O2 increase prices for existing customers and new customers!

ZhugeEX

Just as the new Ofcom ruling comes into place, O2 have announced a price increase for all their pay monthly customers who signed up before today and after today.

Prices will be increasing by 2.7% inline with December RPI from March 2014.

http://www.o2.co.uk/desktop/prices

It is worth noting that this applies to customers who signed up before AND AFTER January 23rd. It seems O2 have found a loophole which allows them to increase prices for customers every year (In line with RPI) as long as it is written in the T&C that it'll happen every year and as long as the customer is told at point of sale. (As will EE most likely)

Customers who signed up pre-23rd January 2014
Ofcom's guidance only applies to contracts made from the 23rd January onwards. For customers who joined or upgraded before this date, our terms and conditions at the time you signed up stated that we are entitled to increase your monthly subscription charge by no more than RPI and no more often than every 12 months and are compliant with the body of general consumer protection law. Our advertising has also said ‘tariff prices may go up' since January 2013.

Customers who joined or upgraded on or after 23 January 2014
Our current terms and conditions explicitly state that monthly subscription charges will increase (or decrease) every year in line with RPI. These are the prices customers are signing up to. Ofcom has confirmed that communications providers' terms which explicitly provide for a customer's monthly subscription to change each year in line with a specific percentage or index (like RPI) will not contravene its “fixed means fixed” guidance, provided such terms and prices are made clear to customers before they sign up.

Nice_Weather_For_Ducks

Hmm, I think they are sailing close to the wind on this one.

And anyway why would they do this considering its going to cause a lot of bad publicity... madness

daleski75

Nice_Weather_For_Ducks wrote: »

Hmm, I think they are sailing close to the wind on this one.

And anyway why would they do this considering its going to cause a lot of bad publicity... madness

I think they don't care and O2 see this as a golden opportunity to make sure no customer can break their contract without penalty and every year they can increase their prices and no one can do a single thing about it.

Won't be long before the other networks follow suit. EE I am looking at you!

virgo17

With all the recent Ofcom caps on roaming charges and 08xx numbers coming up, the networks will not miss any chance to increase their revenue stream, by RPI or other factors.

I'm sure they will be getting the same income from their customers as a whole. All that differs is the means by which they do it.

irn_bru

I don't see anything wrong with this, as long as it's clear from the outset. It's a competitive market and you don't have to use them.

ZhugeEX

irn_bru wrote: »

I don't see anything wrong with this, as long as it's clear from the outset. It's a competitive market and you don't have to use them.

But how many people are going to be told?

Remember last time when networks pointed to the T&C to show they could increase prices. About 95% of the people posting on here had no idea a network could do that and cause material detriment. And now with Ofcom's guidelines, which have been made public for some time, it's clear that consumers should be able to leave with out penalty if a future price increase occurs.

So how many of O2's (franchise) retail staff will honestly tell the customer this at point of sale or point it out to the customer in the contract they sign. How many telesales agents will conveniently forget to mention it just to get a sale?

daleski75

ZhugeEX wrote: »

But how many people are going to be told?

Remember last time when networks pointed to the T&C to show they could increase prices. About 95% of the people posting on here had no idea a network could do that and cause material detriment. And now with Ofcom's guidelines, which have been made public for some time, it's clear that consumers should be able to leave with out penalty if a future price increase occurs.

So how many of O2's (franchise) retail staff will honestly tell the customer this at point of sale or point it out to the customer in the contract they sign. How many telesales agents will conveniently forget to mention it just to get a sale?

O2 staff will never divulge that as no one would sign a new contract or renewal knowing they will have to pay more every 12 months.