O2 iPhone Customers - Get out of contract!

Shredneck

120_Minutes wrote: »

I know for a fact that o2 have long memories, stretching back to esat. If you leave them on bad terms or owing money whenever you come back to them they'll remind you of any outstanding balances before you can reconnect, if they even let you. So just be careful if you plan to burn any bridges...

Exactly

besty

I received a text from o2 a few minutes ago saying that they had sent my IMEI to Apple for unlocking and that this should be effected through iTunes in the next two weeks!

JoeB-

120_Minutes wrote: »

I know for a fact that o2 have long memories, stretching back to esat. If you leave them on bad terms or owing money whenever you come back to them they'll remind you of any outstanding balances before you can reconnect, if they even let you. So just be careful if you plan to burn any bridges...

Well, I think that'd be very unfair on the customer, who did nothing wrong.

You'd always be able to use prepaid phones, as they're anomynous.


Was Esat renamed as O2?, or are they different companies? My point here is that it may have been against the Data Protection Laws if there was a transfer of personal info from one company to another... and there are other, more subtle aspects to the Data Protection Laws that may have been breached. But maybe not of course... I don't know one way or the other.


If you're not a customer of O2 you can request that all data held about you is deleted... this would make it more difficult for them to ban you for life., as they'd have to keep your info on file if you were banned. Basically they might have to claim legal prividelge under the Data Protection Laws on the personal info, which is complicated, if they wanted to retain the info.

So there's always options, both for O2 and the customers.

sunshinegirly

Just so I'm clear before I call O2. I can get out of the contract but still remain on the plan with O2? And then further down the track I can change providers if I want?
Would you recommend doing it anyway, just so you're out of the contract?

peterwhit

^^^ that's what I want to know too. My wife is on contract with 02, and I'm wondering if she cancels her contract but stays with 02, will she be able to avail of upgrade pricing on the iPhone 4.

guil

peterwhit wrote: »

^^^ that's what I want to know too. My wife is on contract with 02, and I'm wondering if she cancels her contract but stays with 02, will she be able to avail of upgrade pricing on the iPhone 4.

She can only get an upgrade if there is an upgrade available to her. If she leaves o2 now she would have to wait 90 days and sign up again as a new customer to get it at those prices

Shredneck

sunshinegirly wrote: »

Just so I'm clear before I call O2. I can get out of the contract but still remain on the plan with O2? And then further down the track I can change providers if I want?
Would you recommend doing it anyway, just so you're out of the contract?

Yes to both questions.

Shredneck

JoeBallantine wrote: »

Well, I think that'd be very unfair on the customer, who did nothing wrong. .

1. The customer himself would have breached contract by non payment.
2. Prepay prices are not as competitive as bill pay and are not a realistic alternative.
3. Esat-Digifone was bought then rebranded to O2.
4. I don't think the Data Protection Act was designed to protect Bad Debtors.

Our man in Havana

4. I don't think the Data Protection Act was designed to protect Bad Debtors.

Maybe not, but in practice it does.

I knows of a few people who burned Esat back in the day and they recently got contract phones with no mention of their former crimes.

Shredneck

Haddockman wrote: »

Maybe not, but in practice it does.

I knows of a few people who burned Esat back in the day and they recently got contract phones with no mention of their former crimes.

I think there is a 7 year cut off isn't there? for disposing of Old/No longer relevant personal info. Don't quote me on that I'm not sure where I got that from.

Our man in Havana

6 years.

Shredneck

Haddockman wrote: »

6 years.

Haha I wasn't too far off
Cheers

suckslikeafox

Can't believe I've only heard about this now, great news!

For people who've moved to prepay, is it easy to stay under the 50mb a day limit? I tend to spend half my time on twitter/gmail/facebooks, not sure how much data I use daily.

cookie1977

suckslikeafox wrote: »

Can't believe I've only heard about this now, great news!

For people who've moved to prepay, is it easy to stay under the 50mb a day limit? I tend to spend half my time on twitter/gmail/facebooks, not sure how much data I use daily.

50mbs a day is 30 euro a month. Not cheap!

suckslikeafox

cookie1977 wrote: »

50mbs a day is 30 euro a month. Not cheap!

I'm on the €65 plan at the moment, its a big change! Whats the point in having an iphone if you don't make use of the internets anyway?

Our man in Havana

That's why the priceplans are so expensive.

Melia

Possibly a silly question, but if you're only a couple of months into a contract and you get out of it this way, will they unlock the phone for you, or do you still have to stay with O2? (Unless, obviously, you jailbreak and unlock that way.)

Our man in Havana

They will unlock it.

dougs09

for the guy who is trying to keep it under fifty meg a day, and your on prepay, if its vodafone prepay, you should really look into the vodafone simple, twenty euro a month for your free texts and calls to vodafone, and a hundred texts to any network and then a hundred minutes, then i added the data bundle onto that, 1 gig a month for a tenner, so thirty euro and you have it pretty much covered.

JoeB-

Shredneck wrote: »

1. The customer himself would have breached contract by non payment.

Not true, the customer would have stated his intention and right to end the contract under Reg 17... just because O2 don't like that and instead want to keep the contract intact isn't the customers problem, it's O2s.

Shredneck wrote: »

2. Prepay prices are not as competitive as bill pay and are not a realistic alternative.

Agreed on price, not necessarily on suitability as an alternative.

Shredneck wrote: »

3. Esat-Digifone was bought then rebranded to O2.
4. I don't think the Data Protection Act was designed to protect Bad Debtors.

3. Yes, I don't know, but I accept that, no problem.

4. As Haddockman says, maybe not, but they can't hold databases of personal info without good reason, and permission. There are several approachs O2 or other companies could take to overcome this problem. It may even be specifically addressed in the legislation.

I think this is a very subtle issue.. basically it would seem that the Data Protection Laws prevent companies banning people for life, as they cannot legally hold the customers info for that long, so eventually they have to delete it. But people's memories can't be deleted... so it's possible that the ban could persist, even if there was no documentary evidence, simply because individuals remember. After all, companies are entirely within their rights to refuse to deal with any individual...

Also disagree on description you used... 'bad debtor'.. see response to number 1.



Hmmm, edited to add... what if companies deliberately employed memory experts, who could hold databases in their heads instead of on paper or computer... that would seem to circumvent the Data Protection legislation. Any comments?

keane2097

This philosophical discussion of ifs, wherefores, shoulds and maybes is becoming extremely tiresome imo.

JoeBallantine wrote: »

Not true, the customer would have stated his intention and right to end the contract under Reg 17... just because O2 don't like that and instead want to keep the contract intact isn't the customers problem, it's O2s.



Agreed on price, not necessarily on suitability as an alternative.



3. Yes, I don't know, but I accept that, no problem.

4. As Haddockman says, maybe not, but they can't hold databases of personal info without good reason, and permission. There are several approachs O2 or other companies could take to overcome this problem. It may even be specifically addressed in the legislation.

I think this is a very subtle issue.. basically it would seem that the Data Protection Laws prevent companies banning people for life, as they cannot legally hold the customers info for that long, so eventually they have to delete it. But people's memories can't be deleted... so it's possible that the ban could persist, even if there was no documentary evidence, simply because individuals remember. After all, companies are entirely within their rights to refuse to deal with any individual...

besty

Just got the text saying to connect to iTunes,that the phone will be unlocked!

Now to make a decision about changing network...

whiterebel

keane2097 wrote: »

This philosophical discussion of ifs, wherefores, shoulds and maybes is becoming extremely tiresome imo.

Dead on. Don't forget, this part of the discussion started over someone trying pull a fast one, i.e. seeing this thread and wanting to get a €600 phone for nothing. Another lovely irish trait that we've discovered since the Celtic Tiger. So they knew the story but are willing to try it on. I wouldn't p*ss on o2 if they were on fire, but they seem to have been fairly honourable over this, despite some CS agents making life difficult.

guil

whiterebel wrote: »

Dead on. Don't forget, this part of the discussion started over someone trying pull a fast one, i.e. seeing this thread and wanting to get a €600 phone for nothing. Another lovely irish trait that we've discovered since the Celtic Tiger. So they knew the story but are willing to try it on. I wouldn't p*ss on o2 if they were on fire, but they seem to have been fairly honourable over this, despite some CS agents making life difficult.

x2 i'd say there is very little people interested in an iphone that dont know about iphone4

opinion guy

whiterebel wrote: »

Dead on. Don't forget, this part of the discussion started over someone trying pull a fast one, i.e. seeing this thread and wanting to get a €600 phone for nothing. Another lovely irish trait that we've discovered since the Celtic Tiger. So they knew the story but are willing to try it on. I wouldn't p*ss on o2 if they were on fire, but they seem to have been fairly honourable over this, despite some CS agents making life difficult.

hahahah what age are you ?
This trait far FAR precedes the celtic tiger. Indeed some would say its what the celtic tiger was built on.

markaudia4

Just contacted O2 Business Support. I have 2 Iphone 3gs' on the Advance 550 and they have moved me to a rolling 1 month contract without any problems. They even said they would not blame me for wanting to opt out of the 18 month contract.

Any news on release date for Iphone 4 to 02???

Many thanks for the heads up on this guys!!

whiterebel

opinion guy wrote: »

hahahah what age are you ?
This trait far FAR precedes the celtic tiger. Indeed some would say its what the celtic tiger was built on.

Old enough to remember when people were't absolutely and completely selfish. When they gave a sh*t for the consequences of their actions. When people remembered there was more to life than just screwing someone over. The builders and bankers were the breed that drove that greed, people in the street thought they could just sign a pice of paper to keep up with (or exceed) the Joneses....Anyway, back on topic......

sunshinegirly

Thanks a million for all the advice everyone - happy days!!

Shredneck

keane2097 wrote: »

This philosophical discussion of ifs, wherefores, shoulds and maybes is becoming extremely tiresome imo.

Agreed. These endless 'what if' posts and essay questions annoy the piss out of me.

mondeo

Cancelled my iphone contract today, so did 3 of my friends, my sister and 2 of her friends also.