Ofcom ruling on mid-contract price rises and network response

Alpherah · 25 Jan 2014 at 18:11

As some of you might be aware - Ofcom just banned the practice of increasing contract prices mid term.
Didn't take long for the networks to see a way out however, and o2 have inserted a clause in new contracts that basically states 'you agree to allow us to increase your price in line with inflation mid contract' etc etc.

Three have announced today they support Ofcom fully and will -not- be increasing mid term prices again, under any situations.

Other networks are still deciding on a route to take I guess, unless anyone has heard anything?

thep02 · 25 Jan 2014 at 18:52

I can't see myself leaving three for the foreseeable future.

spiki · 25 Jan 2014 at 19:26

O2 have increased my monthly payment by 63p, completely unannounced today; not a lot but annoyed me on priniciple.

Jokester · 25 Jan 2014 at 19:31

spiki said:
O2 have increased my monthly payment by 63p, completely unannounced today; not a lot but annoyed me on priniciple.

Same here. Will be ditching O2 for Three as soon as my contract is up.

Cosimo · 26 Jan 2014 at 10:15

On the O2 increase:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18575261

Brenn47 · 26 Jan 2014 at 10:38

If only OFCOM would cast their beady eye in Virgin Medias direction. My Three for £30 is now £59, they rob their existing customers blind to fund the new customers *deals*.

Ryan-3 · 26 Jan 2014 at 11:25

O2 increased about this time last year? I remember my bill going up, while still having to manage with 500mb data. Thankfully ditched O2 for Three. Still very happy eight - I think - months later.

deltalinx · 26 Jan 2014 at 20:23

Been with three for ages £15 payg can't go wrong best service I've ever had on a provider.

tom_e · 26 Jan 2014 at 20:24

Brenn47 said:
If only OFCOM would cast their beady eye in Virgin Medias direction. My Three for £30 is now £59, they rob their existing customers blind to fund the new customers *deals*.

This ruling also covers things like broadband contracts.

BunnyKillBot · 26 Jan 2014 at 21:33

I too recently made the switch from O2 to three. They are in an extremely strong position at the moment and don't seem to be screwing the consumer quite so much as the other providers.

Thats and telefonicas terrible terrible website and awful customer service was enough to send me packing. Good riddance.

Brenn47 · 26 Jan 2014 at 21:57

tom_e said:
This ruling also covers things like broadband contracts.

I hope so, Virgin Media are disgusting the way they rob their existing customers to fund/fool the new customers. Every month they put the ruddy price up for "better value" apparently. Lying #####

Brutal biff · 26 Jan 2014 at 23:04

Virgin media is disgusting for their prices compared to other networks

3 are cheapest I've seen problem is their signal is very poor where I live and inside my house you get none so 3 is a no no for me unfortunately

slipd · 26 Jan 2014 at 23:26

Brutal biff said:
Virgin media is disgusting for their prices compared to other networks

3 are cheapest I've seen problem is their signal is very poor where I live and inside my house you get none so 3 is a no no for me unfortunately

If you ring them and tell them, they will send you out a free booster - plugs into your router

I become a Three customer this week (waiting for SIM) and have already been assured the booster is on its way. I live in a very poor signal area... when I requested my PAC from Vodafone and explained my reasons for wishing to leave, they offered me Sure Signal - for £100 :mad:

Helped justify my decision all the more!

Fallen god · 26 Jan 2014 at 23:38

Brenn47 said:
I hope so, Virgin Media are disgusting the way they rob their existing customers to fund/fool the new customers. Every month they put the ruddy price up for "better value" apparently. Lying #####

Virgin Media prices and customer service sucks so badly. I was with them for nearly 10 years and the treatment you get is horrid, my friend who recently switched has a far better deal then me :/. And when I try to bring it up they just try and brush it under the rag, even lie that my price is actually working out cheaper since I have a mystery discount that I have never heard of till then.

airwave99 · 26 Jan 2014 at 23:59

Pretty bad that mid-contract price rises were ever allowed, glad this has been changed.

spoffle · 27 Jan 2014 at 00:08

I wonder if this can work retrospectively? Virgin recently increased their prices (whilst I was still in contract), I wonder if I can argue them back down to what it's supposed to be.

I've heard they're supposed to be doing another increase as well.

Alpherah · 27 Jan 2014 at 08:23

airwave99 said:
Pretty bad that mid-contract price rises were ever allowed, glad this has been changed.

The problem is that networks (O2) can easily get around it by putting a clause in the small print :/

Em3bbs · 27 Jan 2014 at 08:55

spoffle said:
I wonder if this can work retrospectively? Virgin recently increased their prices (whilst I was still in contract), I wonder if I can argue them back down to what it's supposed to be.

I've heard they're supposed to be doing another increase as well.

Yes you can - it even said so on the letter Virgin sent out! I'm using it to move away and I keep getting packet loss from Virgin and they have sent an engineer about 5 times who can't fix it.

Myshra · 27 Jan 2014 at 09:01

spoffle said:
I wonder if this can work retrospectively? Virgin recently increased their prices (whilst I was still in contract), I wonder if I can argue them back down to what it's supposed to be.

I've heard they're supposed to be doing another increase as well.

No, it covers new contracts only. if you currently have a contract, it's going up as the networks desire. If you have a new contract on O2, you're contractually agreeing to increases. If you have a new contract not on O2, it's not going up (until they stick in the same clause as O2 - but this is not retro active).

This is fairly evil genius type stuff from O2, I'm sorta impressed they did this on day 1.

tom_e · 27 Jan 2014 at 09:04

Em3bbs said:
Yes you can - it even said so on the letter Virgin sent out! I'm using it to move away and I keep getting packet loss from Virgin and they have sent an engineer about 5 times who can't fix it.

No it said you could cancel your contract without any fees not that you could get them to cancel the price increase.