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

V_For_Verminator

Did you hit them with it ChilliP?

ChilliP2012

Yup, it's done. Going to sit back & wait now.

Let's see what happens in the 14 days from the date of service.

adpod

Interesting info on the MCOL - so I cant take o2 to court because there based in England and I am based in Northern Ireland and the small claims court over here wont allow me to take on Mainland businesses...any suggestions?

ChilliP2012

adpod wrote: »

Interesting info on the MCOL - so I cant take o2 to court because there based in England and I am based in Northern Ireland and the small claims court over here wont allow me to take on Mainland businesses...any suggestions?

That's not correct.

See my post above. This is a direct response from MCOL.

Good Afternoon

Thank you for your email

To issue a claim using the online service the Claimant must have an address for the service of documents within the United Kingdom and the Defendant must have an address within England or Wales.

This court does not have jurisdiction outside of these countries so unfortunately you are unable to use the service if you cannot comply with this criteria.

A Northern Ireland address is part of the UK and the defendant (O2) has an address in England & Wales. Telefonica UK Ltd, 260 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 4DX

So you should be able to use MCOL to make a claim.

However, may I suggest waiting for my claim before starting a claim yourself.

RandomCurve

The below will be helpful for anybody claiming that the price rise is unenforceable as it was not clearly and adequately drawn to your attention - The O2 website openly admits that prior to January 2014 their advertising DID NOT reference price rises!!!

· I was already in contract with you when you announced your price rise. Are you allowed to put my prices up whilst I'm in contract? It's not the price I signed up to

Customers who signed up pre-23rd January 2014

Ofcom's guidance on "fixed means fixed" is only applicable to contracts made on or after the 23rd January 2014 and does not apply to contracts that were entered into before that date. 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.


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

ChilliP2012

Interesting

I am going to be using the arguments listed below in my small claim, but I may also throw this into the equation as well.

The grounds for a complaint for a pre-23/1/14 contract are:

1. The contract, point of sale material, and the salesperson did not make it clear that a price rise would or could occur during the contract.

2. Raising prices in line with the Retail Prices Index causes me material detriment (use that phrase) because (a) my own income has not risen by 2.7% and/or (b) in March 2013 the Office for National Statistics said RPI is no longer a national statistic which can be relied upon. The official measure of inflation is the CPI which rose by only 2%.

3. Therefore I am free to leave the contract without penalty under EU law.

Alternatively, some people could chuck the following into the equation:

If your contract is less than 12 months old a rise in line with annual inflation clearly causes material detriment because since you took it out inflation has been lower than the annual figure.

Finally, you could also claim the price rise was unlawful under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. As they protect people where a company imposes a term which limits the customer's rights but retains similar rights for the company. So it is free to raise prices but the customer cannot leave without paying a large penalty and is thus trapped into paying the higher price. That seems the essence of a one-sided and therefore unfair term.

These are all arguments I will be submitting further down the line during my claim. At the moment I have been limited to what I could state as to my reasons for starting the claim against O2.

RandomCurve

ChilliP2012 wrote: »

Interesting

I am going to be using the arguments listed below in my small claim, but I may also throw this into the equation as well.

The grounds for a complaint for a pre-23/1/14 contract are:



Alternatively, some people could chuck the following into the equation:



These are all arguments I will be submitting further down the line during my claim. At the moment I have been limited to what I could state as to my reasons for starting the claim against O2.

It would help your case if you can find a recent newspaper ad for O2 - They are regularly in the "Metro". From 23rd Jan they only apply RPI to the airtime part of the contract - not to the phone. Conclusive proof that by charging RPI on the full cost of your contract including the provision of the phone (which can't possibly have inflation applied to it as they had already paid for the phone), then thy have used RPI to increase their profit line and not to reflect the increase in their costs as they claim!!


Game over

V_For_Verminator

I'm watching this very closely - I am about to submit a copy of your letter ChilliP (if that's ok?) and I am expecting a similarly braindead, copy and paste response. Unfortunately that may be all for me as I won't be able to afford court action but I will see what I can do.

ChilliP2012

Feel free to use it. I have RC aka RandomCurve to thank for his help regarding that, but as far as I'm concerned, anyone can use it and tailor it to their needs.

It's £25 for court action via MCOL. However, if you win you'll get that back. I've also been cheeky enough to ask for an additional £50 compensation for all the crap that O2 have put me through.

My guess is, and it is a guess, is they will settle without the need for going to court. To cancel my contract it costs me £234. They've already paid £300 for the Ombudsmen complaint so the last thing O2 will want is another lengthy & potentially expensive claim.

I've found this particular thread on these forums of great help and support and that's thanks to everyone's input. I'm determined to win this case and I hope by doing so that it will encourage others to take their complaints further.

V_For_Verminator

Thank you.

So it only costs £25 to take this to court? I was expecting a lot more than this.