02 - Sneaky Contract renewl !!

JynxIRL

Hey,

Got a call one day from 02 to see if they could save me money, great I think

So the nice lady on the phone reviewed my bills and advised me to switch to another price plan and I should start to see a saving, fine i said lets go ahead and switch, But when I said "YES" it was a verbal agreement to 02 to enter into a NEW 12 MONTH CONTRACT !!!! :mad:

Only found out when i called into an 02 store to find out how long i had left in my contract, I knew my contract was up well so I taught, when the guy in 02 said no it's not up till 08/2010 I swear to god I could of garbed the guy by the neck and pulled him across the counter. Even tho he was very helpful.

Rang 02 there going to listen back to the call they made to me that day, I know the lady on the phone never mentioned to me that by switching i was entering into a new 12 month contract because i would of never have agreed.

02 will get back to me in 24 hours once they have listened back to the call.

FGR

Best of luck sorting that out Jynx.

Needless to say I wouldn't be happy if that happened to me.

mobius42

I got one of these calls and the woman said explicitly that it would involve renewing my contract. I simply said no and that was that. Seems like the person who rang you either didn't mention it or you weren't paying proper attention. If they claim you did agree, ask to hear the tape. Also, can they renew a contract based purely on a verbal agreement over the phone? Surely, you have to sign something?

drunkmonkey

If you were not informed you were entering into a 12mt contract over the phone stick to your guns and they will have to release you from the contract. If you are ever dealing with a call center they have to inform you they are recording the call at the start of the conversation. (the o2 greeting when you first call o2 "we may record calls for training and quality purposes" will not hold up if challenged) If you were not 100% aware you were being recorded and the conversation would be legally binding, tell them to release you immediatley.

It's a very sneaky and underhand tatic o2 have perfected.

Count yourself lucky, most people they've duped have been conned into 18mt contracts.

Cadiz

Same thing happened to me, but it was for an 18 month contract. NO mention of contract renewal during the call.

Rang to complain. Woman in sales was abnoxious enough and insisted I had agreed to it. So I asked to speak with her manager. And she refused!!

So - rang back, explained all to customer services. Got call back from manager bod. Profuse apologies. She listened to the tapes of the calls - both original sneaky contract call and sales woman being a weapon.

Anyway, I got a wodge of free credit and was put on month-to-month contract for as long as I wanted.

Recently found myself 'signed up' for o2 mobile TV in similar stealth move, for €5. Emailed to say take it off my bill and I'm complaining to COMREG.

drunkmonkey

Cadiz wrote: »

She listened to the tapes of the calls - both original sneaky contract call and sales woman being a weapon.

Nobody ever got fired for making a sale can't really blame the girl. I would however argue that the sales rep did not inform you that the call was being recorded and was going to be legally binding.
This isn't the movies there's certain procedures companys have to follow, they just can't start a conversation with you and hit the record button when they feel like it, especially if they intend to use it in court when you go to challenge the contract in the small claims court.

JynxIRL

Thanks for the replies.

I think its the way she worded it, it's not like she said " Oh by the way your entering into a new 12 month contract are you happy to go ahead with a change in price plan"

Getting a new phone on upgrade you enter into a new contract thats fairenuff but when 02 gives a few clicks on a mouse to change your price plan over and you have no choice but enter into a new contract thats pushin it.

Cadiz

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Nobody ever got fired for making a sale can't really blame the girl. I would however argue that the sales rep did not inform you that the call was being recorded and was going to be legally binding.
This isn't the movies there's certain procedures companys have to follow, they just can't start a conversation with you and hit the record button when they feel like it, especially if they intend to use it in court when you go to challenge the contract in the small claims court.

I'm pretty sure they did inform me they were recording, they usually do. But that's not why it not legally binding - it's not binding because you have to get the punter to specifically agree to the contract, and neither I nor the OP did. I'm pretty sure something in writing would have to follow also.

"The girl" was well out of order and well aware she was pulling a fast one. I would have thought trying to con a customer into a contract would be a fireable offence. But then again..!

BostonB

Someone I knew got caught like this. So when they rang me I waited for them to mention it and they never did. I had to specifically ask, only then did the sales person talk about it. So I don't believe its a slip or a mistake. Its probably the most important part of the whole phone call.

That was a best part of a year ago and I specifically complained about it on the O2 forums to the O2 staff there. Yet here there are still doing it. I vaguely remember others posting on their forums about it.

Davy

o2 do seem to do this, and it does seem quite underhanded. They may lose more customers in the longer term with bad press like this, or the person who feels conned into renewing when they didnt want to they might switch networks to spite them next time.


Putting that aside im pretty sure that this verbal agreement is followed up by a letter stating the contract renewal which then you would still have the chance to opt out.

rogue-entity

What irks me, is this complete change of tactic, ever since the iPhone plans came out. Before that, I was on an O2 ActiveLife plan.

Switching to the iPhone locked me into an 18mnt contract that would have expired by Jan 2009. Moving between the iPhone plans (from low to high) never incurred any costs, other than having to wait a few months depending on what plan you were initially contracted on. The usual routine.

Moving from the iPhone plan to O2's Clear Unlimited, which costs me 10x less than what I was paying on the top iPhone plan at the time, meant being roped into another 18mnt contract, and I was told this. I whined about it, because all I was doing was moving plans, and it wasnt fair. She told me she'd place me on a 12 month contract as a special deal, and that I was making a verbal agreement. I got a letter in the post a few weeks after to say I was on another 18mnt contract and as far as I know, the existing 12 month 'deal' is still in effect.. so my contract has either expired since September, or it's going to expire in Janurary.

But enough on that.. what I have noticed is how O2 is ****ting all over their contract customers.
If you have a contract already, even if it's about to expire, say, in a month.. and you change your price plan, even moving between your existing plans, you get locked into another 18mnt contract, no ifs no buts.
If you're on a month-to-month, you can move between the various Clear plans without any problems, once every 30 days.

The girl that told me I would be extending my contract when I switched to Clear, said that it was because I was moving from an iPhone plan, to a Clear plan. That if I was moving between Clear plans, or between iPhone plans, I would not extend my contract.
Yet.. O2 have now brought out a plan, with unlimited texts as well as the unlimited calls when I enquired about switching to it.. I was told it would extend my contract by another... 18 months. If I wait until my present contract expires, I could move to the same plan, without having to comit to a new contract.

The only thing I could ever say in O2's defense, is that they are by far the cheapest mobile network to be with right now.
I pay 35/mo and get unlimited free calls to landlines and O2 numbers.
I get 29c/min calls to US numbers (though why on earth O2 insist on charging 95c/min to the UK boggles me).
I get 250MB of data (which I bearly use).

Meteor cannot beat that deal, no matter how hard they try to claim otherwise on that website of theirs.
Best Vodafone can offer me.. would be 600 minutes for €90 a month.


I dont know about the rest of you.. but I'd rather wait till my current contract expires... go month-to-month and stick with O2 over paying out the nose to an operator owned by Eircom (no thanks) or the worlds second biggest (and still most expensive). Dont even start me on 3.. I used to be one of their supporters here, even amidst the criticism.. until they moved their call-centers to India and ****ed things up... I couldnt get away from them fast enough.

Maybe Vodafone will come up with a deal to beat O2's and some decent phones (*cough* HTC TouchPro2 *cough*) and I'll switch for better customer service

Cadiz

rogue-entity wrote: »

What irks me, is this complete change of tactic, ever since the iPhone plans came out. Before that, I was on an O2 ActiveLife plan.

Switching to the iPhone locked me into an 18mnt contract that would have expired by Jan 2009. Moving between the iPhone plans (from low to high) never incurred any costs, other than having to wait a few months depending on what plan you were initially contracted on. The usual routine.

Moving from the iPhone plan to O2's Clear Unlimited, which costs me 10x less than what I was paying on the top iPhone plan at the time, meant being roped into another 18mnt contract, and I was told this. I whined about it, because all I was doing was moving plans, and it wasnt fair. She told me she'd place me on a 12 month contract as a special deal, and that I was making a verbal agreement. I got a letter in the post a few weeks after to say I was on another 18mnt contract and as far as I know, the existing 12 month 'deal' is still in effect.. so my contract has either expired since September, or it's going to expire in Janurary.

But enough on that.. what I have noticed is how O2 is ****ting all over their contract customers.
If you have a contract already, even if it's about to expire, say, in a month.. and you change your price plan, even moving between your existing plans, you get locked into another 18mnt contract, no ifs no buts.
If you're on a month-to-month, you can move between the various Clear plans without any problems, once every 30 days.

The girl that told me I would be extending my contract when I switched to Clear, said that it was because I was moving from an iPhone plan, to a Clear plan. That if I was moving between Clear plans, or between iPhone plans, I would not extend my contract.
Yet.. O2 have now brought out a plan, with unlimited texts as well as the unlimited calls when I enquired about switching to it.. I was told it would extend my contract by another... 18 months. If I wait until my present contract expires, I could move to the same plan, without having to comit to a new contract.

This sounds like chicanery on o2's behalf here, are they really allowed carry on like this?? I'll have to find out more from Comreg.

OP - did you get your call back from o2?

drunkmonkey

rogue-entity wrote: »

In O2's defense

I wouldn't be defending them...

tbh, at this stage they warrant a prime time investigation.

Ah-Watch

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I wouldn't be defending them...

tbh, at this stage they warrant a prime time investigation.

Love this comment haha

coldfire1x

I got a similar call couple of days back, they wanted to save me some money and I simply refused. End of the story.

O2_Daryll

OP, If you want me to sort this let me know.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

elderlemon

O2 - there's only one way to sort this out that's to STOP this practice. It stikes me that O2 is at the heart of most disliked issues these days - first to bring in 18 month contracts, first to refuse to unlock a phone after end of contract (iphone!) and now this.

Vote with your feet lads.

Talk2O2: Daryll wrote: »

OP, If you want me to sort this let me know.

drunkmonkey

elderlemon wrote: »

first to bring in 18 month contracts, first to refuse to unlock a phone after end of contract (iphone!) and now this.

You forgot something http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/News/293106/o2_ireland_tears_up_the_channel.html , a complete kick in the teeth to a lot of businesses around the country...

the quicker they feck off back to spain the better.

ardmacha

You add to that the withdrawal of minutes from use in NI, when the All Island concept was basically something O2 lead the way on!!!

Ah-Watch

I hate the fact that 02 are screwing people over by "saving them on their bills" especially the customers of the stores that they took the stores dealership from. They'll deny it till the cows come home but I know for a fact they rang a customer directly and said we're letting you know not to go to X(shop I work in) anymore as they dont do 02. I'll never buy 02 again and at present will not recommend them to anyone

drunkmonkey

i'll second that, i'd rather be up on a murder charge than o2

JynxIRL

Talk2O2: Daryll wrote: »

OP, If you want me to sort this let me know.

Thanks will do.