Avoid O2 Mobile contracts at all costs !!!

Today i find myself very angry and upset over a O2 mobile contract, my wife has only been in her O2 contract for a year and we see 2 price hike's in the space of that year this is disgusting to say the least. O2 are putting their prices up in March 2014 by 2.7%. 
We had hoped we could cancel without penalty under the new Ofcom rules, 
Ofcom's new rules mean you can leave mobile, landline or broadband contracts penalty-free if a provider ups prices mid-term if it hadn't warned you about the rise when you bought the contract. But this only affects contracts made from the 23rd January 2014 onwards.

Anyone who signs up to an O2 pay-monthly mobile contract from 23rd January 2014 will also see their costs rise in March.O2 says the price rise means most of its customers will pay up to 60p/month more than at present.From 1 March, 

Ok so lets cut to the chase why am i so Angry and upset? 

Firstly like many thought if you buy a mobile contract for say like in my In wifes case £26 a month that's what you paid for 2 years right? 
No wrong O2 have it written in the contract not surprisingly in very small print that they can increase the price at anytime and like or not you have to pay the price until your contract ends. 
O2 is also upping the cost of certain out-of-bundle texts and calls, as well as international call costs.UK voice calls will increase from 35p a minute to 40p a minute, with texts going up from 12p to 15p 

Your probably one of the Millions in this country that are nervous about the economic situation we find ourselves in, job security etc, you probably have started budgeting your spends for the month. 
So you ring company's you pay money to in our case O2 and say look we cannot afford your price increase we don't want to get into arrears what can you do to help us? 

You know you're doing the right thing and not hiding your been up front surely they will be sympathetic and do the good customer service thing?
In the case of O2 they have found ways round the Ofcom new ruling so you can't terminate the contract, 

So you say look we budget (for in our case £26 per month) but your price increase takes us over budget what can you do to help ? 
This was there  response, Sorry we cannot do anything to help, Infact if you don't keep up payment we will terminate your contract, we will block your phone and also blacklist you with credit checking agency's so you won't be able to get credit in the future, this stays on your credit report for 6 years.

The Problem i have with this is nothing was said at the time of signing up for the contract we thought we had fixed in if you like for 2 years, its not our fault we can't pay the 2 x price hikes, cost of living has gone up but our wages have gone down and O2 are holding us to ransom.
So in conclusion is it really worth taking out a Mobile phone contract? If this is the way they treat there customers i would say stay well clear and save yourself allot of trouble and money. 

In a recent article i did when my O2 contract came to a end i did the Math and found i was paying £800 + over the top for my contract in the space of 2 years, plus i get more minutes and internet for just £10 a month. As its a Monthly rolling contract i can cancel at anytime without been held to randsom as above. 
Check out my story here http://systemreboot2014.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/great-free-sim-deal.html

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