o2 Ireland scrap most of their upgrade schemes

Reader Rob was not impressed with o2 Ireland recently.

Hey Ewan

A couple weeks ago, I was in a carphonewarehouse where I was told I was eligible for a platinum upgrade on one of my O2 Accounts.. however, the handset which I wanted had not been released, and did not have a release date on it for this country – I wanted a Blackberry Bold.

Today I was told it will be released in the first week of October, which is fine, however, I was told I was no longer eligible for an upgrade. I was told that all of their upgrades had been scrapped except for the “Diamond” upgrade, the criteria to qualify for this is to spend €5,000 in a 12 month contract (roughly €420 a month…).

Previously, they had a system where your upgrades accumulated as you spent, changing from silver, to gold, to platinum, and eventually to diamond if you spend a lot of money with them, now, it’s all gone.

Worse still, their Sim-Free price of a Blackberry Bold is about €600, if you use a “Diamond” upgrade, it will only cost you €199 …

That is hugely, hugely annoying Rob! They just ‘stopped’ it? What are you thinking of doing now?