To feel ripped off by 3

[NoMarymary]

Yes another bastard mobile phone rant!

I year left to run on existing mobile and an unsolicited call from 3 offer me an all singing all dancing new mobile and contract for a few £ extra. I ask lots of questions and am a bit by having to have a new number with this new phone, but as I hate the Nokia one I agree.

Happy with new phone, sell Nokia no problems, until I see I've been charged for both contracts.

Call 3 and I am now saddled with 2 contracts. AIBU to expect 3 not to lie by omission? No mention of not cancelling old contract, no indication this was anything other than an upgrade. Have had plenty of upgrades and the only difference was the number and the word contract.

With hindsight of course I was stupid but honestly? It was misleading and immoral not to make it clear to their loyal fecking customer that I was expected to use two phones simultaneously.

Have emailed but not holding breath.

It's your responsibility to make sure you fully understand what you're signing up to before you do so.

What made you think it was an upgrade when it was a separate number? It depends what was said over the phone, the words "existing contract" usually come up often. You've said so far that they offered you a new phone and a new contract which is what they've done. It just wasn't what you actually wanted.

Oh also lots of people have more than one contract for family members. I just think perhaps there has been a misunderstanding of expectations.

Sorry but it would be obvious to most people it was an extra contract . Common sense would tell you you can't get a new one 12 months early.

The implication was that they would cancel the old contract.

Common sense says to me that you buy one phone/contract to replace a previous one. Which was how it was implied.

When I part exchange my car for a new one I'm not expected to drive the old one out too!

It was the deliberate non disclosure of all the relevant information which annoys me.

Plus unsolicited phone calls from outside the country complete with hard sell and withholding important parts of the information needed to make an informed choice is a bit shitty of 3.

My common sense tells me why would I need 2 contracts?

If I'd wanted a phone for a family member I would have contacted THEM!

And if they were offering for a family member why didn't they mention it at the time?

I was confused by that call when I got it too.

But if you sign up to a contract over the phone, you have a cooling-off cancellation period - I think that is law for anything bought where the contract isn't in writing at the time. You will be able to cancel the contract and send the phone back. If 3 won't tell you how to do it, then ring the CAB for advice.

EE have offered me another contract did they not use the word additional?

Thanks, but because I want unaware I had 2 contracts running side by side I went over the cooling off period.

I usually am quite wary and reasonably clued up about mobile contracts, but this was a new angle and I thought it was a new way of getting you to pay extra (which I did) for a contract. ie take out a new one.

I can't imagine anyone agreeing to take another contract out to run alongside an existing one, therefore I didn't see this as an underhand way of conning me. See the car trade in analogy ^^ to see why the call caught me off guard.

No they definitely did not say an additional contract. They said a 'new' contract.

As in (to my mind) a new contract to replace your old.

Contracts are 24 months. Upgrades are not available til the end of the contract.

Loads of people have multiple phone contracts for business or family members it's not unusual. Dp has two as he pays mine.

It was a new number.

How could you not know. I dont understand.

I've had upgrades and the conversation was exactly the same substituting contract for upgrade. I feel it was misleading.

Did your DH ask for an additional contract? Did he mention it was for you? Was it cold called?

I've had this type of conversation too and looked at an additional contract for DH but I knew what that was. I was asked if I wanted a new contract for ME not someone else. Other people may have 2 phones (why when you can have a dual sim?) but there was no mention of another person.

Why didn't they make it clear both contracts would stand?

They said there would be a small increase in my direct debit payments. There isn't. There are 2 direct debit payments going out of my account.

It was deliberately misleading.

Have you actually spoken to 3?

These people may actually be nothing to do with them and just third parties selling phones. Where's your email copy of ten contract. You should have had I and then you would have spotted the error. Do you have a paper or print out of what the contract is?

Ring them up, stay calm and polite and keep ringing them up until they sort it, does sound like a sneaky and misleading sales tactic, you may have agreed to it but if all information wasn't given clearly so you understood fully then I would play stubborn.
May be worth asking to speak to a supervisor and asking for a copy of the conversation as all calls are monitored and recorded these days for training purposes, I bet they have lost it though or weren't recording that day

Guess you could also use the voice record on your phone when you ring them, if they verbally agree they were misleading you have evidence

Thanks. It's nice to see someone agrees with me that it's misleading. I have spoken to a sales person in India who basically said 'suck it up'. I've emailed 3 but don't expect to get anywhere as looking back they did stick strictly to the correct wording. I think it was a third party salesperson so 3 UK may be a bit more reasonable.

I will look up any confirmatory emails but don't think I received anything in the post.

A contract is between 2 people or business and customer and therefore can be broken with agreement of both parties, so when the company calls you and offers a new contract it's not unreasonable of me to think they are ending their side of the contract if I agree to a higher bill payment. That was the implication.

Have also had the 'phone equipment wasn't working that day' when dealing with an insurance company!

Email is just about delivery

Don't panic. This is exactly what happened to me 6 months ago with 3 when I got a new phone, number and contract after they called me. I asked the manager in the local shop what to do when I noticed two bills being paid and he said to call them and use the term 'mis sold'. I called them to lodge my complaint which they accepted, my point being, why on earth would I want to contracts and said I was quite sure (genuinely I was) that the sales rep said I was to call up and cancel my existing contract and get number transferred to my new phone.

I got called back by one dept who listened and said they would get someone higher up to call. He did and he cancelled my old contract, transferred my number and took the extra payments off my new bill.

I think you should be fine. give them a call soon. Best of luck.

Thank you Norwegianbird . That sounds really hopeful. I will email them again because that is exactly how I feel this happened. Mis-sold is exactly right.

That's how I felt. No one would ask if I wanted another contract to run simultaneously, it's just crazy!

When someone rings you up offering you a new contract and they are the other party holding the old contract then it's common sense they will end the old contract if you are in agreement with the changes.

I'll keep trying and hope I have a good outcome too, but honestly 3 really needs to stop this type of sharp practice!

A contract is between 2 people or business and customer and therefore can be broken with agreement of both parties, so when the company calls you and offers a new contract it's not unreasonable of me to think they are ending their side of the contract if I agree to a higher bill payment. That was the implication.

you are right, but this should have been cleared up in the conversation and the responsibility to do so is on both parties.

I don't trust these fuckers (big companies), so I try to be clear as crystal in these cases. I would have asked point blank if the other contract is going to be cancelled.

I hated dealing with 3.

When I tried to leave three months early and settle my ourstanding bill (so 3 months x 15 = 45) they informed me there were cancellation charges on top. They did some jiggery pokery and come up with a figure of 70! I let my contract run down as this was cheaper but I had messing round with circulating new number as I couldn't get a PAC code for the running down contract - unless I wanted to pay the 70 of course...

I got new contract through Phones 4 U who gave me a payment of 30 to mitigate against the oustanding contract costs so it would have only actually cost me 40 which was less than I had originally been prepared to pay but it was the principle! Otherwise known as cutting off your nose to spite your face.

And the cooling off period of 14 days is pointless if you are only aware of the misselling when your bills come in.

They did the same with me a few years ago, ended up with two contracts, despite them assuring me that although I needed a new contract to take advantage of whatever deal it was I could call another number to cancel my original one with no penalties. They denied saying that. I had to have 2 contracts for about 3 months.

I would also get on their twitter account and start tweeting what's happened. I've found this effective in dealing with customer service issues with other companies.

I had already noticed the twitter account and plan to use this even though I don't do twitter yet to put pressure on.

I've just check my correspondence and it is

Thank you for joining 3.... This is your new plan.... Like I was a new customer . No mention of my 'other' contract.

Can't believe they have been acting like this for years! Disgusting!

Of course you can't stop the direct debit or there goes your credit rating.