Mobiles.co.uk - A cautionary tale

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative

Hi,

Please remember that we have no obligation to sell anything other than what's on our site, which we do. The "O2 600 Discount" tariff comes with 600 minutes and unlimited texts at a £5 discount vs the standard "O2 600" tariff (the trade-off is slightly worse deals on the discount tariff, as the commissions are lower).

O2 are free to advertise whatever they like on their own site, and do confuse the issue by not clearly labelling their promotional tariffs as "Online Exclusives" or whatever, but to claim that we must honour the same deal as them because the tariff has the same name is incorrect.

The matter is further confused by O2 telling customers that they have an "unlimited text bolt-on pre-selected by Mobiles.co.uk" which is also not correct; Carphone wanted O2 to match Orange's unlimited texts offering at the £35-18m price point and the only way this was possible on O2's billing platforms was for them to add this "pre-selected bolt-on", O2 could not amend the basic attributes of the "O2 600" package.

This OP's issue is that they decided they could do something after they had purchased the phone that is in fact not possible, namely swapping the bolt-on. I'm getting the "bolt on" explanation on our site that the OP quoted amended once again to try and prevent this happening in future.

Regards,

happyhunter

op 'assumed' mobiles.co.uk's O2 600 wording is equivalent to O2's 600 tariff and thought he/she is clever enough to play around with the bolt-ons after signing up.

btw, noticed quite a few new joiners recently starting a thread and never comes back (e.g. WychWeird, heather mccalman)

PS: I'm not a mobiles.co.uk customer and have no intent buying from them due to the bad feedbacks on this forum.

DarkConvict

I'm going to have to agree with the Mobiles.co.uk rep, 02 can sell whatever tariff they like on there website, mobiles.co.uk can only sell tariffs that 02 allow them to sell. The gifts (cashback/consoles) are then with mobiles.co.uk at their discretion.

I see where this is confusing, in that 02 offer changes in bolt-ons, but contracts via mobiles.co.uk don't, as such i assume i am correct in saying that mobiles.co.uk offer it as 600mins + unlimited texts contract, whilst 02 offer it as 600mins, 500 texts + unlimited bolt-on.

iwanttosave_2

Dark Convict, that is a completely different tariff.

The £25 is a bonus tariff, the base allowance is 600 minutes/0 SMS + 1Free of charge bolt-on (unlimited texts). The 02 600 24m is 600/500 unlimited (although if it is a new contract, all 3rd parties can only offer FOC unlim SMS, and it cannot be changed for another bolt-on, only on upgrade can it be changed).

Rep, do you make it clear on your website that on this tariff you cannot make any changes to your tariff (including changing tariff)? Also do you make it clear that unlike all other o2 tariffs, any MMS or roaming SMS are chargeable as an extra?

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative

iwanttosave,

None of those restrictions were communicated to us - I gather you work for O2?

I'll get this looked into immediately as MMS and roaming texts is concerning; the ability to change tariff isn't something we advertise one way or another but if this is the case I would want to advise customers of this as well.

Thanks for the input,

bobstheboy

The "unlimited texts" is confusing insomuch that if you have a named limit you can text from overseas out of your allowance at a rate of 4-1. With unlimited you cannot as I found out recently.

Sounds daft but that is O2's take on it.

WychWeird

Let me make this clear:

I am not asking for something additional to the tariff offered;
I am requesting that the tariff that was offered, described by the terms Mobiles.co.uk offered on their website, is honoured or the contract cancelled.

Mobiles.co.uk offered their ‘O2 600’ tariff – which their website described as:

O2 600, £25 per month (inclusive of a £5 discount) for 24 months
This includes 600 minutes Any network, Any Time and Unlimited Texts

Note that the information on Mobiles.co.uk’s website relating to the way that the way unlimited texts was provided was this:

Unlimited Texts - your free O2 bolt-on!
Where an O2 tariff lists inclusive unlimited texts, please note that this is a promotional Bolt On which increases the standard number of inclusive texts on that tariff (e.g 500 on O2 600) to unlimited. Therefore further free Bolt Ons will not be available.

The information Mobiles.co.uk provided in their info link clearly stated that this was a bolt on. This bolt on was in addition to the standard inclusive texts; there was no mention that the bolt on could not be changed.

If the unequivocal statement included on Mobiles.co.uk’s info link is not correct then Mobiles.co.uk have misrepresented their tariff.

A similar tariff on O2’s website is available which offers 600 mins, 500 texts plus choice of unlimited bolt on for (approx) £30.

Essentially Mobiles.co.uk are offering a £30 tariff with £5 discount that is very similar to an O2 £30 tariff, however, I accept that these tariffs may not actually be the same.

The O2 CSR stated that I have, in actual fact, an ‘O2 25 Bonus’ tariff – this is described on the O2 website in very similar terms as what Mobiles.co.uk are claiming their O2 600 tariff to be. It is 600 mins, unlimited text for £25. Not £30 discount, £25. Again, I appreciate that this may not be the same tariff as Mobiles.co.uk’s tariff.

I recently asked a question on this site regarding tariffs, but the thread was locked before I could reply:

Hi all, does anyone know whether the tariffs offered by Mobiles.co.uk are the same as the network providers? For example, the Nokia N97 mini shows the Orange Dolphin 30 and the T-Mobile Combi 25 - are these the same as the ones on the respective networks?

Ben’s response was (edited):

For the OP, our tariffs vary sometimes where a network directly improves their offering (eg O2's 1 free bolt-on or T-Mobile's £5 discount tariffs) available only via themselves, but in general all the tariffs are the same and are always the same as those available via CPW, P4U etc. Things like free Orange home broadband, Orange Wednesdays, O2 Treats etc are all still included. Did you have a specific tariff in mind?

Which suggests that tariffs offered by Mobiles.co.uk are, on the whole, the same as tariffs offered by network providers, accepting that either party may offer additional incentives (double the number of texts, for example.)

However, this distracts from the real issue – Mobiles.co.uk offered their own tariff which stated the way that that tariff was constructed. That is not what I received. If the tariff had been described without the additional information I would not have ordered the phones. Again, please not that Mobiles.co.uk have subsequently updated their website to clarify the situation.

(I apologise that between posting at a quarter past midnight, going to sleep and going to work I wasn’t able to reply much sooner. I think I may have already mentioned the locked thread.)

iwanttosave_2

there was no mention that the bolt on could not be changed.

To play devils advocate, can you show me anywhere where it states it can be changed?

O2 never allow new contracts from third parties to have any other bolt-on that unlimited texts and you can't change it. It is only on upgrading that third party dealers are allowed to offer different deals (upgrade tariffs) and bolt-ons can be changed.

Rep - the "more info" tab does state the prices for MMS and roaming SMS, however most people know that o2 operate on the 4:1 ratio but it isn't the case on this tariff and the £15 bonus (100/unlimited).

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative

Hi,

The text references "O2 600" as being constructed of 600 mins, 500 texts and then an unlimited bolton, correct, but the tariff you assumed this applied to as well (which we call "O2 600 £5 Discount") is built differently, apparently, with no "base" number of texts.

Obviously you assumed the "promotional bolt on" we advise customers about (we did this because O2 CS Reps kept confusing the issue by stating we had 'already' used the customer's free bolt on and they couldn't add another one) could be changed to the data one. In our experience very many customers have managed to do this after speaking to an O2 CS Rep who would allow it but we do not advise it can be changed and I can't see how we are misleading customers on this matter.

For what it's worth the first time I saw "O2 600 £5 Discount" referred to as "O2 25" was when a customer queried their bill with us, it was never communicated to us using this name but as a discounted version of O2 600, hence the name we gave it.

Sorry that you did not manage to get the deal you expected to get but unfortunately I cannot see how this can be construed to be misrepresentation, only misinterpretation based on data from a site that isn't ours. Like I have said I've asked that the site be reviewed again to be explicit about the inability to alter the 'bolt-on'.

As thanks for bringing this to my attention and hopefully some consolation I'd be happy to offer you compensation equivalent to the cost of the data bolt-on for 3 months, please email ben at mobiles to arrange this.

Regards,

Silk

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative wrote: »

This OP's issue is that they decided they could do something after they had purchased the phone that is in fact not possible, namely swapping the bolt-on. I'm getting the "bolt on" explanation on our site that the OP quoted amended once again to try and prevent this happening in future.

I see this problem has been around for quite some time now and note that you posted on the O2 forum regarding the subject

It seems you were implying that the "Bolt On" could be changed after they bought the phone from you
http://forum.o2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=131504&sid=ad5d7d9756990258bec648305fc2e5f3

Hi,

We offer the unlimited texts bolt-on with our O2 600 package. Due to the way our connections are handled we're unfortunately unable to offer a different bolt-on, but I'm told that people have had success swapping it to eg the unlimited data option using O2 Customer Service once they have their new mobiles.

O2 600 usually comes with 500 texts, so if you do swap the bolt-on then you will get this many inclusive.

Regards,
Ben