Blocked by O2!

deepakgeorge

I wanted to share with you my bizarre experience with O2 which happened yesterday.

I have an O2 Pay monthly connection and it showed “Sim Card Registration Failed” from Yesterday evening. I was not able to call anyone, not even O2 Customer Services from the phone.

I pay the bills using Direct Debit and I have been using the phone for 4 months. Each month the bills were just £20 ~ 22 which is the line rental.
I called O2 Customer services to find out what was the issue. They asked me to fax two forms of my identification to them. (Passport & Driving License) They were averse to talk anything further about the lockout until these documents go across to them. I faxed the documents, the first time they said both are not clear. I requested them for an email id for me to send the scanned copy, they were not willing to. I faxed them again ...

After long wait on their number, I Finally got through and a new person asked me to send another two forms of proof of address (Utility, Bank Statement / Credit Card Statement). Which they didn't ask in the first place..I faxed all three of these..

I called them up yet again and they said that now the blocking is taken off. The sim will connect to network in some time. I wanted to know why they blocked my phone. They were not willing to discuss the matter . They said there was a discrepancy on my account. I insisted , I wanted to know the discrepancy on my account , they did not reveal anything. They said, according to the company policy they cannot reveal. I asked why have they blocked the phone without any notice..? They said it is mentioned in the terms and conditions that they can stop the connection without any notice!
.

Has anyone faced this type of issue with O2 before? I am exceptionally frustrated with this incident. I wanted to know what can be done to avoid this happening to me or to anyone else in future

mm66

You should write to them under the Freedom of Information Act as well as the data protection act and ask them to provide you all details they hold about you and about this particular incidence.

gizmoleeds

mm66 wrote:

You should write to them under the Freedom of Information Act as well as the data protection act and ask them to provide you all details they hold about you and about this particular incidence.

FOIA is only related to the government/public bodies.

You can read the Data Protection Act here: http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=34

Write them a letter with references to the Act, eg. "you are to provide me with details persuant to section x.y.1 of the Data Protection Act. Failure to do so constitutes a violation of the said Act." etc...

pin

Remember they may charge a small admin fee for the privledge of seeing what information they hold on you.

I would also write to them (in the same letter) complaining about your situation.

deepakgeorge

Thanks a lot for the suggestions ..I was away on a trip... I will write a letter to O2 to provide the information .I am willing to pay the admin fees.Will post the result of the same in the forum..

Haushinka

I had a problem with Orange a while back, i paid with my card monthly but i wasn't having automatic payments coming out, i payed on my own accord...that might be why? But i doubt it a lot. Its probably a problem on there end, they block a lot of sim cards every day, this is mainly because of the use of smsc numbers which enable pay and go users get free unlimited text messages, it probably is a mistake at there end, if it wasn't then im sure they would of told you.

2ax

It looks like some administrative problem, maybe confusion with another account. When I first registered with O2, it took them three attempts to give me a valid phone number, and I then got 3 different letters reminding me to send the form in, when I had already done so. Perhaps a late review showed they didn't have yours.

If they have confused it with another account, then the other details will be protected (like when some debt collectors rang me up about someone else, by looking in the phone book!) and this may be the reason for the policy. Unless you have further problems, I'd leave it there.

GeoThermal

Did they think the phone had been stolen? The phone is yours, you could have sold it so I don't know if they are allowed to block it unless they were informed it was stolen.