No catch my arse

rotinaj

I ve been with meteor billpay for about 3 years now. I went in to a store about 2 weeks ago to upgrade my phone. While doing this the girl in there suggested I change my plan to one of their new ones, as it would work out cheaper for me.I asked her about my free meteor to meteor texts and she told me id still keep them.

Anyway fast forward to today, when my bill arrived it was nearly €75 more than usual. I rang costumer care and was told that when I switched my plan my right to free meteor to meteor texts expired. The main reason I joined meteor at the start was the offer of free text for LIFE.

Do I have the right to cancel my contract with them because of this?

jor el

It Depends. When you changed to the new plan, did you sign anything, and if so, what did that say? If you didn't read it, and it says you give up your old benefits, then you can't. If there's no mention of losing them, then it's possible.

Unless you got anything the person in the shop said, in writing, you haven't really a leg to stand on.

msg11

Jim where you at the end of your previous contract ?

It could have added in a few extra months on the old plan..


From Meteor

My Bill is not what I expected
1st Bill: Please note that your first bill may be higher than expected as you pay a month in advance.

Changed Price Plan: Have you changed price plan recently? If so you may have an advance payment for the following month on the new plan.

Just to add, when you change a contract, any bonus you had; free texts are lost unless stated otherwise on the contract.

There was some uproar with a few smart customers who change to "better" broadband plans, in which they lost there free line rental for life..

Note this point

*Never thrust any sales person, they will say anything too you to get your cash or a sale.

Cabaal

Op what was the exact plan you changed to?

rotinaj

jor el wrote: »

It Depends. When you changed to the new plan, did you sign anything, and if so, what did that say? If you didn't read it, and it says you give up your old benefits, then you can't. If there's no mention of losing them, then it's possible.

Unless you got anything the person in the shop said, in writing, you haven't really a leg to stand on.

No i didnt sign anything or get anything in writing, it was all done over the phone

rotinaj

msg11 wrote: »

Jim where you at the end of your previous contract ?

It could have added in a few extra months on the old plan..


From Meteor


Just to add, when you change a contract, any bonus you had; free texts are lost unless stated otherwise on the contract.

There was some uproar with a few smart customers who change to "better" broadband plans, in which they lost there free line rental for life..

Note this point

*Never thrust any sales person, they will say anything too you to get your cash or a sale.

I was out of my old contract since June and when the bill came all the extras were for text which were normally free.
I know there isnt much i can do about it now. Just gonna have to cut back on the texts

rotinaj

Cabaal wrote: »

Op what was the exact plan you changed to?

I switched from talk 300 to connect 25

jor el

JimBob85 wrote: »

No i didnt sign anything or get anything in writing, it was all done over the phone

Well, they'll have you on a verbal contract then, which is legally binding. However, if the sales person said you wouldn't loose the free texts, then that forms part of the contract. Contact Meteor, tell them you want a copy of the recording (which will be their offer and your acceptance of the contract) and if they can't provide it, then you could take it that one does not exist.

In that case, you could ask them to revert to the old one, as the new contract was either premised on a lie, or was simply never agreed to.

rotinaj

jor el wrote: »

Well, they'll have you on a verbal contract then, which is legally binding. However, if the sales person said you wouldn't loose the free texts, then that forms part of the contract. Contact Meteor, tell them you want a copy of the recording (which will be their offer and your acceptance of the contract) and if they can't provide it, then you could take it that one does not exist.

In that case, you could ask them to revert to the old one, as the new contract was either premised on a lie, or was simply never agreed to.

Just contacted Meteor and asked for the recording, they dont have it.. They dont offer my old plan any more but may be willing to switch me to bill pay lite which still offers free texts.

Oh any a warning to others. Free texts are no longer available on the new bill pay plans, except the €85p/m plan.

Cabaal

JimBob85 wrote: »

Just contacted Meteor and asked for the recording, they dont have it.. They dont offer my old plan any more but may be willing to switch me to bill pay lite which still offers free texts.

Oh any a warning to others. Free texts are no longer available on the new bill pay plans, except the €85p/m plan.

If you call a call centre no agent will be able to advise if a call recording is generally available, to get a copy of a call recording you must make a request under the data protection act.

foggy_lad

JimBob85 wrote: »

Just contacted Meteor and asked for the recording, they dont have it.. They dont offer my old plan any more but may be willing to switch me to bill pay lite which still offers free texts.

Oh any a warning to others. Free texts are no longer available on the new bill pay plans, except the €85p/m plan.

they must revert you to your previous price plan or compensate you for losing your free texts, they may say they do not offer this older plan anymore but this does not mean they can not put you back on it!

i would write to meteor and use the heading "formal complaint" explain the situation fully and ask them to revert you to your previous plan as they changed your plan fraudulantly by lying to you or they just changed the plan on the pretext of signing you up to a new contract but as there is no recording there is no contract!

give meteor 10days to act on this and if their response is not timely or satisfactory you can write or email ComReg with full details(copy of the complaint to meteor), ComReg should be able to sort this out and get your free texts back!

Cabaal

foggy_lad wrote: »

they must revert you to your previous price plan or compensate you for losing your free texts, they may say they do not offer this older plan anymore but this does not mean they can not put you back on it!

Actually it can, if the system no longer has this plan on offer then they cannot physically change you onto it. Speaking from experience they'd be covered if this was the case.

foggy_lad

Cabaal wrote: »

Actually it can, if the system no longer has this plan on offer then they cannot physically change you onto it. Speaking from experience they'd be covered if this was the case.

when meteor took a lot of people off the free text and mms for life offer a few years back by moving them to a newer prepay price plan without telling them they would lose their free text & mms offer they had to put all affected customers back on the plans they were previously on! at this time they also claimed they no longer offered the original tarrifs so could not give people back their free mms and taxts but ComReg forced them to do the right thing.

so they have systems in place for this to happen if required but it will most likely take formal complaints and to be passed on to ComReg for meteor to act on this.

thefeatheredcat

Did they really check if the call was recorded and available? Were you fobbed off? If they have call recording they would have a system... and your is a complaint so they should have a proper complaints procedure to follow. I've used call recording systems before and they should be able to access recent calls easily unless they're that quick at backing up their data.

Worth following up a complaint....and if your old plan is still in existence for other customers... it's not unreasonable that they re-instate your old plan for you if you have been mislead with t+cs or were mislead in dealing with your contract.

rotinaj

After a few more phone calls they have added free meteor to meteor texts to my account

Thanks for all the help

Tarakiwa

Thanks for the update.

Good to see that you got what you wanted and that Meteor were reasonable in the end!

daheff

JimBob85 wrote: »

Just contacted Meteor and asked for the recording, they dont have it.. They dont offer my old plan any more but may be willing to switch me to bill pay lite which still offers free texts.

Oh any a warning to others. Free texts are no longer available on the new bill pay plans, except the €85p/m plan.

if they dont have it they cant expect you to move to a different plan...coz they cant prove you agreed to move plan.