O2 - phone upgrade - new tariff ?

scargill

Hi,

Just putting this up to see if anyone else had a similar experience and how did they get it resolved.

My wife has her phone with O2. Her old phone was dead and she needed an upgrade. She is a light user - she pays a monthly bill of around 25 - 30 euro.

She went into the local O2 store to ask the sales person what phone upgrade options she had on her account. She was told she could have a HTC Desire for €189 on a 'silver upgrade'.

She specifically said to the sales person that she didn't want her monthly bill to change - and that she was happy to pay €189 as a once off payment. That was agreed.

A month later she receives her bill - €60 !

She contacted customer care and they said that she had agreed to a higher tariff when she changed phones and that she had signed a contract to that effect.

She couldn't find the contract anywhere (in the bottom of a big handbag) for a while - when she did she saw that there was no mention of a change of tariff. It just confirmed that she availed of a silver upgrade to purchase a HTC desire.

The local shop have basically washed their hands of it. The sales assistant says that she would never have sold the HTC without moving her to higher tariff. The shop manager says that she is having "no joy" with her "area manager" and that my wife needs to write to customer care.

It sounds like she is being given the run around a bit and that it could take a while to sort out.

Anyone have a similar problem? How did it get resolved?

Thanks.

angel01

I would imagine they put her on a smartphone plan. The Desire is a smartphone so will go on the advance plans. What plan was she on before?

scargill

not sure what plan she was on - it was the most basic/cheap one.

She's been on the same plan for years - the name of it has changed a few times!

what does a "smartphone plan" mean?

On the contract it did mention something about 250mb download limit - the sales assistant intimated that this meant a higher tarrif was in place. 250mb means nothing to my wife - she's a technophobe!!

angel01

scargill wrote: »

not sure what plan she was on - it was the most basic/cheap one.

She's been on the same plan for years - the name of it has changed a few times!

what does a "smartphone plan" mean?

On the contract it did mention something about 250mb download limit - the sales assistant intimated that this meant a higher tarrif was in place. 250mb means nothing to my wife - she's a technophobe!!

Thing is 250mb will not last long with a phone that is so dependent on the internet.

Basically a smartphone is a phone that can do things like you could do on a PC so internet, office applications, email and such like. It is very dependent on the internet so that is why they put it on a special plan which gives you a bigger internet download limit.

scargill

angel01 wrote: »

Thing is 250mb will not last long with a phone that is so dependent on the internet.

Basically a smartphone is a phone that can do things like you could do on a PC so internet, office applications, email and such like. It is very dependent on the internet so that is why they put it on a special plan which gives you a bigger internet download limit.

Hi - thanks for the reply. I'm a bit more techie than my wife :P, so I understand all of that. Most/all of the web stuff she is going to do will be over wireless rather than using GPRS.

She got the Desire because of the usability and the screen quality rather than the android stuff. It was probably a bit of overkill to get that phone - but when she saw it she had to have it !

Dermo

get onto the official o2 forums. Daryl and Paddy will help you out. The representatives on their forums are their only competent employees.
You have the contract that does not mention anywhere a change of tariff. You will probably be asked to scan it in and email it, but you are in the right and it's their fault for not putting it on a contract.

angel01

You can also PM Daryll, here is his profile:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=202303