Texting abroad charges

[Slushpuppy1]

Hi all. I occasionally text my dad in lanzarote(he has a sim card for there) it usually costs around 16p per text. The last couple of texts I have sent are now costing 26p per text. I can't find anything about price rises. I am on a pay monthly contract. Can you shed any light on this please

[adamtemp64]

Agreed @MI5 but latest here http://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/our-latest-pay-monthly-mobile-agreement 5.3 onwards 

[MI5]

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@adamtemp64 wrote:

Agreed @MI5 but latest here http://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/our-latest-pay-monthly-mobile-agreement 5.3 onwards 

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Yes, confirms what I'm saying.

1. 5.3 We may also increase or decrease our Out-of-Bundle Charges from time to time. If we increase our Out-of-Bundle Charges, we'll give you Notice at least 30 days before the Out-of-Bundle Charges are due to go up and you'll have the rights explained in paragraphs 5.4 and 5.5.

[G_d]

I've been out of touch for a few days and missed all this excitement. Thanks for all your efforts to get to the bottom of this. It is a disgrace, really. I was never notified, and I did not opt out of marketing texts (not that that should matter). @Toby is there any chance of an apology here? At very least. O2 are clearly in violation of their contract with those of us who did not get sent any notification (which seems to be everyone). If O2 have screwed up, which they clearly have, they should have the grace and sense of responsibility to provide a respectful response to those of us affected. And still no notification has been received.

[Toby]

Hi @G_d, My apologies for the lack of response here. I have been on-leave. Feel free to send a PM and we can have a chat.

[G_d]

Finally some (unsatisfactory) clarification on this. I went through a formal complaint procedure. O2 did apologise for the inconvenience, but they have stuck by their policy - as follows:

The rate for an international text for Pay Monthly customers did increase from 20p to 35p on 31st August 2016, but they decided to only send notifications to customers who had (during some specified period) made international calls from their phone. They decided that they would not notify customers who only made international texts, and they stand by that decision, even though they were almost doubling the cost of international texts. So the many customer service advisors who insisted that all customers had been informed of this price hike were incorrect. I made the point to the complaints committee that there may still be direct debit customers who have yet to notice the price hike, so notification should still be sent out, but O2 appear not to care. Their attitude is disgraceful, and after 15 years as a customer I have decided to terminate my O2 account as a result and go over to BT.

[MI5]

Absolutely disgusting way to treat customers.

[adamtemp64]

@G_d If you are still unhappy you can take the case further by contacting https://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html

@Toby can you feed back up the chain that knowhere in the t&C is there a clause that sates we will only contact users that use the affected service/s as per 5.3 http://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/our-latest-pay-monthly-mobile-agreement

[G_d]

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@adamtemp64 wrote:

@G_d If you are still unhappy you can take the case further by contacting https://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html

@Toby can you feed back up the chain that knowhere in the t&C is there a clause that sates we will only contact users that use the affected service/s as per 5.3 http://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/our-latest-pay-monthly-mobile-agreement

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My reason for leaving relates to O2's attitude to their customers. I am not seeking financial reward, so I won't take the ombudsman route even though I did consider it. I am leaving on a matter of principle rather than on a matter of price. Regardless of the outcome of an ombudsman intervention, O2's own unforced decision is to stick by their policy to not notify many of the affected customers of a price hike. Bear in mind that this was a major increase in the price of an international text for Pay Monthly customers, yet they chose not to notify customers who do make international texts - they only notified customers who made international calls within a specified period (regarding an increase in the price of international texts). It defies logic, and their stubborn refusal to over-ride or address this very deliberate policy is what infuriates me. It seems that they were hoping customers might not notice or cause a fuss over such a major price hike. Bear in mind that Pay & Go customers still only pay 20p for international texts, here on their website they still quote the lower price for Pay Monthly customers http://www.o2.co.uk/assets2/Tariffs/paygo_simplicity_charges_terms.html (16p eqautes to 20p after adding VAT), and repeatedly I was told by Customer Services that the price had been 35p for ages - they insisted that there had been no price change for a very long time. So either O2 hierarchy hid the price increase from their own staff or they instructed them to pretend that there was no price hike. A bizarre situation, and seemingly a deliberate one judging by the admission by O2 in the outcome of my complaint that they intentionally did not notify relevant customers who sent international texts (but who did not make international calls during a specified period) of a major increase in the cost of an international text.

[Toby]

I'll feed that back @adamtemp64,

I'm very sorry to hear that you're not happy with this outcome @G_d and I will share this experience with the team to see if we can improve on this in any way in future.

[adamtemp64]

Thanks Toby

@G_d I would use the ombudsman service so that o2 can be bought to task over the issue and this will be fed back to ofcom and remember that ofcom fined Vodafone recently.