o2 penalise contract over payg - calling internationally

seaniboy

As the title says, read my email to Peter Erskine a head honcho @ o2 below, as contract customer im well disgusted!





Hi Peter,

As a contract customer I think you may need to look at ITS ( International Traveler Service ) calls from the UK for contract customers.

It seems contract customers are fairing worse for thier commitment to o2 over Pay and Go customers.

Recently Pay & Go revamped discontinued "International Talk & Text" as "International Caller Bolt On" with both requiring a one-off payment the later £4.99 charge is waved until 10th Jan 2006, notably the changes were great for Pay and Go customers and I welcome them as I once was a o2 prepay customer. See below for examples:-
These are the Pay & Go call charges with the OLD International Talk & Text Bolt On for customers who joined before 19 Aug 2005

International Talk & Text
http://www.o2.co.uk/personal/abroad/prices/paygo/callingfromuk/0,,132,00.html

New International Caller Bolt On
http://www.o2.co.uk/productsservices/boltons/international

Now while this great value shines through on Pay & Go please refer to the cost of contract customers paying £2.99 a month for the ITS with "discounts of up to 80%"

Calling abroad from the UK - Contract customers
http://www.o2.co.uk/personal/abroad/prices/callingfromuk/0,,132,00.html

As you can clearly see the cost on contract is most times more costly???
To call my close friend in Libya costs 20p, with ITS subscription at £2.99 per month gives me a 3p discount so calls are 17p (confirmed by customer services). ITS at £2.99 provides a 10.5% discount on these calls per minute, now we calculate the saving of 3p by the £2.99 subscription.... correct me if i'm wrong but I have to spend approx £100 on calls to Libya to break even on the £2.99 subscription per month before any discount applies compared to Pay & Go !?!
Or I get a Online pay & go calls & messages, get 100 cross network minutes and calls, £10 to spend and Libya calls for 20p instead of the contract "Standard Call Charge" (see below) of 90p per minute!



So Pay & Go at 20p per minute gives me 50 minutes of calls for £10, then I have 100 mins cross network calls...all sounds so good compared to contract where that £10 will give me just over 11 minutes ??


This is all a bit backwards considering payg customers are usually penalised for being exactly that, seems with o2 the case is the most loyal of customers tied to a contract are subsidising the payg customers.
I would appricate your comments on this situation.






Yours,




Seaniboy , a loyal o2 contract customer.

seaniboy

tried to post script to no avail

seaniboy

How interesting, Richard from Peter Erskine's team just called on my mobile seems I caused a bit of a stir high up in o2 if you dont complain you dont GET!!.........heres a few of the details i got told:-


o2 find it unacceptable to penalise tied contract customers in any respect (loyalty etc...) to o2 payg

PAYG & Contract marketing depts merged recently and they were unaware of the conflict of rates between the two

ITS is for o2 contract customers roaming, but also allows discounted calls from the UK aswell at a higher rate than o2 PAYG, this (your complaint) has been fully investigated at the highest level of o2 and....

UK dialed ITS rates are for landline and mobile calls, this shall be stated on the appropriate webpage in the ITS section as it is in Discount Country section
http://www.o2.co.uk/personal/abroad/prices/callingfromuk/0,,132,00.html (so keep an eye out!!)


o2 are now re-working thier UK dialed international rates and ITS for contract customers because of the what you have highlighted and these should be released shortly, after o2 marketing finalise the details


RESULT!

seaniboy

Jesus now I got e-mail back from Chief Executive of o2 from his own email address !!!


Dear Mr Seaniboy,


Thank you for your email of 15th September 2005.



I am sorry to hear that you are disappointed with the difference in cost for international calls using our Pay & Go Bolt-On, in comparison to our International Traveller Service for post pay customers. I can appreciate your concerns.



Richard Chew, of my Senior Customer Relations Team, spoke with you on 26th September 2005. He explained why there are different rates and how these are determined. He has also forwarded your comments to our Marketing Team and assured you that we are looking at our international products.



We are continually striving to improve our products and services and we value our customers’ feedback. Before O2 makes any amendments to its products, we evaluate the impact and benefits to all of our customers. This includes the costs and practicality of implementing new services.



I trust that the information Richard has provided you with clarifies our position on this matter. However, if you have any further queries, please contact Richard on 0845 33**684 where he will be happy to help.





Yours sincerely











PETER ERSKINE