MSE News: O2 to hike broadband prices

marg27

my home broadband is going from£17.50 to £18 with vat to £22.50. i have emailed and phoned o2. each time i receive different information. last night i was told i could cancel without penalty before 31 march.cancellation was set for 29 march with no penalty for breaking contract.
today i received an email saying disconnection had to be within 30days of receiving notificaation of price hike. anyone know the truth.

Quentin

marg27 wrote: »

today i received an email saying disconnection had to be within 30days of receiving notificaation of price hike. anyone know the truth.

That is the correct version. The contract ts + cs only allow you to quit without penalty within 30 days of being informed of the price rise.

djawol

JoBennie wrote: »

o2 have come back to me and said I can't get out of my contract because my increase is less than 10%. This is true, but I want to get out because my wireless is crap, I can't even get a signal in my office upstairs from the main socket and am working from my living room via ethernet

You can either report your box is faulty to them if you feel it's not performing correctly and they should replace it...

Or, it could be that due to the thickness of your walls/floors etc it is unreliable with any wireless box. The technology is pretty flaky.

Personally I use these - http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-av-push.htm
I have one next to the router and one in the office, no wires trailing around the house and full speed wired access in the office for you.

Andy

BargainMad_3

JoBennie wrote: »

Still having problems, they are refusing to allow me to quit my service. They are saying I'm committed to pay the 12 months until 17 October 2011. They are saying that option 3 doesn't relate to me, only to older accounts and tarriffs and that I cannot close my account without paying the getout fee. Basically, they are refusing to allow me to close the account

o2 are right if you are on a recent package and your price increase is minimal. People on the older "legacy" packages have a much greater increase which is disproportionate and they are allowed out without the termination charge if in contract.

Don't mean to bring bad news, but the % increase in prices for new packages really is very small compared to the increase in prices for those on legacy packages where increases are large double digit percentages e.g 30% increase per month.

New packages are going up by 33p a month (The Basics) or 25p a month (All Rounder) or 58p a month (The Works) and as a percentage this is tiny.

DubDriver

djawol wrote: »

I'd double check the forums again as people have had problems with Megaupload, Rapidshare and usenet. Anything that is classed as file sharing is their definition of p2p, not just torrents etc. Now if you don't use any of those services then the deal may be good for you.

Andy

This is where o2 are being naughty by not being upfront and publishing precisely what is effected by the management.
On 'The Works' package, I tested usenet downloading during peak time today with Newleacher and obtained a constant speed of just over 13Mbps, no change compared to my old legacy package. As for Rapidshare & Megaupload, not really able to test as speeds are slow unless you subscribe anyway, but happy to go along with the idea that those and torrents are restricted.
My original point was, as that is all that is effected it doesn't seem such a big deal to me for those on The works package.

mabinogion_2

They cut off my broadband and telephone last week without warning. A 'clerical error' for which they apologised and explained they were under the wrong impression that we had cancelled our contract. But bizarrely they won't reconnect me until I sign up for the newer more expensive 12 month contract. Now I'm stuck without a phone or internet which I desperately need and they say it will take 11 days at least to reconnect me and thats only if I agree to take out a new contract. The cost of BTOpenzone is killing me. That can't be right can it?

DubDriver

mabinogion wrote: »

They cut off my broadband and telephone last week without warning. A 'clerical error' for which they apologised and explained they were under the wrong impression that we had cancelled our contract. But bizarrely they won't reconnect me until I sign up for the newer more expensive 12 month contract. Now I'm stuck without a phone or internet which I desperately need and they say it will take 11 days at least to reconnect me and thats only if I agree to take out a new contract. The cost of BTOpenzone is killing me. That can't be right can it?

I see o2 are a member of The Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA UK) I wonder if it would be worth giving them a call, maybe they can give you some initial advice before lodging a complaint with them.
As you are free to go elsewhere why not do that anyway?

j_zee83

I just rang o2 right now and wanted my mac code. They offered my 6 months free then the other 6 months for 13 quid. Equivalent to 6.50 a month. Ive took it.

MrTay

Being an O2 mobile user they offered me broadband for £9.99 a month. I jumped at this saving me £60 a year. However, as soon as my 12 month contract ended they bumped it up to £17.50. I phoned and asked what was going on, they said thats just the way it goes and had "nothing else to offer me at this time". Then i recieved the letter saying it was going up to something over £20! With the similar disregard they have for customers i immediately signed up with AOL, line rental and unlimited broadband (which is a fair bit faster too i might add), and cancelled the direct debit, saving myself at least £120 a year!!!
Surely they must know there are many better deals out there and customers will now be fleeing like a hurricaine was on its way?

Well done O2 :T You've lost another one...

loopyphil

Hi - I'd like to add my experience.....

After receiving the MSE newsletter last week - I phoned on Wed to sus out whether I could cancel. The operative on the end said that because my price rise was minimal and I had a post Sept contract - it did not apply - I said I wasn't sure that was the case and retreated to check out the facts a bit more.
Wed night I phoned again - different operative - he said that it was correct that I could cancel - which I did and got my MAC code.
Booked my new broadband and phone.
Saturday got a letter stating that I would be held to the 12 month contract penalty - at which point I phoned them.
This time I stated that the rep on Wed had not suggested that there was a penalty, their terms and conditions state that if they put up their prices then you can opt to end the contract, and the website states that there is no penalty. The operative quoted some Ofcom figures that state if the price rise is less than 2% then the option to end the contract is not applicable - to which I stated that there was no mention of this or Ofcom in the terms & conds and I believed that it still stood along with their statement on the website. They said they would look at all the facts including the tape of the conversation on Wed and get back to me.
I got a phone call Saturday night - but I was driving at the time and couldn't take it.
Phoned them this morn (Sun), and the operative that took the call said that the Penalty is not applicable to me, the website is correct and they are going to honour it. He has also sent me an email to this effect.

Woohoo !

Stick by your guns MSE'ers - you are in the right. Thanks to all who posted on this forum.