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A woman wants to switch to Wingo with a cell phone number after the death of her husband. Swisscom wants CHF 1,500 for this.
After the tragic accidental death of his father, a Valais man goes to the Swisscom shop in Brig with his father’s death certificate and contracts. He wants to cancel the telephone and Internet connection and two mobile phone subscriptions that the deceased had. His mother would like to take over one number and switch to the cheaper Swisscom subsidiary Wingo.
All of that is no problem. In the event of death, both termination and porting the number are free, says the shop employee. For porting, he explains the procedure to the son of the deceased. The man acts accordingly and a few weeks later receives confirmation from Wingo that the number can be ported.
Suddenly, Swisscom wants a lot of money
At the same time, his deceased father also received an email from Swisscom: “Unfortunately, there are still fees to be paid. Either because the minimum contract period has not yet expired or because the notice period has not been observed. » Almost CHF 1,500 would therefore be charged on the next bill.
I specifically asked about it in the shop. And the information was clear: It was a case of death, so the porting is free of charge.
There was no mention of this astronomical fine in the Swisscom shop. Otherwise the son of the deceased would certainly not have agreed to the number being ported to his mother: “I specifically asked in the shop. And the information was clear: It is a case of death, so the porting is free of charge. »
The son contacts the Swisscom hotline. There he was promised twice that the responsible department would call him back. But this one remains. So he drives back to the Swisscom shop in Brig. There, an employee expresses understanding for his concern: “But he can’t change anything. I’m bound by the contracts.” These costs would therefore be incurred.
«Here capital is made from a death!»
The man can’t believe it: “I find Swisscom’s approach scandalous that they’re still trying to capitalize on a death!” In his view, the fault lies clearly with Swisscom, which misinformed him.
An error happened here. In the event of death, no cancellation costs will be charged.
Yes, something went wrong here, confirms Swisscom spokeswoman Annina Merk: “There was a mistake here. In the event of death, no termination costs will be charged.» Swisscom had already contacted the customer and communicated this. “We apologize for the mistake. The costs will be canceled and this will also be confirmed in writing to the customer.»
Swisscom goes beyond the books when it comes to training
The regulation would actually be crystal clear: the contract for the number in question was in the name of the deceased. This means that the termination is always free of charge, regardless of whether it is premature and whether his wife wants to port this number and continue to use it.
It is therefore all the more astonishing that no Swisscom employee was aware of this after several calls to the hotline and when visiting the shop. “We will now check whether there is still a need for optimization in the training documents of our employees, so that such a case will hopefully not be repeated,” says the Swisscom spokeswoman.