A few years ago I signed a phone contract with Orange. It was one of those contracts that was actually beneficial to the customer and I was most happy with it. It was actually for my wife but as she was new in Switzerland at the time and Swiss suspecting every new entry (see other threads...) she was not able to get her own contract!
About 3 years later my wife gave birth to our first child and was at home for most of the day. At this point she noticed that there was no reception where we lived Neerach... She rang Orange to find out what the problem was. Orange said there was definitely not a problem and it must be her phone! My wife not been one to accept something easily terminated the contract - a good method to get a discount on the monthly fee by the way assuming you have been a good customer for a few years.
Orange confirmed the termination effective in one year and one month as we had fallen foul of Mark's No. 1 complaint notice periods
So we carried on paying the monthly fee and arguing the legal basis for the charge. Excuses came such as there must be a crane nearby, the walls of your house are too thick. Someone nearby has a WLAN (what!), we have been and measured in Neerach and had a good signal - hello I smell something... and finally well anyway we don't guarantee you service everywhere.
Our contract was due to end with the normal (well actually one year and one month) three month notice period in August and it was now March. Seeing as they said they don't guarantee a service ie they admitted they were not delivering the service to our house, where we actually wanted it ,my wife refused to pay the next bill which arrived in April and the next which arrived in May. Orange threatened to cut off the SIM card within the next 10 days ie deactive the service which they were not delivering anyway... My wife told them in June that she did not care because they had not been delivering the service and had no intention of delivering the service to her so she had got a new contract and number with Swisscom who will deliver the service... Orange were not best pleased and did something quite evil!
In the small print of your mobile phone contract there are two clauses which are together very nasty. The first says that if you OR your mobile phone supplier terminate the contract early then you are liable to pay a fee of CHF XXX depending on the length of the contract ie 12 months CHF 300 and 24 month CHF 500. This on its own is actually quite reasonable in that you get a rebate on your phone and they are only asking for that money back if you don't see the contract through. The next part is not so nice. They have an automatic contract renewal clause in. This effectively creates the period again - ie if you terminate your contract early, even to a contract three years old then you are liable to this fee.
So the next bill came with a CHF 300 fine for early termination. I was not best pleased
My wife proceeded to pay the remainder of the outstanding bills as in her opinion Orange could successfully recover that, but point blank refused to pay the CHF 300
Orange said we had to pay and sent a reminder. My wife (btw she is a lawyer) wrote back and told them that this was not going to be paid. They then threatened to send this to an external recovery agency. My wife wrote back and said feel free the bill will not be paid.
Enter Intrum Justitia ( www.intrum.com ) who told us to pay the amount and added nicely CHF 100 plus interest plus postage CHF 500... They also provided contact details etc where you could contact them if you disputed the amount. My wife tried the phone number "beep beep beep this line is no longer in use" So we tried the fax same result and then sent a mail to their mail address. This went on for three or four months and the letters became recorded delivery (in both directions) until finally they sent a last letter before Betreibung.
At this point my wife suggested going immediately to court but no the Betreibung came and was rejected by my wife with a preference for the legal route. Some three weeks ago and two years after the contract termination date came a mail saying that they had decided not to persue this matter and would drop the case - probably a sensible decision...
So what can you learn:
1. Read the mobile phone contracts before changing your phone or alternatively cancel your contract effective in 12 or 24 months the day after signing it by recorded delivery.
2. Never tell your mobile company that you have decided to go to someone else while in dispute.
3. Be aware of companies such as Interum Justitia and their adding of charges based on OR 106 - yes they are entitled to reasonable expenses but generally this must be reasonable and adding CHF 100 from day one for one letter is not reasonable.
4. Be aware that despite what they claim Interum Justitia do not communicate and offer no opportunity to express your side of the story they simply process the claim until it reaches the end game when it is back to the company that started the process to decide - ie they waste everybodies time and money.
5. If you are right or think you are right get this confirmed legally... Otherwise pay it gets expensive quickly otherwise.
6. Think of the reputation of the company who is wanting the money. If you think the publicity surrounding your case would be damaging to them then hold out ie public sympathy would be in your favour.
7. Don't think that just because you are with Swisscom or Sunrise that they will act differently - you are just a number and they have a process which they will follow and that does not involve common sense until it gets to the court or no court decision.
8. I have incidentally had much better service from Swisscom and on cancelling their contract received an offer of an 18 month extension with a 12.50 discount meaning it was costing CHF 2.50 per month...
Richard