I'm in an interesting situation, I'm a long term 3 customer currently done 10 months of a 24 month plan, however I'm sick of their network, I lose coverage randomly all over Sydney, including where I live in Roselands. Additionally the handset that I got as part of the plan has given me plenty of problems.
I'm possibly about to move into a house near a National Park where coverage is low, I know coverage is ok with the Telstra 3G network however with 3 it's dodgy, therefore I'm keen to break out of my plan and join Telstra ASAP.
I spoke to somebody who told me that if you're unhappy with your network coverage and are frankly not getting what you paid for, you can contact the Telecommunications Ombudsmen who can assist you in breaking out of your contract for free. I looked up the Ombudsmen's website and it states that you need to first contact your provider and attempt to resolve the issue with them directly.
I subsequently wrote to 3 and explained my issue, I checked their network map and explained that I lose coverage in places where they claim to provide full coverage, I requested cancelling my contract with no cancellation fee.
I just got a call from a lady with 3, she basically gave me two options, one to switch to the vodafone network for the remainder of my contract to see if the coverage is better, the other was a $10 monthly credit for the remainder of my deal. I told her I would research whether I want to jump to Vodafone, from what I have read everywhere it seems Vodfaone's coverage is also poor and their customer service is even worse. I'm thinking I will call back and tell her that and also say that I don't want a monthly credit to remain with a network provider that frankly can't provide what I paid for.
Anyone tried negotiating a cancellation of contract without paying the cancellation fee?
