Profiteering by O2...

[Anonymous]

Such as shame that I feel the need to complain about O2 because up to now I've had great service.

That said, I can't help but think they're profiteering.

I have:. An iPhone contract (up for renewal actually) for my wife @ £35 per month;
A Business Broadband account @£17.50 per month;
A Business BlackBerry account @40.00 per month.

Ok not a _huge_ amount of money in the scheme of things but in the world of mobile telephones it's quite a chunk of money for one person to hand over every month.

But here's the thing. When I signed up to my BlackBerry account, it was advertised as being best for someone with SatNav - turns out I get charged every time it updates traffic.

I've taken a contract in Belgium and I'm informed that if I want my data, I first have to pay for BlackBerry Unlimited at an additional £20 per month, followed by the international data roaming at £8.25 a month.

So on top of the £92.50 that I already pay, just to be able to read my email on my handset and not pay the extortionate data rates, I need to pay another £28.25 per month...I'm sorry O2? You want me to hand over £120 per month?

Or, I'm advised that I can kill off the Blackberry account by paying the £490...which I think is good value cosidering that I could get a phone over here, with data, for the equivalent of £20 a month and have a PAYG with my current number in the UK.

And on top of that - a bit of advice for anyone looking to buy a BlackBerry - I've had 7 of the things over the years and they've all been fabulous. But avoid the 8220 'flip.' I can leave it on my desk and watch it periodically go from EDGE at full stregth to SOS with no signal and back. My wifes phone, right next to it never moves. It is horribly unreliable with the signal and will drop calls left right and centre.

I was going to look at renewing the wife's iPhone contract but that'll be the first thing that goes, I think.

Anyhoo...rant over.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what your complaint is, it seems obvious that it will be cheaper to use a Belgian phone in Belgium, than a UK handset which is roaming.

On the subject of Blackberries, they are sold as premium devices, owners pay a premium, they are not devices for the cost conscious. You will find more discussion in the Blackberry forum.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm...if you can't see what my complaints are, I must not have articulated myself too well, as I thought that they were pretty obvious, but since not I'll try to explain again.

My biggest complaint is the fact that I am required to add a bolt-on which I don't want or that I can't really the need of, in order to have the bolt-on that I do want and need.

Another one is that even though the web-page said the contract I am on is best for users of satellite navigation - it clearly isn't since I get charged to update traffic information. To clarify again - the website said it was included in the tarrif.

Yet another complaint (still with me?) is that I don't feel that the services required justify the costs that are being asked - I don't mind paying a premium: I've done it long enough, and had enough BlackBerry handsets and tariffs to understand that, but there comes a point when continually being asked to pay for one thing after another means that it actually doesn't add much value onto what you already pay for and at that point it becomes annoying.

As for your rather blunt comment about it obviously being cheaper to use a Belgian telephone in Belgium, perhaps you can answer me this - why is it then cheaper to use that same Belgian phone, by an order of magnitude in the UK? Even using said phone to call the UK from within Belgium works out at the Euro equivalent of 12ppm. If a Belgian company can offer such cheap calling (oh and it costs me nothing to receive calls to that number when it's in the UK) why can't one of the UK's premier mobile telephone companies? And at that, we in the UK are supposed to have more competition than most of Europe because we have more providers than most of te rest of it.

Perhaps you were in such a rush to get your comments across that you couldn't wait to read as far as the part where I said I've owned 7 of them? If you had, perhaps it would have logically followed that I'm not exactly unaware of them being 'premium devices'

But actually - the main reason that I choose business tariffs is for the additional services you get by so doing, such as static IP addresses and a lower contention ratios on DSL, but certainly not to be seen as a cash-cow to the operator.

I tried to avoid sarcasm in this post, because frankly your brusque and contemptuos tone annoyed me, but I couldn't resist leaving a few in - I thought you'd appreciate me lowering the tone to your level.

[Anonymous]

I don't quite understand.. the blackberry bolt-on for business only works out around £8.51 a month so I don't know why you've been quoted £20?

But there's a bolt-on you can add on for about £23.50 a month called Blackberry International Roaming which gives you unlimited blackberry usage all over the world.

[Anonymous]

Sherby - I was told that I needed to add on BlackBerry unlimited, at which point I could then add the roaming onto it (both of for data, not voice - I have no interest in paying yet more money to add a bolt on which according to O2 means I simply don't pay for incoming calls when I'm abroad).

In my dealings with O2, this isn't something that I would say is common, but has happened a couple of times - one person seems to give tell me one thing and then another tells me something contradictory.

Again though - it isn't common. Just bloody annoying when it happens.

Thanks for the info - I'll give them another call, armed with it.

[Anonymous]

I think maybe they were talking about adding a Data Abroad bolt-on so say 10mb of data for £10 on top of the £8.51 for the Blackberry Unlimited bolt-on? It's just a different way of doing things really but if I were you i'd go for the Blackberry International Roaming bolt-on for the £23.50 which you can cancel at any time.

If you have a look here http://www.o2.co.uk/sme under the Business Tariffs section it gives you a load of good info.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info, but I think I'm being blind - I can't find the international bolt-on?

[Anonymous]

It's just a different way of doing things really but if I were you i'd go for the Blackberry International Roaming bolt-on for the £23.50 which you can cancel at any time.

Blackberry roaming bolt-on is subject to a 3 month minimum term.

[Anonymous]

the reason that you need to pay more is because you want to use your phone and its services outside of the UK.

you have an agreement with a UK service provider, therefore if you wish to use you services outside of the UK that particular network needs to make agreements to forgein providers, unfortunatley this does result in an extra cost to the consumer because at the end of the day its yourself thats choosing to use it, the network are not making you.

as for using the forgien networks operators device and services as it would be cheaper - your right but if that was to be used in the UK then again it would be more expensive.

and at the end of the day while you may have more than 1 contract with o2 the company still needs to treat everyone the same - so that theyre giving everyone the same service, it wouldnt be fair to expect them to make special allownaces for you and not for someone else; because if they done it for someone else and not for you would you be happy?