O2 contract customers face 3.2% price hike from February

[darrengf]

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/News/23540/O2_contract_customers_face_3.2_price_hike_from_February.aspx

Never welcomed News I'm affraid.

Just a shame it's had to happen.

So no network Is amune from the price increase now 😢

[Anonymous]

Thats is the problem, people keep mentioning a 'fixed' price contract. If your contract says that then you have grounds but it doesn't as there is no fixed price contracts with O2.

I also and this is a personal thing so sorry, do not get why everybody is so against O2 for doing it when every other phone carrier has done it and based on there dates will do it again. 

We are not talking £5-10 a month, we are talking on average of 50p odd. 

[Anonymous]

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/ofcom-set-to-protect-uk-consumers-from-unexpected-isp-p...

The UK communications regulator has today proposed new options that would allow consumers to exit their existing broadband or phone contract, without penalty, if their ISP introduces “any” price increase during the contract term............................

[Liquid]

Won't go through but we can be hopeful.

[perksie]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/ofcom-set-to-protect-uk-consumers-from-unexpected-isp-price-hikes.html

The UK communications regulator has today proposed new options that would allow consumers to exit their existing broadband or phone contract, without penalty, if their ISP introduces “any” price increase during the contract term............................

---

We have known about that for a while, this won't affect any contracts this time.

[Anonymous]

When I took out my contract with O2, I asked at the time ‘Could my price go up during the term, and if so by how much?’
The reply: “No, the price is set at £24 with a monthly credit of £13.”
I have already taken this up with O2, who first said that the decision was taken by the board, so the adviser “could never have known”, and in the next response told me that it has always been in my T&Cs. He was unable to answer the question “If its always been in T&Cs, how could the adviser never have known?”
Since O2 are 6 working days overdue in responding to my complaint (will be following up) I wanted others opinions on whether my complaint is valid.
I’ve seen lots of answers in this thread refer people to the T&Cs- Do other people cross check what they’ve been told verbally with what the T&Cs say, to make sure they haven’t been lied to?
(Sorry if someone else has had the same scenario that’s been responded to already. I had a scan through, but couldn’t see this example.)

[adamtemp64]

You will not get anywhere with this.

The T&C have always had this but never been implemented by o2.

Discussed so many times.

No where in the T&C is it stated as a fixed price contract only a Minimum term.

And yes always check full T&C in any cooling off period (now 7 working days) and if lied to you could have cancelled then .

[Anonymous]

Speekers, its possible that both response can be true. Let me explain what I mean by this.

"It's always been in the Ts and Cs" - This is true. There has always been a clause in the Ts and Cs that says o2 [b]can[/b] raise the price of your contract as long as 1) its not higher than the RPI rate at the time of announcing the rise, and 2) that they give appropriate notice of doing so. Appropriate notice is generally considered to be 30 days.  However, just because its always been in the Ts and Cs doesn't mean its always likely to happen.  Think of how long you've been with O2.  I've been an O2 customer for nearly 10 years and I've never known them to impliment it, despite it always having been in the Ts and Cs.

"The sales person couldn't have known". If you took your contract out any time up to the day before the rise got announced (10 Dec) then the sales person would not have known the price was going to rise. It was announced to customers the same day staff were told about it. We didn't get any advance notice that it was going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Although not stipulated in the Terms and Conditions, I presume that the language that O2 use to communicate is English (a fair assumption, I think, given that English law applies to the contract).
Could is the conditional form of the verb ‘can’, or ‘to be able’.
‘Are you able to increase my tariff?’, which is what I asked, is something that the advisor should have known, if its always been in the T&Cs.
‘Will you increase my tariff?’, a question which I did not ask, may not have been known, and I accept that although its not relevant since it isn’t what I asked.
I was a pay and go customer with O2 for 12 years, before switching to pay monthly 5 months ago. The great the about PAYG is I never had to contact anyone, so everything was fine. It was a shame that, after switching to pay monthly, O2 withheld £52 worth of credits which I repeatedly had to contact them about for 4 months before they paid them back. So I was already unimpressed before finding out about the tariff change. Here’s a crazy idea... Perhaps if O2 could get things right first time, it would stop people having to make repeat calls, and costs wouldn’t be so high.

[perksie]

It is unrealistic to expect any advisor to know all the terms and conditions in place at the time you sign up, nor would it be to expect them to read them all out to every customer.

You must know that these are available for all to read here on the web site.

This is the first time O2 have done this, all the other operators have done it and in some cases mor than once.

3.2% isn't in my opinion worth getting too excited about and will help to provide better services for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Speekers, now we're getting into semantics. The point is, when you go through the sales process you get told the key facts (price / duration / handset details). You're then given a copy of the full Ts and Cs and a "cooling off" period to review the Ts and Cs before you are locked in to the contract.

If you don't read the Ts and Cs and just rely on the key information then you're always running the risk of coming a cropper.

If your opinion is that during the sales process you should be given all information and not just the key stuff, the sales process would take hours if not days.