O2 Contract advice please

jos28

I will try to keep this as brief as possible. My son signed up for 18 months with 02 in December. Within a week he was offered a job in the UK and off he went. He will be back here in July when his work contract expires. He is stuck paying €40 per month for a phone that he can't use at the moment because of the roaming costs. He does not want to get out of the O2 contract, he just wants to suspend it until he comes home. Our local O2 store told him to ask customer care to put him on a maintenance contract (€5 per month) and just go back to normal when he returns. 02 have refused to do this as they say he has not been with them long enough. He has been with 02 as a 'pay as you go' customer for more than 10 years but apparently that counts for nothing. Any advice would be much appreciated.

racer1

Try the mods on the o2 forum... its under help.

tinofapples

I'm close to the end of an 18 month contract with them (Thank God), they called me on Thursday asking was I satisfied with my contract and tarriff. I told her I wasn't and that I would be changing probably to Meteor when my contract finishes cause I can get 200 mins and 200 texts on their network for €25 (12 Month) or €20 (18 Month) and voicemail is free. O2 are offering 175 mins and 100 texts for €30 a month and charge for voicemail. Plus Meteor phones seem cheaper.

The girl from O2 didn't make any attempt to persuade me otherwise and interestingly I received a message from O2 yesterday telling me that my free extra is expiring this month "if you recontract you can avail of the free extra again".

All my bills at the minute are over €50 but I'm gonna stick it out till the end of the contract in case they try to sneak me onto anither contract.

Knowing O2 they will probably stick your son to the contract.

jos28

racer1 wrote: »

Try the mods on the o2 forum... its under help.

Thanks Racer, I will give that a try.

theteal

jos28 wrote: »

My son signed up for 18 months with 02 in December. Within a week he was offered a job in the UK and off he went.

If it was within a week he should have cancelled under the 'cooling off' terms of the contract. I don't think there's much he can do now though unfortunately

krudler

jos28 wrote: »

I will try to keep this as brief as possible. My son signed up for 18 months with 02 in December. Within a week he was offered a job in the UK and off he went. He will be back here in July when his work contract expires. He is stuck paying €40 per month for a phone that he can't use at the moment because of the roaming costs. He does not want to get out of the O2 contract, he just wants to suspend it until he comes home. Our local O2 store told him to ask customer care to put him on a maintenance contract (€5 per month) and just go back to normal when he returns. 02 have refused to do this as they say he has not been with them long enough. He has been with 02 as a 'pay as you go' customer for more than 10 years but apparently that counts for nothing. Any advice would be much appreciated.

You have to be on the network for at least 6 months iirc before you can drop to a lower tariff, being on prepay for years has nothing to do with a new billpay account, he's a new customer as far as the network is concerned, so theres not much he can do. The roaming costs arent that expensive anymore, why not just take the phone with him and use it only when he needs to?

lomb

krudler wrote: »

The roaming costs arent that expensive anymore, why not just take the phone with him and use it only when he needs to?

If he was on three then he could use it without charge on three like home. Do O2 have anything similar as an add on?
If not he can always use the hopefully expensive handset in the UK on a PAYG or rolling 30 day contract. Some great deals there like 15 for 600 minutes and 1GB.

jos28

No budging 02 on the maintenance deal, as Krudler says his years on PAYG don't count for anything. He is going to swap his sim for a PAYG UK sim and continue to pay the €40 per month here. Thanks everyone

forza_milan

Jos: probably not answer what you'd expect, but if o2 is stubborn and no option for maintenance period, then maybe try to do your own bill contract or any other close family member bill contract and to put it into maintenance to lower payment and use your son's phone instead for couple months as main phone, then change again? You could balance out the costs that way a good bit still having means of communication. I know it is bit problematic due to different number, but in some circumstances (domestic non business use) this could be some solution say if you don't get zillion people ringing you but just few and you could just tell them of you new number and / or leave voicemail on other number asking to ring new number / set forwarding perhaps...?

jos28

forza_milan wrote: »

Jos: probably not answer what you'd expect, but if o2 is stubborn and no option for maintenance period, then maybe try to do your own bill contract or any other close family member bill contract and to put it into maintenance to lower payment and use your son's phone instead for couple months as main phone, then change again? You could balance out the costs that way a good bit still having means of communication. I know it is bit problematic due to different number, but in some circumstances (domestic non business use) this could be some solution say if you don't get zillion people ringing you but just few and you could just tell them of you new number and / or leave voicemail on other number asking to ring new number / set forwarding perhaps...?

Thats a really smart idea, never thought of that. I will check that out tomorrow. Thanks a million