Re: O2's Upgrade Scandal - Page 3

Anonymous · ‎16-06-2011

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 · ‎21-06-2011

The sales rep probably didn't mention an additional cost for the phone because they didn't know which phone your wife would choose to upgrade to in 12 months' time, what O2's future pricing structure would be, etc. O2 changed it in March this year so the sales rep wouldn't have known this.

All O2 business contracts taken out from 29/3/11 would not receive a mid term upgrade. All O2 business contracts taken out from 15/2/10 would be entitled to a mid term upgrade, but that mid term upgrade would start a new 24 month contract, and as that new contract would start after 29/3/11, there would be no mid term upgrade on the new contract.
As I've said, O2 do make information about changes to contracts public, on their website. If they didn't do this customers could cancel their contracts. Not informing customers directly doesn't sound right but it is legal.

Anonymous · ‎22-06-2011

Ninzah. Please read my reply to your previous comments.
Hi Revsak. About £50pcm. However cost of an iPhone 4 to me or you would be around £500, but I don't believe O2 are paying anything close to that, otherwise they, or any other provider, wouldn't be giving them for free to even new customers. In addition, to the tariff, customers are also paying additional costs for bolt-ons, calls and txt outside of their allowance, international roaming etc. My wife's last bill was £76.

I'm not saying that o2 pay £500 per unit to Apple but you and I would if we wanted one and I cant see Mr Jobs giving them that much discount. I know for a fact that o2 dont take your average spend in to account when it comes to pricing phones, it's only the contracted line rental that makes a difference, you could always stop making roaming calls then o2 would be out of pocket if they priced a phone on your average spend. My point was that if you are on say £35 a month (£420 yearly) it's understandable that o2 want you to put £150 towards the phone, even then it's only £570 a year on a £500 phone, 0% intrest on £500 and £5.83 a month for all your minutes, texts and data sounds like a good deal to me.

Anonymous · ‎22-06-2011

In addition to revsaks reply, I would add that it would also be a mistake to assume that there is no cost to the network to provide the service you are using, they need to cover the cost of the phone, plus the costs of running the network, ie such things as operating a customer service that you can call free (I was told several years ago that each customer service call that came into the network I worked for cost the network on average £7, all things considered) and make a profit, which is extremely marginal in many customers cases, often the customers are costing the network money-you know this when your demands for a discount or PAC are met with a PAC being issued immediately

Just by way of illustration, In my day the phone of the moment was the N95. The retail price of that handset at launch was £605, the network I worked for paid £450 for each one it bought and under certain circumstances we were allowed to let customers have replacements "at cost" but no lower. On a contract or upgrade you could have one for £150 on a £35 18 month contract, which was *always* met with howls of anguish from customers who had been given their previous (very cheap)Nokia 3210 and 3310 for free :womanindifferent:
I hope this background info is helpful in understanding the other side of the argument, knowledge is power and all that.

Anonymous · ‎24-06-2011

I'm in a similar boat here...
originally signed a business contract in 2009. Upgraded last May to an Iphone 4 which cost me an extra £75 (something like that anyway). Now this year I want to upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy s2 and I have to pay £323...?!
I totally understand that upgrades to state of the art phones are not going to be free, but from £75 for an iphone 4 to £323 for a Galaxy s2?!

Anonymous · ‎18-09-2011

Just to add my tupence worth, an upgrade is an upgrade as explained in the Oxford English Dictionary.
If o2 change the meaning of the word, they should point this out in BOLD PRINT in the "small print" of the terms and conditions.
Go for it dorinacornean08. Don't let the big brother dictate!

Anonymous · ‎24-09-2011

I'm in a similar boat here...
originally signed a business contract in 2009. Upgraded last May to an Iphone 4 which cost me an extra £75 (something like that anyway). Now this year I want to upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy s2 and I have to pay £323...?!
I totally understand that upgrades to state of the art phones are not going to be free, but from £75 for an iphone 4 to £323 for a Galaxy s2?!

this is basically my problem. The main selling point for me of the £37 per month business tariff i am on, was that every 12 months i would receive a mid term free or subsidised upgrade, as stated by the salesperson in my local o2 shop on June 19th 2009, day of iPhone 3GS launch, start of my o2 contract. i do not use my phone for business, but was told the business contract option was the best, due to the 12 month mid term upgrade feature.
i did get an iPhone 4 mid term upgrade in June 2010 for £110 and was told then i could upgrade same time next year.
i rang today for a mid term upgrade quote to a Samsung Galaxy s2, only to be told mid terms had been done away with. i could still *upgrade* at a cost of £259 (?!) or an HTC Sensation at £278. yeah, right! i asked just out of curiosity how much an iPhone 4 upgrade would be if i had a different current phone, ... £335. wow. the Galaxy S2 on a consumer o2 tariff with the same features as mine is £27 a month, with the phone for free.
i pay £444 per yer on my tariff for a main feature which has now been taken away without my knowledge. even the bloke i spoke to today at our local o2 shop where i initially got the contract, said that o2 didn't even notify them at the time they decided to drop the mid terms.
so if i decide to wait until mid October for an iPhone 5/4S, an "upgrade" would probably cost me around £350+ and then be tied into another 2 year contract with no mid term upgrade (as opposed to the £110 i paid last june for my iphone 4 upgrade).

Anonymous · ‎26-09-2011

O2 shops are known for (1.) mainly handling consumer contracts & Prepay, so not as comfortable or knowledgeable with business tariffs/ contracts and (2.). diverting potential complaints onto customer services so they can focus on sales. It's hard to believe an O2 store who resign O2 customers every day would be completely unaware of a change which affects the contracts they can sell.
As has been said, O2 are allowing you to upgrade free just not to the phones that you want, which they cannot guarantee. And if your contract states you are able to upgrade free to any phone, this has been revoked due to the change to O2's terms and conditions, which O2 have made public on their website at least 30 days before the change came into effect.
I appreciate your unhappiness with this, but it is a change that O2 are entitled to make as a business, if it's not financially viable for them to offer mid term upgrades, why should they. Provided they provide notice of this, which they have.

Anonymous · ‎26-09-2011

as i said in a another similar thread, when did O2 plan on telling the 1000's of customers who still think this is a key feature of their contract?

Anonymous · ‎13-10-2011

So, i'm in the same boat or pile of poo as some of the other forum members/o2 customers.
The advisor at the o2 store clearly stipulated the benefits of signing to a business tariff based on the fact that although the duration of terms was 24 months I could still upgrade mid term WITHOUT PENALTY - now, o2 go and change the T&C's so you can imagine my shock when today I am quoted £240+ to upgrade to a 16g 4Gs. OVer the last 12 months my average bills have been IRO £50 P/M. Now, I was a CONSUMER spending this amount I would be classed a Gold member and would be offered a free 4s depending on tariff so, why are business customer now been royally shafted??
Are these posts not read by o2 customer service ?? Me thinks a letter to their High Level Complaints at the Leeds office or a letter to the CEO is on its way.

Anonymous · ‎14-10-2011

Same 'ere.
I didn't expect a free upgrade. Happy to pay but told point blank after waiting outside the store that mid term upgrades were not available on the 4S to business customers.
In response to previous comments, at what point does big business think it can change the definitions of english?
Only legalise is allowed to do that! :womanindifferent:
I was also missold a contract after I specifically asked if a mid term upgrade would be available at the time I bought my last phone.
BTW, is there any inclusion in 02 business contracts that the customer agrees to be served notice of changes to contract through an internet webpage???
Im sure in law that a contract cannot be changed if it impacts negatively on either party? surely that's what a contract is? Partys make an agreement at the start that they stick to for the agreed term?
I'm going to look into terminating without penalty since I believe 02 has breached the contract. At the very least, I'll ride out my remaining few months and go to another provider.
Even if O2 paid apple full retail for the phone they sold me they've still had thousands out of me for years I've been with them.
That will change when my contract ends, I KNOW I can get better rates but stuck with O2 because I trusted them.
How naive.