[WelshBluebird]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daleski75

At the end of the day fixed should mean fixed not fixed until March before we put it up by x.y%

You certainly would never get a decrease in your tariff if the costs go down for a network whilst you are in contract and it's the same for all utility companies but the second their costs go up we get hit by it.

If you are signing a variable price contract on O2 or EE then any cost savings should definitely be passed onto the consumer be it cash back or a monthly discount (not including loyalty bonuses etc)

Indeed. I bet if the economy did start to go into deflation, I bet the prices wouldn't reduce. So why should they increase with inflation? Its a joke.

[flagpole]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebennyboy

It shows which companies are more interested in their profits than their customers. I will be voting with my wallet and staying with Three. No mid-contract price rises and far superior 3G and 4G.

No shit.

[ShaunIOW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WelshBluebird

Indeed. I bet if the economy did start to go into deflation, I bet the prices wouldn't reduce. So why should they increase with inflation? Its a joke.

We see that with the Credit Card industry - when the base rate went down to near 0% they never dropped their APR, but I bet they'll increase it when the base rate rises.

As for the networks I had my RPI increase letter from Orange this week, but as i can give my 31 days notice in 2 weeks it's bye bye Orange and I'm going for 30 day SIM only deals in future so I have freedom to change.

[Lyceum]

And the payg prices don't go up. A £10 top up doesn't now cost 10.27 does it. And you couldn't call up and say 'from march I'll be paying 2.7% less than I agree'd to when I signed up. It was in the t&c I sent you when I took out the contract' can you. It's hardly fair to those in contract.

Once you're in contract though they don't care. They can do as they like.

I've gone with a tesco sim only. 1000mins. 5000txt and 1gig of data for £10. Was previously paying O2 £22 for half that.

[lamby]

The more I think and read about what EE have done makes me want to leave NOW.

I think PAYG with add ons is best. Not tied into a contract and can move around if needed. The unit problem is if you can't afford a £400 out right.

[roadshow2006]

SkyPlatinum is quiet

[daleski75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadshow2006

SkyPlatinum is quiet

Is he still banned or is he back now?

[daleski75]

If you can afford to go the SIM only route for phones then PAYG makes a lot of sense and/or a 3 contract on 30 days.

[daleski75]

Tweeted from coolsmartphone.com

https://twitter.com/coolsmartphone/s...265792/photo/1

[Silent No More]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daleski75

Is he still banned or is he back now?

Banned.

[jonmorris]

I guess given how many subscribers EE has, a 2.7% increase is worth quite a lot - but what about the negative publicity and bad feeling, which will see many people leave (certainly they should have done when they were first told of the contract change).

Where has that thing called loyalty gone? It cuts both ways. You sign up for 24 months, but get stitched up with a price increase? Way to go. Then when your contract is up, you'll get the calls begging you to upgrade and sign up for another two years!

It just doesn't seem worth the effort to me. Or else EE and O2 are so arrogant that they think nobody will care. Ironically, I think people will care quite a bit, even if the actual increases are pretty low and insignificant for a lot of people.

[daleski75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

I guess given how many subscribers EE has, a 2.7% increase is worth quite a lot - but what about the negative publicity and bad feeling, which will see many people leave (certainly they should have done when they were first told of the contract change).

Where has that thing called loyalty gone? It cuts both ways. You sign up for 24 months, but get stitched up with a price increase? Way to go. Then when your contract is up, you'll get the calls begging you to upgrade and sign up for another two years!

It just doesn't seem worth the effort to me. Or else EE and O2 are so arrogant that they think nobody will care. Ironically, I think people will care quite a bit, even if the actual increases are pretty low and insignificant for a lot of people.

It's also the frequency at which these price increases happen which is crux of the problem I believe, customers would be a lot more forgiving if it's a price increase every 4 years but every year is taking the you know what.

And at the current rate a customer on a £42 contract over 2 years would steadily increase (assuming a 2.5% increase every 12 months) to £43.05 and then to £44.08 for the final year.

And if we take that further to 4 years assuming they renew with the same provider that would then become £45.18 and the final 4th year £46.30

So in 4 years the cost could go up by £4.30 a month which is quite a significant increase when factoring in the total extra paid over the original price of the contracts.

[qasdfdsaq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daleski75

At the end of the day fixed should mean fixed not fixed until March before we put it up by x.y%

You certainly would never get a decrease in your tariff if the costs go down for a network whilst you are in contract and it's the same for all utility companies but the second their costs go up we get hit by it.

If you are signing a variable price contract on O2 or EE then any cost savings should definitely be passed onto the consumer be it cash back or a monthly discount (not including loyalty bonuses etc)

Here's the thing - nobody ever promised it would be fixed to begin with.

They've never said it's like a fixed-rate mortgate or energy supply, nobody's ever marketed mobile contracts as fixed price.

Nonetheless I only sorta understand why they did it this way. They could have just increased the base price by the averaged rate an annual increase would provide over the 2 years (e.g. charge £38 a month for a £36 a month contract to begin with over 24 months) - then you'd get your fixed rate but that makes it less clear what'd happen after the end of your minimum term.

[qasdfdsaq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

I guess given how many subscribers EE has, a 2.7% increase is worth quite a lot - but what about the negative publicity and bad feeling, which will see many people leave (certainly they should have done when they were first told of the contract change).

Judging by their responses to the negative publicity and bad feeling and customers leaving as a result of mast decomissioning, they don't really seem to care...

[daleski75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Judging by their responses to the negative publicity and bad feeling and customers leaving as a result of mast decomissioning, they don't really seem to care...

The vast majority of their customers wont even try and fight it so even if they lose 1% of their user base they still have 99% paying the increase in line rental.

[daleski75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Here's the thing - nobody ever promised it would be fixed to begin with.

They've never said it's like a fixed-rate mortgate or energy supply, nobody's ever marketed mobile contracts as fixed price.

Nonetheless I only sorta understand why they did it this way. They could have just increased the base price by the averaged rate an annual increase would provide over the 2 years (e.g. charge £38 a month for a £36 a month contract to begin with over 24 months) - then you'd get your fixed rate but that makes it less clear what'd happen after the end of your minimum term.

If the costs decreased do you think O2 and EE would drop everyone's bill? I think not!!

[qasdfdsaq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daleski75

If the costs decreased do you think O2 and EE would drop everyone's bill? I think not!!

Given that mobile bills (giving comparable minutes/texts/etc.) have been dropping year on year for the last decade, the strategy seems to be to push people onto newer better value tariffs than dropping the existing ones. Then again pretty much all subscription services work like this.

Ten years ago I got a lousy 30 minutes a month with no SMS for £15 on Orange.. Even on 3 I was paying a good £27 for just 300 mins.

[lamby]

When i called EE to ask to leave (due to this change of T&C's) they offered me a £37.99 contract, i currently pay £36 and dont want to pay the 97p extra per month!

Unlimited calls and texts
10gb data
roaming
£37.99

[flagpole]

the problem with using inflation is that mobile phones are in the tech industry.

and the cost of tech rarely goes up.

[daleski75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Given that mobile bills (giving comparable minutes/texts/etc.) have been dropping year on year for the last decade, the strategy seems to be to push people onto newer better value tariffs than dropping the existing ones. Then again pretty much all subscription services work like this.

Ten years ago I got a lousy 30 minutes a month with no SMS for £15 on Orange.. Even on 3 I was paying a good £27 for just 300 mins.

Granted the costs to the networks has been dropping all the time as equipment gets cheaper, more efficient etc so we get more minutes, data etc but the issue is for me is that it never used to be this way and is it purely down to us consumers demanding more and 4G which is driving costs up or just greed/easy money from the network(s)?

I accept change happens and that costs can and do increase but to hit consumers with an increase every single year with no little to no recourse is not doing these networks image any good and specially because this will now be standard practice for years to come unless OFCOM put a total ban on it.

[davethorp]

The thing I really want to know is why hasn't the cost of providing a PAYG service also risen in line with RPI? The answer is obvious: PAYG customers are free to tell them where to shove it! Although I'd still love a network to admit that

I've voted with my feet anyway. In January 2014 I had 3 lines with O2 and was spending £90 a month with them. As of tomorrow I will have zero lines with them as my last one ports away to 3

[jabbamk1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davethorp

The thing I really want to know is why hasn't the cost of providing a PAYG service also risen in line with RPI? The answer is obvious: PAYG customers are free to tell them where to shove it! Although I'd still love a network to admit that

Same reason that 30 day SIM only customers aren't affected by any of the price increases.

[lost boy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Judging by their responses to the negative publicity and bad feeling and customers leaving as a result of mast decommissioning, they don't really seem to care...

Couldn't agree more.

[qasdfdsaq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daleski75

I accept change happens and that costs can and do increase but to hit consumers with an increase every single year with no little to no recourse is not doing these networks image any good and specially because this will now be standard practice for years to come unless OFCOM put a total ban on it.

You do have recourse though, you've got several other networks to switch to if you disagree with O2 and EE's practices.

Like I said, in some ways it makes sense and in some ways it doesn't. If they have to maintain the same income, they could sign someone up on a £36 a month tariff with an RPI increase every year, or just make everyone pay £40 a month to begin with.

O2 have had annual price rises for several years now and are still at or near the top of the table for customer growth and customer satisfaction, so most people don't seem to care.

If you don't like it, vote with your wallet and leave like davethorp has done... Ofcom makes sure there are multiple competing networks for a reason...

[EEGOLD]

Everything else goes up in life, interest rates, petrol, gas, food, electric. Mobile phone bills are no different.
If you don't like the increase vote with your feet and leave EE at the end of your contract.