Terminating a contract with Sunrise ( Mobile voice and data )

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
1
As I found out, there is no walk-in to any office, only by way of a call to a special number:

0800 400 404

From 8am and only on weekdays - no EN option, choose DE and request for EN.

Sunrise Kündigungsabteilung ( Contract Termination Department )

I was late in giving the required 2 months' notice prior to the actual conclusion of my mobile data contract, by 4 days and got the book thrown at me when I called the normal Sunrise number.

However, upon reaching the number above and practically pleading for over 10 minutes, I got a special deal with immediate effect, which lessens the financial burden by at least 70% for half the period. ( from CHF49 a month for 24 months to CHF10 a month for 12 months )

2
Can I ask how long you had held the contract. I believe that when I took out my contract it was for 12 months and if I didn't cancel before month 10 it would auto-renew. I have now had this for I think 3 years. If I wish to cancel now, I believe I should be able to do it anytime with maybe 1 or 2 months notice - do you know if that is correct ?

Similarly, I have a separate contract for a 3G modem with them which I took 2 years ago as part of a deal when buying a laptop. The 3G contract cost 10sfr per month, but as I already had a handy contract it was reduced to 5 sfr. The cost has suddenly jumped to 10sfr following the 2 year anniversary. They have "cleverly" renewed the contract, but not the discount. So I want out.

3
My initial data contract ran for 24 months ( expiring in May 2011 ). I have a voice line as well ( low tariff CHF10 a month which they factored when giving me the new contract from today for 12 months ).

They are very strict about the min. 2 month's notice in advance.

4
We had our contracts 2 years and also thought we could cancel anytime after the 24 months but nope we were tied in for another year b@stards

5
Been a client since Sunrise first dawned on CH about 10 years ago.

We moved house and to get tv needed to sign up with Swisscom - needless to say I got the phone + internet + tv bundle, necessitating a cancellation of my contract.

I called and got no joy. Indeed, I got - in my ex-Orange professional opinion - a rude person on the other end of the line who:

1) refused to cancel;

2) wanted me to go to term on contract - another 6 months instead of another 3 months;

3) refused to pass me to a superior (at first because there wasn't one who spoke English and then wasn't one available in either D or F ); and,

4) refused to give me the details of whom to write to when I asked for the CEO's name and address (was told I could look it up on the internet myself).

With this *ahem* "motivation" I wrote a letter to the CEO, explaining the situation and pointing out that as a long term customer of 10+ years, I felt they'd got their money out of me and the least they could do was allow me to close my contract 3 months ahead of term. I also pointed out the rude customer service I had received.

A few days later, I get a reply letter: terribly sorry and we can cancel whenever convenient for us...

Having worked for Orange (in the UK), I can honestly tell you that when dealing with these large organisations it is usually better to go to the top and work your way down. If you can throw in concrete examples of poor or rude service, a genuine reason for needing to close, and a reason to have some "fair play" (e.g. long term customer) then usually you'll get what you want. These large companies usually have two sets of customer services, and the ones from top-down who deal with complaints directed at executive members (vs. bottom-up who deal with call ins) tend to have more power to do things.

6
The same number 0800 400 404 using option 2 ( it is for contracts extension cf. option 1 for termination ) also helps you negotiate for a benefit when you are within your rights to terminate a contract without a penalty.

I have a voice line ( CHF10 a month no hardware ) with a contract expiring in June 2011 and using Sunrise Online Meine konto , it is impossible to maintain CHF10 a month plan without being forced to choose a phone / hardware ( whereupon it jumps from CHF10 a month plan to CHF25 a month plan ) to take advantage of the CHF100 credit as a loyalty discount ( Rechnungsgutschrifft ).

So I called the number and chose option 2 , and got to someone who could speak in EN.

I explained the predicament that taking the "offer" will disadvantage me i.e. unfair as it will cost me CHF15 a month extra. I could at this point give up the contract ( ie do not prolong ) and no longer stick to Sunrise, or you grant me a credit of CHF100 without a penalty AND maintain a CHF10 a month plan without any hardware.

After about 15 minutes deliberating with her colleagues and the Billing Department, it was confirmed that at the next billing cycle a credit of CHF100 will be noted ( effectively 10 months waiver of the monthly subscription cost - ending at the time the contract is up for renewal )

7
I obtained a loyalty gift when I opted to cancel the termination notice ( Kündigung ) within the time frame.

8
That's quite good. Possibly open to abuse for those that want to fake leaving Sunrise.

Also, it's nice that it is written in English.

9
Anyone know if this is similar to Swisscom?

10
Interesting that their letter states your cancellation becomes legally valid on 25th. Are they using the 'loyalty gift' offer to extend you over into another month and therefore get 1 more payment from you before termination ?

11
Check this and this thread.

12
Checked with their billing department - the termination notice is now cancelled and the offer / loyalty gift is in effect now. No catches as far as I can see.

13
Hi,

Anyone knows if there's an official information somewhere about "terminating a contract with Sunrise" (ADSL not mobile contracts).

Actually I found the info but it does not say how much we are suppose to pay:

http://www1.sunrise.ch/is-bin/inters...ter-AGB-FR.pdf

conditions d'abonnement à l'ADSL

I also found how to resign from other operators:

http://www1.sunrise.ch/is-bin/inters...wechseln_f.pdf

Of course the sneaky b* haven't said how to resign from them.

MY contract has been automatically renewed after 12 months, now i'm like 3 months over (15 months) and fed up with them.

14
I won't go into details here because I think it will ruin possible deals with next customers if sunrise staff see that.

But if you attempt to resign, the "retention service" will make quite generous offers (starting from a few months free). It get better if you negotiate such as...free upgrades, etc... (it's apparently in their process to do that, they have a few "options" to propose you)

All that for no contract renewal (you don't register for an additional year, you can always cancel 2 months at the latest before the end of 1 year).

Of course it's better to see that in writing rather than hearing a unreal offer on the phone, but the letter did arrived with the written offer...

15
I update my comment:

The offer did arrived by mail, for the issues I had during the first week. I got offered few months free.

But the 2nd time, issues after 1 year and a few months of being customer, they made offers on the "retention service" on the phone.

They haven't respected any of the offers made on the phone.

Even worse, when calling back they pretend I haven't called them x and y day because there's no log on my customer account. They only find the logs for the technical issue (and not the offer made by resiliation/retention) and they only find that a "cancellation request" has been...cancelled, without explanations. Of course it's very convenient for them.

So their customer service seems to be based in African countries and they have new practices to lie to the customer. They are also unreliable and not technically capable of solving my issue, or to contact me back to inform of the progress.

2 weeks off internet and they are not even moving- or respecting basic engagements such as contacting me back to inform me about the situation.

I finally decided to get rid of them and the 2nd level technical engineers (in Switzerland) has been helping in the process...

I would certainly not recommend them because for the very little difference in price , you'll ending up "gambling" and risking to have more inconvenience than anything else. To me they have proven their incapability to help the customer, and they displayed their bad intentions.

So remember to resign 2 months before the end of the "1 year contract" (or it will be renewed for another year) ; remember to do any resign letter in writing; remember not to accept their threats of randomly charging you 300chf for "early cancellation" (it's written a cancellation fee in the contract but not the exact amount).

Etc...

16
I called up Sunrise in time prior to my contract terminations dates, deciding to give up on Sunrise voice ( and go for Aldi but they do not do number porting - I have an easy to remember 076 Sunrise number ) and Sunrise Take Away ( CHF49 a month ).

First call last week was most unfortunately with a lady who refused to offer an incentive. Soon I received the two letters confirming my wish to terminate in time. Although these letters had sweeteners, I was not interested in a subsidised lappy, tablet, more mobile phones, the soon to be launched Sunrise TV service etc.

I decided to try my luck and ring them up again prior to the expiry of the various sweetener deals today, and had a man at the other end. Upon verifying me, he asked me straight away how he can keep me as a Sunrise customer ( bearing in mind I an already a low revenue customer ).

I asked for a Credit Note ( he asked how much ) for the voice line, same tariff plan but no more CHF10 monthly charge. We settled on CHF75 as a Credit Note, no monthly charge ( that is CHF120 off ) and the same tariff plan. Yay, I still got to keep my number.

As for data, coverage when it was needed outside major towns is disappointing. We settled on a daily unlimited rate ( CHF3.50 per day login, unlimited data ), waive the data Twin Card fee ( currently CHF4 a month for a clone SIM card for another data device ), no monthly fee and a Credit Note for CHF25.

I guess I came out alright.

Try it out and see - your mileage might vary.

17
Just cancelled my Sunrise contract after they pestered me for almost 3 weeks with (a lot - I stopped counting at 10) phone calls to all my lines (mobile and landline), trying to sell me Sunrise ADSL - which I couldn't even have if I wanted to (we don't have a telephone line into our building, everything runs through Cablecom. I told them for the first time about 3 years ago and since then I've been going so in regular intervals). A couple of days ago, I called them and asked them to move the ad-number to my block list. They did so. The calls stopped - until this morning. I picked up the phone, shouted at the call-center agent for 2 minutes and hung up. Cancellation letter is going to the mail in 5 minutes. Seriously, FRAK THEM.

18
To cancel a contract with Sunrise, copy and paste this letter, fill in your own name,

address and telephone numbers where I have made BOLD type .

Send the letter registered, "Eingeschreiben" to Sunrise.

The letter asks them to cancel at the next possible contracted date, and to inform you when that date will be.

************************************************** ********

Name John Smith

Street / number Marktgasse 21

Postcode town 300 Bern

Sunrise

TDC Switzerland AG

Binzmühlestrasse 130

Postfach

8050 Zürich

Your town, Bern den 20. Dezember 2011 (Date of letter)

Kündigung des ADSL-Anschlusses / Telefon / Handy Vertrag

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren

Hiermit kündige ich folgende drei (3) Produkte fristgerecht auf den nächstmöglichen Termin:

ADSL / Preselection und evtl. weitere Zusatzdienste mit Vertragsbindung:

ADSL Anschluss: Sunrise Click&Call 5000+ mit Speed Option

Telefonnummer: 0xy wxy ab cd

Name: Smith

Vorname: John

Adresse: Marktgasse 21

PLZ, Ort: 3000 Bern

Haus Telefonleitung

Telefonnummer: 031 wxy ab cd

Name: Smith

Vorname: John

Adresse: Marktgasse 21

PLZ, Ort: 3000 Bern

Mobile Telefon Handy Abonnement

Telefonummer: 076- abc de fg

Name: Smith

Vorname: John

Adresse: Marktgasse 21

PLZ, Ort: 3000 Bern

Bitte bestätigen Sie mir diese Kündigung sowie das Datum, an welchem mein Vertrag aufgelöst wird.

Besten Dank und freundliche Grüsse

(Unterschrift: Signature)

John Smith [mein Vorname / Nachname my first & family name]

19
I called up today and after several calls ( to 0800 400 404 , pressing 4 for EN , then Opt 1 Termination or Opt 2 Retention ), I got an amended loyalty offer by email, which I took up. It was a free Huawei Mediapad for a 12 month contract extension ( an option which I declined was a free iPad 16GB ).

Your mileage might vary largely depending on your "Advisor" and I suppose payment history. All the best in your negotiations, well OUTSIDE the 2 month window prior to expiry of your contract.

20
I so not recommend sunrise. They just take advantage of foreigners and there is nobody to support you against them here. They totally ignored my messages about the problem I had. They ignored my letter about cancellation of my contract and at the end accused me of something they were the reason for and charged me a large amount of money. At the beginning, I thought they don't reply my messages because of the language but then when they wanted to charge me, they started to reply messages in fluent English. Their services are also of poor quality.