O2 Payg Online Price Increases From 15/8/2006

mobilegossip

I just noticed this post on the Nifty Site.

"Most people will have heard of O2's introduction of a fixed charge for calling 07744 and 07755 numbers of 25 p.p.m., ( both contract and Pay & Go ), but how many have heard of a similar deterioration of their terms and conditions regarding calls to N.G.N.'s ?

Those with online Pay & Go mobiles will hear of these changes when they call 4444, select 'Pay & Go services and promotions', and then 'calls to special service numbers' (option 5, option 1).

From 15th August, ALL calls to numbers beginning 0500, 0505, 055, 056, 0800, 0808, 0820, 0844, 0845 and 0870 are EXCLUDED from free call allowances, bolt ons, and O2 treats with calling allowances, AND all such calls will henceforth be charged at a fixed rate of 15 p.p.m. Calls to the 0845-678-678 service line are unaffected as these still cost an exorbitant 20 p.p.m!

Just to add salt to the wounds, calls to 118-500 directory enquiries line will be charged at 65 p.p.m., but the minimum call charge on these will be increased from 5p to 65p! "


See for full details http://niftylist.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1585.msg7133;topicseen#msg7133

Lets hope they dont start charging for NGN calls on Contracts!!!!!

Spikey_2

Customers always lose out...no matter what.....

fiish

I believe this is a move by O2 to persuade it's some of its PAYG users to move to contracts, where these numbers are included and they'll (of course) get a good long-term stream of revenue.

It is rather anti-consumer, though.

hurrah

fiish wrote:

move to contracts, where these numbers are included

But for how long will they included in contracts.It doesnt look good for the future.

Rev

And they neglect to take into account that a lot of their payg customers are people who can't get contracts for whatever reason. So they try to push them into contracts then reject the applications.

fiish

Well I hope that O2 have the sense to realise that people who call those numbers often make up a significant (I think) part of their customer base. I would think that if they ever exluded those numbers in a terms change, they would suffer a wave of cancellations much bigger than when they started charging for 07744 (don't think many people did in this case).

bbb_uk

This isn't really a surprise. It's inevitable.

I'm surprised their contracts still include these numbers as most (if not all) other networks don't include these calls. o2, when they decide to start charging their contract customers for these type of calls, could use the marketing term, "bringing their prices inline with other mobile networks." Which in plain english means we are starting to charge for calls to these numbers because other networks do and we're missing out on the extra revenue whereas other networks are reaping the rewards.

From the middle of this month, all landline and mobile teleco's have to give equal prominence to the cost of these calls as they do their geographical calls. This will come in handy with regards to some mobile networks that actually hide the cost of calls to NGN's like Vodafone. o2 do, to a certain degree, tell you the current cost of these numbers. Even BT go out their way to hide the cost of these numbers in a .pdf document hidden in hard-to-find places on their website.

In theory from the middle of this month, the cost of calls to, at the very least I can imagine, 0845/087x should be on the same page as the cost to ordinary geographical calls. This should hopefully highlight to their customers just how much they are actually paying for calling these numbers which in the case of mobiles can be upto 40ppm.

This could also be the reason why o2 have now excluded these numbers for those with inclusive mins bolt-ons because those without inclusive mins are currently paying an expensive 35ppm daytime. This isn't something that o2 want their customers to know so they may have reduced it to 15ppm at the expense of removing them from the inclusive mins.

The profit loss from 35ppm to 15ppm is basically made up again by excluding them from inclusive mins. This type of behaviour is common for companies and unfortunately isn't limited to o2. Other companies can be a lot worse!

fonesaver

It’s the 17th August when I dial 4444!
Also mentions the same date for charging 25p for 07744/07755 numbers which I thought already applied from 1st July!
Yes looks like some sort of panic move by O2, nothing about it on the website so far as I can see. Maybe some Telefónica executive looked at a report and saw they were losing money on non-geographics and the s**t hit the fan.
Hope they don’t it on contracts as I’m just about to renew mine…November 1st?? oops mustn’t give O2 ideas:)

monomer

Yes, I received a helpful reminder text message from o2 about the change and to phone 2202 for more details.Looks like it's going to happen to everyone on o2 payg

kaz250

just hopping they dont start doing the same with contracts

monomer

Finally... written proof!

http://www.o2.co.uk/pricechange