Quite confused by the "unlocking" policy

Anonymous · ‎03-12-2009

I'm quite confused, and honestly disappointed by the policy of O2 on unlocking a Pay&Go phone.

Here is the situation: I'm currently taking my 3rd Master's degree in the UK with about 10 months left on my studies. I'm going on a vacation for 4 weeks abroad (visiting quite a few countries in Europe - the Netherlands, Greece and Bulgaria mainly), and I'd like to use my phone there with a prepaid "local" sim to lower both my and my friends' costs. I'm coming back in the first week of January, and will be in the UK until November-December of 2010. I love my Pay&Go plan (Your Country - free intl. calls when you top-up), and despite the relatively poor 3G coverage in here, I've never thought of swapping to a different provider - because I simply don't think any other provider's plans come close to my personal needs.

I tried unlocking the phone by calling customer service (twice, as the first time they hang up on me right after "Hello" after a 8 minute wait), and I got a rather rude answer that I have to wait 12 months for it.

There is something that I'm missing - isn't the whole point of PayNGo to have no contracts at all? You'd imagine that after paying almost 550 pounds for something (if you haven't guessed already it's the 32GB 3Gs iPhone) it is pretty much yours. Yes, I heard the defense that "they are subsidizing your phone with the free Wi-Fi bolton", however it is still lacking any reasoning behind it - I could just switch off the sim, and not make any more top-ups in the next 10 months, and in the end I can go to them and ask them to unlock it. They will not get any profit in this scenario at all - and no, I wouldn't count "no wifi usage" as a counterargument since with the amount of data they are dealing with from all their users and economies of scale, the small amount of traffic that I'm using will have practically no effect.

So, instead of trying to keep a customer, O2 is effectively trying to push me away and get rid of me. At the same time I'm also literally begging them to take my money (for the paid unlock in the first place, and for the continued top-ups in the next year (a minimum of 10 months as I said, with at least one 10pound top-up a month to keep my tariff benefits)), and I get a "No" answer.

Is it only me that thinks that the above is evidence for little to no business sense?

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2009

Is it only me that thinks that the above is evidence for little to no business sense?

I think it's just you.

Yes, you're now hacked off, but will you change network? No. Because, as you say, you've shelled out for the phone, and if you want to change network, you won't be able to without essentially having to discard the phone that you've shelled out
for. Seems to make a fair bit of business sense to me.

O2 don't exactly hide the fact that the phones are locked. For every person that's brassed off and swears blind that they will never ever use O2 again, there are others who will continue using O2 for many years - it's a caculated risk.

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2009

I thought there were plenty of companies around who would unlock the phone for £10?

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2009

Is it only me that thinks that the above is evidence for little to no business sense?

I agree with previous poster, it's just you

You're confusing the web bolt-on with the actual price subsidy. It's the purchase price which is subsidised on all o2 PAYG phones, which is why they lock you to o2 for a year so you'll use their network.

SIM free your phone (without a subsidy) is £750 at Play.com (was £900 a few months back). So you can see the PAYG version is much cheaper.

SV

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2009

Actually, the reference to the web bolton is because the customer advisor referenced to that when he said they can't unlock it. On numerous occasions they (read o2 employees) give that as an excuse. Had they said that the price is the actual subsidy I'd agree. However the same still applies - if I switch off the phone right away they won't get any profit from me in the next months. Which brings it again to the same lose-lose situation to both me and them.
They are effectively applying double standards for PayNGo customers - from one side they consider the payngo phone under a 12 month contract because of the bolton (which is exactly the reason why customers like me go for PayNGo - to avoid a 18 or 24 months obligation due to their personal needs), and from another side they don't get the same benefits as contract customers, because "it's not a contract"

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2009

I agree with the others, I'm afraid its just you.

(Its also not as if O2 are the only network to only provide an unlock code after 12months)

Anonymous · ‎05-12-2009

I agree, it's just you.

You've bought a subsidised phone to use on the o2 network on a pre pay tariff. There are terms and conditions you have to abide by when buying the phone, the terms and conditions for o2 pre pay handsets state you must have the phone for 12 months before o2 will unlock it for you. Too be honest it makes perfect business sense to me, o2 sell handsets which guarantee them some form of income for the next 12 months - there would be no point at all in them being locked if you could have it removed straight away.

o2 aren't alone in doing this, as far as I'm aware Vodafone operate a very similar policy.