3 Early Termination of Contract - Beware

joerules

So I bought an iPhone a few weeks ago and terminated my contract with 3 early. A week before this I downgraded to the lowest tariff. I just got my bill and I have to pay out my contract at the old tariff, not the new one, because the new tariff would not come into effect until after I did the port. I don't mind paying out until the end of my contract, but I refuse to pay out the remainder of my contract on a tariff I specifically asked them to change. Does anyone know if I can do anything about this or should I just suck it up?

Davy

Sadly i don't think their is anything you can do. You affectively were never on the cheaper tariff because you ported to quickly. All you had to do was wait until the new billing cycle date when the cheaper tariff would have taken affect.

jordainius

joerules wrote: »

So I bought an iPhone a few weeks ago and terminated my contract with 3 early. A week before this I downgraded to the lowest tariff. I just got my bill and I have to pay out my contract at the old tariff, not the new one, because the new tariff would not come into effect until after I did the port. I don't mind paying out until the end of my contract, but I refuse to pay out the remainder of my contract on a tariff I specifically asked them to change. Does anyone know if I can do anything about this or should I just suck it up?

Well in fairness, from their perspective, you downgraded to a lower tariff under false pretenses. It appears that the reason you changes tariff was solely to minimize the cost of you buying out of your contract. If that is the case, then to be honest I think you should "just suck it up".

darragh o meara

Had a similar problem with 3 recently when I tried to cancel my 3g modem with them, Got through to some pakki fella who was evidently reading from script and when I mentioned closing the contract he suddenly couldnt understand me!!!! Had 2 months of grief trying to close it, In the end I stopped the direct debit and low and behold they got someone to call me and could speak perfect english. Im afraid thier customer service leaves a lot to be desired..

Tom Dunne

Omeara_darragh wrote: »

Got through to some pakki fella

Please refrain from using such derogatory terms on this forum.

trad

Insist in being dealt with in Irish, that'll stump them.

Tom Dunne

trad wrote: »

Insist in being dealt with in Irish, that'll stump them.

No more of this nonsense. Back on topic, or I will be taking action. The topic, is the contract with 3 and early termination, not the nationalities of the support staff.

trad

I'm not knocking the nationality of their support staff, more the way they p*ss you off with their attitude. What about a non national living in Ireland with a 3 phone who choses to speak their mother tongue? Same situation isn't it?

Back on topic My dd date was the 6th of the month. I lodged cash on the 5th. direct debit bounced. Dd date move to 2nd not informed. I don't have a debit or credit card so paid by cheque. Next month, bordering on abusive call that my bill had not been paid, told them that I pay by direct debit, told they don't have my bank details so paid again by cheque.

Seems to me if your direct debit bounces your bank account details are deleted from their system. Might be a good time to change network.

Our man in Havana

You can dispute the money with 3 all you want, they will not listen. They will hound you day and night for the money before turning the file over to AB Wolfe.

whiterebel

Bond-007 wrote: »

You can dispute the money with 3 all you want, they will not listen. They will hound you day and night for the money before turning the file over to AB Wolfe.

To be honest, they are right to chase people who have signed a contract. Sign it, pay it, and don't try weaseling out of it, because it doesn't suit you now. I'm just surprised it is still loose enough to drop down to a cheaper tariff after 6 months, and to leave after 7 months, only paying off the cheaper one. Seems a big loophole they should have closed off.

Our man in Havana

All mobile contracts allow you to drop down after 6 months. Nothing new there.
Once the account is paid up there is nothing to prevent a person porting out leaving the loosing operator to pursue the balance of the contract.

whiterebel

Bond-007 wrote: »

All mobile contracts allow you to drop down after 6 months. Nothing new there.
Once the account is paid up there is nothing to prevent a person porting out leaving the loosing operator to pursue the balance of the contract.

Not surprised at allowing users to drop to a lower rate after 6 months, just surprised they are leaving themselves open to abuse that way. Not like them.

dar83

trad wrote: »

Back on topic My dd date was the 6th of the month. I lodged cash on the 5th. direct debit bounced. Dd date move to 2nd not informed. I don't have a debit or credit card so paid by cheque. Next month, bordering on abusive call that my bill had not been paid, told them that I pay by direct debit, told they don't have my bank details so paid again by cheque.

Seems to me if your direct debit bounces your bank account details are deleted from their system. Might be a good time to change network.

Direct Debits usually attempt a represent between 5 and 10 days of the original presentation date, so unless Three have decided to do away with this (unlikely as a lot of DD's can bounce on the first attempt and they'd just be creating more work for themselves) then something sounds very strange with your situation.
Plus once you give a direct debit mandate to your bank it would be them that deal with it and not necessarily the company who requested it, it's more often the case that the bank/customer cancel a mandate than the originator. In fact I dont know any originators that do cancel them for you hence so many having to chase money they shouldn't have paid because they never cancelled the Direct Debit themselves in their bank and a companies system just keeps charging/never cancels correctly).

I'd look into it from your banks end of things here, if this is even an issue, which I somehow doubt.