Mobile phone contract vs no signal

CiniO

Case doesn't apply directly to me, but to few people I know.

Assume a person is few months into a 24 months contract with mobile phone network provider.
It's obvious that mobile phone provider doesn't guarantee coverage all around the country and there isn't any word in contract (I assume) about ability to break the contract due to lack of coverage in area that person lives. Normally person would be able to try the coverage at the beginning, and then if not suitable break the contract within 14 days.

Anyway - let's say those 14 days have passed long time ago, and now mobile provider ceased to provide coverage in the town where a person lives, even though coverage in that place was perfect beforehand.

What is the prodecure now?

Can a person break a contract based on that fact even though there's nothing about it in a contract itself?

goodlad

Pretty sure you could break contract as "Frustration of Contract" would apply i think.

Cabaal

goodlad wrote: »

Pretty sure you could break contract as "Frustration of Contract" would apply i think.

Not without contacting the provider, notifying them of the issue and showing you allowed them a reasonable opportunity to resolve the issue. If you just decided to cancel without doing this then it doesn't hold well for the phone user.

Thats assuming the user hasn't moved to a different property in the area since signing up that is causing the blackspot.

goodlad

Yeah absolutely they would need to show a trail of info showing that they took reasonable steps to try get the issues resolved with the privider.

Although even if the customer moved to a black spot of the network, personally i would still call that unforseen and still apply frustration. But sure that would be for the legal guys to debate about

GerardKeating

CiniO wrote: »

mobile provider ceased to provide coverage in the town where a person lives, even though coverage in that place was perfect beforehand.

Can you clearly prove that they downgraded coverage, for example did they decommission a Cell tower.

Just because the signal has gotten worse, does not mean the mobile operator "did something", another factor (Wind Farm, Upgraded insulation in your house, New Building in the area etc) may have impacted on your signal;

goodlad wrote: »

Pretty sure you could break contract as "Frustration of Contract" would apply i think.

Winning that case might be more expensive that paying off the contract...

CiniO

GerardKeating wrote: »

Can you clearly prove that they downgraded coverage, for example did they decommission a Cell tower.

Just because the signal has gotten worse, does not mean the mobile operator "did something", another factor (Wind Farm, Upgraded insulation in your house, New Building in the area etc) may have impacted on your signal;

I don't think they decommissioned a Cell tower, but one which was providing coverage in the area broke down, and they didn't manage to fix it now for 2 month. I don't know if they will ever fix it or not.

Winning that case might be more expensive that paying off the contract...

So good lesson is not to sign up to contracts with mobile networks.

my3cents

GerardKeating wrote: »

Can you clearly prove that they downgraded coverage, for example did they decommission a Cell tower.

Just because the signal has gotten worse, does not mean the mobile operator "did something", another factor (Wind Farm, Upgraded insulation in your house, New Building in the area etc) may have impacted on your signal;



Winning that case might be more expensive that paying off the contract...

The small claims court can end the contract. Cost is some of your time to make your case, turn up in court and the court fee (€25?) not exactly expensive.

You can't get any costs but if you can show that the service has been crap all along then you can also claim any money back that you have paid for the contract.

You don't need to prove the mobile phone company did anything except fail to provide coverage at your home address. As a user all you can do is keep a log of your poor service, put in your complaint, waste your time doing some trouble shooting and then forward the complaint to comreg. Comreg may not do anything to help but thats when you start a SCC case because you have done your best and exhausted all other avenues.

ED E

Go to COMREG. Its free, report the mast as being OOO as the operator (Three?) confirmed and has been impacting service for two months. That'll either get you a date for the repair to happen or strong case to back to their accounts dept and get it shut down.