o2 need a slap

[Earl]

Well heres an o2 whine. Basicly I took out a contract back in July and got a new phone, I was on the o2 100 plan, which I think is £25 a month (and I even took out insurance, they should be bloody greatfull). After a series of discussions with the lady in store she assured me that I would be able to change my tariff if it didn't suit me as I hadn't been on contract for a while and didn't really know how many minutes or texts I used.

After a few months of using the tariff i've come to realise that I could use more minutes and texts as i've been going over with both recently. I logged in to the o2 website and found some nice tariffs, namly 'o2 Online Offpeak 500 texter' which, if bought on a 18month contract, gives 750offpeak calls and 750texts which would be great for me, as the majority of my calls are during the weekend or at night anyway. I thought wonderfull, as it was the same £25 that i'd been paying already!

I phoned them up and discussed it, only to find that I can only get this tariff if I orginaly bought the phone and contract over the internet. I wasn't best pleased about this, the main thoughts running through my head were
'it's the same bloody company, why are they being such pedantic bastards?'
I explained to them how I would have taken them up on this offer over the internet if their sales advisers would have advised me thats where I could get four times the amount of minutes/texts for the same price, however they neglected to do so.

I'm basicly writing this to ask you guys what I can try and do about the situation. I don't want to be stuck on this calling plan for another 14months, heck even the new orange payasyougo sims would suit my need for £10 a month, so im pretty pissed off that my current contract company can't just give me the damn tariff

*sigh*

 

[Tom]

Complain in writing, via recorded delivery. Tell them you were very poorly informed as to the options available, and what are they going to do to remedy it?

 

[Ch3tan]

Erm, the o2 shops and o2 online are seperate. Not much you can do, they arent going to advise you to use o2online in an o2 shop. It's the same with every phone shop compared to their direct sales.

 

[GDW]

yes I believe they are run as two separate companies, nothing you can do

 

[WPKenny]

You can find an offline tarrif from O2 and change to that but not an online one if that helps.

 

[Draylor]

I'm basicly writing this to ask you guys what I can try and do about the situation.

Learning from it is probably the best thing you can do.

Dont sign contracts until youve done enough research to be happy to be tied into it for whatever time period is required.

Dont trust sales muppets - ever.

When you buy something dont look at adverts for anything similar for at least a year. The better/cheaper ones always piss you off.

 

[Gray]

Its all different franchises within o2, one deals with highstreet stores, the other deals with online. Both completely different and different promotions.

Now, i had a call like this today (It wasnt you was it...? ) who was moaning because he upgraded in July to the highest tariff, only to find 5 months down the line that o2 stores now have the promotion where you get 500 minutes (or 1000minutes, because it was doubled) for something like £25.

We, as customer services, or anything, cannot change tariffs which have huge discounts like this unless they upgrade, then the system would allow for us to add certain discounts on.

I would say either

1) Lower your o2 100 tariff down to the o2 25 (£16) and remove any other services... then
2) Take out the Online tariff you seen, you will be paying an extra £16... but its all dependant on if you think its worthit to get so many minutes.

Alternatively, wait until July, and upgrade, get great discounts, great phone and great minutes, but i very much doubt anyting else can be done at the moment, because these "Discount 500, 750 etc" tariffs are for special use with our upgrades team

 

[Earl]

1) Lower your o2 100 tariff down to the o2 25 (£16) and remove any other services... then
2) Take out the Online tariff you seen, you will be paying an extra £16... but its all dependant on if you think its worthit to get so many minutes.

Thats an idea!
I could even just use one of those new orange sims .. which would basicly be costing me £26/month and i'd be getting loads more minutes and texts (and still have my nice phone which I guess the £16 would be going towards
Although I was told that I can't downgrade when I phoned today

 

[Gray]

I think you have to be on the tariff for 6 months before having the choice of upgrade, 6 months into your contract you can do as you wish, upgrade, downgrade to your hearts content.

Altho i dont really care about looking at peoples connection date, i just do it anyway

(Shhh!) ;o

 

[Dreamor]

When I was with 3 Network in the early years, I cancelled my contract by sending a letter to the company with a list of my issues... they eventually gave in and let me loose to go with another company. Orange seem pretty good for the moment, check out here... www.onestopphoneshop.co.uk - some nice deals, perhaps if you choose another contract and phone say Orange (or whoever) and ask them to transfer the number / details to there system... that might work...

 

[fatbusinessman]

O2 are cocks.

Orange are cocks.

I reckon pretty much all mobile phone operators are cocks.

 

[Earl]

*brings subject back up*
I've had an idea
Is it possible for me to tell o2 that I can't afford payments anymore, and just give back my £50 phone? 'Cause with this new orange sim out i'm feeling really pissed off that im stuck on a contract getting crappy minutes and texts for almost 3x more than an orange topup

 

[fatbusinessman]

Highly unlikely.

If (for whatever reason) you don't pay your contract fees up to your minimum contract term (either 12 or 18 months), O2 will sic a debt collection agency on you. In fact, they'll probably do that even if there's just an accounting mix-up. </selfpromotion>

 

[Earl]

Meh sorry to bring this subject up again it's just driving me round the bend how they don't seem to give a shit about their customers at all. For god sake if they just gave me this tariff i'd be with them for longer tahn my contract and i'd be happy, nobody teach them that at business school?

Anyway, I remember when I had an old contract though a phone I bought at carphone warehouse, and they told me I could ditch the contract providing I sent the phone back and stated that I could no longer afford to pay the bills. (I mean what are people supposed to do if they lose their job and have to make cuts?)

You sure this isn't the case? Because if not o2 really are a bag of wank

 

[Trem]

Erm, the o2 shops and o2 online are seperate. Not much you can do, they arent going to advise you to use o2online in an o2 shop. It's the same with every phone shop compared to their direct sales.

What ch3t said.

They have online offers that differ from instore offers. O2 actually have not done anything wrong.

Go back the store and speak to them.

Edited to say - I didnt read the whole thread so you may of already done the above. You cannot get out of the contract, they don't care if you can afford or not.

Oh and stay the fuck away from Orange, you WILL regret joining Orange.

 

[Earl]

I went to the store and they told me that basicly no I couldn't change and they couldn't give a shit how they miss-sold the product.
o2 Might not have done anything *wrong* but it's certainly very deceptive to have such offers and neglect to tell potential customers when asked..
When I go in to an o2 store, I expect to have genuine advice about the products as they work for o2. Not a seperate competeing area of the company that neglect to tell me I could get a much better offer if I just cared to browse on the internet..

 

[Trem]

Fair enough really.

 

[Aada]

I went to the store and they told me that basicly no I couldn't change and they couldn't give a shit how they miss-sold the product.
o2 Might not have done anything *wrong* but it's certainly very deceptive to have such offers and neglect to tell potential customers when asked..
When I go in to an o2 store, I expect to have genuine advice about the products as they work for o2. Not a seperate competeing area of the company that neglect to tell me I could get a much better offer if I just cared to browse on the internet..

I hope you have learned from your mistake.

I NEVER buy anything from the highstreet unless i want it now.

Always go online why can they do the best deals? simple they don't have to pay the shop rent/bills/wages etc.

Its pretty much the same with every highstreet store that has an online counterpart.

 

[Earl]

Yeah certainly have
Shame I have to spend £450 in the process

 

[nath]

Thanks to the sage advice on www.moneysavingexpert.com I called up orange and threatened to leave to go to Three (as if!) given that they have fantastic deals, albeit shit coverage and numerous dropped calls.

Anyhoo, long story short I ended up going from 200 x-net minutes/month 0 texts at £30/month to 500x-net/month 30texts/m (for the first 6) at £25 a month. On a 12 month contract. With a free SPV c600.

I'm rather chuffed.


Just thought I'd share that with you all*.








*Didn't fancy creating a new thread and this seemed the most relevant place to put it¹.








¹If you deem this unacceptable, sue me :\

 

[Earl]

I deem to unacceptable unless you get me off my contract with these fools.

Also, I think i'm going to have to use email as my medium of communication when it comes to dealing with these sort of companies, the number of times i've been told I CAN move to the online tariff then to be told I can't ... you can't hold any fucker accountable unless you ask for their name and voice record everything lol..

 

[nath]

Similar to what Gray was saying, but hopefully this helps.

 

[Gray]

Unsure of how long you have been on this contract now, since this is near what? 2-3 months since the last time it was discussed...

Id still say get down to the o2 25 tariff.. Youre going to have to play it tough but smart. Wait until youre 6 months into your contract, put FORWARD the request to change the tariff to the lowest one [again, o2 25, £16] with the intent to possibly end the contract.

Now what will happen [hopefully] is youre gonna speak to the upgrades/disconnection department about why youre ending your contract and how you can get a better deal on the o2 website. The advisor WILL listen. Why? They get paid for "saving" customers - which means the ball is in your court, you set the demands - "i want xxx mins with xxx texts for £xx" (Just make sure its similar to a deal you want... you dont want to push too far)

Once the offer has been placed then you can see about upgrading the tariff! Hurrah! You get your minutes and everything like that - HOWEVER bare in mind, the o2 25 tariff STILL has to go ahead because you will be upgrading 6months early (Early upgrades are very rare see...) and you will have to pay your remaining yearly line rental [Which should be £16 * <whatever>].

Thats the tough part.. maybe wait until the tariff has changed... by that point though you will have to get it rushed through...

Or if you just wanna cancel fullstop... lower it down, end ocntract... sorted

/edit yoink!