Contracts.

AfterEffect

AfterEffect

AfterEffect

Associate
Joined
23 Mar 2009
Posts
348
Location
Midlands
I know this is mobile phone related, but this is more about the contract then the phone side of things...

4 days ago I went into a T-Mobile store as I was looking at getting a G1 Android.
Among other things, one of the main questions I asked the guy was about it's battery life. He said it will last over a day at normal use.

After the four days I've had it, I've found the battery to last a max of about 8-10 hours!! It's rubbish!

I tested something today... I turned off ALL things like 3G/WiFi/GPS and just left it on 'standby' with no programs open. It lasted just over 12 hours.

RUBBISH!

Seeing as they provided me with false info, is that enough to cancel the contract? I understand if they want this months payment as I have used the minutes/texts but they've sold it to me using false information basically.
 
Im sure someone will explain this better, but don't all contracts have a certain get out clause regardless of reason, i thought it was 7 days, i may be talking from my behind though.
 
Lots of different ways you can do this - SOGA, void for mistake, missold, store policy etc etc. Just go in and tell them you only bought it because the assistant said that.
 
You shouldn't have a problem claiming it was a misrepresentation. A misrepresentation which induces a sale can trump what is said in the written contract, unless the contract had an 'entire agreement clause'.
 
fini said:
Lots of different ways you can do this - SOGA, void for mistake, missold, store policy etc etc. Just go in and tell them you only bought it because the assistant said that.
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That's cool. Have you got any specifics or links? As going into the shop and saying that would probably look a bit dumb on my part :p
 
AfterEffect said:
That's cool. Have you got any specifics or links? As going into the shop and saying that would probably look a bit dumb on my part :p
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I'd go down misrepresentation rather than mistake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misrepresentation

Sadly, my casebook is far away, but I'm thinking along the lines of Curtis v Chemical Cleaning & Dyeing Co

Abstract: If a person wishes to exempt himself from a liability which the common law imposes on him, he can only do it by an express stipulation brought home to the party affected and assented to by him as part of the contract. If the party affected signs a written document, knowing it to be a contract which governs the relations between both parties, his signature is irrefragable evidence of his assent to the whole contract, including the exempting clauses, unless the signature is shown to be obtained by fraud or misrepresentation. Any behaviour by words or conduct is sufficient to be a misrepresentation if it is such as to mislead the other party about the existence or extent of the exemption. An innocent as well as a fraudulent misrepresentation is sufficient to disentitle the creator of it to the benefit of the exemption. The plaintiff had deposited her wedding dress with the defendants for cleaning. She was asked to sign a document which contained in it a condition excluding all liability on the part of the defendants for any damage to any article in their keeping. Before she signed the document, she asked why she was to do so and the assistant told her that the defendants would not accept any responsibility for damage to the beads or sequins on the dress. She did not read all the document. When the dress was returned there was a stain on the front of it, which had not been there before. The county court judge found that the defendants had not discharged the onus of showing that they had not been negligent, because there was a time while the dress was in their possession in transit during which the stain might have been caused, and he held that the oral statement by the assistant amounted to a misrepresentation so as to preclude the defendants from relying on the document limiting their liability for damage.

Held, on appeal, that there plainly had been a misrepresentation, and owing to that misrepresentation the exception never became part of the contract between the parties, Low v Bouverie [1891] 3 Ch. 82 CA, R. v Lord Kylsant [1932] 1 K.B. 442 CCA, L'Estrange v F Graucob Ltd [1934] 2 K.B. 394 KBD and Olley v Marlborough Court Ltd [1948] 1 All E.R. 955 KBD applied. Per Denning, L.J.: "I do not wish it to be supposed that the cleaners would have been better off if the assistant had simply handed over the document to the customer without asking her to sign it; or if a customer was not so inquiring as the plaintiff, but was an unsuspecting person who signed whatever she was asked without question"
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Give me a bit and I'll have a search for something more specific :)
 
IIRC, you get 14 days on a phone contract anyway, so just go back into the store and tell you want to change it. I did this with Vodaphone. Just make sure you do it before what you see as the 13th day as that is what they see as the 14th day and you are screwed after that without using the SOGA and other things lised above.
 
Origin said:
IIRC, you get 14 days on a phone contract anyway, so just go back into the store and tell you want to change it. I did this with Vodaphone. Just make sure you do it before what you see as the 13th day as that is what they see as the 14th day and you are screwed after that without using the SOGA and other things lised above.
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I asked them at the time of purchase and he said I have 14 days to change the phone for another one. Apparently they don't do 14 day cancellations anymore.
 
Speak to Trading Standards on Monday. Keep their number on your phone. If they say you can cancel and the guy in the shop says you cant, just ring them up and pass the phone to him... Works every time with jobsworth sales assitants.
 
wilsky said:
Speak to Trading Standards on Monday. Keep their number on your phone. If they say you can cancel and the guy in the shop says you cant, just ring them up and pass the phone to him... Works every time with jobsworth sales assitants.
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This sounds like a plan :D

I'd use this as a last resort though, as I work in retail and know how annoying (and sometimes upsetting) when you get a **** of a customer :p
 
Sadly, it will take a lifetime of trawling to find something specific with my primitive searching skills... however, you should have no problems taking the phone back and having the contract cancled. Keep us updated :)
 
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