Cancelling my meteor contract! Help!!!

swabby

Hey, i was wondering if anyone could help me out with regards to canceling my meteor contract. I signed up for my second year in april but have now decided i wont be needing a phone as i am leaving the country for a year minimum! I went into my local meteor shop and was told that i could cancel my account without incurring any penalties! However when i rang meteor i was told i would have to pay the remaining 7 months contract, over E400! which i cannot afford! I also know of someone who has canceled there contract without incurring penalties but when i asked meteor how this was possible, i was told everyones account is different!
Anyone have any advice or know how i could cancel my account without these penalties???
I would like to sort this out before i leave!
Also anyone know what happens when you dont pay your bill? even if your not using the phone? do you just lose the number and meteor account? id rather that than paying money i cannot afford to pay!

tenchi-fan

You can't cancel your contract without paying line rental to the end of the contact period.
What vodafone let customers do (when I worked there - not sure if this is still their procedure) was reduce to the lowest tariff of €19 a month, and simply pay the equivalent of €19 a month for the remainder of the contract. however it depends on your contract - if they gave you an iphone on the basis of your contract costing €50 a month i cant see them let you out of it that cheap.

ulinbac

First off, meteor are a pain when dealing with cancelling. The shop tends to tell you one thing and when you ring up they say another.

From my own cancelling experience, you have to see out the contract to pay no penalties, otherwise pay the minimum monthly amount for each month as the cancelling clause. The only way to cancel without penalties, is to see out your contract and keep it running without re-signing a new one. Then you are subject to a 30 day cancelation where you give a 30 day notice.

Whatever you do, do not just leave it and head off as it will effect your credit rating, if it comes from your bank account. Though you may not have any money in your account, you will incur non payment penalties (think its nearly 13euro for each one). So when you come back, you will be left with these costs and a very bad credit rating, which means no loan etc. if you applying for them, essentially a mini version of blacklisted.

When are you moving away? Is it in the next few weeks? Don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but from personal experience that is how it goes. Changed over to a 30day contract after the 3rd year and moving to pay as you go because its rubbish

Rocky_Dennis

Hi OP,

I had a similar situation as you. What i did was changed my plan to the lowest amount i could, which was €20 a month. Then i cancelled my account after that and only ended up paying €120 instead of €300. As a previous poster said, if you wander off with unpaid debts, it will seriously effect your credit rating and it will be highly unlikely that you will ever get a loan. If at all possible, try and pay it off before you go, because you will regret it in the long run if you return to bad credit rating.

swabby

Ye im heading off in just over a month! I dont pay through my bank account, i just pay in the shop! any idea would this still affect credit rating? i asked would it even be possible to suspend the bill until i came back but thay said no! cant really afford to be paying them over E400 before i go, need all the money i can get! do you know if its possible to switch to a lower plan?? at least it wouldnt be as expensive then! either that or ill have to fake my death to get out of it!

swabby

Andrewh1984 wrote: »

Hi OP,

I had a similar situation as you. What i did was changed my plan to the lowest amount i could, which was €20 a month. Then i cancelled my account after that and only ended up paying €120 instead of €300. As a previous poster said, if you wander off with unpaid debts, it will seriously effect your credit rating and it will be highly unlikely that you will ever get a loan. If at all possible, try and pay it off before you go, because you will regret it in the long run if you return to bad credit rating.

is it easy to switch to the lower bill pay plan??? sounds like my best option, if its possible!

Rocky_Dennis

I got mine switched handy enough, it was actually the girl on the phone for meteor that told me i could do it, was sound of her. Just went into the shop and they changed it there and then for me. Should'nt be any problems with it.

swabby

Andrewh1984 wrote: »

I got mine switched handy enough, it was actually the girl on the phone for meteor that told me i could do it, was sound of her. Just went into the shop and they changed it there and then for me. Should'nt be any problems with it.

cheers! ill give that a go tomorrow so! it would mean it only costing me E140 to cancel it then! not ideal but manageable! no way am i paying over E400 anyway! no matter what! money for going away is far more important to me at the minute.

Rocky_Dennis

swabby wrote: »

cheers! ill give that a go tomorrow so! it would mean it only costing me E140 to cancel it then! not ideal but manageable! no way am i paying over E400 anyway! no matter what! money for going away is far more important to me at the minute.

Hopefully you get it sorted anyway, i was the same as yourself, sickened at the thought of handing out €300 for something i wasnt going to be using. Felt like a victory only handing out the €120 even though i was still getting burnt, ha, good luck with it anyway.

ulinbac

They will have a bank account number of yours because it was probably asked when you 1st took out the contract. It is not worth the risk. Great idea to switch to a lower bill as said above.

Compudaro

I have exactly 6 weeks of my contract left and am BURSTING to leave Meteor.
Can I really switch bill pay plan to their cheapest tariff, which I think is 25 euro a month and then cancel the contract, thus reducing my cancellation charge, or does changing tariff automatically sign you up for another 12 months?

F1ngers

Compudaro wrote: »

I have exactly 6 weeks of my contract left and am BURSTING to leave Meteor.
Can I really switch bill pay plan to their cheapest tariff, which I think is 25 euro a month and then cancel the contract, thus reducing my cancellation charge, or does changing tariff automatically sign you up for another 12 months?

Would be handier to just see out the last 6 weeks, and then give your 30 days notice.

Compudaro

Very true F1ingers but impatience (for an iPhone) is getting the better of me though! Phoned Customer Care and they said I can change tariff anytime, without penalty and remain in my existing contract! The guy said it would take effect from my next billing date, so my final month would be 25 euro then. VERY tempted to change plan now, buy the iPhone and just take the 25 euro final month hit, letting the contract expire normally. Am I mad to do it?!

EDIT! Just found this post on the Meteor Forums:

http://forums.meteor.ie/index.php?showtopic=711

Anyone know which is correct, the customer care guy who told me I CAN change plan now or the above post which clearly says you have to see out the 12 months before you can change?!

tenchi-fan

guys, read your contract before you sign it!! No one forced you to!

If you are in a 12 month contract you need to pay the minimum tariff for the remainder of the 12 months AND give 30 days notice (before the end of the 12 months) that you will be cancelling the contract.

If you are "out of contract" you STILL have a contract with the company, and the contract states you need to give 30 days notice before you can cancel it. This is true across all the bill pay and land line networks.

Op, one way you can get out of the contract is by asking meteor for a copy of the contract you signed.. say you can't remember signing anything and it wasn't mentioned to you in the store.

I know most vodafone stores misplace the signed document.

tenchi-fan

F1ngers wrote: »

Would be handier to just see out the last 6 weeks, and then give your 30 days notice.

or give notice immediately that you will not be renewing it at the end of the 12 months. If you wait til the end of the 12 months it will be the end of month 13 before your contract is cancelled.

swabby

I went into the meteor shop today and asked could i downgrade my tariff plan, he told me he had done it but wasnt sure if it had gone through so he told to ring meteor after a few hours to see if it had!
When i rang customer care, i found out my tariff hadnt been changed, so i asked the girl to change it for me! she said she would and then told me she had done it and it would be changed soon!
Then just before i was about to hang up, she then told me, it hadnt been changed and that i couldnt change it for the first twelve months of the contract!
When i asked her why? she said she didnt know!
Finally i requested a copy of the contract i signed (admin fee of E6) to be sent out to me as i did not remember anything like this being in my contract!
Anyone know what i should do next or am i screwed!
Also i found a thread on here about meteor changing their t&c of contracts from 22nd of aug which should mean that they have changed the contract and that you should be allowed out of it without penalty!
However from what i have read, to get out of your contract this way! you would have to cancel it before the new charges took effect!

Anyone know anything about this?? should meteors deadline matter??
Cheers for all the help so far btw!

swabby

Andrewh1984 wrote: »

Hopefully you get it sorted anyway, i was the same as yourself, sickened at the thought of handing out €300 for something i wasn't going to be using. Felt like a victory only handing out the €120 even though i was still getting burnt, ha, good luck with it anyway.

Unfortunately i tried and failed at doing this! was it long ago when you did this yourself! was pretty confident of this working as it worked for you but now it seems im back to square one! i would have paid the remaining months had they let me switch to a lower plan! it looks like im going to have to suffer the consequences of not paying them! something which i will probably regret!!!!

Abelloid

What phone did you get with the contract? Can you sell that to help towards the remaining balance?

swabby

HTC legend! Prob not worth too much second hand, plus id need to get a new phone den aswell, so prob no point!

tenchi-fan

swabby wrote: »

Then just before i was about to hang up, she then told me, it hadnt been changed and that i couldnt change it for the first twelve months of the contract!
When i asked her why? she said she didnt know!

Your phone is subsidised more if you sign up for more expensive packages. obviously it's in their T&Cs that you cannot downgrade your package while you are still in contract.

strongback

I was closing a bank account in England last week and the teller told me mortgages have been turned down because people badly effected their credit rating by failing to pay £30 on a mobile phone bill.

These little things can come back to haunt you.

jimmynokia

swabby wrote: »

I went into the meteor shop today and asked could i downgrade my tariff plan, he told me he had done it but wasnt sure if it had gone through so he told to ring meteor after a few hours to see if it had!
When i rang customer care, i found out my tariff hadnt been changed, so i asked the girl to change it for me! she said she would and then told me she had done it and it would be changed soon!
Then just before i was about to hang up, she then told me, it hadnt been changed and that i couldnt change it for the first twelve months of the contract!
When i asked her why? she said she didnt know!
Finally i requested a copy of the contract i signed (admin fee of E6) to be sent out to me as i did not remember anything like this being in my contract!
Anyone know what i should do next or am i screwed!
Also i found a thread on here about meteor changing their t&c of contracts from 22nd of aug which should mean that they have changed the contract and that you should be allowed out of it without penalty!
However from what i have read, to get out of your contract this way! you would have to cancel it before the new charges took effect!

Anyone know anything about this?? should meteors deadline matter??
Cheers for all the help so far btw!

i got out of it with 3 contracts no penalty they are in breach of contrqact full stop

next if you want to change tarriff you can anybody can simple as that
what happens is it will start at next billing date ive done it over the years many a time until i left last week thank god

swabby

jimmynokia wrote: »

i got out of it with 3 contracts no penalty they are in breach of contrqact full stop

next if you want to change tariff you can anybody can simple as that
what happens is it will start at next billing date iv done it over the years many a time until i left last week thank god

I Dont know how you managed to get out of your contracts but congrats because i have tried and tried and cant get out of mine! I have 7 months remaining on my contract and tried canceling due to meteor break the t&c but they are adamant that i am not allowed to do this! I contacted comreg and they sided with ,meteor as the legislation in regards to this, is not clear on how meteor should inform their customers of the price change, apparently an ad in the Independent is adequate!
Also tried changing my tariff plan but was told i was not allowed to but was not given any reason why i was not allowed to, was just told no!

How did you get out of your contracts and how did you manage to downgrade tariff plan???? Once im finished with this year, i will never be returning to meteor ever again!!!

swabby

strongback wrote: »

I was closing a bank account in England last week and the teller told me mortgages have been turned down because people badly effected their credit rating by failing to pay £30 on a mobile phone bill.

These little things can come back to haunt you.

F**k it!!!!

jimmynokia

swabby wrote: »

F**k it!!!!

in ref to been blacklisted
you need to be dragged through court for that they cant take the onus upon themselves
comreg are useless by the way they will side with both parties when complaining

in ref to getting out of contract

i simply said about the law they broke under section 17 of the network thing
in meteors own terms and conditions on site they
say
if by way of any means we cant contact you,
this is where i laughed you have the post,email ,text,or call

gopod

swabby wrote: »

I ... have tried and tried and cant get out of mine! I have 7 months remaining on my contract and tried canceling due to meteor break the T&C but they are adamant that I am not allowed to do this! I contacted Comreg and they sided with meteor ...

Did you try to get out of contract within the required month's notice?

gopod

I followed a similiar thread back in August http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055977831&highlight=meteor+contract

Initially Meteor were asking people to give back the phones. Eventually they simply agreed to allow customers to switch to PAYG or Bill Pay Lite.

Bacchus wrote: »

Yes, just completed the process yesterday. I canceled over the weekend, got switched over to PAYG on Wednesday. I called into Meteor yesterday and signed up to a new contract, no problems. The lads in there knew exactly what I had done and it was no skin off their noses. I think Meteor have stopped all the scare tactics of "we'll take your phone", "you'll lose your deposit" etc. Now, I think they are simply trying to get people to resign up as quickly as possible once they leave.

Roy Rogers wrote: »

Just rang the cancellations dept. for this.

Girl was quite nice and seemed well used to the request by now, no argument or questions. She's swapped me from 18 month contract (Bill Pay Smart, €30/month) to Bill Pay Lite (€30/month).

Thanks to the OP, and everyone else in the thread, for the heads-up on this.

gopod

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056074321

jimmynokia

thats good news must spread the word i know a few looking to get out of it


thats not good enough notice not everybody buys the papers
and to its current customers they could send a text at least so its win win again for many

Abelloid

jimmynokia wrote: »

thats good news must spread the word i know a few looking to get out of it


thats not good enough notice not everybody buys the papers
and to its current customers they could send a text at least so its win win again for many

They're taking handsets back this time, Comreg are with them.

jimmynokia

JustinOval wrote: »

They're taking handsets back this time, Comreg are with them.

im sure that wont be an issue lol