I was reading the register recently, it had said that under new EU law roaming now had capped prices. I may have misread it, I can’t find the article, but I believed it said that data roaming charges within the EU are also capped at 1 euro per MB. As someone who has been bitten in a small way by that before I rejoiced and when I went to france I downloaded a whole 25 MBs (using google maps, downloading email). For this I was charged 120 euro (ex vat). I called up o2 and they told me that the cap was limited to calls and texts. I’m on a bit of a tight budget at the moment due to having to pay off a loan from college and I don’t know about you but 120 euro, certainly completely unplanned is a lot of money. Especially when added on to the fact that I had just had a 5 day holiday that I’m still paying for.
This is designed to make you spend more money than you intended.
This made me think of the principal that more important than the prices you are given is the attitude of the company you do business with. If they show attitude that they intend to make you very satisfied with their product then take that into account as well as the cost of the service, it matters. I believe that O2 do not aim to make you satisfied, they aim to make you slightly less dissatisfied than you would be with another provider. The example above is limited to people who use smart phones and use that smart phone in foreign countries. Here are two others.
O2 used to be the underdog, then meteor, now 3. O2 hit the point where it had the same coverage as vodafone and those who didn’t make a habbit out of throwing money away when it got dirty switched to the cheaper provider. Another reason you would switch is that texts were not included in the vodafone monthly contract, you would pay x amount a month and get y minutes and even if you didn’t use any of your minutes they would still charge you for them and every text. Where as with O2 you would pay a certain amount per month, some would go towards rental and the rest would be credit for calls and texts. This meant you could make calls and texts to whatever number assured in the fact that it wasn’t charging you unless you went over the credit.
Then they changed to the vodafone model only it’s calls/texts rather than just calls, now whenever I ring a 1890 (low cost) number I see the charge on my bill. I could have 169 or my 170 minutes still left on account and yet that 1890 number would still be charged. This is designed to make you spend more money than you intended.
I moved out of home a good while ago but never bothered to move my mobile from out my dad’s account. Recently I decided it was time to do so and was told that I’d have to restart the contract in order to do so. So I’m 8 months through my contract with o2 and in order to transfer it over to my name I have to start the whole contract again. I told them forget it and instead I pay my dad who pays for the bill. Not ideal, but better than an extra 8 months of lock in.
As a sub point, o2 are in Britain and in Germany, if you decide you want to move to either of those countries, ignore the fact that the networks are owned by the same company, they will not allow you to switch over while on contract.
After this experience I would be very tempted to buy a pay as you go phone. It may be dearer on a per call basis and the phone itself may be more expensive but you don’t spend 120 euro on a pay as you go phone without noticing and while your phone is locked into the network, you aren’t locked into a contract.
Finally, right now, every phone provider in Ireland attempts lock you in to their service, it won’t last forever, people crave convenience and within a few years someone will provide them that. While it does it will continue to be a very expensive essential service and we can only rely on the EU to step in on our behalf, because the Irish people aren’t prepared to make a stand on this issue and I don’t think anyone knows how to make them. It just seems too small but it’s something everyone has to deal with it.
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