Can I end my o2 contract early?

I've recently had issues with 02 - my wife thought she had lost her
phone (phone is under my account), in the house, but thought it prudent
to stop the line just in case. As it iturned out the phone was found
the next day and we called 02 and they sent a new sim card out to
replace the previous cancelled one, however it did not work. To cut a
long story short since then I've had three sims cards sent out and also
went to an o2 store to get a sim as inctructed by the customer serves
department and yet after nearly 4 weeks my wife is still without use of
here phone.
I spoke to the retentions department and they tell me in order to get
out of my contract I would have to pay for the remeining term of my
contract. I've confirmed there is no problem on my wifes phone as I
can use another sim card in there to make / recieve calls. The issue
appears with the sim cards they are sending me.

Basically she's been without the use of her mobile for 4 weeks and she
relies on this heavily. I wanted to see if I could terinate the
contract (even though I'm in the minimum period) and I looked at terms
and conditions
(http://www.o2.co.uk/termsconditions/yourairtimecontract) - in section
8.3 / 8.4 it states

8.3 If this Agreement is ended during the Minimum Period, you must pay
the monthly subscription charges up to the end of the Minimum Period.
This does not apply if you end the Agreement for the reasons in
paragraph 8.4.
8.4 You may end this Agreement by giving us written notice if:
we break this Agreement in any way and we do not correct the situation
within 7 days of your request;
we go into liquidation or a Receiver is appointed over our assets; or
we increase Charges for your Inclusive Calls or your monthly line
rental charge or change this Agreement to your significant
disadvantage, provided you give us a minimum of 30 days written notice
(and provided you notify us within one month of our telling you about
the changes). This does not apply where the increase or change relates
solely to Additional Services in which case you may cancel, or stop
using, that Additional Service.
In the situations described in 8.4 above paragraph 8.3 will not apply.

However the retentions department told me becasue section 2.4 states
the below - they are not in breach.

2.4 We will do our best to provide Service to you and any additional
service requested by you (such as roaming) or if you instruct us to
change your Service (e.g. to bar calls) by any date we have agreed with
you but our ability to do so may be affected by circumstances beyond
our control.

I did ask for a bar to be placed and this was acted on in a timely
fashion. Conseqeuntly I then asked for a new sim so services could be
reinstated and after nearly 4 weeks this is still not the case.

Do I have an valid case to end the agreement without penalty?

"mits" <mitul_patel@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:1158592369.265516.113790@d34g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com...
> I've recently had issues with 02 -
>
> I spoke to the retentions department and they tell me in order to get
> out of my contract I would have to pay for the remeining term of my
> contract.

What on earth are you asking here for when you have been given a full
explanation by the company you have the contract with? If someone does
answer you here what are you going to do? saying "someone on the Internet
told me" will have them falling about laughing.
Speak to the company, if you do not understand what they are telling you
then get someone who does.

"malc" <dc41@malc.net> wrote in message
news:450ee829$1_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
>
> What on earth are you asking here for when you have been given a full
> explanation by the company you have the contract with? If someone does
> answer you here what are you going to do? saying "someone on the Internet
> told me" will have them falling about laughing.
> Speak to the company, if you do not understand what they are telling you
> then get someone who does.
>

Yes. Very helpful. Was it worth it really worth the effort replying with a
snotty answer like that? Companies will and do lie to customers to get
money. And there are some very knowledgeable usenet users who could advise
on where he stands from a legal point of view.

>I spoke to the retentions department and they tell me in order to get
> out of my contract I would have to pay for the remeining term of my
> contract.

I'm not expert but I would guess you would have a very good case to get out
of the contract early if they haven't been able to supply you with a service
that has not worked for a month. Or, at the very least refund the months it
has not worked.

Dan

Dan wrote:
> "malc" <dc41@malc.net> wrote in message
> news:450ee829$1_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
>> What on earth are you asking here for when you have been given a full
>> explanation by the company you have the contract with? If someone does
>> answer you here what are you going to do? saying "someone on the Internet
>> told me" will have them falling about laughing.
>> Speak to the company, if you do not understand what they are telling you
>> then get someone who does.
>>
>
> Yes. Very helpful. Was it worth it really worth the effort replying with a
> snotty answer like that? Companies will and do lie to customers to get
> money. And there are some very knowledgeable usenet users who could advise
> on where he stands from a legal point of view.
>
>> I spoke to the retentions department and they tell me in order to get
>> out of my contract I would have to pay for the remeining term of my
>> contract.
>
> I'm not expert but I would guess you would have a very good case to get out
> of the contract early if they haven't been able to supply you with a service
> that has not worked for a month. Or, at the very least refund the months it
> has not worked.
>
> Dan

If the SIM they have supplied works in another phone, then they've met
their end of the contract. Until you've tried that you're unable to be
certain that the SIM works or not, and it isn't something strange with
your handset (I know you've tried another SIM though).

D

mits wrote:
> I've recently had issues with 02 - my wife thought she had lost her
> phone (phone is under my account), in the house, but thought it prudent
> to stop the line just in case. As it iturned out the phone was found
> the next day and we called 02 and they sent a new sim card out to
> replace the previous cancelled one, however it did not work. To cut a
> long story short since then I've had three sims cards sent out and also
> went to an o2 store to get a sim as inctructed by the customer serves
> department and yet after nearly 4 weeks my wife is still without use of
> here phone.
> I spoke to the retentions department and they tell me in order to get
> out of my contract I would have to pay for the remeining term of my
> contract. I've confirmed there is no problem on my wifes phone as I
> can use another sim card in there to make / recieve calls. The issue
> appears with the sim cards they are sending me.
>

>

Have you tried asking them to send a sim out with a different number,
there might be something strange happening their side with the account
itself.

Eddy

> If the SIM they have supplied works in another phone, then they've met
> their end of the contract. Until you've tried that you're unable to be
> certain that the SIM works or not, and it isn't something strange with
> your handset (I know you've tried another SIM though).

I'll try this first. thanks for your advice.

David Hearn wrote:

> Dan wrote:
> > "malc" <dc41@malc.net> wrote in message
> > news:450ee829$1_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
> >> What on earth are you asking here for when you have been given a full
> >> explanation by the company you have the contract with? If someone does
> >> answer you here what are you going to do? saying "someone on the Internet
> >> told me" will have them falling about laughing.
> >> Speak to the company, if you do not understand what they are telling you
> >> then get someone who does.
> >>
> >
> > Yes. Very helpful. Was it worth it really worth the effort replying with a
> > snotty answer like that? Companies will and do lie to customers to get
> > money. And there are some very knowledgeable usenet users who could advise
> > on where he stands from a legal point of view.
> >
> >> I spoke to the retentions department and they tell me in order to get
> >> out of my contract I would have to pay for the remeining term of my
> >> contract.
> >
> > I'm not expert but I would guess you would have a very good case to get out
> > of the contract early if they haven't been able to supply you with a service
> > that has not worked for a month. Or, at the very least refund the months it
> > has not worked.
> >
> > Dan
>
> If the SIM they have supplied works in another phone, then they've met
> their end of the contract. Until you've tried that you're unable to be
> certain that the SIM works or not, and it isn't something strange with
> your handset (I know you've tried another SIM though).
>
> D

> I'm not expert but I would guess you would have a very good case to get out
> of the contract early if they haven't been able to supply you with a service
> that has not worked for a month. Or, at the very least refund the months it
> has not worked.
>
> Dan

Thanks Dan - I've so far managed to get a month line rental paid for
and about 25 pounds for the inconvenience. The issue here is being
without a mobile phone in such times where we rely on them so much. 4
weeks is a long time!

I'm going to try the sim they have sent me in another phone and if this
does not work then I think I have proved they have not kept up their
end of the contract. If thats the case then a friend of mine who is a
solicitor will write to them to terminate my contract.

Thnaks again - I'll keep you posted!

mits wrote:
> > I'm not expert but I would guess you would have a very good case to get out
> > of the contract early if they haven't been able to supply you with a service
> > that has not worked for a month. Or, at the very least refund the months it
> > has not worked.
> >
> > Dan
>

yeah might be the case that they have blocked your mobile set... as you
had lost it (for few days)

> yeah might be the case that they have blocked your mobile set... as you
> had lost it (for few days)

IMEI (handset) bar was lifted and I can confrim this as I can query the
phone book and access old messages store on the phone. (Their tehnical
help desk advised me of this as a good way to test).

On 19 Sep 2006 01:55:10 -0700, "mits" <mitul_patel@btinternet.com>
wrote:

>
>> yeah might be the case that they have blocked your mobile set... as you
>> had lost it (for few days)
>
>IMEI (handset) bar was lifted and I can confrim this as I can query the
>phone book and access old messages store on the phone. (Their tehnical
>help desk advised me of this as a good way to test).

Did you try to make a call from the handset with a known working SIM
card inserted?

From my experience, once a handset has been blacklisted it can never
been unblacklisted.

Sam.

mits wrote:
>> yeah might be the case that they have blocked your mobile set... as you
>> had lost it (for few days)
>
> IMEI (handset) bar was lifted and I can confrim this as I can query the
> phone book and access old messages store on the phone. (Their tehnical
> help desk advised me of this as a good way to test).

That test doesn't confirm an entry on or off the IMEI blacklist.

You need to have the handset make a call with a SIM - perhaps try
another SIM.

Sam wrote:

> From my experience, once a handset has been blacklisted it can never
> been unblacklisted.

Whereas I have had two reversals (on Orange) following a theft and
recovery of the handsets.

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:46:10 +0100, Colin Forrester
<colin@thefrogslepthere.com> wrote:

>Sam wrote:
>
>> From my experience, once a handset has been blacklisted it can never
>> be unblacklisted.
>
>Whereas I have had two reversals (on Orange) following a theft and
>recovery of the handsets.

A few year back I managed a reversal with Orange.

Since the networks started sharing blacklist data I've never
personally seen a reversal done.

Sam.

> That test doesn't confirm an entry on or off the IMEI blacklist.
>
> You need to have the handset make a call with a SIM - perhaps try
> another SIM.


I did this I have 3 phones with o2, so I tried my (working sim) in my
wifes phone and I could make / recieve calls normally. I'm almost
certain that there is no bar on the phone.

On her phone the message always indicates 'inactive sim' but the
network signal is pretty much full strength.

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006, mits wrote:

> On her phone the message always indicates 'inactive sim' but the
> network signal is pretty much full strength.

I had this when I went from 2G to 3G. I called up to get a new SIM, they
said I could go to a shop and pick one up if I wanted (saves posting it
out) so I did this and got the shop to activate it. They said "give it a
few hours to go through the system", but even the next day it didn't work.
I went back and they had anoter go, and it still didn't work.

I called up and said I needed the SIM activated, she took the SIM details
and I was up and running. Third time lucky
--
Chris Johns