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| Originally Posted by Lofty God only knows why, but i've been a loyal O2 contract holder for about three years now. Perhaps out of convenience more than anything else, as I hate changing phone numbers.
However, today they have really urined in my cornflakes. Usually, when I check my online bank account, my ringpiece puckers upon coming across the astronomical amount of cash O2 charge me for their services... monthly, I must send around 80 text messages and make an hours worth of calls to a mixture of landlines and mobiles - nobody really likes me that much, so I dont have to waste time talking to people. Am I delusional, or is £65-£75 a lot of money to charge for my calls and texts, seeing as my base contract amount is about £25. So, today I decided to check my online internet bank thing just out of idle curiosity really... and I nearly prolapsed!
Recently, they decided to cut my phone off because of a mystery billing error - although I had a substantial amount of money in the account, for some reason it was rejected - more investigation required. Naturally, their reaction was to cut my phone off immediately and send me a nice letter that I am assured does exist, but I have never actually seen. O2 have both my email address, mobile phone number and landline number, I wasn't contacted on any of these. So I asked their "customer services" if they were stuck in the dark ages and hadn't mastered the use of these new fangled telemephones and the interweb, their excuse... "it's not cost effective".
Not cost effective!!! It's not cost effective for me to sit on my arse talking to some halfwit in Islamabad who can barely string a sentence together. No, that certainly isn't cost effective because the bastards bill you at national rate and leave you on hold for 15 farking minutes listening to some demented bubbly tune while they go and stick a brew on! Needless to say, I managed to get my phone reconnected and the bill squared away without having to fly halfway around the world to give some mong with a microphone headset a bloody good shoeing...
Anyway, got a bit sidetracked there. Back to my online account today. O2 had done the dirty on me again, charging me £74 for the privelage of having them send me regular junkmail/bills/toilet paper addressed to "Mr A. Mugg". But I was expecting that, what caught me off my guard was the additional charge of £39.00 entitled "Charges as notified". Perhaps somebody was notified, but it wasn't bloody me! Maybe they notified the same charlie uniform november tango that keeps racking up fifty quid in calls and texts.
In summary:
I am unhappy with the level of service O2 are providing me. I intend to terminate my contract with said company. I throughly recommend my fellow YD'ers avoid O2 like the bubonic plague. Perhaps some of you have actually been satisfied, or even happy with O2's service, but I feel that they have bent me over and buggered me with a marrow - they are beyond redemption in my eyes and now rank alongside Jeremy Beadle, Mr Blobby and the Big Brother Contestants in the 'people I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire' stakes.
I feel O2 need to be gripped in a big way! Phoning them is out of the question as they have made me so poor that I shall now be living on grass, leaves and snails for the rest of my life. Should I:
A) Write them a very stern letter.
B) Go to the O2 shop and give the manager a jolly good talking to.
C) Wee through their letterbox and run away into the night giggling like a little girl.
So, can anyone recommend a good mobile phone company? 
Andy |
Hmm. 80 texts and an hours worth of calls should only come to about £15 or £20, so £40 a month max for your bill. Sounds like a poor tariff though.
Let me take each bit individually;
Firstly, £25 a month is quite high for monthly charges. Did you get quite a nice phone initially? The high monthly cost is usually at a subsidy of the handset. O2 XDA or something like that (just a guess)? These tariffs are usually a problem as you end up paying more for the handset than if you bought it outright sim free. If you got an XDA (for example) it would cost £400 to buy new, Sim Free. However, with the tariff you're on it cost you £900. If you didn't get a new phone I can't see why you're on such a high monthly cost. For example, with Orange I can get a tariff which is £20 a month, which includes 100 minutes talk-time and 100 texts free in the tariff. So if you stay within your 60 mins a month and 80 texts you'll pay £20 a month, and that's it. You can do that direct with Orange online.
Handset subsidies, however, are low on that tariff because they include free call charges. So a Nokia 6680, for example (a 3G handset) will cost you £129.99
Nonetheless, you seem to have been messed about by O2.
I suggest you check your itemised billing and your tariff. If it matches up there's not much you can do. However, if they say they're sending you stuff you're not getting that's not your fault. Take all the documentation you have and see the citizens advice bureau. They will usually get a result.
Mark.
P.S. Before you all get confused;
Vodafone used to be part of Racal.
O2 used to be BT Cellnet then before that they were just plain Cellnet.
Both Cellnet and Vodafone's networks were opened at the same time in January 1985. Both were analogue networks.
Mercury's One2One was the first ALL GSM network in the UK in 1993, using 1800Mhz frequency. They now are called T-Mobile after their purchase by the German network of the same name. Virgin Telecom is a rebranded T-Mobile (and Tesco mobile is a rebranded O2)
Orange used to be Hutchison Microtel, before they were floated and then bought by France Telecom who have changed their entire portfolio to Orange now. They were the UK's second 1800Mhz network. (Voda and Cellnet use 900Mhz. The yanks use 1900Mhz just to be different).
Three was Hutchison's second attempt at a UK network - this time trying to steal a march on the rest of the networks by creating a totally UMTS/3G network. Unfortunately their choice of a walled garden network for their data sort-of made them a consumer only network and as such they didn't get any of the crucial business market which could have taken a lead on the others.
So there you go - a potted history of the UK mobile market. Not forgetting O2 is about to be taken over by Telefonica.