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

FacingReality

Prof_Moneypenny wrote: »

What really has upset me is that I am paying a huge amount of money each month for a service that doesn't even work the signal is so poor where I am and 3G is none existent and I don't have all day to wait for GPRS only for it to fail anyway. Its an outrage. The O2 spokesperson is quite right price rises are never welcome but I could stomach the price rise if there was a good service to justify it but for me it just adds insult to injury of a totally inadequate service. I am furious that I cannot even change my tariff to suit the level of service that they can't provide. Never will I use o2 again after 15+ year of being a loyal customer and recommending them to friend and family. I hope the greedy company goes bust.

Same here. I moved jobs about 10 months ago. At work I get a solid EDGE connection. 4G? 3G is nowhere to be seen. I look forward to this investment in their network, however I reckon I'll be long gone by the time it reaches me. My contract is up in September and it can't come quick enough.

thedon

I just got my response from the Ombudsman - not good news I'm afraid. As someone already suggested earlier in the thread the Ombudsman doesn't get involved in commercial decisions (I complained about the out of bundle increases and specifically the 50% increase in international costs).

Extract below:
Thank you for your email received on 03 February 2014 about O2.
Ombudsman Services can deal with complaints about the level of service you have received or
about a supplier’s failure to follow the rules set by Ofcom.
Ofcom regulates the communications industry and sets the general conditions that all providers
must meet. Provided it operates within this framework, a provider is entitled to make commercial
decisions about how it does business and what products it offers. Examples of this are the
decisions to increase prices or to stop offering a certain tariff.
Ofcom does not deal with individual complaints between customers and communications
companies. It collects information from a range of sources including Ombudsman Services:
Communications as part of its market monitoring activity and keeps markets under review to
ensure that all providers comply with the relevant legislation and obligations.
We understand that you are unhappy with O2’s action. However, as your complaint is about a
commercial issue we are unable to help.

ChilliP2012

Oh well, that's the end of that then.

streather

o2 finally bothered to send me a reply after a little over a week since my original email was sent, it was word for word exactly the same as the others posted here and on the which forums.

The original complaint email i sent them has 6 points, they addressed exactly 1.


hooray for "world class customer service"

FacingReality

thedon wrote: »

I just got my response from the Ombudsman - not good news I'm afraid. As someone already suggested earlier in the thread the Ombudsman doesn't get involved in commercial decisions (I complained about the out of bundle increases and specifically the 50% increase in international costs).

Extract below:
Thank you for your email received on 03 February 2014 about O2.
Ombudsman Services can deal with complaints about the level of service you have received or
about a supplier’s failure to follow the rules set by Ofcom.
Ofcom regulates the communications industry and sets the general conditions that all providers
must meet. Provided it operates within this framework, a provider is entitled to make commercial
decisions about how it does business and what products it offers. Examples of this are the
decisions to increase prices or to stop offering a certain tariff.
Ofcom does not deal with individual complaints between customers and communications
companies. It collects information from a range of sources including Ombudsman Services:
Communications as part of its market monitoring activity and keeps markets under review to
ensure that all providers comply with the relevant legislation and obligations.
We understand that you are unhappy with O2’s action. However, as your complaint is about a
commercial issue we are unable to help.

Surely raising the out of subscription charges are a direct infringement of the Ofcom guidance. I am not saying the Ombudsman would have came down on one side or the other but surely that is enough reason for them to at least look at the case.

AlwaysConfused

Probably showing my ignorance here but I'll ask anyway... ��
is there anyway to challenge or complain about the ombudsman? I've asked for an explanation regarding their 'commercial' decision. I'm in agreement with comments made earlier about this breaching the Of com general conditions and, to be honest, the attitude and behaviour of some of the O2 reps have seriously p!@#ed me off so I'm in 'grumpy old man' mode. If I can push this from another angle I intend to

DUTR

AlwaysConfused wrote: »

Probably showing my ignorance here but I'll ask anyway... ��
is there anyway to challenge or complain about the ombudsman? I've asked for an explanation regarding their 'commercial' decision. I'm in agreement with comments made earlier about this breaching the Of com general conditions and, to be honest, the attitude and behaviour of some of the O2 reps have seriously p!@#ed me off so I'm in 'grumpy old man' mode. If I can push this from another angle I intend to

Just roll over and get tickled on your tummy, cos you can rest assured O2 are not going to .

ChilliP2012

AlwaysConfused wrote: »

Probably showing my ignorance here but I'll ask anyway... ��
is there anyway to challenge or complain about the ombudsman? I've asked for an explanation regarding their 'commercial' decision. I'm in agreement with comments made earlier about this breaching the Of com general conditions and, to be honest, the attitude and behaviour of some of the O2 reps have seriously p!@#ed me off so I'm in 'grumpy old man' mode. If I can push this from another angle I intend to

If you are unhappy with the investigation the ombudsmen have carried then they tell you to refer to the report which explains what you need to do next.

GolfBravo

thedon wrote: »

I just got my response from the Ombudsman - not good news I'm afraid. As someone already suggested earlier in the thread the Ombudsman doesn't get involved in commercial decisions (I complained about the out of bundle increases and specifically the 50% increase in international costs).

....
Ombudsman Services can deal with complaints about ... a supplier’s failure to follow the rules set by Ofcom.
... a provider is entitled to make commercial
decisions about how it does business and what products it offers. Examples of this are the
decisions to increase prices or to stop offering a certain tariff.
...
We understand that you are unhappy with O2’s action. However, as your complaint is about a
commercial issue we are unable to help.

The Ombudsman is looking at the wrong issue here. The price increase is, surely, a commercial decision - however, my complaint is not about the price increase. The issue is that O2 are not automatically offering to end the contract due to price increase. According to GC9.6 and EU regulations, as a result of price increase, you are entitled to cancel the contract with no penalty.

PS
O2 cut and paste reply email received today. Complaining to the Ombudsman tomorrow.

ChilliP2012

GolfBravo wrote: »

According to GC9.6 and EU regulations, as a result of price increase, you are entitled to cancel the contract with no penalty.

Which is exactly what I've pointed out to them, so maybe there is some slight hope then.