Mobiles.co.uk - A cautionary tale

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative

Silk,

I do find your ability/desire to quote anything I've ever said on the internet a little alarming.

What you have posted is exactly what I have said on the previous page, namely that some customers have managed to swap the texts bolt-on for data by phoning O2 post-connection. As iwanttosave has already confirmed this is not technically allowed by O2.

Thanks,

WychWeird

iwanttosave: You're correct, the website also doesn't state you can change the bolt on although I understood that O2 allows you to switch bolt ons - again, it's not clear that O2 contracts provided through a 3rd party have additional restrictions.

Ben: Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Your tariff was advertised as 'O2 600' - it was not clear that "£5 Discount" was also part of the tariff name. Your information stated "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." To my understanding of your website this related to the 'O2 600' tariff it linked from (although it probably linked from other O2 tariffs also.)

...only misinterpretation based on data from a site that isn't ours

The information you provided was on your site. I thought that reading the 'info' link provided me information on your tariffs.

I can understand that you (Mobiles.co.uk) provided the deal you thought you were offering, however your supporting information was flawed. Based on the deal you appeared to be offering I purchased 2 phones - the deal I received was not as I expected, as you agreed. We disagree in that I maintain I purchased the phones based on misrepresented information.

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.

As I stated before the 14 days cooling off period expired - I wished to maintain my right to cancel the contracts if resolution was unsatisfactory - a point that Mobiles.co.uk chooses to ignore or claim that use of the sim over-rides that point. Again, I maintain I purchased the phones based on misrepresented information, which you admit you're looking to update to provide better clarity.

I need time to consider your offer - as it stands, I don't feel that it is acceptable and therefore wish to maintain my right to cancel the contracts.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting anything to be resolved to my satisfaction - having seen other threads bashing Mobiles.co.uk on this forum I thought it fair to share my experiences with others, hence the title "A cautionary tale". Perhaps others will clarify what they think is being offered and Mobiles.co.uk will be much clearer in future so neither customers nor Mobiles.co.uk are in a similar situation again.

Regards,

Wych

iwanttosave_2

Silk wrote: »

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

You're twisting words there (quelle surprise) He has said quite righting that you're not supposed to change the bolt-on but some advisors who are not aware of the third party restrictions do change the bolt-on.

Guys_Dad

WychWeird wrote: »

As I stated before the 14 days cooling off period expired - I wished to maintain my right to cancel the contracts if resolution was unsatisfactory - a point that Mobiles.co.uk chooses to ignore or claim that use of the sim over-rides that point. Again, I maintain I purchased the phones based on misrepresented information, which you admit you're looking to update to provide better clarity.

I need time to consider your offer - as it stands, I don't feel that it is acceptable and therefore wish to maintain my right to cancel the contracts.

Just be careful not to cut your nose off to spite your face. If you can get the deal you thought elsewhere, then fair enough. But are you sure it is available anywhere else at that price with the same phone?

WychWeird

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative wrote: »

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.

I can understand your point of view, although I can understand why you might not wish to express understanding of my point of view which would give tacit agreement that I have a valid argument (and opening yourself up for additional comments) - Mobiles.co.uk calls the tariff I received their "O2 600 £5 Discount" which is different to the "O2 600" described in the text. I believed I was getting the "O2 600" with a £5 discount. The checkout process stated "O2 600" as did the order summary per my original post on this thread:

LG Arena on O2 1 £0.00
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]O2 600 @ £12.50/month [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]24-month contract[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Gadget Phone Support - £2.99/month 1[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]PhoneCare Insurance - Band B - £7.99 1[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]14 months half price rental 1 £0.00[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Jabra Bluetooth 2010 Drive Pack 1 £0.00[/FONT]

The confirmation email, also in my original post, stated:

Your Order
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]================================ [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]LG Arena on O2 1 £0.00[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]O2 600 + £5 Discount- 24 @ £25.00/month[/FONT]

Although it may be argued that this is the "O2 600 £5 Discount". The confirmation email arrived on completion of the ordering process, not before completion. I don't think it's reasonable to expect changes between check out and confirmation.

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative wrote: »

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'.

I'd like you to take a step back and consider how your own (site) information, ordering and email confirmations lead to the situation whereby I am claiming the tariff I'd received was misrepresented i.e I received an "O2 25 24" bonus tariff when I'd expected an 'O2 600' tariff, based on the information your Company had provided on their website (not O2's).

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Just be careful not to cut your nose off to spite your face. If you can get the deal you thought elsewhere, then fair enough. But are you sure it is available anywhere else at that price with the same phone?

I understand that which is why I haven't dismissed the offer out of hand - I also appreciate others asking questions and querying various points which makes me question myself and whether I'm being silly about the whole situation.

The deals Mobiles.co.uk offer are very competitive which is part of the reason why I decided to order through them but as I'd previously stated, if the deal offered wasn't the 'O2 600' (600 mins, 500 texts, + unlimited bolt on) I would not have ordered it. Each time I look back over the information Mobiles.co.uk provided on their site regarding what they offered, I'm still left believing that is not what I received.

Silk

iwanttosave wrote: »

You're twisting words there (quelle surprise) He has said quite righting that you're not supposed to change the bolt-on but some advisors who are not aware of the third party restrictions do change the bolt-on.

Hi iwantosave,
I'm not twisting words !!!
Read his post again and tell me where it says you're not supposed to change the bolt on ?????
It says mobiles.co.uk are not able to offer an alternative it doesn't say anything about O2 are not able to
In fact he goes on to say he knows that O2 do change it after the phone has been purchased from them !!!

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

That is the only post he made and could quite easily have put the matter straight as to the situation we now know but he chose not to
Any guesses as to why that was ???
Certainly wasn't to put people off ordering the deal through them was it !!!

Silk

WychWeird wrote: »

The deals Mobiles.co.uk offer are very competitive which is part of the reason why I decided to order through them but as I'd previously stated, if the deal offered wasn't the 'O2 600' (600 mins, 500 texts, + unlimited bolt on) I would not have ordered it. Each time I look back over the information Mobiles.co.uk provided on their site regarding what they offered, I'm still left believing that is not what I received.

Hi WychWeird,
I totaly agree and as previously posted by Ben on the O2 forum it would seem that is what people were led to understand ......

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

Regards,
Ben

Wallhart

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative wrote: »

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,

I'm confused. it sounds like a bit of a marketing ploy. You are saying you can call something exactaly the same as on the O2 website but actually give something different.

One Question: WHY???

mobilejunkie

Because they have no principles and it's all quite plainly SPIN.

WychWeird

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.

Wallhart's post just reminded me of this - my issue is not that I'm trying to change the bolt on, I have not received the tariff I believed was being offered. This was brought to light when I discussed changing the bolt on with O2 (they didn't say I couldn't do it, they said I would no longer have ANY inclusive texts i.e I would pay for ALL texts.)