Meteor Contract Changes

BArra

BArra wrote: »

Haha. Report back please Huckleberry!

Just spoke to emobile
firstly they said all customers were notified by text or letter. I received neither.
Apparently the new charges are NOT included in my anytime contract. So according to emobile this does not infringe my contract.

The CS rep wasn't sure tbh and spoke to her manager. They confirmed that it was not in breach of contract.
will contact comreg later methinks

Tusky

TheTorment wrote: »

Apparently the new charges are NOT included in my anytime contract. So according to emobile this does not infringe my contract.

Why would they be included in your contract, they are new charges! Unless they mean the old rates for 11850 etc are not specified in your contract?

Tusky

Tusky wrote: »

Why would they be included in your contract, they are new charges! Unless they mean the old rates for 11850 etc are not specified in your contract?

Sorry. They meant the old charges weren't included.

antodeco

Hmm, would be interesting to see. I didn't receive any notification of the changes. I have rang directory enquiries before, so if I ring them again, it will be more expensive? Surely that's classed as a contract change?

Tusky

TheTorment wrote: »

Sorry. They meant the old charges weren't included.

Might be time to dig out the old Meteor contract!

wandatowell

Interesting, my contract is up in 4 months.

I rang eMobile to see about getting 4G and the lady replied that I couldn't get it until my contract expired. I thought it was ridiculous them not allowing me pay them more money for a service they provide.

Tough titties, I'll take my mobile and hone broadband business elsewhere.

Berty

"wandatowell wrote:

Tough titties, I'll take my mobile and hone broadband business elsewhere.

That's what their customer loyalty/retention departments are for. Tell them you'd like to upgrade early or leave. Their job is to keep you, not regular customer service, you'll get something. I got an early upgrade from metoer last year for the 5S because I asked customer loyalty.

Tusky

Tusky wrote: »

Might be time to dig out the old Meteor contract!

I'm one of these people who foolishly lights the fire with such things!!


Anyone else call emobile?

5500

Called meteor retention and they weren't having a bar of it saying it doesn't effect bill pay price plans

jh79

3 state in their contracts that roaming and directory inquiries are variable charges and can be changed during a contract, do the meteor contracts contain anything similar?

Tusky

Called and they said it is a premium service and they do not set the price. They said the specific price is not mentioned in the terms and conditions that I signed up to.

I argued that the premium service is changing how much it is charging Meteor, and Meteor is then changing how much it is charging its customers, but to no avail.

Email had this response:

Thank you for your email. In order to request cancellation you will need to contact our Customer Care team on free phone 1905 and request to be transferred to the Customer Support Team. A member of our Customer Support team will then talk you through our cancellation process.

We have passed on charges which have been imposed on Meteor by third party service providers. This means that there has been no change to the customers T’s and C’s with Meteor, and therefore no change in contract. The increase is regretted but is needed to cover changes in Meteor’s costs.

Early cancellation Fees will be applied to accounts that cancel or request to cancel within contract.

Looks like it's a no go.

balfe1990

I think the real question is why have the rates for these premium, yet virtually obsolete lines been increased, when a simple and free internet search would suffice if you're looking for a number?

foggy_lad

jh79 wrote: »

3 state in their contracts that roaming and directory inquiries are variable charges and can be changed during a contract, do the meteor contracts contain anything similar?

That is an unfair term in the contract and they must state their charges and any change to those charges during the contract period breaches that contract.

foggy_lad

jh79 wrote: »

3 state in their contracts that roaming and directory inquiries are variable charges and can be changed during a contract, do the meteor contracts contain anything similar?

That is an unfair term in the contract and they must state their charges and any change to those charges during the contract period breaches that contract.

avantarklu

There is notice on their website dated 7th May 2011 concerning changes to Premium Rate SMS charges. This notice contains the Regulation 17 cancellation option

Meteor wishes to notify its impacted customers of the following changes, effective as of 7th May 2011.

Premium Rate SMS Price Change:

Meteor advertises the following codes as being standard SMS rate. Meteor’s standard SMS rate for PAYG Customers is 12c incl. VAT. From May 7th 2011, the following codes will cost 12c incl VAT per transaction.

Under Regulation 17 of the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Universal Services and Users’ Rights) Regulations 2003, an operator shall, not less than one month prior to the date of implementation of any proposed modification, notify its subscribers to that service of the proposed modification in the conditions of the contract for that service and their right to withdraw without penalty from such contract if they do not accept the modification.

If you are a subscriber to the services affected by these changes and if you do not accept these changes, you may therefore cease to use the service without penalty imposed, by giving us written notice, received at any time prior to the implementation of the change. Should such notice be received, your account will be terminated in line with our normal provisions. Please note that continued usage of the services at any stage after the implementation of changes, shall be taken as acceptance of same.
Interesting that they appear to be adopting a different view to the latest notice concerning “premium rate” changes to Directory Enquiries.



They do hint at Reg 17 for PAYG customers, stating
“if you do not accept these changes, you may therefore cease to use the service without penalty imposed. Please note that continued usage of the services at any stage after the implementation of changes, shall be taken as acceptance of same.”
This wording is lifted from the Reg 17 wording dating back to their 2011 notice but is excluded in the current Billpay notification.

jh79

foggy_lad wrote: »

That is an unfair term in the contract and they must state their charges and any change to those charges during the contract period breaches that contract.

Worked for 3.

antodeco

Just looked through the contract there. Premium rate numbers are separetly defined within the contract. Three/Vodafone have this declared in their Terms and Conditions, that they are not liable for changes to these numbers. They have this stated, which you can refuse to accept (by not signing up).

However, after reading through the eMobile contract, there is no singular definition of how premium rate numbers are charged. Under Article 6.2, it does state "Services may be available on the basis of different Price Plans with different rates of Charges. We may vary the Charges at any time at our discretion. In the event that Charges are varied we will post notification of such changes on our web site, instores and/or notify you through the Services (e.g. SMS), by e-mail or by post. You may therefore not receive notification if we have no contact details for you. Details of Price Plans and Charges are available on www.emobile.ie or by request to eMobile, 1 Heuston South Quarter, St. John's Road, Dublin 8." (correct as of 13:51 22/10/2014)

The legal obligation of this article applies to a variation across the different tariff plans. As this is a blanket change, the above piece cannot be used within a contract obligation scenario. There is NO other reference of premium rate numbers, and eMobiles requirement to allow price changes without affect of contract.

Based on this, I can see no legal standing for eMobile to refuse any person cancel their contract. Just so people are aware, it is not Regulation 17, but regulation 14 (4).
"(4) An undertaking referred to in paragraph (1) shall, not less than one month prior to the date of implementation of any modification to the contractual con-ditions proposed by the undertaking, notify its subscribers to that service of—
(a) the proposed modification in the conditions of the contract for that
service, and
(b) their right to withdraw without penalty from such contract if they do
not accept the modification. "

I know that eMobile/meteor reps are reading this, and I offer to them the ability to liase with me via private message over this matter, otherwise, as their medium in which they have notified customers is on their website only, is it to be construed that they accept the above. In case of any omission of the reps of not being aware of these changes, I urge people to link to this particular post where you deem necessary.

To summarise, within the eMobile contract, there is no statement to state that premium rate numbers, fall outside the standard terms and conditions, which implies that should any change happen to these numbers, it is in affect, an alteration to a standard contract. Under Regulation 14(4) we have a right to cease this contract, by giving 30 days notice.

*Please note, do not quote the above verbatim, as it is not a legal statement, and is issued as my reading of the contract. Equally, the use of the above removes me from any legal obligation to satisfy the above to any individual.*

Heisenberg1

Would the same apply to Meteor?

wandatowell

*Follows thread

Tusky

Response to my request for cancellation.

it is our position that Regulation 14 under the 2011 Universal Service Obligations (formerly Regulation 17 under 2003 regulations) does not apply in this case. The changes to the call charges for directory enquiry calls for contracted customers is a result of increases that have been imposed on Meteor by third party service providers. As a result, there has been no change to customers’ terms and conditions and therefore no change in contract.

The use of directory enquiries is completely discretionary for each customer and you are under no obligation to use any of the available directory enquiry services.

If you would like to proceed with your cancellation request please reply to this email confirming full cancellation of your account on the 21st November 2014

However, we must make you aware that early cancellation fees will be applied to your account as your 24 month contract commenced in January of 2014.

If you still wish to proceed with your cancellation, your Bill pay account will be closed within 30 days and a final bill will be sent to your registered address on the next billing date.

Fresh Pots

/thread

TallGlass

As I said in my original post I expected that Meteor wouldn't play ball. As I can see from reading some posts that people have e-mailed Meteor.

If you have e-mailed Meteor I would e-mail ComReg and ask them for clarification on the matter and see what they have to say about it. Also lodge a formal complain with Meteor as ComReg will ask you to do this.

If it's not a contract change then why bother advertising it at all? Why bother telling us there changing the prices. Seems to me like Meteor are keeping this on the quite in hope it dose not blow up into a clusterfcuk again like last time.

Kimbot

Simple fact of the matter is that when you entered into a contract with the companies the prices were set out for all your calls. Now the prices are increasing on some of those calls so you should be given the option of accepting the new charges, if you dont then you should be let out of your existing contract with no penalty. Its obvious that meteor dont want to lose customers but they will if they dont actually treat this matter correctly.

Tusky

TallGlass wrote: »

As I said in my original post I expected that Meteor wouldn't play ball. As I can see from reading some posts that people have e-mailed Meteor.

If you have e-mailed Meteor I would e-mail ComReg and ask them for clarification on the matter and see what they have to say about it. Also lodge a formal complain with Meteor as ComReg will ask you to do this.

If it's not a contract change then why bother advertising it at all? Why bother telling us there changing the prices. Seems to me like Meteor are keeping this on the quite in hope it dose not blow up into a clusterfcuk again like last time.

Just spoke with Comreg. They essentially said that there is no grounds to cancel your contract in this case. They basically echoed what Meteor said in my post above.

MagicMarker

Meteors point that this change in price has been imposed on them is irrelevant. They don't arbitrarily determine the cost of standard call charges, they're based on the costs associated with terminated calls on various networks. All charges are imposed on them in some form or another, if the cost to them goes up then they'll in turn pass that increase on to the customer.

Whether that increase is for a local call or a premium rate number is irrelevant imo.

TallGlass

Tusky wrote: »

Just spoke with Comreg. They essentially said that there is no grounds to cancel your contract in this case. They basically echoed what Meteor said in my post above.

So it's a non runner. To me Meteor are changing the terms and conditions, there increasing the price of a service they offer to you (not the third party, that's not your problem).

If ComReg don't want to know then I guess this is going no where. So looking at this now it seems any company can up there charges once it's deemed outside of there control by ComReg.

This is how prices spiral out of control, companies are allowed little price hikes here and there, then it becomes normal and the regulator won't take note or step in and say 'hey, your breaking the law'.

On a side note, if it dose not affect bill pay users why are Meteor been so shady about this increase?

Sorry for getting everyone's hopes up

DesperateDan

wilser wrote: »

So if the sex lines started charging €20 a minute meteor aren't allowed to pass these charges on?

Haha surely sex lines aren't still in existence?! That's amazing.

Kristopherus

Tusky wrote: »

Just spoke with Comreg. They essentially said that there is no grounds to cancel your contract in this case. They basically echoed what Meteor said in my post above.

Tusk, it might be no harm if you referred Comreg to this thread. They might be interested in the other posters views as expressed here.

antodeco

The issue arises if only meteor/Emobile up their prices. If any of the other networks don't increase their prices, then it's solely a contract change. If the prices are changed across the board, and as such, applied by all networks, then I can understamd why ComReg are saying what they are.

matchthis

if the vat rate changed, would everyone be able to cancel contracts? This would be beyond the networks control and would be a case of passing on the charges. I though this cancel contract thing only came into play if meteor decided to up the cost of a normal call or line rental. This is a case where a premium number has upped it's prices and the network is notifying this or am i taking this wrong?