Cancelling Meteor Contract?

cson

Long story short; iPhone got nicked last night. Didn't get insurance with it - lesson learned now. I'm 6 months into the contract so I'd like to avoid if at all possible paying €45/month for a phone I don't have for the next 18 months.

Is there anyway of negotiating a break with Meteor? Obviously know its gonna cost me but I'd rather just take an up front hit than pay for the iPhone plan monthly for the next year and a half.

Mods feel free to move this if you think there's a more appropriate forum.

Fresh Pots

They usually won't budge much when it comes to this, the very best you can hope for is them letting you drop down to €20 a month and you could pay off the remainder of the contract (€20 x 12 months). You'll just have to give them a ring and see what they say.

cson

Yeah I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that its a goodwill gesture that I need. They're obviously perfectly entitled to enforce the contract terms.

Cheers, I'll give them a shout and see.

Smartypantsy

Does anyone know if i can cancel a contract with meteor??

I've had an iphone for 6 months now and I am utterly disappointed with the service and am at my wits end with meteor. I tried cancelling my contract when I first bought the phone but was given some excuse that they have some deal with apple that they don't take returns on iphones (absolute bull****)

cookie1977

Smartypantsy wrote: »

Does anyone know if i can cancel a contract with meteor??

I've had an iphone for 6 months now and I am utterly disappointed with the service and am at my wits end with meteor. I tried cancelling my contract when I first bought the phone but was given some excuse that they have some deal with apple that they don't take returns on iphones (absolute bull****)

If your signal is poor or non existent and meteor can't make it better then they are oblidged to release you from contract without penalty. Comreg may be able to help if meteor are unwilling.
If signal is OK then it'll cost you a lot to get out of you contract (usually mnths left in contract times base monthly fee)

Sashiee

hiii,
I used to work for meteor, and unfortunatly, the only way out of the contract is to pay the full amount off..
so 45 euro X 12 months means if you pay 540 euro you can get out of the contract.

also, cancellations are never willing to listen to sob stories about having no money to pay bill etc and the comany will happily bring you to court ....

sucks!!:(

cookie1977

Meteor are not in anyway going to take you to court over such a small amount. Court would cost them more.

Sashiee

cookie1977 wrote: »

Meteor are not in anyway going to take you to court over such a small amount. Court would cost them more.

They won't waste any time in making sure they get their money. Usually if a customer refuses to pay the cancellation fee's it will be dealt with through a solicitor for the company and will cost the OP a great deal more.

cookie1977

Not true. The most meteor will ever get is the money for the broken contract.

Red Crow

cookie1977 wrote: »

Not true. The most meteor will ever get is the money for the broken contract.

They can be awarded legal fees, bills for debt collection etc.

hattoncracker

cson wrote: »

Long story short; iPhone got nicked last night. Didn't get insurance with it - lesson learned now. I'm 6 months into the contract so I'd like to avoid if at all possible paying €45/month for a phone I don't have for the next 18 months.

Is there anyway of negotiating a break with Meteor? Obviously know its gonna cost me but I'd rather just take an up front hit than pay for the iPhone plan monthly for the next year and a half.

Mods feel free to move this if you think there's a more appropriate forum.

The way they will look at it is they offered you insurance when you signed the contract, you knew the terms when you signed up, and why should they put themselves out because you lost your phone.

If youre a long-term customer they might help you out with the cost of a new handset, but you are liable for the contract. No way will they cancel because you lost your phone.

cookie1977

They'd have to go to court for that and what company would go to court for 500 euro?

hattoncracker

cookie1977 wrote: »

They'd have to go to court for that and what company would go to court for 500 euro?

They'll sell it to a debt collector I would imagine, and they'll take you to court.

cookie1977

debt collectors in Ireland have no legal standing
And again if they went to court for 500 euro they'd be crazy

winston82

If you're going to keep using a mobile just buy an second hand iphone 3gs for €200. You'll likely pay this anyway if you go to prepay so would make sense to stay on the bill.

Metoer won't let you out of this contract so this might be your best solution. It'll cost you €810 to buy out roughly (18 months x €45).

Sorry to hear about your phone btw.

hattoncracker

cookie1977 wrote: »

debt collectors in Ireland have no legal standing
And again if they went to court for 500 euro they'd be crazy

If they adopted that attitude to all contracts they'd go broke within a year. It's not good business practice. If you gave something to someone for one fifth it's market value and they stopped paying you back for it after six months because they lost it what would you do?

cookie1977

winston82 wrote: »

If you're going to keep using a mobile just buy an second hand iphone 3gs for €200. You'll likely pay this anyway if you go to prepay so would make sense to stay on the bill.

Metoer won't let you out of this contract so this might be your best solution. It'll cost you €810 to buy out roughly (18 months x €45).

Sorry to hear about your phone btw.

He's 6 months into the 18 month contract so it would be 540. There are two issues in here so it's a bit confusing. The OP cson lost their phone and needs a new one. The only way they'll get it is by buying out their contract or Meteor being very generous and giving an early upgrade (unlikely). The second issue is smartypantsy who is unhappy with their service/signal from meteor. They too could buy themselves out of contract or complain formally to meteor about their signal issues and if meteor cant fix it then they could get out of contract legally under comreg guidelines.

cookie1977

hattoncracker wrote: »

If they adopted that attitude to all contracts they'd go broke within a year. It's not good business practice. If you gave something to someone for one fifth it's market value and they stopped paying you back for it after six months because they lost it what would you do?

I'm not siding with anyone, nor would I condone just leaving your contract for no reason. My points were:
A) Meteor would be highly unlikely to take either customer to court over 540 euro
A solicitor cannot simply force you to pay more without a court order

hattoncracker

OP, they'll help you if you have trouble with the bills.. Maybe let you change to a non data lower cost plan?

Just call and ask, you'll get nothing if you don't!! I hope you do get sorted. As another poster said, try and get a second hand iPhone.. Hope everything works out ok!

hattoncracker

cookie1977 wrote: »

hattoncracker wrote: »

If they adopted that attitude to all contracts they'd go broke within a year. It's not good business practice. If you gave something to someone for one fifth it's market value and they stopped paying you back for it after six months because they lost it what would you do?

I'm not siding with anyone, nor would I condone just leaving your contract for no reason. My points were:
A) Meteor would be highly unlikely to take either customer to court over 540 euro
A solicitor cannot simply force you to pay more without a court order

Fair enough but you don't know that they wont, Is all im saying.
I

cookie1977

For certain, no. But I know my company has always been advised not to proceed to court for anything less then a 1000 euro debt and many solicitors would advise the same. I also know nor have heard of anyone being persuade in court for an amount so small. Hence we have debt collectors and companies who settle on smaller fees. Look at the credit card companies who don't go to court on debts of well over a 1000. They try to settle this new an amenable figure just to get some money (plenty of posts on boards about it). I can't even find judgements in favour of meteor in the courts for such small fees either.

winston82

cookie1977 wrote: »

He's 6 months into the 18 month contract so it would be 540. There are two issues in here so it's a bit confusing. The OP cson lost their phone and needs a new one. The only way they'll get it is by buying out their contract or Meteor being very generous and giving an early upgrade (unlikely). The second issue is smartypantsy who is unhappy with their service/signal from meteor. They too could buy themselves out of contract or complain formally to meteor about their signal issues and if meteor cant fix it then they could get out of contract legally under comreg guidelines.

You sure? He said he didnt want to be in a contract for the next 18 months with no phone. So 6 months into a contract with phone plus 18 without phone equals 24 month contract? I might have read it wrong though.