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

NittyGritty

DUTR wrote: »

the difference though is quickly identifying a lost battle.


Anyways if O2 withdraw their proposal I will be one of the 1st to say well done folks.

why is it a lost battle??, ive seen people cancel their contracts by going to CISAS for exactly the same rise in out of bundle costs,
you just got to stick it out and don't be afraid to back down because they simply send you an email stating sorry you cant cancel? lol


if its in your terms and they break it or change anything that costs you more (not RPI) then you have a right to complain and take it all the way, then its out of 02's hands as such


as for 02 withdrawing their proposal why would they?? when people just sit back and do nothing but agree to the hikes. like I say before its only a few out of the millions that complain and take it further and no doubt win in most cases when it goes to the ombudsman.
I for one wont be one of those who sit back n agree to any hikes, if I feel or know the terms r broken. I did it last year with T-Mobile n won.


just because they are a big company "don't be fooled into thinking you will stand no chance of winning" by going to CISAS, if you have a good and valid reason to do so more often than not you win.


p.s .... it looks as tho one person on this thread as already won, by just contacting 02. so it just shows it pays to complain if u have a valid reason

thehalk

JasonLVC wrote: »

Me, I'm with O2 and I'm the kind of person who likes to get litigious so will happily have some fun with this. I'm not actually bothered about the price rise, its about £5 over 12 months, but its the principle I'm more interested in.

me too! i'm with business (upgraded 10/06/13 on a 26.66/m for 24m) so am probably on a hiding to nothing unlike you lucky pay monthly folk. nevertheless, i've drafted a brief letter explaining that the price increase represents material detriment and am emailing it as a .pdf to smebusinessaccount@o2.com to see what they have to say for themselves.

GolfBravo

NittyGritty wrote: »

if its in your terms and they break it or change anything that costs you more (not RPI) then you have a right to complain and take it all the way, then its out of 02's hands as such

To me this is more about the principle.

You sign a contract, you stick to it. You don't, you pay up. So they will pay up by releasing my contract early, and I'll go elsewhere to pay £10 a month instead of £50.

Imagine if it was the other way around: "Dear O2, due to inflation my costs of living have all gone up and I can't afford to pay you as much as I used to. I just didn't budget for inflation when I signed this contact. Sorry. So each month I will pay you 2.7% less, and I will pay you 20p per minute for international calls (used to be 40p). Sorry, but you can't cancel this contract because of this change - it's in my T&C's."

How would they react?

NittyGritty wrote: »

just because they are a big company "don't be fooled into thinking you will stand no chance of winning" by going to CISAS, if you have a good and valid reason to do so more often than not you win.

This is just a numbers game for them. After all it is only a 2.7% increase (plus all the out of bundle price hikes that are in the small print) so 99% of their customer won't even notice. But even if 70,000 customers complain and cancel their contacts, it is only 1% of their customer base. They will make a fortune out of this anyway.

GolfBravo

DUTR wrote: »

Anyways if O2 withdraw their proposal I will be one of the 1st to say well done folks.

O2 won't withdraw their proposal. And you won't cancel your contract with them, just like 99% of their customers won't. You will just pay them more money.

V_For_Verminator

GolfBravo wrote: »

You have to give them the opportunity to respond.

In my email I mentioned:
- the unfair terms under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 - according to their T&C's O2 are free to raise prices but the customer cannot leave without paying a early termination penalty/higher bills, so technically trapped into paying the higher price = unfair contract term;
- Ofcom - at time of sale the O2 salesperson did not make it clear that a price rise would or could occur during the contract (this applies to all pre-23/01/14 contracts);
- and EU regs - Directive 2002/22/EC Of the European Parliament and of the Council, Chapter IV – End User Agreements, Article 20 – Contracts (4. Subscribers shall have a right to withdraw from their contracts without penalty upon notice of proposed modifications in the contractual conditions).

Also mentioned taking it further to Ofcom and the Communications Ombudsman if necessary. They may give in at that stage as each Ombudsman case cost them £300+.

Thanks very much for that - I emailed them this evening. Not mentioned any of the above. I know that they will ring (because I have made a complaint in the past) and so I'll store this up to hit them with at that point.

DUTR

GolfBravo wrote: »

O2 won't withdraw their proposal. And you won't cancel your contract with them, just like 99% of their customers won't. You will just pay them more money.

I'm glad you finally realise that, that is all I have been saying all along.
I don't know how much you earn but the time spent for me arguing over something inevitable and in the T&Cs is not worth the saving,
And even with the increase it still represents fair value.

I'm on a 30 day contract so can leave anytime , 99+% of the customers won't bother because they don't see it as a big issue.

Contact them by all means, they may apply a goodwill gesture to negate the price increase for the remainder of the contract, but it depends on what you deem as a win as one cap does not fit all.

Earthworm

GolfBravo wrote: »

To me this is more about the principle.

You sign a contract, you stick to it. You don't, you pay up. So they will pay up by releasing my contract early, and I'll go elsewhere to pay £10 a month instead of £50.

Imagine if it was the other way around: "Dear O2, due to inflation my costs of living have all gone up and I can't afford to pay you as much as I used to. I just didn't budget for inflation when I signed this contact. Sorry. So each month I will pay you 2.7% less, and I will pay you 20p per minute for international calls (used to be 40p). Sorry, but you can't cancel this contract because of this change - it's in my T&C's."

How would they react?


This is just a numbers game for them. After all it is only a 2.7% increase (plus all the out of bundle price hikes that are in the small print) so 99% of their customer won't even notice. But even if 70,000 customers complain and cancel their contacts, it is only 1% of their customer base. They will make a fortune out of this anyway.

I think this is the wrong way to view it... Especially if you wish to fight the rise. Personally if I wanted to fight this, which I don't as I am not on O2, I would go down the route of fighting the term allowing O2 to raise their prices in line with inflation in the first place (contracts taken 23/01/14). I would argue this term goes against Ofcom rulings on increases and although their terms specifically allow it Ofcom rules specifically allow penalty free cancellation regardless of whether you are told about the increase or not.

GolfBravo

DUTR wrote: »

I'm glad you finally realise that, that is all I have been saying all along.

I don't expect them to withdraw their new pricing, and I don't want them to. Their greed allows me to cancel my contract early and save £.

Why would they withdraw it anyway? 5% of customers will complain, 1% will cancel their contracts, the company will make extra £100M, lots of O2 managers will get their bonuses.

DUTR wrote: »

I don't know how much you earn but the time spent for me arguing over something inevitable and in the T&Cs is not worth the saving,
And even with the increase it still represents fair value.

It's definitely worthwhile for me though. I usually pay b/w £50 and £75 a month.

Should I stay with O2, the 50% increase in international call prices alone will cost me (approx.) over £100 b/w March and May.

By leaving O2 now and getting a £10 a month PAYG sim I can save £230 over 6 months (no monthly contract fees). And EU international calls are only 5p a minute (Giffgaff), and not 40p or 60p.

So potential net gain, for under 2 hours work, is well over £300.

No, I don't earn £150 an hour.

DUTR

GolfBravo wrote: »

I don't expect them to withdraw their new pricing, and I don't want them to. Their greed allows me to cancel my contract early and save £.

Why would they withdraw? 5% of customers will complain, 1% will cancel their contracts, the company will make extra £100M, lots of O2 managers will get their bonuses.

It's definitely worthwhile for me though. I usually pay b/w £50 and £75 a month.

Should I stay with O2, the 50% increase in international call prices alone will cost me (approx.) over £100 b/w March and May.

By leaving O2 now and getting a £10 a month PAYG sim I can save £230 over 6 months (no monthly contract fees).

So potential net gain, for under 2 hours work, is over £300.

No, I don't earn £150 an hour.

But from your own maths , you could already save by switching to PAYG now and saving £223.79 and could have saved more by doing so earlier.
However if it works for you, then you should obviously go for it.

From what you have written you were already on not the most cost effective tarrif for your usage.

GolfBravo

DUTR wrote: »

From what you have written you were already on not the most cost effective tarrif for your usage.

Yes, at the moment definitely not the most cost effective. Not even close.

When I renewed my old contract with O2 (September 2012) it suited me quite well. But my circumstances changed (lots of int. calls now). In the age of Skype and free international landline calls (TalkTalk) paying 60p, or even 40p, per minute is simply ridiculous. It just shows how greedy O2 really are.

In the future will definitely buy my phone upfront and then go PAYG, and then keep switching for best offers and good network.