3 Mobile UK Downgrade

From Preston, Lancs,

My partner and I have recently tried to downgrade our tariffs on 3. We were told that it would cost £25 per downgrade to do so. This charge came about in December 2006, but the stores were not told about this until February 2007. In the meantime 3 were still encouraging sales of their high-end contracts, knowing that people were ignorant of the downgrade to do so. We bought 3 new phones a week before the new charges came into effect, but were not told about this penalty downgrade charge. Incidentally the charge applies to all 3 contracts, not just those signed in December, as they have backdated it to cover any contracts that are currently active, no matter how long ago they were taken out. We think that the way 3 have treated established customers is unfair and unjust. I invite comments to my post from people who agree with me as well as those who think 3 are right and justified in treating their customers in this manner.

From Yorkshire,

i agree this is not a good way to treat its customers by having a win win situation. however i must defend the network in some aspect for there direct no nonsense approach. simply the fault lies on company's offering hard to believe deals which actually turn out that you need to downgrade after certain months in order to attain maximum benefit from the deal. this however has massive loses for the networks which is why 3 has introduce this clawback. however they are making it up in other areas by offering probably the best deals on offer at the moment. the £15 a month deals giving us no real reason to downgrade. hopefully other networks can follow so the consumer can buy a deal without any more hidden catches or chargers.