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?

[Anonymous]

I took out PUFFL and intend to keep it,O2 have been trying to get rid of me for years.Somehow the mention of a Deadlock letter always seems to do the trick for me.Now on Alltime 75

[Anonymous]

I'd be interested to hear how you get on at renewal time as I heard there was no chance of any leeway this time. How long you got left on your current deal?

[Anonymous]

PUFFL and pay upfront are different things. I think there is some confusion.
Pay upfront lien advance deals run for a year.
On the other hand PUFFL deals run for life as the name suggests. They only end if you die and when you bough the handset you bought as many years line rental as you are ever going to need.

[Anonymous]

Just a thought, and i may be totally wrong with this, but were the PUFL/Pay up front tariffs originally offered by Cellnet or BT Cellnet?
If they were, would o2 now have a case to cancel them purely because they didnt offer them?
I know o2 is basically Cellnet/BT Cellnet but with a new company name, surely comes new products, new terms and conditions etc.

[Anonymous]

When O2 bought Cellnet they also take on any obligations commitments they have.
Cellnet's debts are not cancelled and made null and void simply due to a take over, nor are any of it's contracts.
They owe you the free minutes every month just as they owe any creditors money Cellnet might have borrowed off them.

[Anonymous]

When O2 bought Cellnet they also take on any obligations commitments they have.
Cellnet's debts are not cancelled and made null and void simply due to a take over, nor are any of it's contracts.
They owe you the free minutes every month just as they owe any creditors money Cellnet might have borrowed off them.

Thanks for clearing that up, i didn't know how it worked.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone help me with this?
I purchased a PUFFL sim in 2002 with 50 free texts each month.
In around 2004 they changed my contract, still PUFFL but now 50 free minutes instead of texts.
I kicked up a fuss and was told that the 50 free texts tarrif no longer exists and so they can't put me back on it I would have to stay on the 50 free minutes.
They were very helpful and offered me instead as 'reward' of 100 free texts bolted on to my tarrif each month. So in the end I got 50 minutes and 100 texts for free each month so I couldn't complain!
I've been getting that for around 5 or 6 years quite happily!
Now this month they have taken away my 'reward' and chaged me for all of my texts! I contacted them and just got told that they can't put my reward back on because it no longer exists on the system, they have stopped offering it!
Guess what the suggestion was... yep.. 'upgrade' to the £10 simplicity tarrif. I declined!
I'm only 30, I might have another 40 or 50 years left in me yet and I intend to use my paid upfront contract 'FOR LIFE' !! If I start paing £10 per month that's potentially £6000 if I'm lucky enough live to be 80!!
So where do I stand now? I never pushed the matter any further in 2004 and so officially I've been on the PUFFL with 50 free minutes for all this time, just with the free bolt on.
I still have my original paper contract with Cellnet which says I am on the PUFFL text 50 tarrif but I'm guessing that's not worth the paper it's written on? Any thoughts what i should do next? I signed up for 50 free texts for life and that's what I want!
Thanks in advance,
Gem
X X

[Anonymous]

Hi gemmai sounds like you had a good deal there for a while.
What you need to do is put your complaint in writing to O2 (either in a letter or email) and give them a chance to resolve the situation. here's the appropriate contact details:
Link: http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN ... CASE=13668
If you exhaust that route you can then eventually contact OTHELO (the mobile phone Ombudsman) and they should be able to help.
I've read of less severe cases than yours and those that weren't' resolved resulted in OTHELO ordering a £50 compensation payment though I expect you'd be entitled to considerably more than that.
And yes your original contract is worth everything. Without it you have no case.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help, i will let you know how I get on.
My husband thinks I'm bonkers for having a filing cabinate full of paperwork 10years+ old but this just goes to show you need to keep everything!

[Anonymous]

Yes please let us know everything. It's very interesting that you managed to combine a lot on with PUFFL. O2 have previously pretended this is not at all possible.