Did you receive an email from your mobile operator? Read it carefully: it may inform you of a price increase that you cannot refuse, except by terminating your package… A deplorable practice, but common at SFR and Bouygues.
Like almost everyone, you probably regularly receive emails from your Internet or mobile operator. Most of the time, these are simply messages related to your monthly plan, with the associated invoice. Classic and usual mails that you can archive after having read them quickly. But this is not always the case, and some seemingly innocuous emails can contain much more important information with very direct consequences on your finances. This is particularly the case of messages announcing an “improvement” of the offer with a “slight” price increase. Because if you are not careful, the increase will be automatically applied, even if you are not interested in the additional service offered!
Telephone plan: imposed price increases
It has become a very bad habit. For several years, some telephone operators have surreptitiously increased the prices of their packages after a few months of subscription. Regularly denounced by 60 Million consumers, SFR and Bouygues are the two great specialists in this questionable practice which makes their subscribers cringe, even if Orange and Free have also indulged in it. And the scenario is always the same: we attract the customer with a really advantageous offer – for example, a B&YOU mobile plan with unlimited calls and 20 GB of data at 5 euros per month –, then, after a year or two , he is informed that his plan will be enriched with several gigabytes of additional data or an improvement in service for a few euros more – generally, 2 or 3 euros per month. The whole being presented insidiously as a bargain, even as a gift.
However. On the one hand, not everyone needs a high volume of mobile data – 20 or 40 GB per month is more than enough for the majority of uses, only heavy video consumers who may need more than 50 GB. the other, and above all, the increase is imposed. In some cases, we can decline the change of formula, and return to the initial offer without changing the price. But this is the rarest case, because now the increase is applied automatically, as long as there is no explicit refusal! And the only way out is to cancel the subscription by going elsewhere. Lamentable, especially since it is up to the “trapped” subscriber to find out and react…
SFR and Bouygues champions of regular increases
If this highly questionable practice is not new (see below), it is perpetuated with great regularity. Witness the recent price changes applied in recent weeks by SFR and Bouygues Telecom. For the first, it is a RED offer which increases by 3 euros per month on the grounds of 5G support and an optimized network. “Your new offer will be effective automatically and without obligation in one month, on the date of your next invoice, without action on your part. Once the entry into force of the modification, you will have four months to refuse this offer”, indicates the operator in its email informing subscribers of a 10 euro package including 60 GB of data in 4G/4G+ that they will upgrade to 80 GB in 5G for 3 euros more.
As indicated in the email you received, your plan is changing and offers you more GB. And in addition, your new offer is compatible with 5G. If you do not wish to benefit from it, click on the link received in your e-mail. https://t.co/XMldPUu0BL
— RED by SFR (@REDbySFR) April 11, 2022
Same technique at Bouygues, which does not hesitate to offer 80 GB of additional data for a total of 110 GB in a B&YOU package, including people who use mobile Internet.
And we could multiply this kind of example over and over again, as the practice has been regular for a few years, especially since SFR and Bouygues are not the only operators to play with the increase “silently”. Thus, for the second time this year, Orange will also raise the prices of its Go formulas: on June 1, 2022, it will be necessary to add 1 to 3 euros per month for a few additional gigas. The Go Light package will thus increase from 10 to 11 euros for 2 GB (in total!), the Go Intense from 20 to 23 euros per month for 17 GB, etc. Even the Go Extreme Special Edition, supposed to remain “for life” at 30 euros, will drop to 33 euros with 70 GB instead of 60. Magic! The most “funny” remains the reason invoked: Orange justifies its increase for reasons of inflation. In other words, prices are increased because prices are increasing, like at La Poste, SNCF or RATP…
Curiously, only Free and the MVNOs – the “virtual” operators who use the physical networks of the “big” operators – do not indulge too much in this detestable practice. In 2020, Free had attempted a “forced” increase on its various offers – fixed and mobile – by slipping the option at the Youboox digital kiosk for an additional 0.99 euros per month. Again, subscribers were duly notified by email.
You will soon enjoy additional content on Youboox One!
Dear subscriber,
Since January 31, 2019, you have had access to Youboox One at no extra cost, on your line “0123456789”. This service allows you to enjoy unlimited access to tens of thousands of books (comics, manga, detective stories, politics, art, culture, cooking, youth, travel guides, etc.) on your smartphone, tablet or PC, up to three simultaneous screens. We inform you that the Youboox One service will integrate new content from 1er February 2020. In addition to 50,000 books already available and preview books reserved for you as a Free subscriber, you will also be able to enjoy audio books, including one bestseller per month. Given the success of the Youboox One offer, we have decided to make you automatically benefit from this service integrating audio books, from 1er February 2020, for only €0.99 per month, thanks to a coupling discount. […] We would like to remind you that this offer is non-binding. You can, if you wish, opt out with a simple click, at any time and free of charge, from your Subscriber Area. To not take advantage of this offer, click here. We wish you pleasant moments with Youboox One.
The message reminded us well: the option remained optional. But it was necessary to carry out an explicit and voluntary action to decline it. Since then, Free has no longer enjoyed this dangerous game and it must be recognized that the operator remains the only one to maintain its prices as fixed at the time of subscription. Better still, as it very rightly recalls in a press release dated April 26, 2022, the prices of its mobile plans have not increased for ten years And the operator undertakes not to do so in the next five years. Let’s face it, Free is the only operator to keep this kind of promise. An attitude from which SFR and Bouygues should draw inspiration… Free is also the simplest in its offer: we still only find the two classic packages, the “small” one at 2 euros and the unlimited in 4G/5G at 19.99 euros per less, with discounts for Freebox subscribers. Only the Special Series Free formula, offered regularly for promotions, displays at a variable price after one year to match the unlimited plan. But it is announced very clearly from the start.
A hateful, but legal method
However cavalier she may be, this method, which looks like forced selling, is perfectly legal. The operator just needs to inform its customers concerned at least one month before the entry into force of the new tariff – which is always the case – by post or email, giving them the possibility of refusing the new offer. And the increase must be justified by an enrichment of a service relating to telecommunications (calls, SMS/MMS, mobile data, etc.) and not by the addition of an ancillary service (audio streaming, TV channels, game or other) .
The trouble is that there is often no way to maintain the initial rate, as the contract can be changed at any time. The only solution then remains termination, within four months after the increase in general. As we can read in this example from a message sent by Bouygues several months ago, the operator offers only two options: accept the increase or simply terminate the subscription! “In accordance with Article L 224-33 of the Consumer Code, we remind you that you have the option of terminating your contract, without penalty, up to a period of four months after the entry into force of the modification of your offer. This modification will be effective on the date of your next invoice of DD MM YYYY. If you are not committed, you can cancel at any time”can we read in the message sent to the customers concerned.
It is therefore advisable to remain very attentive – not to say suspicious – when you receive an unusual message from your operator in order to react in time and decline an offer that you have not requested and that you do not need. And don’t hesitate to change operator if you don’t like the method: the operation is very simple today – you keep your phone number thanks to portability, the new operator takes care of the procedures and the termination with the old one and the changeover takes place without interruption of service – all you have to do is pay for a new SIM card – generally billed at 10 euros, which is quickly amortized – and there are packages on sale all year round . To find out all about the subject (up-to-date prices, practical questions, etc.), consult our large permanent guide. This is still the best way to resist and denounce this lamentable practice in the hope that it will be abandoned one day.