As Buzby has pointed out, you need to show that the price increase has been to your detriment, and if you never call these numbers then it might be hard to prove that. As for livingdeadguy's post, the inability of some people to receive texts might not have been the sender's fault. Usually there's a logical reason for this issue (most of the time the recipient's phones have inadvertantly activated a number-specific text-blocker on their phone - Samsungs in particular!). As the tactic of 'keep badgering them', not sure of the morality of that advice. If you're in the right, then of course stick to your guns and perservere using sound logic and reasoning. If you're in the wrong, then accept it and move on. Although, i'm with you on the communication by email, i wish that more company's made this more of a standard communication method, it would be some much easier!

Hi, My friend has just bought a used BMW from a Used Car Dealer for £1400. He had originally saw the advert for the car on a classified ad on Ebay. The advert (which he has printed off as proof) clearly states that both service history and a CD player were included with the sale. He drove 150 miles (Plymouth to Bristol) to see the car at the company's forecourt, decided he wanted it and paid a £300 deposit. They told him to come back in a week to collect the car so that they can do an MOT on it and have it ready. Today, he has drove back to Bristol to pay the remaining amount and pick up the car. He paid the the oustanding balance by debit card and was ready to take his newly-bought car home. However, when getting into the car he noticed that there was no CD player in the car and no service history given to him. He asked the person taking the payment (the company's mechanic) where the service history and CD player were. After a quick phonecall by the mechanic, he was told that the car did not come with a CD player or service history. My friend then explained that he was not happy as this was an integral part of the sale and therefore he might not want to continue with the purchase. The mechanic said that he had no decisional power in this as he was just a mechanic and the salesperson who had dealt with the sale the week before was not going to be back until 6pm (5 hours later). Therefore, my friend decided that he had no choice but to make the drive back to Plymouth with the car as it was not really feasable to remain in Bristol for the rest of the day to see the sales person. My friend (who had then driven back to Plymouth with the car) called the sales person at 5pm over the phone and was told he was with another customer and would be called back in 20 mins. After 30 mins, my friend called them again to be told that he'd now gone out but he'd call when he's back (still hasn't happened). So, if anyone could help advise what my friend should do? He's been sold a car which is not as advertised. Ideally, he wants the CD player and service history which was advertised as coming with the car. But if a service history is not available then he feels that the company should refund him the amount that the car's value would be decreased by not coming with a service history (approx £400 by his reckoning) plus the cost of buying a CD player. Any ideas what his next steps should be and what his rights are in this case?

You will need to contact the shortcode company directly to request that they refund the charge. Go to the PhonePayPlus website (used to be Icstis) and type in the shortcode of the company involved (hopefully Orange have given you this 5 digit shortcode, else log into your online account on the Orange website to get it from your itemised bill). This will give you full details of the company (Vinister), including contact details and an address if you prefer.

The Distance Selling Regulations should cover you in this instance if you had ordered your upgrade over the phone. This gives you 7 working days starting the day after you receive the equipment/service. Contact 3 and advise them that you want to cancel the upgrade and return the equipment under Distance Selling Regulations. Search the office of fair trading website for more info on this regulation.

You need to identify where the problem lies before assuming that it's blacklisted. Firstly, put your sim in another working phone (either Orange or unlocked) to see if your sim car works. If it does, your problem is with the sim/network. Also, If you can, put a different working sim into your Blackberry to see if it works. This will help you narrow down where the issue is. In terms of blacklisting, Orange will be able to tell you if it is blacklisted, all you need to do is tell them the imei and they can search. The thing is about blacklisting is that your sim will not be able to log onto the network if it is placed in a blacklisted phone. Therefore, if you have signal and can use some of the network services then this would indicate that it is not blacklisted. So, in a nut shell. Test it by swapping sim cards with a friend for a moment to see where the problem follows, then call Orange who can check for blacklisting and diagnose from there. By testing the sim in another phone before calling them you will be able to help them get to the bottom of it and hopefully resolve it. Or if it does turn out to be blacklisted, you would probably then ned to contact Paypal to raise some sort of dispute.

If 3 do not operate a 14 day cooling-off period then i don't think that there's much you can do about it. You might need to search their Ts&Cs on their website to double-check. Buzby, as for 14 day cancellation periods being the industry norm, can you offer any more info on that? From my knowlege, this cooling off chance ceased to be the norm a few years ago, with companies shifting the onus onto the customer to be fully knowledgable about coverage at their intended locations before committing to a minimum term. As far as i am aware, if the company do not offer a cooling off period, and there is no law currently requiring them to, then you're stuck. (although i'm open to being corrected on this).

Unfortunately, there is no get-out clause to allow you to terminate your contract early without fees. Fluxuating signal in a particular location does not mean that the network has breached any terms of the contract. As long as you have access to the network somewhere, then they are providing you with their end of the bargain. Not an ideal situation and this makes it no better for you. Best advice for the future is to go PAYG so you are never contractually tied to a minimum term. However, for you to be in a situation where you rarely have phonecalls lasting more than a minute, this might not actually be the network's fault, but maybe a fault with your phone. If you are within 6 months of starting the contract, contact the retailer where you got the phone so they can investigate a possible fault with the attenae. Or if over 6 months, contact the manufacturer as you should be covered by their warranty (most manufacturers do 24 months warranty nowadays). Hopefully, this is a fault with the phone and it can be fixed, meaning that you are able to finish off your contract with 3 with a better experience. As for Scousemonk, not too sure why you are allowing the issue to go to DCA, but you must have your reasons. All i can say is that your credit file will be tarnished by 3 if they refer it to a DCA and this could cause unwanted bother if seeking credit further down the line.

Hi there Jamberson, From reading you initial post it appears that you have little grounds to contest the debt. You broke the terms of your contract by stopping your monthly payments and so they are within their right to persue the outstanding amount. As for moving to an area of no coverage, this is not a breach of terms by them. They are contracted to supply access to their mobile services, although this is not a 100% UK coverage and so if you are attempting to use their services outside of where they provide coverage, this is not their fault and certainly is not a breach of contract on their behalf. I'm sure Buzby can explain this a bit more clearly, but from reading your post i have to say that 3 are within their right to persue payment. To echo Buzby's regular advice, stick to PAYG where you are in control and if instances arise where you circumstances/location changes then you are not tied down to any minimum period and you can chnage service provider as it suits you. Sorry i can't offer any more help.

The 3 shop might be right, you might be right! It all depends on when you bought the phone and how long you had it before it went faulty?

If the goods are faulty within a reasonable time then you are entitled to a refund. Orange classify 'a reasonable time' as 28 days. Ideally, they'd like to exchange the goods for a non-faulty phone of the same model for you and keep the 'sale'. However, if you do not wish to take an exchange then you are more than entitled to ask for a full refund. Orange can and do refund. If over 28 days old then the issue gets a bit more tricky trying to prove that the phone went faulty within that initial period. However, if it is still within the 28 days and there's no doubt that it is faulty equipment then this should be a straight-forward refund if you request it. The Sale Of Goods act clearly covers this area and Orange have no such Ts&Cs which contravene this. If you have already visited the shop and not had any satisfaction i would imagine that this is more down to a knowledge-gap in this area by the member of staff rather than any Orange policy standing in the way.

The sale of goods act means that the retailer are responsible for the goods within the first 6 months if they go faulty. The act declares that they are responsible for repairing or replacing the equipment. If they are repairing it then they are conforming to the act and you don't really have too much room to argue. If the phone was a few weeks old you might have more scope to expect a replacement, but not if it's 2 months old. As for suppling you with a temporary phone whilst your phone is being repaired, they have no obligation to do so. In terms of your monthly payments, this is for provision of your network services and i assume that you still have your sim card. Some phone shops do supply a loan phone for the price of a refundable deposit. Failing that, just borrow an old phone off a friend and stick your sim in that as an interim measure. Although annoying to be without your fairly new 5800, the shop are accurately fulfilling their obligations under the sale of goods act and i'm sure it will only be a short time before the equipment and situation is fully rectified.

It's completely understandable for T-Mobile to insist that the talkplan is not lowered. You have agreed to a contract for a minimum term at a set price per month. Of course they will not lower it at their expense. However, that said, if you know of someone who wants to take over you contract then they might have an option of transferring the contract and liability into someone else's name. A good starting point might be:EDIT The only other option is to see out till the end of the contract and cancel it/lower talkplan then. There's not much point in buying out in advance, you might as well pay it monthly.

Hi Smorrisey, a quick fix might be to buy a T-mobile PAYG sim to use in the phone whilst you are abroad (check first to see if PAYG roaming is permitted in the country you re going to). You might even be able to leave a personalised answerphone greeting on your regular number explaining which number you are contactable on whilst you are away.

I've just checked 3's website and had a look at the coverage checker tool. There is a clear notice just under the map (it's not even in small print so they're not trying to hide it): "Although we try to make our maps as accurate as possible, the information is only a guide, and is not a guarantee of service availability in a particular location." As for their service being poor, Buzby couldn't have put it better. If you don't like it then vote with your feet and change provider once you have seen out your contractual obligations.

Hi Birch, One quick question: why are Dialaphone sending you a new battery? Do you have insurance with them?

Unfortunately it's a quick answer: no. If you are trying to use their services outside of their range of their transmitters then either no or fluxuating signal will occur which will result in poor call quality/dropped calls/not being able to make calls. Obviously very infuriating to the end-user but it's not grounds for not fulfilling your contractral agreement to 3. They seem to cover it clearly in their Ts+Cs which you would have agreed to when taking out the contract. That said, make sure that it is 100% a signal/network issue before you desair. If you have anyone at your or your girlfriend's address with a 3 phone, ask them what their signal is like or if they have any problems. Some phones are more sensitive to signal than others and so you might find that a change of handset model could help. It's worth looking at least. Good luck, hope it improves!

You need to give some more details. Why are you not happy? Under what grounds are you wanting to cancel the contract? How far into the contract are you? Etc... The more info the better.

Absolute twaddle that they cannot transfer the balance! Ring them again and tell them ver clearly that you have two mobile numbers and you would like to transfer the balance from one number to the other. Give them the mobile number of the sim card that you did top up, you will need to provide some security details to prove that you have permission to transfer (e.g. date of topup, swipe card number, date of activation, etc.). Then give them your new mobile number to transfer the credit onto (again, maybe some security questions here too). The only reason i can think of for them not doing it is if you are unable to provide them with answers to their security questions. Give them another call, no need to tell them the ins and outs of broken sim cards, etc, just tell them you want to transfer a balance.

Ring them and speak to their collections department. Explain to them what you can afford and when, see if they can set up a payment arrangement or do anything to freeze impending charges/bills untill you are back on track. I'm sure they'll be more willing to accept a payment plan of what you can afford as opposed to a situation where they need to write the debt off and not get anything back. Give them another call and be very clear as to what you can afford and how often you can afford it. Hope it works out for you.

Take the battery out of the phone, underneath where it was next to the connecting pins you should see a white piece of litmus paper. This paper reacts to water. If the paper is white then it hasn't been in contact with water. If it's pink or has pink blotches then this is no good and is probably the reason that they refused repair. As to how it happened? Well, i guess that T-Mobile can only speculate about that, it wasn't them that was using your phone. What you can do? Check the litmus paper, if it is white then i would contact T-Mobile to challenge their refusal to repair and explain that the litmus paper is still white. If it's not white, then maybe contact T-Mobile to explain that the phone has water damage and do they offer any form of emergency insurance which covers damaged equipment? There would be some fees i'd imagine but wouldn't be too much i reckon. Final option is to contact the manufacturer directly as you will have a warrenty with them too (2 years i think for Sony Ericssons) and explain about the water damage and if they can repair it or provide a solution. Hope it all works out for you!

Although companies do bend over backwards to keep customers, they will only do it so far as that customer still makes them a profit. You got to ask yourself how much money you would be paying to O2 over the course of a new contract. Out of that money they have to pay for the phone (N96 is top of the range at the moment and probably ain't cheap for them to buy) and pay commission to Carphone Warehouse. If you were on a tariff less than £45/month then that would make it unprofitable to keep you. They're a business at the end of the day and no business would agree to an unprofitable contract. That saying, make sure you speak to O2's disconnection department, maybe they can provide you with the handset on your current tariff, with you paying some money towards the cost of the handset. With the N96 going for over £300-£400 on eBay you might still be able to get your brother the phone and save him some cash. And i'm with you on the 6310. It rocks! My dad still uses his, a proper workhorse!

They should have Ts&Cs covering this if they've any brains! Let me check online... Right, i couldn't find Ts&Cs on their website, but Carphone Warehouse seem to have a copy: T-Mobile Terms & Conditions Unfortunately, section 2.7 seems pretty definiative. Sorry! Also, seeing that it is you asking to vary the price plan it doesn't seem to follow that it is TMobile varying the agreement, it appears that it is you that is trying to do that. Sorry to be bringer of bad news.

If you got the phone from their website or over the phone as so it was delivered to you then you are covered by the distance selling regulations. As far as i know it is 7 working days starting from the day after you received the goods to cancel the contract for any reason. If you took the contract out in person theSn you're probably stuck with it. Sorry!

I've never known Vodafone to have this service when i was with them where they could impose a monthly usage limit, so it's probably true what you've been told. However, i assume they have some system where you can check how many inclusive minutes are remaining mid-way through the month? Get your son to manage his usage himself by him checking every few days how many minutes are left. This should stop any more future bill shocks! And if he doesn't manage the usage himself then move him onto Pay As You Go?!!!

I think a drop of £10 per month rental is very generous. I'd take it before they change their mind! You have signed a contract with a service provider for provision of signal and service within a range of their base stations. It'll probably be covered in their Ts&Cs that they cannot provide coverage in ALL parts of the UK. The fact that other providers can provide signal in your location is irrelevant. Unfortunately for you, T-Mobile are completely within their rights to hold you to contract, and there is nothing wrong about them doing so. However, if they have agreed to lower a line rental or show some form of compromise then i would recommend taking it, which would at least reduce your burden up until the point you can cancel for free. Maybe ask them to lower some more, see how far they'll bend? Good luck.