Tmobile price increase

ruflonger

Thought this may be of interest - OFCOM deadlock complaint response

Ofcom reference: ******


08 May 2013

Dear *******

Thank you for your email of 6 May 2013.

Ofcom is aware of EE’s (the parent company of T-Mobile and Orange) decision to increase its pay monthly charges. Providers are not prevented from including terms in consumer contracts that allow unilateral price increases. However, any such term is subject to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 and may be unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer.

Additionally, under Ofcom rules, if a price change is likely to be of material detriment, providers are required to give customers at least one month’s notice of the change and allow them to withdraw from the contract without penalty. If a customer considers that the increase in price notification constitutes material detriment in their particular case, they should contact T-Mobile with evidence to support their claim.

Despite making T-Mobile aware of your particular concerns, I note it has not been possible to resolve the issue. In addition, T-Mobile was not prepared to issue a ‘deadlock’ letter as you wanted to take your case to CISAS. Although Ofcom cannot get involved in individual complaints, thank you for making us aware of your experience. In order to make your concerns known, I can confirm these have been formally recorded here and will be used for industry monitoring purposes. While the final stage in T-Mobile’s complaints procedure refers to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme (CISAS), please note that CISAS is not able to consider complaints about the fairness of price increases generally. However, where a customer has concerns that T-Mobile has not met its terms and conditions, CISAS may be able to consider this.

Finally, you may be interested to know that we recently opened a consultation on mid-contract price rises which closed on 14 March 2013. More information on this can be found at: http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2013/01/03/ofcom-sets-out-proposals-to-tackle-mid-contract-price-rises/. We will now consider all responses received and will publish our proposals accordingly.

I hope the above information will be useful.

Yours sincerely

RandomCurve

daveuk1 wrote: »

On a different note, while I applaud RandomCurve (and Anna2007)'s tireless efforts, I'm a little confused by the withholding of allegedly compelling information against T-Mobile. I understand that you are trying to incentivise public involvement but if you are trying to generate interest and drum up support, would it not be beneficial to post the most compelling argument that you have available to you which, if sufficiently strong, will surely get the maximum number of affected customers interested? Just my $0.02

Anyway, I hope I'm unduly pessimistic. In any event, good luck continuing to fight the good fight!

D

I have already said I will post it here, probably over a series of 5 or 6 posts over 3 days - it is a long argument!!

There are a couple of references to statute and regulation that need double checking - I will have that done hopefully tomorrow night, but by Saturday at the latest.

First instalment later tonight.

anna2007

NittyGritty wrote: »

just sent template off to them now, will wait and see what they reply with, (altho i guess i,m lucky my contract ends on 20th june) was going to give 30 days notice on 20th may, but worth a try ending early

I don't fancy your chances of getting it resolved by 20 May, but at least you'll soon have the satisfaction of taking your business elsewhere

anna2007

daveuk1 wrote: »

Sorry to reappear in naysayer mode but, reading between the lines here, it seems to me that there has been some discussion going on behind the scenes here between T-Mobile, CISAS and Ofcom and it doesn't look good.

I agree, it does feel like they've closed ranks.

daveuk1 wrote: »

Anyway, I hope I'm unduly pessimistic. In any event, good luck continuing to fight the good fight!

I'm wondering whether there's any significance to d123 receiving no response to his CISAS complaint? Maybe they're waiting until tomorrow for the price change to come into effect, after which time there will be an announcement that those who gave notice to cancel can walk away penalty-free... but then I'm an eternal optimist

RandomCurve

Looking at the turmoil the forum seems to be in with regards to the CISAS applications and there acceptance of some and not of others I phoned CISAS today to explain that a forum with over 25,000 viewers was struggling to understand what can and can't be dealt withby them. I was put through to a more senior who gave me permission to post his name here:

As I have said in the past if you try to argue this on the RATE you will lose, and if you say it is because of a price rise CISAS will not take on your dispute - the rate to be used is a business decisions, if T-Mobile want to use 25% then that is up to them!

You need to word your application as follows:

My T&Cs allow T-Mobile to increase their line rental on fixed term contracts, however the rate that they have applied is not in accordance with the T&Cs. I have contacted T-Mobile to exercise my right to cancel without penalty to me, but T-Mobile have refused that right thereby breaching T-Mobiles T&Cs.

The persons name was Phil Jean-Marie


Good Luck

anna2007

RandomCurve wrote: »

You need to word your application as follows:

My T&Cs allow T-Mobile to increase their line rental on fixed term contracts, however the rate that they have applied is not in accordance with the T&Cs. I have contacted T-Mobile to exercise my right to cancel without penalty to me, but T-Mobile have refused that right thereby breaching T-Mobiles T&Cs.

The persons name was Phil Jean-Marie


Good Luck

I wish I'd known that at the time I submitted my application... I used the full 750 word allowance!

Wizards_Apprentice

I only found out about the increase this afternoon, quite shocked as I had not been made aware. I have contacted T-Mobile this evening and have verbally complained, I explained that I shall be writing directly to complain. I shall then be following the full complaints procedure via CISAS once the 8 week period has expired.

DGKC

I have spent 1 hour 20 mins today being bounced around various t mobile departments all around the world. Finally I got through to a manager based here in the UK, having explained my situation, emails to Exec Office, recorded letters to T Mobile legal department I was placed on hold. Upon returning I was promised a call tomorrow by someone from the senior investigation team and was assured my requests would be dealt with. When I asked will this department have the authorization to release me from my contract with no early repayment fee he confidently said yes. The way he came back on the call and sounded so positive made me think maybe there is some truth that an announcement is due tomorrow, when the price increase takes effect.

Fingers crossed, I will update further following this call tomorrow.

One final point, one member of staff earlier in the phone call refused to provide my PAC code until I verbally agreed to pay the ETF, when I challenged where in the T&C's I was obliged to do so she was unable to provide me with that information........ why are they allowed to bully us and mis-advise, mislead .... this is the reason I am the one who now records all my phone calls.

RandomCurve

You have until midnight tonight to cancel your contract. I see there is some speculation that T-Mobile may announce that it will cancel the price rise tomorrow, well you can take a chance on that, or you can ask for termination NOW thereby leaving your options open.

I think the scope for T-Mobile to cancel the price rise or to announce that all those who asked for cancellation before midnight can leave is narrow due to the apparent support of Ofcom. i.e. if T-Mobile back down without a "fight" then it will highlight OFCOMs "apparent" collusion.

Personally I would not take the risk - put in for cancellation NOW that way you can decide after tomorrow what YOU WANT TO DO, rather than T-Mobile deciding WHAT IT WANTS TO DO! And I think they have adequately demonstrated how much we can trust them!.

RandomCurve

Thank you to everyone who sent an email to the Media asking for a correction to the original price rise story, with the exception of MSE a cynic might say that the lack of response proves that the press are happy to pass on the news of the Big Boys, but don't really give a crapee about you and I, always suspected - now confirmed?

We should stop sending the #570 emails now as the time has passed, however I will re draft the EE Director story and add a much wider distribution list.

I will also draft a letter to OFCOM - again for you to forward asking them to explain the reasoning behind their statement quoted by MSE yesterday "We consider the approach they [EE] have taken is reasonable and do not consider that we need to take further action."
What was that based on?
What evidence did they consider?
Which contract term were they referring to Pre/Post October or both?
What statutes did they consider
what case law did they compare this to?
what regulations did they consider?

Or was it just a glib statement to placate us that "good old OFCOM" is looking out for us little guys?