Phone Plan: Anyone Successfully Cancel Phone Plan For Lack Of Coverage?

[fionas]

I checked on the Telephone Ombudsman site and this looks like a grey area so just wondering if anyone on BB has done this and can pass on any tips before I call the provider (Optus).

DP got this phone and plan for DSD when we were living in Northcote. Dumb idea all round but at least she got use out of it, unlimited plan (pretty much) at $130 per month. Long story short, DSD had the phone confiscated and I now have the phone. Apart from the fact that I don't need an unlimited plan and happy to have prepaid, we have since moved to Woodend and the coverage here is dodgy. So I'm paying $130 per month for a phone I can't make calls from unless I stand on my head in the broom cupboard when all the planets are in alignment. So I want to cancel the plan on the basis that even though their coverage map says there's coverage here, in actual fact there isn't really.

Like I said, it looks like this is a grey area according to the Telephone Ombudsman so wondering if anyone else has had any luck cancelling a plan for this reason?

[Kamarine]

I'm currently having the same problem with Optus. We didn't worry about cancelling it, but we did ask them about if they were whacking a tower out here - which they are when they can be assed, no ETA.
The woman in the shop made a point of saying 'You cannot use that as an excuse to escape your contract.'
I feel you could be able to as its technically a service you are paying for, but I imagine it would be something you would need to be committed to for it would be a bit of a fight.

Good luck. xx

[Kazbah]

Hi Fiona.

Unfortunately the contract you signed for the phone would have been dependent on your coverage at the time you purchased it. If, at the time, you checked the coverage and it was adequate for your needs, then your decision to move to a non-coverage area is not the phone provider's fault.

What I'd be doing would be looking at the coverage maps for Woodend, and seeing if you have coverage mapped to the area you're looking at. If there's coverage, have you submitted a coverage fault to the provider? You may need to do this and have it documented (their response - get it in writing) and then if they say there should be and there isn't, you can ask them to provide details of coverage survey to prove it. If their map says yes, survey says no, then you should be able to break without penalty (note I don't work for Optus! so am assuming this from the generic policies we have to follow). Get the issue escalated internally if they say coverage and there is none, and hopefully it will work.

Good luck, it really is a grey area. You may also find that "in building coverage" is not guaranteed coverage as well, so it would be looking at coverage outside.

[Visitor5]

Fionas- Not me personally but one of my girlfriends did a couple of weeks ago now. She was with vodafone and when she moved she had 0 coverage.
They didnt have any towers around the area and they happily cancelled her and her DP's plans free of charge.

[anney]

I signed up with Optus and found I had no coverage at my desk at work (in a basement in a building on outskirts of the city) . apparetnly contract says you can only cancel in the first 30 days if there are coverage issues. I was outside 30 days. Obudsman said ask Optus again. I could not be bothered with the whole thing. I will be seriously looking at whether to ever sign up for a contract again. It is all to the phone companies advantage.
I just don't see that they can hold you to the contract when they are not providing the coverage and you have moved house. good luck.

[Lisa]

A friend of mine just got out of her contract a few weeks ago for this same reason.

[Visitor7]

We did, about 2 months ago with AAPT. We have house phone & internet with them ATM. We changed our plan and put a mobile on it as well. It wasn't until after getting the phone that we found out there was no reception for AAPT at our place. We phoned them back after a couple of months, and they agreed to cancel our plan.

[flossy17]

We had wireless homephone and internet with optus and moved to an area with limited coverage. They let us out of the contract no probs. They were extremely helpful, we were only half way through the 24mth contract. Unfortunately i thought i'd never say it, but boy do i miss OPTUS!!!

[Arimeh]

Nope - not with optus, already begged them.

They said its not their fault I moved during my 2 year contract. Thank god it runs out in November

[briggsy's girl]

it's highly unlikely given you have moved to an area with no coverage - had you contacted to sign up, were advised you'd have coverage and found you didn't have, then they would do it, but given the circumstances, it's highly unlikely (i used to work for one of the telcos and it was rare for them to let someone out of a contract for coverage related issues when the person had moved from good coverage to no coverage

however, if their coverage maps on the net say you should have coverage, you have more "oompf" to use to fight them as their systems say you should have coverage...

[{sarah}]

We were with Optus since 1999 & started having coverage issues around a year or so ago & we managed to get out of two contracts a few months ago now. It is possible. I'll get DH to pop in & see if he can tell you how he went about it.

[The hawk]

I'll get DH to pop in & see if he can tell you how he went about it.

Hi!

As has been said the carrier is bound to cover you for the address your at when you sign up, what's crazy is that if two people sign up at different houses, they are bound to be covered at their own house, yet if they swap houses neither is guaranteed coverage anymore :P

I now make 100% sure when I sign a new contract that I get written confirmation for our house and my work (and Sarah's work), usually they just print out the coverage map for me, but it's dated and stapled to my contract so I can drag it out as proof I was guaranteed coverage at those locations. Normally not an issue since the in-store people are happy to say your covered if the computer says so.

Sarah was close, in our case we were with Optus since 1997 and had had no issues but over the years the coverage has gotten worse and worse. My train line which used to work the whole way to and from except for one small place was basically dead the whole way (1 hour travel) but worse yet the house was very hit and miss, sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't if you tried to make a call and if someone was trying to call you it would go to voice mail close to 80% of the time.

After getting no joy from Optus I called the TIO mainly for advice, they happily took my story and lodged a complaint which in turn meant Optus were bound to reply within xx days (don't recall how many). In their defence they contacted me within the time and the guy was fantastic. He asked me for my story, said "yep, that sounds fair" and waived the cancellation fees and then went even further and waived the last couple of handset payments that were due. I really couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

We are now with Telstra and I can tell you the difference is like night and day... like the ad says "it works it more places"... like my house

(That aside it all comes down to *your* area. We have friends in Melbourne who swear by Optus and it's fair to say they offer better $$ value than Telstra... if you get coverage)