Who does the phone belong to?

[Nasir]

After months of poor reception and calls failing, O2 have decided to approve my cancellation of the contract with no termination fees. Great so far, but they want the iPhone back. I paid £100 for the handset at the time of taking the contract out (March 2012), I think this phone should really be mine. Where do I stand with this? I haven't cancelled yet, so I'm just trying to gather information.

[Deako]

After months of poor reception and calls failing, O2 have decided to approve my cancellation of the contract with no termination fees. Great so far, but they want the iPhone back. I paid £100 for the handset at the time of taking the contract out (March 2012), I think this phone should really be mine. Where do I stand with this? I haven't cancelled yet, so I'm just trying to gather information.

Its not yours. You took it out on a subsidised contract, so a portion of the handset cost was spread over the term of the contract.

[pazz]

Deako is correct.

Request a full refund of everything you've paid so far. But sadly the phone is not yours.

[Tamiyoman]

Best you can hope for is your £100 back and some kind of "Goodwill gesture" for the hassle caused to you, the phone is not yours, until the contract is FULLY paid up it belongs to O2.

[Nasir]

As I thought, that makes sense. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect my £100 back as I put that towards the phone and not the network service which I intended to receive. I will call them later on.

Many thanks

[Tamiyoman]

As I thought, that makes sense. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect my £100 back as I put that towards the phone and not the network service which I intended to receive. I will call them later on.

Many thanks

Think of your £100 as a deposit, if you give it back no reason you should not get it back.

[Nasir]

Thanks for all the help, I spoke to O2 and they confirmed that due to the termination fees being wavered they didn't want to refund the £100. I pressed on and they agreed because its not my fault they will refund the money. Win.

[c0v3rt]

Well done!
I'm at an earlier stage of the similar problem with o2 - poor reception and service dropping in & out!
Trying to get out of contract as its pointless having a phone that doesn't, well, 'phone'... so it's nice to hear a successful outcome - I'll keep hassling them!

[Nasir]

Well done!
I'm at an earlier stage of the similar problem with o2 - poor reception and service dropping in & out!
Trying to get out of contract as its pointless having a phone that doesn't, well, 'phone'... so it's nice to hear a successful outcome - I'll keep hassling them!

They can be helpful if you speak to the right person. My problem started straight away but recently it got to the point where enough was enough. Since March, I had the phone replaced by Apple, two swim swaps and had the account disconnected and reconnected. Those are the stages I had to go through. Good luck.

Are Vodofone any good?

[c0v3rt]

I've only spoken to useless people so far haha
I've had my phone swapped once, which didn't do anything, and have been told to try sim swap.
My reception used to be good but has slowly got worse and worse!

My girlfriend is on Vodafone, which seems better, but still loses reception in the house at times

[Lone_Par]

I'm with Vodafone and have no real complaints as you get reception black spots everywhere. The main reason I stayed with them was their sure signal box. I live in the sticks and reception is nil practically. The sure signal connects to my router and get full 3G signal all the time (and if it does go down the box just needs reset).

[GrayMK5GTI]

Interesting this, on the face of it the deal was that YOU pay £100 for the handset and the monthly payments are just "line rental"

The very least they should give you is that £100 you payed "for the handset" if they want it back. . .

Doesn't sound unreasonable to me, especially after they haven't kept their side of the deal with the poor reception etc.

[pazz]

Don't forget any new phone contract is subject to a cooling off period of typically 30 days. So use that period to test signal and general network performance. If it sucks send everything back and you should only be liable for the period used.

[rob172cup]

Can I ask how you started the process of getting your contract cancelled and how bad the signal at home was ? I'm having similar problems since joining orange 2 months ago but thought I was just stuck with it