I know there are a couple posts on this already, but in effect, I am leaving Switzerland july 31. I have been trying since July 12 to cancel my service due to leaving the country. There is a special number you need to call to cancel (can't do it in store or email), and they staff it with one person, so all in all I waited 1.5hrs before getting through.
When I finally got through, he said plainly that to cancel now was CHF199, but if I want to email the generic contact, I can challenge this and since I was leaving would be let off the hook.
Fine, email sent. Two weeks go by and nothing. I call the general service line and said they contacted me already... WHat?!? I didn't receive anything so he read the message, which states I need to pay CHF199 no matter what.
I explain the situation, and the guy just can't help. I ask for a bill to give to my lawyer, because I either need to pay or challenge, but wanted them to know I am happy to get a lawyer involved. He said he can't give a bill. OK, but how do I pay you guys? Longer story made shorter, I need to get ahold somehow of the cancellation department, again. I mentioned that I tried that already and the service guy said he was very sorry, but that is the only way.
I feel I am going around and around in circles. I see my options as calling again, getting nowhere, and then paying... Or just not pay anymore. I am leaving Switzerland and won't be back to live (maybe visit).
I am not trying to get advice on English forum, I am just wondering what you guys did in similar situations to get this taken care of AND of course, I am posting this as a warning to start long before your exit date to cancel your Salt contract.
Woah! quick follow up, I waited 1.5hrs for help, and I let them know I was going to ask ombudscom for help to start legal proceedings, and within 5 minutes I received confirmation that I was out of my contract with no penalties, as is the general rules in switzerland!
Legal proceedings on what ground? General rules based on what law and regulation? In general: You have a contract and it is your duty to fulfill it (pay the monthly fees).
Considering the federal court ruled that moving from Ticino to Zurich due to a new job gives no right to cancel an apartment rental earlier, I doubt it will rule much differently in case of a mobile phone contract.
Based on the language provided, you'll be lucky if they really let you off without paying anything at all. It's quite clear you need to provide at least 30 days' notice, and you only started on 12 July for 31 July.
Tip for all: read your contracts, preferably before you sign. Its boring and sometimes confusing legalese. but your rights and responsibilities are in there including what you need to do to cancel. This goes for leases, gym memberships, phone contracts, etc. etc.
Thanks for the reminder, on the last day of the month too
Just called salt, less than 5 mins on hold.
Told the chap I needed to cancel, got asked why... told them I was moving. He suggested we check together the new address if I want. He checked, saw that my new address doesn't have salt.
Got asked if I want to be informed by email when salt fiber reaches there, I agreed.
Then got informed that if I send them a copy of my new address documents they would waive the cancellation fee, and as I've been with them for a year I keep the apple TV but need to return the router.
Salt contract cancelled.
Total call duration, including waiting time, 17mins 59 seconds. Totally pain-free Now getting UPC to work, THAT's annoying.
Took me a quick email to cancel last year. Of course, I wasn’t trying to get out of a contract I had signed, rather mine had lapsed and I was on a monthly payment plan. I would imagine it helps that I didn’t have unfulfilled contractual obligations...
Maybe like OP they want to leave the country. I suppose the companies do have to let you out of the contract if you de-register and leave. However, that doesn't mean you have to be let off the hook without paying anything, which is what OP expected.
If you're leaving the country you don't need to cancel your phone contract immediately. You could just ask to cancel it for the end of contract let it run through and not have to pay the extra 100CHF.
Just wanted to add on this: my wife was able to cancel her Salt contract 10 months early (24 month contract) after complaining several times to gradually higher levels of management that they would not accept being laid from her job and leaving the country as an excuse for ending the contract early. The first complaint got them to agree to amortize the contract cancellation fee (around 200 CHF, so down to like 90) while on the final time, agreeing to that but saying it was very anti-customer and she would recommend against them and none of her other contracts had any issue with early cancellation due to job loss and leaving the country.
I also have a salt contract together with her on the same account but kept mine since I have the full Europe and USA data plan, while hers was Swiss-only. I moved a few months ago and she was to join later, but with the job loss it didn’t make sense to stay.
Of every other insurance and contract we cancelled, none were an issue with 3 months notice and the certificate of departure from the commune, it was only Salt that tried to keep cancellation fees; many of the rest did have a "diplomatic clause" but others were fine anyway.
Not sure if they’re nicer now due to COVID or if generally if you complain enough you’ll get what you want. I personally found the amortization of the cancellation fee to be fair, so it was nice to get the full amount taken off.
Anyway, hope that might help anyone in the future. Télécoms are of course internationally famous for their terrible customer service and difficult TOC. As others have said I have also heard companies are legally required to let you off for free if you leave the country (with sufficient notice), but I never found anything on admin.ch about it. The plan was of course not with a subsidized smartphone and we had been with Salt for about 5 years.
Sorry I did not mean let you off for free. I meant let you off without paying the entire rest of the contract as others mentioned; they never even at the start proposed her paying the last 10 months of the contract PLUS a 200 cancellation fee. It was just the 200 cancellation fee.