O2 increase above RPI??

cjacko87

Hi guys. Long time lurker, first time poster. Bear with me on this...

I signed up for a Pixel XL contract on a non-Refresh O2 tariff back in October 2016. The advertised monthly rate was £45 per month. All good.

I log in to My O2 to view my first few bills and see that the contract is actually £50 per month with a £5 per month discount = £45 per month payable. Fine, appears all good as at the end of the day I'm still only charged £45 per month which is what I signed up for.

March comes around and O2 announce their annual RPI increase of 2.6%. Here's where it gets interesting... They apply this to the £50 per month, but the discount remains the same.

So if I really was paying the £45 per month I signed up for, my tariff would now be £46.17 per month.

However, as they have applied it:
£50 * 1.026 = £51.30
Minus £5 discount = £46.30 !

Smallprint is a bit wishy-washy but says that I can leave my contract without penalty if an increase to my "Monthly Subscription Charge" of more than RPI is applied.

I understand this might put a bit of a kibosh on things as "Monthly Subscription Charge" probably = the £50 not the £45 I was advertised.

However this doesn't sound fair, and gives the mobile operators a loophole for increases higher than RPI... At no point in the contract sign-up process with Carphone Warehouse was I told I was actually signing up to a £50 per month contract with a £5 discount...

Interested to hear people's thoughts on this... anybody think I have a case here if I took it to O2/Ofcom? Or not worth bothering?

P.S. - there's bound to be a load more of us in this situation so if anyone fancies a trip to the pitchfork emporium...

PHK

I would be hesitant of identifying this as the exploitation of a loophole before you have eliminated the possibility of error by Carphone Warehouse or oversight by yourself.

When you signed you were given or emailed your contract documents. What does that say you should be paying?

If it doesn't mention the discount then you need to complain to Carphone Warehouse (you should really have done this when you got your first bills as otherwise it could be argued you accepted you were on the correct tariff)

If it does mention the discount then your complaint is still with Carphone Warehouse but about the sales process.

However, you need to work out if it's a good use of your time for 13p a month.

onomatopoeia99

My feeling is that this is not about the 13p but an attempt to break a contract that came with a phone before the phone is paid for, and keep the phone.

If that's not the case, then 13p/month seems not worth the time to type the opening post.

cjacko87

Thanks guys, all valid points.

Just to be clear, I'm not the usual type you seem to get on here that is trying to do anything to weasel out of a contract... As you both correctly pointed out the £0.13 per month is not worth it, I just wanted to put the scenario out there as something which is happening and get some educated views on its legality.

Thanks

d123

Vodafone definitely apply the increase pre any discounts (and I think EE do it well, I just can't remember).

I'm pretty sure they are allowed to increase your monthly tariff by RPI, and your tariff will be what you pay before any discounts are added.

When you log into O2 or when your bill arrives, what amount is printed as your monthly tariff?

mobilejunkie

d123 wrote: »

Vodafone definitely apply the increase pre any discounts (and I think EE do it well, I just can't remember).

Correct; EE also do.

boatman

At some point just before purchase they would have told you, it would also have to included the info about the RPI increase, it's supposed to be prominent and I'm sure at the same time they would have said what tariff you were signing up to.
On their offers, it gives a monthly cost and sometimes it says 'save £xx.xx when you buy from us' above the monthly cost, it then shows in a pop up the actual tariff and the discount.

I guess you could argue that the actual tariff was not prominent. I know if you go on uswitch it will say its £xx a month with a discount of £x a month, on the CPW website it just shows the discounted monthly cost most of the way through the checkout process, and only when you reach the point of buying will it probably have the actual breakdown of the deal.