Job Discussion Forums

kita · Joined: 09 Oct 2007 Posts: 34 Location: Japan

I think the automatic contract renewal thing is common here, especially with cell phones. I have AU and they do the same thing, however they were very straight forward about it and went over with me several times the date I'd need to cancel by in order not to have my current contract renewed.

scorchio · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 36 Location: Sydney

It's kind of academic for me now, but I'm interested about what you do if, like in my situation, you need the phone for 15 months. So you don't want to cancel the phone after 12 months, but you don't want another 1 year contract. Do you go onto another (probably more expensive) month to month plan?

benshi · Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 48

What you do is cancel the phone at the end of the contract, go down to the combini or wherever, and pick up a prepaid phone for the last couple of months.

I'm a Softbank customer, and it IS very clearly spelled out in the contract that it automatically renews after the first year unless you tell them otherwise. If you don't read Japanese well, take along someone who does before you sign on the dotted line--for telephones or anything else. Japan, just like everywhere else, is "caveat emptor". Not much point complaining about something you signed and "agreed to".

scorchio · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 36 Location: Sydney

Get a new phone for a few months?? The environmentalist in me sees a big problem in Japan. But then I never had to look very far to see a big problem with wastage in Japan.

I'll take your word for it that it is spelled out clearly in the contract. I'd only been in the country for a few days and couldn't read a word of Japanese, but had a store employee translating it for me. But contracts are long and tedious and obviously not everything was translated.

This is one of the reasons I'm going home, I miss my independence, but that's not Japan's fault.