Andrea Ravenet

  8 January 2012

    via email: [email protected] and regular Post   Meteor Customer Service Dispute Department Meteor Mobile Communications Ltd 1 Heuston South Quarter St John’s Road, Dublin 8     

RE: Immediate Cancellation and Annulment of Contract

Mobile Number XXXXXXXXXX

  Dear Sir or Madame:     By this letter, I am writing to cancel my Meteor plan and iPhone 4S, purchased on December 17, 2011, as Meteor has failed to deliver service as contracted.  Specifically, I purchased this phone for use both in Ireland and internationally.  Meteor purported to deliver European service (along with competitive roaming charges).       When taken to France the week after the phone and plan were purchased, the phone was unable to connect with any carrier whatsoever.  I have owned all models of iPhones since 2007, using all major carriers in the United States, France and Ireland, and this has never been an issue.  To travel internationally without phone service is disruptive, negligent, damaging and risky, given that travel plans rely on critical communications to catch flights/trains, not to mention to use the phone as intended.   This was only the first failure.     I spoke with Meteor Customer Service repeatedly (almost daily) for a week, to attempt to rectify the problem.  Each day, I was given a different reason for lack of coverage.  The day arriving in France with no coverage, the Meteor Service Representative explained by phone that I would need to pay a 60.00 Euro deposit to have international coverage initiated, which I did.  This was extremely infuriating, as I had just purchased the phone a few days prior, paid another 130.00 Euro deposit at the Meteor store, and clearly explained that the phone would be used for immediate international travel.  Upon purchase, no one explained that the phone would be completely useless internationally until I paid an additional 60.00 Euros.  This was the second failure.     So, after paying the 60.00 Euros, the Meteor Customer Service representative then instructed that the phone be turned off, after removing the SIM and battery (impossible for an iPhone: he had my account details and should have known better; this was yet another failure of Meteor) and restart the phone.  Still no service.  Fail.     When I called again, another Meteor Representative said that he saw no reason the phone should not be able to connect with a carrier, and said that he would deactivate then reactivate my service, "just to see if that worked."   This did not work, either. Again, failure.     I called again to say that I still had no service whatsoever, and was told this time by another Meteor Representative to hold while she discussed the matter with Technical Support.  She returned to say that they "had found the problem, and it should now be resolved," citing an error on Meteor's part in configuring the service initially.  She asked that the phone be put in Airplane Mode for 10 minutes, then taken out of Airplane Mode and suggested that service should then be available.  It was not.   So, after a series of interactions with Meteor, your Service Department acknowledged fault for the lack of connectivity, but remained unable to correct the situation.       I should not have to point out that each of these interactions puts the customer in an extremely compromised position: Being without phone service was completely disruptive to the trip, incurred long-distance international phone charges, waiting on hold, and jeopardized all communications while travelling abroad.     To reiterate:  

Meteor was unable to provide service as contracted, even though I paid the 60.00 Euro international service fee;

  Meteor was unable to provide service as contracted, even though Meteor found that this lack of service was due to Meteor’s own configuration errors; and,

  Meteor was unable to provide service as contracted, even after several different attempts by several different Meteor Service Representatives and Service Departments to resolve the issue.   The issue remains unresolved.

  Meteor’s inability to fix this problem resulted in Meteor’s complete loss of dependability as a phone service carrier/provider.