Question about canceling contract with virgin.

garylouden · 13 May 2009 at 13:20

Hello

My Dad got a sony mobile with 300 mins and 300 texts on a 18month contract for £12.99 about 9 months ago. It sounds like a great deal and was for a few months then he changed job and now travels all over Scotland. He can only get a signal in the main cities as the virgin network sucks. His work phone (vodaphone) rarely drops a signal so he was wanting to cancel his current subscription but they want £120 to do so.

Now I'm sure this is normal as you have to pay the difference but he is paying for a service which isn't working as required. Is there any way that anyone knows of as he refuses to pay £120 to CANCEL a service that doesnt work properly.

Smit · 13 May 2009 at 13:37

It's going to be hard to cancel 9 months in to the contract to be honest.
Did he state why he was wanting to cancel his contract? Attempt to speak to someone higher up in management?

There was a story about how someone took a provider to court because there was mobile signal in their house or something like that

garylouden · 13 May 2009 at 15:33

Well he gets a signal in our living room, on and off in Edinburgh and a decent signal in Glasgow but everywhere else its crap.

Rids · 13 May 2009 at 22:37

To be fair, I dont see how he has justification for cancelling the contract from what you've said there.

I can understand how you want to, but its not like its been miss-sold, its just your requirements have changed.

garylouden · 14 May 2009 at 12:17

Rids said:
To be fair, I dont see how he has justification for cancelling the contract from what you've said there.

I can understand how you want to, but its not like its been miss-sold, its just your requirements have changed.

Well his requirements are to be able to use his phone. They didn't tell him that virgin gets 0 signal outside of built up areas when he got it so his requirements were never discussed.

Rids · 15 May 2009 at 20:58

garylouden said:
Well his requirements are to be able to use his phone. They didn't tell him that virgin gets 0 signal outside of built up areas when he got it so his requirements were never discussed.

The problem you have with this, is that you cant place that sort of burden on the person making the sale.

As an example, I sold a customer a Blackberry Storm. I spent an hour with them, I set up their email, I gave them a full demonstration on how damn near everything worked, I checked their coverage at home, the works.

The next day, customer comes back to the store trying to return the Storm as it doesnt have Wi-Fi. At no point, during all the time I spent with that customer, did they mention that Wi-Fi was in any way important to them. Now, I'm not a mind reader, so I dont know what is important to you unless you tell me, and I cant be expected to rattle off all the things that the phone doesnt do, because it wont make you coffee in the morning or fetch your slippers for you either. Needless to say we didnt accept the return, but that is beside the point.

What I am getting at is that I can garauntee Virgin never promised the phone would work everywhere in the UK, no network would do that, if there are specific areas you want to enquire about, then by all means, enquire. I just dont think you can reasonably claim that the network is in breach of their end of the contract on this one, so expecting them to cancel the contract without penalty is hardly fair.

On the flip side, I wish you goodluck with it mate!

Jonny ///M · 16 May 2009 at 17:59

Instead of starting a new thread on here. Can anyone tell me that after my 18th payement to orange on an 18month contract do i have to call to cancel or can i just cancel the direct debit on my account?

atpbx · 16 May 2009 at 18:36

I'm sure they will say he accepted the contract based on his research of their services, and after studying their coverage map.

fowler002 · 16 May 2009 at 19:29

Jonny ///M said:
Instead of starting a new thread on here. Can anyone tell me that after my 18th payement to orange on an 18month contract do i have to call to cancel or can i just cancel the direct debit on my account?

you have to give them 30days notice, best do it before the last month starts so they cancle it after your 18th month is over(if its into your 18th month then they'll charge a little more as it'll roll into the next month). if you say nothing it goes onto a rolling monthly contract, cancling your dd wouldn't stop it.

Jonny ///M · 17 May 2009 at 03:41

Ok my last payment was the 2nd or 5th of this month. I'll give them a call on monday and see whats what!

Jay · 18 May 2009 at 20:04

Rids said:
The problem you have with this, is that you cant place that sort of burden on the person making the sale.

As an example, I sold a customer a Blackberry Storm. I spent an hour with them, I set up their email, I gave them a full demonstration on how damn near everything worked, I checked their coverage at home, the works.

The next day, customer comes back to the store trying to return the Storm as it doesnt have Wi-Fi. At no point, during all the time I spent with that customer, did they mention that Wi-Fi was in any way important to them. Now, I'm not a mind reader, so I dont know what is important to you unless you tell me, and I cant be expected to rattle off all the things that the phone doesnt do, because it wont make you coffee in the morning or fetch your slippers for you either. Needless to say we didnt accept the return, but that is beside the point.

What I am getting at is that I can garauntee Virgin never promised the phone would work everywhere in the UK, no network would do that, if there are specific areas you want to enquire about, then by all means, enquire. I just dont think you can reasonably claim that the network is in breach of their end of the contract on this one, so expecting them to cancel the contract without penalty is hardly fair.

On the flip side, I wish you goodluck with it mate!

Would that guy not be able to return it anyway, as it is within the 14day "cooling off" period?