Batter down your mobile contract cost

pigeonpie

T-Mobile has a 'today only' web-only offer of 14.50 for 300 mins plus free phone or 300 mins and 100 texts for 16.50 "lifetime" (ie this price throughout your 18 month contract). Ends 5pm.

IF you sign one of these contracts online what rights do you have to change your mind, if any? Is there a cooling off period when you can cancel the contract and return the phone to them (unused obviously)? Their terms and conditions on the site are so long that the webpage connection times out while you are reading them, but I couldn't see anything there. What are the statutory rights relating to online purchases - 7 days? Or if I sign, am I stuck with them for 18 months?

Thanks.

Jarlawuk

Vinnie wrote:

Can you spill a few beans on the new package?

Got my PAC code from three and have been doing my research in to a new phone. Want a PDA type and nearly got one from t-mobile earlier today, but I thought I'd check MSE first!!!

Not sure if I can reveal all details to be honest so I'll give a rough idea: 18mth deal with a on a Flex 35 contract (£35) a month gets you under £200 worth of credit (there are lower/higher price plans, but I only had a brief look at the tariffs with the rep so can't remember exactly what you get on the other ones). There is no set amount of minutes or text on these plans, you use the credit as you please so it can be any combination of the two, so the plan can change to suit you from month to month as you usage changes (e.g. more text less minutes in month 1, more mins less text in month 2). The pricing of the minutes + text means that what you get on any T-Mobile price plan is more than the equivalent 3g price plan. T-Mobile will be the market leaders in terms of cost/minutes as of March 1st. For existing T-mobile customers they get it a bit earlier when they upgrade - like the deal thehacker had Oh and the main difference between the 18/12 month deals is that the minutes/text are fixed on the 12month instead of getting credit to use. But even the 12 month deals are better than the 3g offers.

pigeonpie wrote:

T-Mobile has a 'today only' web-only offer of 14.50 for 300 mins plus free phone or 300 mins and 100 texts for 16.50 "lifetime" (ie this price throughout your 18 month contract). Ends 5pm.

IF you sign one of these contracts online what rights do you have to change your mind, if any? Is there a cooling off period when you can cancel the contract and return the phone to them (unused obviously)? Their terms and conditions on the site are so long that the webpage connection times out while you are reading them, but I couldn't see anything there. What are the statutory rights relating to online purchases - 7 days? Or if I sign, am I stuck with them for 18 months?

Thanks.

You have 14 days to send it back to them in the original condition, T-Mobile used to have a no returns policy (don't know if they still uphold it now, we ignore it in our stores) but always back down when threated with legal action.

Vinnie

The Flext 35 deal is on there web page already.

Although it's showing £180 worth of credit which is great when it's broken down.

h**p://www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatcher?menuid=orphan_flext_how_much

Thanks for the info, may wait till 1st March to see if the deal changes, wouldn't mind the Flex 25 deal but the phone I want on it is £110 (MDA Vario).

Jarlawuk

Vinnie wrote:

The Flext 35 deal is on there web page already.

Although it's showing £180 worth of credit which is great when it's broken down.

h**p://www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatcher?menuid=orphan_flext_how_much

Thanks for the info, may wait till 1st March to see if the deal changes, wouldn't mind the Flex 25 deal but the phone I want on it is £110 (MDA Vario).

Ah if is on their website already then its ok

What the rep told me is that if you go on a higher tariff and you aren't using all of your allowance (e.g. you start on 35 but only use about £70 of that £180 balance consistently for 6 months) you would be able to change your tariff. They monitor your usage and recommend you a more suitable tariff based on your spend.

TheHacker

Jarlawuk wrote:

What the rep told me is that if you go on a higher tariff and you aren't using all of your allowance (e.g. you start on 35 but only use about £70 of that £180 balance consistently for 6 months) you would be able to change your tariff. They monitor your usage and recommend you a more suitable tariff based on your spend.

Quite true, Jarlawuk! I think it's a great deal!:beer:

Good Luck to everyone else in battering down those costs.

katie_boo

I've been with 02 online for about 3 years now, I cancelled my first contract after a year because they tried to make me pay £80 to upgrade to a phone that was free to new customers. I took out another contract with them before that one disconnected and when I'd had it for 11 months I rang up intending to cancel and start a new contract as before. The woman I got through to this time was a lot nicer than the man I had spoken to the year before and she offered me £15 a month off my bill (which was £50 before) as well as a new handset that wasn't free even for new customers. A good result I'd say!

I think its just a matter of trial and error, some staff in the disconnections department are willing to do whatever they can to keep your custom and some won't even try to talk you into staying, I'd say if you don't get what you want first time you call tell them you need time to think and call again the next day, can't hurt to make a few phone calls to save yourself so much money!

Obviously I'll never tell 02 this but I never intend to leave now even if they take away my £15 a month discount, I'm on a discontinued tarriff that gives me 1000 texts and 400 cross network minutes and there are no providers that could give me anything even close to that at such a low price.

pigeonpie

Last night after the obligatory 15 minutes musak T Mobile customer services said the 18 month 300 mins and 100 texts 16.50pm bought-online-one-day-only-offer contract did have free customer service calls as "all our PAYM and FlexT contracts of that length do" (she's right - all the current web offers do); then I queried (on a landline to avoid the 5 pound charge for the call)and she made me check by phoning 150 and said "oh no, you do have to pay50p a minute, sorry as you are on a self serve contract" but wouldn't either credit the account with the 'test' amount (about 3mins) nor she said could she change a new online contract to include free calls to customer services! When buying, this was not explained on the website and it's no longer an offer on the website. Misleading advertising.

So I want to cancel, but can't get a reply from customer services or the cancellations dept that they made me email. Did send a fax within the 7 days to the number they gave on the paperwork that came with the phone saying if you don't give free CS calls and it's going to be a fiver a time,no way thank you, but no-one seems to have a record of the fax either at TMob :mad:

CS refused to help basically. When asked "are you happy to lose a customer then" they seemed to be. The first bill arrived for more than 16.50 too.The sort of bill you have to ring them to explain.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Also does anyone have a free phone alternative to O2's 0870 customer service line?

Thanks for any help.

Belles

Unfortunately in my experience this is what you will expect for the full length of your contract, bills that don't add up and costly calls to customer services.

My first bill had an extra £15 on it because my phone was broken and kept cutting out as I tried to talk to customer services, they did however give me back the tenner (nice of them hey!).

I guess you need to weigh up which is more costly the 3 min call or hanging around on the phone trying to get it back. You could try email - you get an email page, and just keep harrassing them via that - and fax - until you get some response. Keep a track of the emails etc and maybe write some letters.

Good luck to you (says me about to sign up for another 12 months!)

stefano

It would be interesting to spot a trend as to when is the disconnection dept more likely to bow to your every request. My theory is that they have a daily allocation that they can allow, and then it's "I'm terribly sorry", so they earlier in the day you call, the more chance.

ricorico

O2 Liers! Rip me off big time!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm new to this place but since you guys are sharing your experiences with your mobile networks with everyone, I'm going to share my experience that I am having right now with the bloody O2. I am being ripped off big time by O2 but I cannot do anything about it.
My monthly mobile bills with O2 were very high 3 years ago so I switched to pay as you go with Vodafone after the contract ended. For the last two years, everything was smooth, so smooth that I even met a very sweet girl friend overseas. So I started to send her lots and lots of international text messages everyday and that cost me hell loads every month (about 22p/ international text). So I said to myself “hang on, perhaps it time to switch to another mobile service provider”. Last November I found out that O2 pay as you go was offering a free international bolt on until 15 January 2006 for pay as u go customers. It was a good offer coz it allows users to send international messages for 10p each. Alright so I got myself a O2 SIM card for 10 quid, got the PAC code from Vodafone and transferred my existing number to O2. What surprised me was that they had to use 5 working days to transfer a number. At last, after a week the number was transported and I tried to send some messages to my distant lover. Unfortunately, my girl never received any of my messages and I was being charged. I stopped to send immediately. I went to see my girl in December and when I returned to UK I received a phone call from O2 online. They offered me a contract deal 200 txt and 50 x-mins for 19 pounds; a free Samsung 3G phone with headset and international messages would be counted as 2.3 messages from the 200 txt package (i.e. each international message = 2.3 UK to UK messages). Unfortunately, my gf didn’t get any of my messages and I was being charged 13p per message! I called them and I said “hold on, just think about this. Why would I sign up for a contract that would charge me 13p per international message if I could send for 10p each on pay as you go? They kept checking and checking but they never solved the solution. The manager, she promised me that the Samsung mobile was tested by them and it would work for sure and if it didn’t I would have the full refund. It was a disaster for signing up for such a contract. I spent extra time and money contacting them by phone and in the shops but none of the staff was able to help me. My gf can send me messages but I cannot. I tried to use my SIM on different mobile phones and I still couldn’t send. I even tried to replace SIM cards.

O2 is just ignoring me now. They are not delivering the service that they promised. I would like to cancel my contract but they are ignoring me.

Can anyone help me to stop O2 from ripping me off? I would cook a delicious dinner for the ONE who could suggest something good to revenge!

Kind Regards,
ricorico