Old O2 contract - Changes being Imposed?

c8rls

redux said:

c8rls said:

redux said:

c8rls said:

I have also received my letter from O2 and have opened a complaint.

 This is now the 3rd time O2 have tried to impose a change to this contract, back in 2011 I commenced a claim in the court against O2 which was settled before court and included a binding settlement agreement that stated:-

 ... This tariff will be available to you for life unless you chose to terminate it or apply to change your tariff.

I detailed that journey in this thread

 I will let this run its course again and will have no hesitation in taking the matter to court again if necessary.

I have formally advised O2 that, for the avoidance of any doubt, I do not accept any change to the binding contract.

I would point out to anyone affected by this that they pay particular attention to the new terms proposed by O2 which become affective to all contract changes made after the 25th March 2021, these are available on the O2 website here in particular see Clause 20. Changes to the Agreement which says

 

20. Changes to the Agreement

20.1 We can make changes to this Agreement at any time. Any changes will apply from the date we publish them on our Website. The latest version of this Agreement applicable to you will be available on our Website so please check www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile regularly for updates. In addition to posting the up to date version of this Agreement on our Website, we may also inform you by SMS, post or email of any changes we make to this Agreement and/or send you a link to the updated Agreement.

20.2 If we make a change to this Agreement which is to your significant disadvantage (in our reasonable opinion), we'll give you 30 days' Notice before the changes take place and you may have a right to terminate this Agreement as a result. If you do have a right to terminate and do not terminate in this 30 day Notice period, you’ll be considered to have accepted the changes.

If you allow this change then they will simply make a subsequent change to the tariff down the road and you may lose the benefit of the up front for life prepaid agreement.

 

 

 

May I ask whether you took them to court when they reduced roaming fees?

The sim card was never used for roaming, any reduction or increase in roaming prices would be allowable within the contract therefore it would not be a reason to take action.

 May I ask why on earth you would think that it was a reason to take them to court?

I didn't. I was being a bit ironic.

The change discussed now is effectively a reduction of charges, partly as apparently it would soon include mobiles on other UK networks, instead of at 50 pence a minute. But you are talking about court action.

@redux

As you will have read earlier in this thread the last time O2 tried to change this tariff I got nowhere with them by talking directly to them therefore I took the case legal. During the initial litigation stage following the claim being issued they acknowledged that they had been very wrong and apologised, furthermore, as part of the settlement they entered into a legally binding agreement with me part of which stated:-

…This tariff will be available to you for life unless you chose to terminate it or apply to change your tariff.

I therefore expect no more than O2 to honour the original contractual agreement and subsequent legally binding settlement agreement. Should O2 wish to seek any changes to this the correct way to do this would be to open negotiations to change the tariff, they have not done that and simply sent a generic email saying they are moving me to a new tariff.

The generic email is not specific at all about the new tariff itself and it goes onto say that the airtime plan will be adjusted on your April bill by the RPI rate of inflation announced in the preceding February. Whilst it has already been discussed that any application of RPI to a £0 per month cost would be £0 I have already had this situation with another mobile phone operator who applied the RPI uplift to the ‘headline tariff cost’ and not the ‘discounted tariff cost’ resulting in a larger than expected increase, I can see this one happening here too, they have also added the new clause to allow them to change the tariff anytime in the future by issuing 30 days’ notice to do so.

I have opened a formal complaint and will follow that O2 internal process through, if they do not come to the table to resolve this amicably then I will have no alternative other than to protect my position by opening a further claim.

This is more about the principal of the matter than anything else, the sim card is a spare that is very rarely used, the use of it has already been pre-paid for ‘life’ to make calls of up to 50 mins per month to UK Landlines and on network mobiles and that is all that I want. Whilst I can see a benefit I am not bothered about unlimited calls to landlines and all mobile networks or unlimited texts or limited data use on that sim card whatsoever.

millie

I emailed them yesterday and received a phone call today. They said I will still get my 200 minutes, it’s just the tariff name that’s changing. I asked them to email me confirmation of this.

This is the email from them 

Thank you for getting in touch and giving us a chance to help.

I understand you've received a letter about your tariff changing on your O2 account. I appreciate this will be frustrating for you.

The reason you've received the letter is because the PUFL tariff is no longer available for our customers. I understand you've paid upfront for life for this tariff, but as it's no longer available we cannot put your on this tariff.

From looking into this further, you'll be placed onto the next available tariff and you'll not have to pay anything to use this. You'll have a £0 line rental for this tariff and still get to use the 200 minutes that you've paid for.

jnm21

@millie while this is probably well intentioned, it does not explicitly renounce any ability to make future changes, which, if such an ability was included in the changes notified this time, I would personally want clarified beyond any doubt.

millie

would not try the Any Network Minutes as shown on the tariff they have imposed on us. I did a 3 second call just to try it and have been charged 46p. I challenged this on the online chat, first they said I had called an 07 number which was a call forwarding service. I pointed out that all mobile numbers start with 07 and it was in fact my sons mobile number I called. They then came back with as it was not an o2 number it was not included in my tariff. Only calls to landlines and o2 are included. I have suggested they make alterations to the page on my account that says Any Network. I have given up with this argument now as its not live chat they answer eventually. You also have to state your name and you are the account holder every time you answer the message or the next message asks for it and you have to wait again

redux

millie, I can't remember the date of change, as per the letter, and the letter is under a pile of stuff. Was it already? I think I had about mid-month somewhere in my head, but could easily be wrong.

I previously noticed the other network rate went up to 55p, which would be your 46p plus VAT

Edit: found letter - "...and you'll see this in your bill and allowances from 14/09/21"

(My billing date is 15th)

esuhl

I have an old BT-Cellnet PUFFL SIM too (with 200mins off-peak landline/same-network).

The email I received said:

You'll be moving to a tariff that costs the same at £.00* per month. You’ll also get some additional benefits.

It goes on to say I have unlimited minutes and texts, and 500MB/month data.

The email links to the latest Pay Monthly Agreement, which contains this grammatical monstrosity:

Your inclusive allowances cover mainland calls, texts and data in our Europe Zone except if you’re on a data-only (Mobile Broadband) tariff, data can only be used in the UK.

The Roaming terms confirm that the UK is included in the Europe Zone.

I logged into my account on the O2 websites, and my tariff clearly shows unlimited "Anytime, any network minutes".

Are O2 really saying that they're not going to honour their own contract?! :-O

esuhl

Surely Section 20 of the latest Pay Monthly Agreement is legally unenforcable...?

It says that:

20.1 We can make changes to this Agreement at any time. Any changes will apply from the date we publish them on our Website...

20.2 If we make a change to this Agreement which is to your significant disadvantage (in our reasonable opinion), we'll give you 30 days' Notice before the changes take place and you may have a right to terminate this Agreement as a result. If you do have a right to terminate and do not terminate in this 30 day Notice period, you’ll be considered to have accepted the changes.

If a contract is sold as "Pay Up Front For Life", then O2 can't just issue a new contract and assume that silence infers acceptance.  The "For Life" part is a prominent part of the branding, and infers a contractual obligation.

From government legal commentary:

Agreements with consumers should not contain concealed pitfalls or traps, and terms that might disadvantage the consumer should be given appropriate prominence. A business should not take advantage of consumers’ vulnerability in deciding what their rights and obligations should be and should look like.

jnm21

@esuhl it is exactly that type of inclusion (point 20) that has been pointed out here & which I have urged those with these contracts to check for & strongly object to the change.

It is typical of how the mobile industry & indeed the majority of large companies act.

thefirs

Well I for one am extremely pleased at this upgrade as it makes my two contracts useable again instead of being a curiosity kept in a drawer. I made some short test calls and am glad to report that no extra charges outside bundle have been raised when checking in the MyO2 app.

I really can't see what the OP has to complain about. Sure, the trrms could be changed to our detriment in the future but then  is the time to act.

keith_berry

I have an old  pufl  contract 50 mins o2 No email or letter 😢 from them no change in  my tariff ?