Sim Only Cancellation

[ChloeRich]

How far into a sim only deal do you have the right to terminate?
My sim only deal has just renewed in August but has been renewed to a 24month for some reason.

However,  my work have now given me a phone to move over to with a new provider.

What are my cancellation options?

[mikeliuk]

Hi @ChloeRich ,

I see that in the above you've received some good advice.

I wanted to concentrate on this statement of yours for a sanity check: "My sim only deal has just renewed in August but has been renewed to a 24month for some reason."

Was the original SIM-only deal a personal contract taken out by yourself, or a contract SIM provided by your employer?

When you say "My sim only deal has just renewed in August" and if this is for a personal contract SIM, this can only happen with your agreement so it should never have come as a surprise. Typically it happens because a contract has reached the end of a minimum term period such as 12 months or 24 months and it would otherwise become a rolling one-month arrangement. Customers can then "renew" by agreeing to a new minimum term that they agree to stay with the service provider and in exchange receive a better price.

It surprises me that you have said "but has been renewed to a 24month for some reason" if this is a personal contract SIM as you need to explicitly agree to the new minimum term of 24 months which is your promise to stay for the next 24 months so it should never be a surprise.

If you believe you have accidentally been signed up to stay with the service provider when you never knowingly made any such promise or legal contract with the service provider, you may wish to contact them to understand how this came about. For a personal contract SIM, the service provider may agree to reverse any error (for example if you asked for a 12 month minimum term but have been given a 24 month minimum term, or putting you back on a rolling one-month arrangement) making it more easy to leave without paying an Early Termination Charge which could be huge. If your SIM is provided by your employer, then it's quite likely your employer will have renewed for you and you will need to coordinate what to do with your employer in that case. Good luck!

[ChloeRich]

In short. I wanted to continue with my sim only at a 12 month rolling. I contacted EE via the SMS service. I'd seen deals for the same term but a better price I was currently on, so I asked to move to one of these deals. As i'd never had issues previously with EE with bills/upgrade I never checked online after I changed. I just carried on as my bill seemed in line on my month text. But when I've gone online now to review my plan I can see it is now a 24m plan. I thought i'd kept my text conversation but it must have gone in my mass delete. 

Either way. I should have noticed sooner. I should have checked. And i'm either going to have two phones for a while and look very suspect. Or I will just pay the cancellation.

But thank you all for your help. I'll probably give EE a ring and look at my options.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @ChloeRich ,

I'm sad to hear there has been this mix up in your case. I'm aware that myself and at least one other customer were given an offer of unlimited data for GBP 5/mth but it incorrectly appeared on the account billing at twice this amount or higher which in my case it was corrected by cancellation of that.

I believe in your case you would be justified to request the evidence that you had agreed to a minimum term of 24 months and if that evidence cannot be produced to your satisfaction, they should take your word that you intended either continuation on a one-month rolling basis or a renewal for 12 months minimum term according to what your memory tells you.

I don't feel that it's right that the burden would fall on the customer to check for mistakes made by the service provider. BT Group, which I believe owns EE and is valued at around GBP 15B, subsidiaries should be competent enough to correctly record the renewal of telecommunications contracts as this falls within its core competency and they should be equipped to swiftly rectify its mistakes when these are brought to its attention, and should maintain sufficient records to be able to prove to the customer's satisfaction as to what has been agreed.

My feeling is that a small amount of compensation should be due to you in using up your time to solve the service provider's mess. Hope everything gets sorted for you and in your favour.