Could you cancel your T-Mobile contact without penalty?

Several weeks ago, we received a Tweet from Phil Mottershead (@philicibine) regarding the April T-Mobile price hike. He stated that customers were winning their cases and had the right to cancel their contracts with no penalty. We were intrigued, as we had no clue what he was talking about.

On the MoneySavingExpert forums, there is a thread around 100 pages long at this is point of people discussing it.

It seems that T-Mobile announced a price rise in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) which at the time of the announcement was 3.2%. T-Mobile stated a price rise of 3.3%, which was the RPI for March but wasn’t made public,l until after T-Mobile announced their price rise. 

In the T-Mobile contract it stars that interim price rises will be no more than the rate of inflation.

Therefore the quick witted amongst the users over at MSE (And elsewhere we have to assume) realised the price rise was breaking the contract terms and they could potentially get out of their contract.

T-Mobile rejected the complaints originally and Ofcom seem to be dragging their feet over the matter, so a number of customers decided to take their case to the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) (No, we hadn’t heard of them either) and these people are winning their cases! in the vast majority of cases CISAS are ordering refunds and contract cancellations.

Hurrah! So does this mean we can all complain right now and get out contracts cancelled? Sadly, the answer to that is probably no, as your T-Mobile contract also says you have the right to complain up until the price rise comes in to effect.

We reached out to T-Mobile for comment and a spokesperson responded with the following

Each CISAS ruling is based on the individual circumstances of the case. We are unable to comment on specific cases.

Thanks to @philicibine for the initial tip on this (Apologies it took so long)