Reference no: EM133590991

Question: Megs needs 3 new mobile phone. She dropped her old phone, and it does not work very well any more. She really needs a new phone anyway because she is behind on the technology that is currently available. Megs sees an advertisement with a special offer for a mobile phone to students and connection to a network. The package offered is a new phone and the ability to use the phone in any part of Australia and even overseas, all for the price of $50 per month. Megs visits the mobile phone outlet and is convinced by the retailer that signing up to a contract for two years is a good idea and that the offer was unlikely to last. Before signing the contract, Megs asks whether she can leave the contract before the two years is up since she may be studying overseas in possibly eight months' time. Alternatively, she asks if she can use the phone overseas at the same price she would pay for calls in Australia. Megs signed the two-year contract. She understands from what the salesperson has said, that she will pay a small penalty to end the contract earlier ($100) and that she can shift the phone to another service overseas for a small fee. Megs signs up. The payments for the phone will come out of her credit card, and she finds the phone works very well in any city area; however, she discovers a black spot where there is no reception, particularly when she is some 80 kilometres outside metropolitan area. Other phone users do not seem to be having the same issues. Megs has also received the good news that she has been accepted into an overseas exchange program, which means she needs to either cut short her contract with the mobile phone company or transfer her service elsewhere. Megs visits the retailer and asks about ending the contract early or the possibility for moving the service overseas. Megs is shocked to be told that to end the contract means she must pay out all the remaining time on the two years. This was not what she was told when she purchased the phone. Further, she is told that she cannot move her service to another country but that the company will give her a letter of introduction to a subsidiary operating in another country. What are Megs' rights under the ACL as to:

• the poor coverage of the phone as used in Australia?

• the misleading information she got about ending a contract earlier than expected?

• the lack of ability to move her phone contract to another country as had been suggested to her Please answer in ILAC method