstances.

My complaint really is that I was misled by the 3G assistant who expressly told me that I would not be liable for 30 days' rental but just for the days used. He also said not to notify 3 that we were leaving because if I did then I would not be able to transfer the mobile phone nos and that I should just request the PAC and the contract would cancel once the new provider asked for the transfer.

Anyway lesson has now been learnt the hard way.

Woby_Tide

indecisive wrote: »

My complaint really is that I was misled by the 3G assistant who expressly told me that I would not be liable for 30 days' rental but just for the days used.

OK that can be a bit ambiguous, in some cases he would be correct if you used the PAC towards the end of it's validity period, otherwise they should have advised that you'd be liable for the 30 days from the issue of teh PAC code until you use it.

indecisive wrote: »

He also said not to notify 3 that we were leaving because if I did then I would not be able to transfer the mobile phone nos and that I should just request the PAC and the contract would cancel once the new provider asked for the transfer.

What he told you there was perfectly honest and the correct advice. Cancelling contracts and obtaining a PAC are different procedures and 'can't' be done together. You either cancel and forfeit your number, or obtain a PAC and retain your number and end the contract at point of transfer to new operator

indecisive

Maybe I am getting confused between "cancelling" and "giving notice to cancel". I thought that if I gave notice to comply with the 30 day penalty then that would mean I would not be able to transfer the old numbers.

Life was a lot easier on PAYG...