Problem with contract termination

[sumballobotrues]

Hi, late last week I completed an online contract cancellation form for individuals moving abroad from Germany. We are leaving on October 1st, 2021, so naturally I submitted the form three months in advance, citing September 30th, 2021 as the final day of the contract.

When I received an email confirmation of termination, however, the final date is listed as December 29th, 2021 (see attached), which obviously is not very helpful at all. What has happened here? Was I supposed to list our termination date as June 30th, so that disconnection occured three months later?

I don't want to pay for three months of internet, etc. that we won't be using, and after reading through the forum here, it is clear that it is possible to cancel three months in advance if you're leaving the country. 

Any assistance (from users or moderators) in solving this issue would be greatly appreciated. 

[Torsten · Accepted solution]

If you move to an unsupervised area or abroad, you have a special right of termination with a notice period of 3 months starting on the date of the move. This results from §46 TKG. Unfortunately, you still have to pay the basic fee for the 3 months, this is a kind of compensation for the provider. Before this amendment to the TKG came, you had to pay the entire remaining contract term, even if you could not use the contract.

Addendum: After receiving the de-registration certificate, you must urgently submit it so that the contract can then be terminated within the 3-month period.

[sumballobotrues]

Yeah, I figured this out right after posting this. So there's no way of not paying those three months, I guess. Too bad.

Thanks for the response, in any case.

[Vodfraud]

I have the exact same problem. I told Vodafone in May that I was moving in July. It turns out that they don't give a crap about when you tell them you're moving. What counts is the de-registration with the city... unfortunately the city only allows you to de-register a week before you leave the country. Doesn't anyone see a problem with this?? So basically vodafone is taking advantage of customers moving out of the country because of this one week rule from the city. 

The ridiculousness of all of this is that I had to get a new contract last year because the contract I had didn't allow me to login in to my work computer through RDP, so during the pandemic while I had no other option than to work from home they told me I had to change my contract so that I could work from home and now they are screwing me up again (MFs!!) by making me pay a service they know I won't be using for 4 months (because my de-registration with the city starts July 1st). How is vodafone getting away with this. This is an unethical business practice and I will try to say to as many potential new costumers to avoid vodafone so that they don't get taken advantage of.

[Torsten]

No, this is german law. See for details §46 TKG.