pay up front for life cancelled by o2!!

[Anonymous]

I have had a "pay up front for life" contract for many years. Without notice or regret, O2 have changed it to a £35 per month contract. The reason given is a change to a new computer system causing it to "lose" some or all of the Pay up front contracts!!
Can they legally breach the contract?
Has anyone else suffered this?

[Pigro]

Just stumbled across this thread, hello to all the fello PUFFL'ers out there ... we are an endangered species!! Hoping @O2Lisa, or any other knowledgable folks, can advise.

I also got a recent email informing me that I'm being moved to a new tarrif on 13/09/21, with unlimited calls & texts, and 500MB data bundled, for £0.00.

I had already had a heads up that this was in the offing, as I'd taken O2 to the ombudsman (and won!) when all data services sudddenly stopped working for my SIM in april 2019. At that time, they suggested that there were changes coming that would be beneficial to me, which would reinstate data and offer an inclusive bundle within my £0.00 tarrif.

I am happy in principle, but their email link to the T's and C's is for a generic tarrif, and I have no confidence it applies to my circumstances. I have some specific questions:

1. Does the act of moving my tariff open any loophole for O2 to withdraw service entirely in future, or to introduce a monthly charge (i.e. by saying it will go up by £1 per month, rather than the anual increase being a % of currrent zero cost)?

2. What numbers are excluded from the unlimited minutes - I assume all UK PSTN and mobile numbers (from ALL networks, not just O2) are included. My old PUFFL also gave free calls to 08XX and 03XX, so I hope this is still the case.

3. Despite me having used data for 20 years on my PUFFL sim, O2 recently knobbled the network to stop any (2G, WAP, edge, 3G) data traffic other than SMS. They first said this was a commercial decision, then, (after I complained to the Ombudsman) that it was a network fault that they couldn't resolve. So, now that they are bundling 500MB, I want to know that this will support 4G, and that I'll also be able to buy bolt-ons to give additional data allowance in future.

5. What will be the charges for out of bundle data usage, and do those charges kick in immediately, or is there a bit of flexibility if ome occasionally exceeds the limit by a few MB's in a given month?

TIA for any feedback

[O2Lisa]

Hiya @Pigro, thanks for the tag 

I'll message you privately so I can take some details and check your account for you

[Pigro]

Further to the above, which was a bit of an unedited brain dump (sorry!) ...

So, the new T's & C's have the following clauses:

2.10 Unless specified otherwise in a Related Agreement, we can add to, change, substitute, or discontinue any Additional Services we provide at any time

Do the bundled calls, texts and data now being offered constitute "additional" services, or core service?

8.2 This Agreement can be ended by either you or by us giving at least 30 days' Notice (in line with paragraph 19).

20.1 We can make changes to this Agreement at any time

These 2 paragraphs appear to be an absolute "gotcha" - so, being forcibly moved from a "for life" tarrif with its custom T's & C's, to this new generic one, O2 can simply give me 30 days notice under para 8.2 and cease all service entirely. Or, they can arbitrarily change the agreement as per 20.1 at any time, to introduce a different charging structure (for which my only remedy would be to cancel my contract!!).

What, if any, protection do PUFFL users have against such actions by O2 in future, unless they acknowledge the "for life" nature of our product either within the new t&c doc, or somehow as a referenced additional agreement?

[Womble]

Bookmarked this topic as i have had the exact same email - though Im on the 100 mins / 20 texts PUFFL and have been since about 2001

[Pwllheli]

I too got the same message and today my PUFFL contract phone was automatically changed to the U/L minutes U/L Texts and 500Meg data terms. I wonder if they will keep to their "For LIFE" part of the contract?

[Mary-Poppins]

Hi

Did you manage to find out anything more about any possible changes to the “For Life”part of the contract t&cs. I have had my email today notifying me of my change of tariff. Previously I was on the 200 off peak minutes tariff.

TIA

[Mary-Poppins]

Hi

Having received my notification of change of tariff from my original PUFFL tariff today, I have only just discovered this thread. Did you find out whether the PUFFL is still for life once this new tariff comes into effect. Or is It O2s legal loophole out of this original contract. The change of tariff is significantly better than the original plan I was on.

TIA 

[Dhar5h]

hi, @Pigro, @O2Lisa

I am in the same sitation to Pigro, Womble, Pwllheli & Mary-Poppins.

I have a "Mytime Net 200 Pay Up Front" contract and was sent an email saying I will be transfered to another tarrif.

I just want to be assured O2 can not decide to close/charge monthly the account in the future.

[SirHugo]

Hi @O2Lisa  - or anyone else that can advise me.

I've had the PUFFL tariff since inception, I've still got the original Nokia phone and Sim card.

The first I heard about the new tariff change was when I received a letter several weeks ago, which led me to this community thread.

A couple of weeks ago I went to an O2 store to get a Sim swap as I now need a nano sim so I can use it in a smartphone for data. However they didn't want to touch it as I was on a 'specialist tariff' unknown to them.

However now my new 500Mb data tariff is active - everything seems OK on my O2 account but I still need a new nano Sim. What's the safest way to do this? Should I try in-store again or would I be OK just ordering it through the website?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Wasabi]

Hi endangered species gang,

Was on the Anytime 50 tariff, now switched over to the new 500MB tariff and can see this when I login to My O2. 500MB per month is not adequate these days with data hungry websites and the data bolt ons are eye wateringly expensive, so this SIM will remain my backup SIM for calls.

@SirHugo Earlier on this year O2 sent me a replacement SIM automatically as they were making changes to the network. Had the original mini SIM in my old school Nokia N82 so put in the new SIM and followed the instructions to do the sim swap on My O2. Works fine for me.

I would ask O2 for a free replacement SIM. The original Mini SIMs cannot be used in recent phones as the chip is too big to be cut to micro or even nano SIM sizes.