Have an iPhone on O2? Time to get out of your contract!

EDIT: Thanks to liamk on the O2 Forums, it seems that this trick could work for every single person who has a contract on O2. Check the link for full details.

EDIT 2: It worked! Hurrah! I can confirm that for me, at least, they were happy to let me go, without even trying to dissuade me.

So, let’s pretend that about a week ago, you signed up for an iPhone on O2, on their €100 plan. You are now tied in to 18 months of O2, but managed to get an iPhone for free. That’s a total of €1800 over 18 months, for a service that is miles below par against other European networks (for more on this, check out my other blog post, “The Irish iPhone 3GS ruined my hopes and dreams“).

Well, O2 just made a change to their terms and conditions. This counts as breaking the contract you had set up with them. Naughty, eh? And they were kind enough to notify customers on a totally out of the way page on their site, mentioned nowhere. And, you may notice, they have done this twice before. So no feeling sorry for them for what I am about to suggest.

Basically, since they have broken your contract, you have until July 12 to phone them up (on 1909), and tell them that under regulation 17 of the European Communities regulations 2003, you would like to cancel your contract. So you are off your contract now. Here comes the fun bit.

As part of the same regulation, you have the right to cancel without penalty. It is YOUR RIGHT to cancel your contract, but stay on as a monthly customer, on the exact same plan, just not tied for 18 months. Of course, from reports, it seems that different people are being told different things. Some are being told that they must leave the network (false), some are being told that they are simply not allowed do this (false). Just keep pushing, and you should get it all worked out.

An interesting factor in this is if you are allowed keep any upgrades that you may have in your account. For instance, if I wanted to take this opportunity to get out of my contract, would I then be able to resign a contract in September when my upgrade will come into fruition, and get a cheap iPhone 4? I don’t know. Some people are being told they can and some people are being told they can’t.

So, why would you want to do this? It is almost guaranteed that with Vodafone and 3 having iPhone 4 on their network, there is about to be a lot of competition in the market. This legal loophole allows you get out of your contract, and move to another provider, getting whatever deal they have going on the new iPhone. Or, if O2 steps up to the mark and provides the best option for iPhone 4 contracts (doubtful) you will be let resign and (hopefully) get a cheap ass iPhone. This, of course, all hinges on if they let you keep your upgrades or not.

Has anybody had any experience with this? I’m going to look into it some more and try it out tomorrow, recording the entire conversation. I will only go through with it if I can get spoken confirmation that I can keep my upgrade.

Tags: iPhone, O2