MSE News: O2 to hike its prices by 2.7% - can you leave your contract penalty-free?

DUTR

V_For_Verminator wrote: »

I don't care (well I do actually) whether the increase is 50p or £5 a month. This might be "whinging" in your book but I don't believe it is fair and I will pursue this as far as I can.

Your "whinging" is my standing up for myself.

It seems your distance will only be as far as the keyboard, but if you feel that is the most efficient way to use your energy then knock yourself out.

dazzaofdagenham wrote: »

My contract goes up by 57p and in June I am out of contract.

So wonder what my loyalty will be worth then

Probably not as much as your pride, especially when you want to obtain the latest shiny handset on credit.

tgroom57

DUTR wrote: »

Oh no! My 30 day rolling contract is going to increase by 57p a month.

Mine too, 55p on a £20 monthly bill. Ridiculously large texts & minutes, and enough internet for me. The 55p increase is more than covered by the freebies on O2 priority app - this week I had a free coffee at Caffe Nero & free de-icer from Halfords. Last week was a luxury jigsaw, before that £5 Body Shop spend, all free.

tgroom57

ZhugeEX wrote: »

O2 won't be sending out letters/emails until February 2014.

I had an email from O2 about this on 27 January at 10:24am, and a text through to my phone yesterday 28 January.

silvercar

DUTR wrote: »

The average increase is well under £1 a month, of course costs go up, staff pay increases, energy charges, ground rates and site rental, license fees, R&D to name a few.

All of which you expect O2 to know about and include in their budget when they set the original tariff.

DUTR

tgroom57 wrote: »

I had an email from O2 about this on 27 January at 10:24am, and a text through to my phone yesterday 28 January.

Same here but mine goes up 57p, since I have had the contract since Jan 2006 it has gone up £1.64, but hardly worth even contemplating leaving or kicking up a stink.

JasonLVC

DUTR wrote: »

I don't recall them saying it's unfair, only the folk here whining about a 50p or so increase as if it's the end of the world, energy prices do go up and as you point out the customers have a choice, the principle here is that most of you whining won't challenge it in court , possibly because you know the charge will be laughed out of court.

Customers don't have a choice when they are locked in with termination penalties and in a contract that is supposed to be for £x amount each month and cal charges at £y per month which then change.

I posted OFCOM's guidance on this earlier - if you read it you will see that OFCOM don't agree with in-contract price rises of any kind, even where a RPI icnrease is a contractual term.

Why would this go to court?

There is a formal procedure for dealing with mobile phone complaints and when the mobile provider fails to satisfy you take it to the ombusdman/ADR(CISAS http://www.cisas.org.uk/), so for the price of a letter/stamp and maybe an email you can have a go. If you lose, no worries, if you win, happy days.

Its like those people who happily pay those Parking Eye type "fines" for staying in an Aldi carpark for 1 minute than allowed. Fines not worth the paper they're written on, don't pay, take to ombudsman and win everytime but so many people just give in at the first hurdle which is why these scams continue to proliferate.

DUTR

JasonLVC wrote: »

Customers don't have a choice when they are locked in with termination penalties and in a contract that is supposed to be for £x amount each month and cal charges at £y per month which then change.

I posted OFCOM's guidance on this earlier - if you read it you will see that OFCOM don't agree with in-contract price rises of any kind, even where a RPI icnrease is a contractual term.

Why would this go to court?

There is a formal procedure for dealing with mobile phone complaints and when the mobile provider fails to satisfy you take it to the ombusdman/ADR(CISAS http://www.cisas.org.uk/), so for the price of a letter/stamp and maybe an email you can have a go. If you lose, no worries, if you win, happy days.

Its like those people who happily pay those Parking Eye type "fines" for staying in an Aldi carpark for 1 minute than allowed. Fines not worth the paper they're written on, don't pay, take to ombudsman and win everytime but so many people just give in at the first hurdle which is why these scams continue to proliferate.

We will just have to agree to differ, I have never been on the understanding of a mobile contract being a set price for the duration of the long term, the clauses have always been there (I'll be clearing the house so should come across the 1994 orange contract) , as inflation has been relatively low over the years then the RPI has not always been adopted and certainly not annually.
Trouble is here a lot of readers are basing their defence on what they believe, when simply a few button presses will reveal the T&Cs they agreed to, that's why they will lose in court as ignorance is no defence.

As for the car park thing at Aldi, Lidl etc, I just cannot see how 2 hrs is not more than adequate.

As for taking up the ombusdman claim, you already know that will fail and the cost of the stamp alone is more than the price increase in many instances and that's before the paper, envelope and time to lodge the complaint is considered.
Even if the networks were to say increase the monthly by say 10%, there would be more subscribers that stay than those that take up the option to leave. The real reality of what is going on in this thread is that the ones that want an escape because of the increase simply want to have obtained their handset below the retail cost by a substantial amount.

GolfBravo

DUTR wrote: »

Same here but mine goes up 57p, since I have had the contract since Jan 2006 it has gone up £1.64, but hardly worth even contemplating leaving or kicking up a stink.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

I honestly don't care about their 2.7% increase. What I care about is the 50% increase to international EU calls. This may end up costing me around £30 a month extra.

1.8 Amongst other things, Article 20(2) of the USD sets out, in relation to the provision of telecommunications services, that subscribers (including consumers and small business customers) to such services have a right to withdraw from their contract without penalty where providers modify the contractual conditions. In the UK, this is reflected in GC 9.6.

And according to Ofcom, price is a condition of a contract.

The increase is a modification of contractual conditions that is likely to cause "material detriment" to me.

4. Subscribers shall have a right to withdraw from their contracts without penalty upon notice of proposed modifications in the contractual conditions. Subscribers shall be given adequate notice, not shorter than one month, ahead of any such modifications and shall be informed at the same time of their right to withdraw, without penalty, from such contracts, if they do not accept the new conditions.

I'm still waiting for the info re: my right to withdraw without penalty.

GolfBravo

DUTR wrote: »

the clauses have always been there (I'll be clearing the house so should come across the 1994 orange contract) , as inflation has been relatively low over the years then the RPI has not always been adopted and certainly not annually.
Trouble is here a lot of readers are basing their defence on what they believe, when simply a few button presses will reveal the T&Cs they agreed to, that's why they will lose in court as ignorance is no defence.

This particular part of their T&C's is unenforceable. Law always trumps your contract T&C's.

And no need to go to court, there is a formal complaint procedure that I will have to follow.

DUTR

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

As an aside, I did terminate my Virgin broadband as they were starting to fling in 2 price rises in short duration.