MSE News: O2 raises prices for 7 million mobile customers

sjmm80

Someone else just directed this thread to me. Now as someonehas previously yomentioned 3.2% of £15.50 is 49.6p. Under the clause of the contract you can cancel free of penalty if the increase is more than rpi. 50p is more than the rpi of 49.6p. I've written to o2 to cancel, they came back to say they had to round up but where in their terms allows for that?? I've made a formal complaint and will follow this through as they are in breach of contract for not allowing me to cancel my contract without having to pay my line rental up to the end of the term of the contract. I seriously can't see why they wouldn't just let those who have bothered to cancel under this clause just cancel and that's it! It's coming to the end of the 30 day period so it's not like everyone will have written to cancel and they could ask us to return our phones. What am I missing that allows them to ignore their own t&cs?

gjchester

sjmm80 wrote: »

Someone else just directed this thread to me. Now as someonehas previously yomentioned 3.2% of £15.50 is 49.6p. Under the clause of the contract you can cancel free of penalty if the increase is more than rpi. 50p is more than the rpi of 49.6p. I've written to o2 to cancel, they came back to say they had to round up but where in their terms allows for that??

It's a rounding issue, the rounding of 49.6 to 50p is reasonable, we don't use 0.1p coins.

Best guess is your right you are being over charged, but rounding is a standard price policy, look at petrol where it's always xxx.9p a litre that's rounded up or down to the nearest penny and this is probably the same.

If the rise was 49.5/ or 49.4p and they rounded it up you'd be right to cancel but I don't think it will apply here, as rounding to the nearest penny is a common situation.

As rounding ins common I suspect you'd need to try and take this to court to get anywhere, and for 5p a year is it worth it, it would be hard to say you are being materially disadvantaged by so little.

sjmm80

Interestingly o2 called me today to say the matter is now being taken to ofcom and the price rise may not even go ahead!

sjmm80

It's not the clause in the contract where you can claim being materially disadvantaged that I'm querying. The fact is you're not. They have written they can increase by rpi, again that's fine. It's the very simple fact that they say if they increase it by more then you can cancel penalty free. It doesn't say how much more, just more. I understand the need for rounding and indeed many do round up rather than down but in this case, by doing so, it means that they are increasing by more than rpi so therefore under the terms of the contract you should be able to cancel without having to pay a termination fee/monthly subscription to the end of the term. I think that's really the point that's being lost. It's all to do with the contract wording. If they'd simply just rounded down (which I assume they may well now do) then I would agree wholeheartedly that there is no scope under the t&cs to cancel without incurring a penalty.

minislim

been with 02 for 7 years. and an additional 4 years with a year inbetween with orange because o2 just couldnt compete that year.

having now experienced this changing of the goalposts my loyalty to o2 has now somewhat deminished.

and no amout of money saving or freebies is going to change that opinion.

wdw2003

Just yesterday I left o2 after 15 years, as they were just too far off the various sim only deals.

I now have a Nexus 4 and a £12 giffgaff unlimited data deal and look forward to upgrading when I want to rather than waiting for each 2 year contract to end.

Once customers vote with their feet o2 might start to think sensibly about their prices.

Susiemax

Yet another way the big companies rip us off. I'm currently having BIG problems with O2. I have a contract (24 month) that is up to renew in sept, however my 'wonderful' iPhone isn't working, all I can do is make calls and text, the other features you'd normally get from an iPhone don't work! I've taken the phone to apple to look at it, they said due to (one year) warranty being expired they would only fix my phone for £169 and that it was a fault with the phone itself - NOT from anything I'd done. Went to O2 shop after going online and being advised by O2 that I should be able to get help due to still being under contract - nope - they sent phone away (to Apple) for repair & told me they would fix it for £130. I couldn't afford that so my payments were reduced to £25 as I couldn't access Internet etc. I did have the insurance they advised me to get but this was useless as it was a warranty issue not accidental damage! This was cancelled when contract reviewed.
NOT helpful at all, just feel like one they have your money they don't give a damn!! Be warned!!!

mickd67

Cannot believe o2 used to love them I have 3 mobile contracts + broadband. I cancelled my direct debits last month and now pay manually by credit card. The credit card charges will cancel out the price increase. I won't gain but neither will o2. If everyone uses this method of payment it will cost o2 big time. Having said that they might follow Ryan air and start charging for paying by credit card!

stoo2k

Susiemax wrote: »

Yet another way the big companies rip us off. I'm currently having BIG problems with O2. I have a contract (24 month) that is up to renew in sept, however my 'wonderful' iPhone isn't working, all I can do is make calls and text, the other features you'd normally get from an iPhone don't work! !

Par for the course with iPhones. Sounds like a typical APN issue to me. Try "mobile.o2.co.uk" as the APN in the cellular data settings where it probably reads "idata.o2.co.uk"

thedon

I've complained through the o2 webchat last week, then escalated to the o2 Complaints review email address on Friday.

I got polite but unhelpful email back this morning which didn't mention the out of bundle cost increases and more importantly international call costs.

I was about to complain to CISAS based on information earlier in this thread, but then found that o2 are covered by The Ombudsman service (not CISAS): http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2009/12/adr-schemes/

Apologies if this information is already posted.

Link to the Ombudsman scheme: http://www.ombudsman-services.org/complain-now-communications.html