O2's Upgrade Scandal

[Anonymous]

Let me start from the beginning again . My wife took out an iPhone 3G contract with O2 last year, which was for a year and the tarif about £35pcm. Soon after we visited the O2 shop in our area to upgrade my contract and my wife was advised by the sales assistant that she should change her contract, which was a personal/residential contract to a business contract, paying a higher tarif which is about £50 and the contract would be for 2 years as opposed to her yearly contract, but would get a free upgrade after the first year.
When her first year of the contract was completed, my wife went back to the O2 shop to ask for her upgrade and was told that O2 had changed the terms of her contract and she would have to pay £150 for an upgrade to an iPhone4. There was no option of a 3Gs. Of course my wife complained, but the O2 sales assistant said that she would have to call customer services and remarked that if she was a customer she would complain also.
Having spent several hours in total, speaking with a number of different people at O2's customer service, my wife was told that O2 had changed 'legally' its terms and that again, my wife would have to pay £150 to upgrade to an iPhone4. I must point out, that generally, the people in customer services proved to be rude and aggressive, adopting an attitude of 'there's nothing you can do about it, so go away'.
In addition to phoning customer services, my wife also registered her complaint via O2's online email form, to which replies were to phone customer services upgrade team, which she had already spoken to. When this was pointed out via email, my wife was again instructed to call O2's retention team, given the same phone number. Each time my wife was told the same story that O2 has changed its terms and that my wife would have to pay £150 to upgrade to an iPhone4. It was also pointed out that the definition of an upgrade in her contract didn't necessarily mean an iPhone upgrade, but could be anything else that O2 deemed to be an upgrade. The last call to the retention team, which is customer service, the guy was adamant that my wife would only get an upgrade if she paid £150 and said that he would get a manager to call her back the next day. Of course this didn't happen.
A good friend of mine, who got the same business contract around the same time as my wife, had the same problem, but capitulated when O2 offered her an upgrade to an iPhone4 for £110. In addition, O2 are offering on their website an iPhone4 for a tariff of £47pcm for a payment of £38.99 and a free iphone4 for a tariff of £63pcm. So, why is my wife paying over £50pcm for an iPhone3g and can only upgrade to an iPhone4 for a payment of £150, apart from the fact she was told it would be a free upgrade? O2 will probably say it's because my wife is on a business contract, but I would say she was mis-sold the business contract as O2 are now not honouring it. Why would she change her original contract from a residential contract to a business contract, paying a higher tariff for the same phone, if an upgrade was not part of the deal?!
In addition to the above, my wife has also wrote a letter to O2, but has not received a reply.
My wife has not received any notice to the changes made by O2 to her contract, or indeed agreed to any changes.

[Anonymous]

Finally I got a phone call from an O2 manager, who called believing I had a faulty handset. He basically said he would look at my contract and reply via email. I have pasted his reply below.
'Good to speak to you earlier. I hope I answered all your questions.
Because you are out of your warranty period on your iPhone 3GS, I'm
unable to send a replacement out to you.
As you've been advised that the cost of the iPhone 4 is £150.00, I've
spoken to our retention team and confirmed you can have a mid-term
upgrade to a HTC Wildfire free of cost or a Blackberry 8520 for £45 on
the tariff you're on. This would sign you up to a new 24 month contract.
If there's anything else you need help with, let me know.'
My reply:
Are you taking the *****??!! Of the course the phone is now out of warranty due to the delay in resolving this issue, and the phone is an iPhone 3G, not a 3GS. With regards your interpretation of what is deemed to be an upgrade to an iPhone, I find it quite insulting and I'm sure Apple will as well. I do not want your upgrade, I want to terminate my contract without fault as it has not been honoured by O2. I also want reimbursement for the extra cost incurred over the last year, changing from my residential contract to a now obsolete business contract.

[Anonymous]

Reply from O2
'I'm sorry you feel that you aren't receiving a smooth service from us.
This isn't the standard of service we want our customers to receive and
I'm sorry if you feel we've let you down.
We've taken your feedback as it enables us to identify areas of our
service that customers feel is particularly in need of review.
Please speak with our retention team on 08009 777 337 (free of charge
from the UK landlines) or 8002 (free from your Business phone). They'll
help you in cancelling your contract. They'll also advise if any
reimbursement will be made to you. '
My reply back:
Hi Tirus
I have spent a number of hours now calling your Upgrade Team and Retention etc. I would suggest that time would be better served if one of your managers, fully briefed about this case, called me, to discuss cancelling my contract without fault and the reimbursement. They can call me anytime.

[Anonymous]

I hope you and your wife soon get sorted

[Anonymous]

I have wrote to O2's CEO, who passed down my complaint to an Executive Relations Officer. Her reply and my response below. Here is a link to the email addresses to CEO's of companies in the UK http://www.ceoemail.com/

On 17 Jun 2011, at 18:24, Executive Relations wrote:
Dear Mr O’Connor

Thank you for your email to Ronan Dunne, who has asked me to reply on his behalf.

As your wife is the account holder I’ve tried to call her direct but unfortunately she was unavailable. I’ll therefore explain to you in general terms about our business upgrade policy.

You’ve been correctly advised that our business Terms and Conditions have recently changed but this has nothing to do with a charge being quoted for a mid-term upgrade. Any customer taking a business contract after 29 March 2011 will not be entitled to a mid-term upgrade. This is the change to the Terms and Conditions and clearly doesn’t apply to the account in question.

Our upgrade policy has always been that a customer, when entitled to upgrade, can choose any particular phone and many of these are free. Whether a phone is free or not depends on a customer’s tariff and the value of the phone. I think the term upgrade can maybe be misleading as some people automatically assume it’s going to be a superior model of phone, when it really just means you are entitled to a new phone. This applies to both consumer and business tariffs.

The sale price of an iPhone 4 is £504.99, so a customer has to be on a high tariff to qualify for one free and an even higher tariff to qualify for two free in a 24 month period.

The cost of a mid term upgrade to a 16GB iPhone 4 on a small business tariff should actually be £290.40 so a quote of £150 is substantially less and I assume must have been offered as a gesture of goodwill. We also have an 8GB iPhone 3GS for which the sale price is £399 and the mid-term upgrade price is £216. Due to any possible misunderstanding at the time your wife took out her contract, I’d be willing to offer this phone at £110.

I hope this clarifies everything for you. I will be away from the office now until 1 July but I’ll put full notes on her account so if Ms Cornean wishes to take up either of these offers, they will be honoured.

Regards

| Telefónica UK Limited
Executive Relations
My reply:
Hi
Thank you for your response and that of Ronan, your CEO, passing this down to you.
I happy that you have pointed out that, infact, O2's change to it's terms and conditions do not apply to my wife's contract, as her contract was taken out well before the 29/03/2011. However, it is evident that no one in your customer service teams and managers are aware of this fact and quote to the contrary.
The term 'upgrade' according to a free online Oxford English Dictionary definition for English learners states:
upgrade
verb
Pronunciation:/ʌpˈgreɪd/

raise (something) to a higher standard , in particular improve (equipment or machinery) by adding or replacing components:
(as adjective upgraded)
upgraded computers
raise (an employee) to a higher grade or rank.
noun
Pronunciation:/ˈʌpgreɪd/
an act of upgrading something.
an improved or more modern version of something, especially a piece of computing equipment.
The definition of 'upgrade in anybody's English, is infact the above and in the context of this issue, 'an improved, or more modern version of something, especially a piece of computing equipment'. So are you telling me that O2 has created its own definition of the term 'upgrade', which no body else in the English speaking world knows about, including the Oxford English Dictionary?
On the O2 website it states:
Upgrade your mobile phone
You may want to upgrade your mobile phone to take advantage of new features, or perhaps you just fancy a change...

My wife's 24 month contract is on a high tariff (small business) and has not simply been offered a mid-term 'upgrade' for £150, but also extending her current contract by another 24 months. Thus, would only receive one free iphone at the beginning of her contract for a 36 month period and paying a high tariff for this pleasure and still is. Although not happy about it, my wife would have accepted an extension to her contract for a free iphone, bearing in mind that she was sold this contract on the basis of receiving a free upgrade (the Oxford English Dictionary definition and your websites statement) after 12 months without an extension to her contract.
I'm not sure where you get your figures from below, regarding the mid-term upgrade cost, as I have not seen them anywhere, but the £150 offered, with a 24 month extension to my wife, has also been offered to several other people I have been in contact with, who are also facing the same issue. So this is a gesture of good will to everyone on a small business tariff? Infact, its not. A close friend of mine was offered an iphone 4 for an additional cost of £110 with of course a 24 month extension to her contract. You are offering my wife a 3GS for the same price and extension?
As stipulated in my previous mail, my wife wants to terminate her contract without fault (penalty), due to O2 not honouring her contract and reimbursement of the extra cost to her since moving from her residential/personal contract, to a small business one for over a year now. She is no longer requesting an 'upgrade' that she should rightly have. Her experience with O2 has been very disappointing and continues to be so.
Your customer services are charging £400 to terminate her contract.
regards
Shaun O'Connor

[Anonymous]

Look, I know you sound like your having some issues in trying to get what you'd like to do but when you escalate a complaint and start printing out verbatim the OED's definition of 'Upgrade', I'm not entirely convinced you're going to make your point any better than if you stuck to the facts of what you've been advised and the contradictions between the conflicting pieces of advice. You just come across as kind of flippant and petulant. Sorry.
That goes especially when you get to management level. O2's changing the goalposts of their TOS IS a definite problem across quite a few levels of the business and they know it - as I've found previously when challenging them. Stick to the facts and you may well get somewhere.
Good luck.

[Anonymous]

The term 'upgrade' is used to mean a new replacement handset, of any specification, whether better than the previous one or not, throughout the entire UK mobile phone industry and has been for at least a decade, this is not O2 making up its own terminology. its the currency of the industry itself.
Not trying to defend or justify that position, just stating the fact so you can prepare your response when you get the inevitable reply stating the same.
For many years, due to the march of technology from a very low base, whenever you upgraded you would seem to get a superior phone almost by default, it would have been more difficult not to and they were cheap enough for the networks to dish out free. Now that smartphones cost in the order of £400-600 however, the 'free' upgrade, especially mid term, to such phones would make no economic sense at all. The networks however, seem to have assumed that customers are, by now, so familiar with the whole process that they know the score, without having ever actually spelled it out. At least thats what I think.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the advice 'Liquidtmd' and 'Beaufighter'.
Firstly we have stuck to the facts in our initial approaches to O2 and you are sent in pursuit of a chain of customer service teams designed to lead you in circles, as well as patronise and insult your intelligence, in addition to dealing with the aggressive and rude tone of the customer service individuals. Of course its a 'wind up', but for how long is one supposed to remain passive?
With regards the term 'upgrade', as Beaufighter correctly points out, even if this is the industries definition of what an 'upgrade' is, it is not clear to customers, or even to their own sales reps. Due to this confusion, O2 sal;es reps are mis-leading customers into believing the English dictionary definition.
Also, on the O2 website, it is stated 'Upgrade your mobile phone. You may want to upgrade your mobile phone to take advantage of new features, or perhaps you just fancy a change...' This doesn't imply a replacement of any specification, whether better than the previous or not. It is stating that you get an 'upgrade' of the current phone that you have, as in a newer version, or that you can change your phone to another model.
Yes the cost of smart phones are expensive, but as mentioned in my posts, my wifes contract is on a higher tariff and that O2 imposes additional extensions to contracts with mid-term upgrades, which again is not mentioned when you take out a contract and told that you will get a free upgrade mid-term. Also, I'm pretty sure it doesn't cost O2 £400-600 for each phone.

[Anonymous]

I can see where you are coming from however they are letting you upgrade. You can choose a free upgrade phone or you can choose a better spec phone and get it partly subsidised, it's still a lot cheaper than buying it outright.
Where you quote the O2 website:

'Upgrade your mobile phone. You may want to upgrade your mobile phone to take advantage of new features, or perhaps you just fancy a change...'

they are offering you that facility. At no point have they said you are entitled to a free upgrade of any phone you wish.
Also, your OED quote does not mention that the improvement/raising to a higher standard would be at no cost.
I think people see the word upgrade and assume they can have whichever phone they wish for free.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Ninzah.
I'm wondering how many O2 employee's are members of this blog?
Anyway, basically the point you are making is that O2 are letting my wife upgrade, but do not state anywhere that they offering free mid-term upgrades.
My wife's case, is that she was told by the sales rep in the O2 shop, that it would be a free mid-term upgrade and I have spoken with others who have been told the same. At no point was it mentioned, that there would be an extra cost and that her contract would be extended by a further 24 months. Otherwise she would not have changed her residential contract paying about £35pcm with a 12 month contract, to a small business contract paying about £50 pcm with a 24 month contract. I conclude, by repeating, that when my wife went to the O2 shop to get her upgrade, the sales rep herself explained about the extra cost etc and said that if she was a customer, she would complain.