Transferring O2 contract ownership

oystermondeo

Got an issue with O2 at the moment, and am interested in thoughts of others.

In December the e-mail on my Nokia e61 stopped working, I took it to the O2 shop and was told I was "due an upgrade".

As e-mail access is essential, I readily accepted my "dues" and upgraded to a Nokia E5, as the alternative was a lengthy fix and temporary replacement with a more basic handset with no e-mail. All was good.

Last week, however, I tried to transfer ownership of the contract from me personally to my business.

I was told I couldn't do this, as I when I took the upgrade I also extended my contract by 18 months and had to see out half of that first - which means I'll have to wait another 5 months. My only option to get out quicker would be to buy out my remaining time at £46/ month - around £644!!

I have some issues with this.

1) I asked the salesman about transferring it to my business at a later date when I upgraded and was assured it would be OK

2) The use of the phrase "due an upgrade" suggests entitlement - I believe it is misleading. All the sales people in the shop use this type of phrase and acknowledged it when I pointed it out.

3) Of course their contracts has a non-assignment clause, but I'm not asking them for a new handset, and my business tariff would be higher than my personal one, where's the issue transferring it? It just causes me inconvenience of extra expense forms.

4) Although O2 would say my upgrade is a new contract, the reality is I've been a pay monthly customer of theirs for several years.

I now have to go through the lengthy machinations of O2's complaints procedure to find out if they'll be reasonable, but I wonder if anyone has any take on this, or ideas on what can be done if they won't be?

Techhead_2

It looks like as well as transferring ownership you wish to change tariff to a business tariff, I think its unreasonable to expect to do that so soon after upgrading.

ukway

Hello I think you will find some really good information over this matter on BBC watchdog they had a consumer lawyer about two weeks ago.
On another subject regarding contracts

oystermondeo

Techhead wrote: »

It looks like as well as transferring ownership you wish to change tariff to a business tariff, I think its unreasonable to expect to do that so soon after upgrading.

Why?

I was told I could do this by shop staff.

I believed this in good faith.

oystermondeo

Found a few points in the sale of goods act 1979 - fit for purpose and as described.

All I want O2 to do is transfer ownership of the contract

Techhead_2

In your first post you talk about moving to a higher business tariff, that is not the same as transferring ownership.