Having taken out an 18 month 3 mobile phone contract last March, I called them to enquire about reducing my tariff to a lesser one as I will no longer be requiring the full functionality of this tariff.

The reason behind this is that I am leaving the country.

I was advised that I would be subject to a penalty payment if I terminated the contract within it's terms and as this amount is quite high, I asked them about reducing the package.............I was told (by their Indian call centre) that this was not allowed under the T's & C's of the contract. However, it was my understanding that this was a legal requirement of all providers in order to cover "financial difficulty".

Admittedly, this isn't the case but hopefully someone can advise as to whether 3 are legally obligated to facilitate my request or whether they are correct and that I must stay on my current tariff until the expiration of my contract.

Thanks in advance.

I used to work for vodafone so the rules might be different but i'll try and give you abit of general advice.

When i worked there customers had to stay on the new tarriffs for something like up to 3 months or 6 months. After that the company couldn't keep you on that same tarriff it was up to you what tarriff you moved on, best thing to do is read your terms and conditions see what it states in there. They might just be saying that to blag you and stop you reducing your termination fee by moving your plan down. This is quite common for companies to do that.

Hi,

I had the same problem, amongst a few others with 3, I checked the on-line info and they have amended there terms to prevent people down grading.

I wish you luck as I spent many hours on the phone to India fighting a variety of poor service issues and 2 written complaints to their head office, neither of which which were answered by head office and without any favourable resolution, this despite me being on there highest tariff and being a customer for several years.

I have attempted to hand my notice in twice, to be sold to in the crudest manor, telling me that I'm one of there most valued customers, whilst offering me a cheaper tariff, "special one off deal for you sir", which actually turned out to be a package which is being sold on-line, it just has fewer minutes....

the question I ask, is it legal to change a customers terms and conditions without notifying them? pretty dodgy if you ask me...

I hope you get somewhere with this.

When i worked for a mobile phone contract call centre, when there was changes aslong as they sent out 14 days notice to customers before they did this could change the rules of the terms and conditions of the contract.

But the customer most be notified first by letter. However i'm not sure whether they have to follow some sort of fairness rule or whether they are restricted to how flexible they can bend the rules. I would seek advice from trading standards, take in the copy of your contract if you don't fully understand what it means.

The only advice i could give everyone, and i know its tedious and boring is to read the terms and conditions and see whats written in them before putting pen to paper for contracts. Look on the internet and find out comments from other people about the different networks and what peoples comments are about them. Alot of people are that fixated on getting good deals that behind the scenes when you take out these offers they turn out to be a nightmare to come off. Especially people that get tangled up in 18 month contracts because they are fixated on getting the best phone. I've never heard of a company like 3 that are this nasty as to not let you lower your tarriff. Once again i would read the terms and conditions of your contract, if they've changed the terms and not sent notification out then go to trading standards before ringing them, see what they say about it.

P.S The financial difficulty usually means that they don't want you getting the best handset and then cancelling the contract to go on PAYT, so what it means is they want to make the cost back up on the handset, plus make extra out of you on your contract.