New phone entitlement?

Lcronin2011

Right so guys i have a question. My boyfriend wanted one of the HTC's about five months ago from meteor but could only get it on bill pay! he had to switch to bill pay and pay 150 or somewhere around that for the phone and then 30 euro a month on a package that covers the rest!

After about our days he hated the phone and it also wouldnt allow him to ring anyone so he returned it and got a full refund. he went back to using his old phone and then ordered an iphone 4 off the apple website because it is unlocked and hes been using that ever since

Anyway it is only now we have noticed that he's paying his 30 a month bill pay package but never actually got a phone off meteor because he returned the first one? When we were in the shop the man said you could buy any phone on bill pay and then pay your package for the year and after the year you are entitled to a free upgrade when you keep paying the 30 euro. Yet my bf is paying the 30 euro anyway even tho he hasn't availed of any phone off meteor? shouldn't be entitled to a phone for this?

I wanted to but the samsung galaxy ace for myself but the sign in meteor says it is only 22euro on bill pay so would he be entitled to get that phone because he is paying for a package?

Hope im making sense? feel like i'm not! any suggestions would be great tho

Nody

The long and short answer would be maybe; easiest thing to do is simply go in to the store where he handed it back and ask for the Galaxy and see what they say (no need to mention the Iphone 4 to them).

Lcronin2011

ya we did that. They guy was so unhelpful though and was like i dont know ring customer service so we did. couldnt get through to them though!

jor el

He paid €150 for a HTC, didn't like it, so returned it and got his €150 back. Is this right? If so, he hasn't paid for a phone, so why would he be entitled to one? €30 a month is the cost of the calls, texts and data. If he's using this, then he's getting what he pays for.

Upgrades are at the discretion of the network, and what you can get will change from time to time. A free upgrade will not be free to any phone you want, there may be restrictions, and there may be money to be paid. If he's only been with Meteor a short time then he won't be entitled to anything for free.

If he's currently in a contract, then there's not a lot he can do. If he's on the 30-day rolling contract (Bill-pay Smart Lite), then he can sign up to a longer term contract to get a subsidised phone.

Kenny Logins

Why didn't he sell the phone? If it was a Desire he could have got up to €300 for it...

His problem, not Meteor's.

rainbowtrout

Lcronin2011 wrote: »

Right so guys i have a question. My boyfriend wanted one of the HTC's about five months ago from meteor but could only get it on bill pay! he had to switch to bill pay and pay 150 or somewhere around that for the phone and then 30 euro a month on a package that covers the rest!

After about our days he hated the phone and it also wouldnt allow him to ring anyone so he returned it and got a full refund. he went back to using his old phone and then ordered an iphone 4 off the apple website because it is unlocked and hes been using that ever since

Anyway it is only now we have noticed that he's paying his 30 a month bill pay package but never actually got a phone off meteor because he returned the first one? When we were in the shop the man said you could buy any phone on bill pay and then pay your package for the year and after the year you are entitled to a free upgrade when you keep paying the 30 euro. Yet my bf is paying the 30 euro anyway even tho he hasn't availed of any phone off meteor? shouldn't be entitled to a phone for this?

I wanted to but the samsung galaxy ace for myself but the sign in meteor says it is only 22euro on bill pay so would he be entitled to get that phone because he is paying for a package?

Hope im making sense? feel like i'm not! any suggestions would be great tho

So let's see,

• your boyfriend bought a phone, didn't like it, returned it and got his money back
• at the same time he took out a contract with Meteor for €30 for phone services which he is still using and still paying
• he would only be entitled to an upgrade after 1 year and you say he is only with them for 5 months
• you think he's entitled to a free phone that he hasn't paid for and also he hasn't been with the network on billpay for the required time to get an upgrade

Why exactly do you think he's entitled to a free phone???

tallaghtoutlaws

rainbowtrout wrote: »

So let's see,

• your boyfriend bought a phone, didn't like it, returned it and got his money back
  
• at the same time he took out a contract with Meteor for €30 for phone services which he is still using and still paying
• he would only be entitled to an upgrade after 1 year and you say he is only with them for 5 months
• you think he's entitled to a free phone that he hasn't paid for and also he hasn't been with the network on billpay for the required time to get an upgrade

Why exactly do you think he's entitled to a free phone???

I think the op meant her boyfriend is still paying the contract from the phone he returned. They may have refunded for the phone but he never cancelled the contract nor did meteor. And they notice a few months later they were still paying €30 a month. I think that is why the op thinks they should be entitled to a new phone.

BrianD

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

I think the op meant her boyfriend is still paying the contract from the phone he returned. They may have refunded for the phone but he never cancelled the contract nor did meteor. And they notice a few months later they were still paying €30 a month. I think that is why the op thinks they should be entitled to a new phone.

If he signed up for a contract he would be well aware that he was committing to spending €30 a month. How could you just forget that you were signed up to a phone contract when you went to the trouble of switching to bill pay and filling out the forms?

The subsidised handset is am incidental benefit of the contract for a phone service. If they returned the phone and got a refund then it doesn't mean that the contract for the phone service ceases.

I find it hard to believe that the chap took out a contract and then started paying another phone company as well.

tallaghtoutlaws

BrianD wrote: »

If he signed up for a contract he would be well aware that he was committing to spending €30 a month. How could you just forget that you were signed up to a phone contract when you went to the trouble of switching to bill pay and filling out the forms?

Why are you asking me this? I dont know the OP or her boyfriend but without being there, I couldn't possibly comment on why he forgot about the contract. Maybe he felt returning the phone and getting the refund would cancel the contract who knows. I went off the facts the OP provided to us nothing more.

The subsidised handset is am incidental benefit of the contract for a phone service. If they returned the phone and got a refund then it doesn't mean that the contract for the phone service ceases.

I used to work in a phone store bout 10 years ago and I know back then there was a cooling off period on signing up for an account. Now I wouldn't know these days if that is still there. But again going off the facts provided by the OP it seems they presumed returning the phone meant the contract would disappear also. He should have contacted meteor to cancel the contract if there was a cooling off period.

I find it hard to believe that the chap took out a contract and then started paying another phone company as well.

Worked in retail for years and without implying the op and her boyfriend are stupid, I have seen people sign up for things and then change their mind but forget to cancel the contract or look for a way out of it. In fact I had a few in my time when I sold phones myself.

rainbowtrout

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

I think the op meant her boyfriend is still paying the contract from the phone he returned. They may have refunded for the phone but he never cancelled the contract nor did meteor. And they notice a few months later they were still paying €30 a month. I think that is why the op thinks they should be entitled to a new phone.

But the OP said her boyfriend switched to bill pay. I assume that means that when he switched that he kept his current number. So even if he gave back the handset and went back to his old phone he would still be using that number and availing of the service?

sdanseo

He's entitled to nothing from Meteor at present. He'll have an upgrade after 12-18 months and a discounted phone. He probably could have cancelled the contract too, I'd say it was his overssight not to and now unfortunately he's stuck with it till the minimum term has ended.

He should have cancelled the contract, returned the phone under the remorse period and gone to O2 or another network offering the iPhone and got it for anywhere from €0-€259 instead of €599 and paid the same per month. Lesson learned, I hope

tallaghtoutlaws

rainbowtrout wrote: »

But the OP said her boyfriend switched to bill pay. I assume that means that when he switched that he kept his current number. So even if he gave back the handset and went back to his old phone he would still be using that number and availing of the service?

This is where the OP is shady because although she says the following:

My boyfriend wanted one of the HTC's about five months ago from meteor but could only get it on bill pay! he had to switch to bill pay and pay 150 or somewhere around that for the phone and then 30 euro a month on a package that covers the rest!

She doesn't actually tell us whether he went from prepaid to bill pay with the same number. You are probably right though. Maybe the OP could clarify some of the details as in parts it doesn't make sense and it leaves us assuming.

Lcronin2011

Right i am obviously not making enough sense for ye to understand. My boyfriend wanted the HTC which was only available on billpay and he was pay as you go. Then meteor told us the terms of the contract and said that when you switch over to bill pay you are entitled to a free upgrade as an incentive to switch, and after that you are entitled to a free upgrade once a year.

Now when i say a free upgrade i don't mean they are all necessarily free. Some of the cheaper phones are free, but alot of them are subsidized. Such as the samsung galaxy ace, that is €30 on a bill pay package, and the HTC my boyfriend originally wanted was subsidized at one hundred and something euro!

So basically they said we were entitled to one of those subsidized phones and any other one a year later. Now my boyfriend went with the HTC and payed the money owed on it and was signed up for the €30 a month bill pay package. He had the phone for a week and it was having problems such as switching itself off and being extremely slow so instead he returned it and was given a full refund of the one hundred and something euro. We were asked in the shop did we want to exchange it for another phone but my bf said it was fine he'd take the refund and wait because there was no other phones he wanted.

Oh and to clarify he knew you could get the iphone on o2 but he didn't want to switch to o2 because he was with them before and they were awful to deal with. But instead he wanted to buy it off apple for the €599 because he preferred the idea of being able to use it with any network incase he ever switched to vodafone or 3. Basically he wasn't tied down to any network. If he had bought it with o2 the phone wouldn't have worked with any other simcard and while it is possible to unlock the phone, you can't update it then without it relocking it'self. So basically if he had bought it on o2 and just unlocked it so he could use it with any network then he wouldn't be able to update it which slows down the iphone so much. (I know with experience) Does this clarify that question?

Now to clarify BrianD's statement. We presumed that when the phone was returned that they would cancel him off the billpay plan because he didnt want to be on it in the first place. It was only after a month when we tried to top up by credit that we realised he was still on bill pay. At that point we rang meteor and they said they couldn't take us off the contract even though we actually didn't have any phone off meteor at that stage. My bf just agreed and said he'd pay them to cause less hassle.

Now, tallaght outlaws i wasn't being shady about whether he was using a new number or his old number. He switched over his current number to bill pay? does that clarify your comment for you????

Okay now for the main question, the reason i was saying we should be entitled to a free phone is because when we were switched over, we were told that we could pick one of the bill pay phones that are 'free' or one of the more expensive ones at a subsidized price, which we did. However, this phone was returned after one week so really we didn't recieve any 'free upgrade' off them when we switched over. They asked when we returned it was there any other phone he wanted and he said hed wait coz he didn't see any one he liked. Now the samsung galaxy ace is €30 on bill pay so my question was..

should we be entitled to this phone for the €30 because we were told we'd get a free upgrade on switching over to bill pay, which we did, but it was returned, so shouldn't we get another one in it's replacement!!

smelltheglove

I would assume that you would still be entitled to a free or subsidized phone as per the original contract, however, they may ask you to extend the contract now that you are 5 months in. For example, I don't always get an upgrade when I am entitled, currently with 2 phones on the account, I am entitled to the highest grade upgrade on O2, I don't need it at the moment, havent since it has been available for the last 4 or so months but if I were to walk in tomorrow and claim my upgrade then my new contract would start from tomorrow rather than 4 months ago when my entitlement began!

So in short, if your other half goes in and gets his subsidised phone, as per his contract, and the phone he gets requires a one year contract he is bound for a year from the day he buys the phone.

Nonoperational

Seems reasonable to me that if you returned the original subsidized phone you should be given the option to either cancel the contract or pick a different phone and pay the difference. The only reason you'd go for a meteor bill play contract as opposed to bill pay lite is the subsidized phone. He should however have done all this on the day he returned the phone. Five months makes it more complicated.