The reality is that a commitment period agreement cannot simply be broken without paying a financial penalty to the company for it.

However, as with any rule, this one also has exceptions, and in three specific cases users will be able to request their provider to cancel that agreement at no cost.

 

In these cases you can cancel the commitment contract

If what you want is to cancel the commitment period because, for example, another phone company offers you the same plan at a lower price, you should know that when you request the cancellation of the commitment period and terminate the service, you will be charged a financial penalty.

You should know that by signing the internet service agreement, it binds both parties, both you as the user and the company, which means that both of you have a series of obligations to fulfil.

When the company fails to comply with any of the terms established in the signed contract, that is when you can switch providers by requesting the cancellation of the commitment period without having to pay anything.

 

When is a phone company breaching the contractual agreement?

 

There are three cases in which a provider is failing to comply with what is set out in the original contract, and these are explained below.

 

       1- If the company is making or is going to make changes to the contractual conditions. Although a provider can make this type of change whenever it wants, it must have notified all users who will be affected by those changes at least one month in advance. If users do not agree with this, they may switch to another company by requesting the cancellation of the commitment period and without this involving any financial penalty.

 

       2- If the company has made, is making or will make changes to the service or price of the contracted plan. In this case, the provider would be breaching what is set out in the contract.

Both the first and second cases are regulated by Royal Decree 899/2009, of 22 May, which approves the charter of rights for users of electronic communications services.

 

       3- If the company is offering a service that performs poorly or, directly, does not work.

 

If what is mentioned in this last point occurs, we are also talking about a breach of contract by the provider. Users who switch companies for this reason are exempt from paying any type of penalty, and if the company wants to do so, Article 1,124 of the Civil Code establishes that it is completely illegal.

In addition, all users who have gone through this or are going through it should know that they can claim compensation from their phone company for the damages that this poor internet performance may have caused them.

 

How can these situations be avoided?

There is no definitive solution to turn to when these things happen to a user of a phone company.

Any user who wants to switch companies and has a plan with a commitment period is required to pay the penalty established by their provider.

For all those users who want to switch because they have had problems like those mentioned throughout the text, the first thing they should do is call their company’s customer service phone number to understand the situation and find out what is happening. Here we provide you with Vodafone’s free phone number.

Once you have spoken with your company and are aware of the situation, we recommend that, if you do not agree with what they are doing, you request the cancellation of the commitment period and switch to another company.

When you are going to contract home internet with another provider, it is important that you carefully review the conditions established in each of the plans that interest you. In this way, you will avoid many unpleasant surprises when something happens, and you will also make sure that you know your obligations as a customer, as well as the company’s obligations as the provider of this service.