How do you challenge a Fair Usage policy?

Jamieg285

Hi,

I have recently discovered that my 'Unlimited data' from O2 is subject to a Fair Usage policy.

Fair enough, apart from the fact that they refuse to divulge any information about it. One of their complaints handlers said "I'm unable to quote an exact figure for excessive usage, because we don't have one."

A quick trawl of the internet for other unhappy people show that we are all getting cut-off at 4Gb.

They're recommendations are that I monitor my usage, to make sure I don't go over the limit - what limit I ask them? They can't tell me.

Their warning message says that my usage is excessive and is affecting the service of other users, yet in response to my complaints of being cut-off, O2 are willing to sell me higher data limits - how does that not affect the service?

I would be less angry if the Fair Usage limit was fair. 4Gb is no longer a large number (OK, it's still quite high), but O2 are actively promoting 8Gb contracts. I would be happy if the Fair Usage policy was in line with their top product offering.

Rant over, what I want to know is what, if anything can we do about this? Is it possible to challenge the Fair Usage policy, without having to resort to expensive legal challenges?

Thanks for any advice,

Jamie

MataNui

All providers have FUPs . That said though if O2 advertise a contract as 'unlimited' but there is a hard ceiling FUP (like 4GB) AND they also advertise capped services that are higher (for example if they offer 4GB and 8GB limits) then you are clearly not getting what they advertised and what you signed up for. Obviously if you only wanted 4GB you would have gone for the 4GB, 8GB and you would have gone for that. You want MORE than 8GB so you went for 'unlimited'. In this case i would get as much evidence as possible (recorded phone calls, emails, screen-prints of contracts offering higher data limits etc) and take up the complaint with ofcom.

gjchester

Jamieg285 wrote: »

Hi,

I have recently discovered that my 'Unlimited data' from O2 is subject to a Fair Usage policy.


...



Rant over, what I want to know is what, if anything can we do about this? Is it possible to challenge the Fair Usage policy, without having to resort to expensive legal challenges?

The long and short is no.


The ASA have been asked about it many times and the view is as long as the majority of customers will not hit a limit, then the service can be sold as "unlimited".


I know that's a crap definition, but that's what the ASA say and they are the ones who set the advertising rules.

NFH

Jamieg285 wrote: »

I would be less angry if the Fair Usage limit was fair. 4Gb is no longer a large number (OK, it's still quite high), but O2 are actively promoting 8Gb contracts. I would be happy if the Fair Usage policy was in line with their top product offering.

This is the most significant point. It is unreasonable for O2 to claim this is about fair usage (based on what is reasonable for a consumer to use) when it also sells a package with an allowance of double this amount. If it really did consider over 4GB to be excessive, then it would not sell a package allowing 8GB.

Earthworm

The difference between their 8GB plan and your unlimited plan is that 8GB is on 4G and yours is not. They may argue that using 4GB plus on 3G causes more damage to their 3G network than 8GB does on their 4G. You could, however, have a 4G plan and only use 3G coverage. Personally I think they are trying to protect their profit margins as other networks (Three) show that far more can be used without a detriment to the network.

Techhead_2

NFH wrote: »

This is the most significant point. It is unreasonable for O2 to claim this is about fair usage (based on what is reasonable for a consumer to use) when it also sells a package with an allowance of double this amount. If it really did consider over 4GB to be excessive, then it would not sell a package allowing 8GB.

I think you'll find the unlimited tariffs are legacy tariffs which haven't been sold for several years. They had no numerical limit, the limit was that the pattern of activity needed to not affect other users (eg using p2p heavily whilst tethered) That is, you were fine using it normally.

People couldn't understand this and kept asking for a numerical value and so O2 withdrew the tariffs and now offer specific limits.

Three encountered the same issue and responded with their traffic shaping technology which (effectively) limits what you can do at peak periods.

T-Mobile manage it by limiting the download speed and (attempting) to block tethering etc.

visidigi

AS an o2 user I would LOVE to know how you ever manage to do 4GB in a month - the network is so shoddy I'm lucky to break 500mb before my patience wears out.

I'm even contemplating moving to Three!

NFH

Techhead wrote: »

I think you'll find the unlimited tariffs are legacy tariffs which haven't been sold for several years. They had no numerical limit, the limit was that the pattern of activity needed to not affect other users (eg using p2p heavily whilst tethered) That is, you were fine using it normally.

That is no doubt true, but what is relevant now is now what FUP limit they imposed previously but what FUP limit they are imposing now, which should be appropriate for O2's current capacity and technology.

NFH

visidigi wrote: »

I'm even contemplating moving to Three!

Everyone I know on Three complains that coverage is poor with more coverage blackspots than any other network, but when they do get coverage, the bandwidth is far superior to the other networks.