Su Toogood

Just had a good call with @LeicesterLiz about O2's price hike on a price hike, that makes a mockery of @Ofcom's rules. Its bad for consumers & now its broken the taboo if others follow suit could increase inflation! My 3 key suggestions were 1. Just scrap current rules and simply ban above inflation mid-contract price hikes. Banning inflation-linked hikes which is what Ofcom's done isn't the same (ie while you can't say we'll increase by inflation + 3%, but you can say we'll double your price!). O2s prices rises are 7% to 30% year on year, far more than they were for many under the old inflation linked hikes system. In the interim while that's looked at... 2. The current rule says if mobile, broadband & pay TV firms hike prices mid-contract by more than they said they would when people signed up, then customers have a right to leave penalty free. There are two problems with this... a. They ?deliberately? don't communicate it well so many miss it. They need to be made to put it in font 50 at the top of all communications. b. You have 30 days after notification to leave penalty free. Yet most people miss the notifications, it feels like junk. They only notice it when the price actually rises. So there should be two 30 days windows you can leave penalty free i) After notification ii) After the hike. 3. Firms should not be able to unilaterally decide to increase prices by more than they said at the start of the contract. If it is going to be allowed it should be only in emergencies (eg huge unexpected rise in underlying costs) and they should have to apply to Ofcom for permission to do it. -------------- I'm thankful to the Secretary of State for listening to me on this, and glad she was already up in arms about it too. She is going to investigate what can be done... PS If you're wondering why I say ban above inflation mid-contract price hikes, rather than ban all price hikes. Partly because I lobbied for changes for years on this, and there was huge reticence so I'm trying to come up with practical solutions that could be implemented. Plus as over two year contract costs can change, so if you ban any rises, then you risk firms over-inflating prices at contracts start as a provisional against possible cost increases over the contract period. So all in all no above inflation rises seems reasonable.