Trapped in O2 Calamity - 'Secret' Insurance plan

Zappanatic

Hi guys, I want to know if this is my fault or not. And what my options are.
Here goes:

Prior to last December I had been on a £35 per month contract on O2, it was for 18 months, but I stayed on for another 4 or 5 until Christmas. This included the cost of a £5 insurance plan against accidental breakage/theft etc.
I got a £25 p/m 18-month contract,. I didn't discuss anything about an insurance plan as I never actually used it over the 22 or so months I had it.

Sods law, I damaged my phone in water (washing machine, oops!) and since I didn't think I could do anything (I never agreed on the insurance) I got told I had to buy a new handset in the retail stores.
Now I don't actually see my paper bills, since they get sent to my home address in Derbyshire, as this is where my bank accounts were billed. I live in Surrey as it is where I've been studying. The other day, I logged onto the O2 site to view my account. Now they have had an upgrade to the site, and you can see pretty much every detail about your tariff. I noticed that all along I have been paying for the insurance plan since my new tariff came into effect.

Since it's WAY after the 14 days to make a claim, I can't get my handset replaced, and now have some cheap nokia thingy which cost a tenner.

After talking to O2 for 40 minutes, the best they could offer me would be to refund the money I've been paying for the insurance, and give me another tenner for my replacement handset. I didn't think this was entirely fair since I was never informed about the cover, so I asked to speak to a supervisor.

We had pretty much the same conversation, about me been a contract customer for 2 and a half years and that I never agreed to the insurance.

His argument was that when you go onto a new tariff, the insurance gets carried over automatically, and is never discussed. He also said that everything is noted on my paper bill, which to be fair I never see except when I visit home. I haven't been at home at all this year, so thats the 7 months of this new contract.

This felt like a bit of a 'checkmate' on his part, since as a customer I should be reading my bills, but my ma never sends them, and I can see my bill on the internet (but no specific details) so all I have now is the cost of my replacement handset reimbursed, £10 as well as the £40 or so pounds for the insurance I never got to use.

Am I in the wrong for wanting something more? Or is there something I can do? My contract expires next summer, so buying out will cost me about £275. So I'm stuck with a poo phone on an ok contract.

Cheers for any insight, Daniel

Cavey

I do the same thing (billing details at another address) and don't see my bank statements, so I have to be careful to check my account online every month.

Generally, it sounds like you are a bit screwed. If I were to argue against you I would claim that you should have spotted that your charge was £30 per month not £25 on your bank statement and query that. Or that you should be reading your statement. "If it's an upgrade it is assumed that you want to upgrade, not start again", "It's not O2's fault" etc....

I'm therefore kind of surprised (in a good way) that they offered you anything.

Does your covered phone not work at all? What make/model, what is damaged and can you have it repaired?

Zappanatic

I thought as much, but the contract is £25 a month. Its the online 30 plan, and the guy gave me a £5 discount on it when I signed up.

I dismantled the phone, and popped it in the airing cupboard for about a month, I lost a few of the screws but it powers up. I can't use it because there are a lot of parts missing. I think the best I can do is to buy a faulty one from ebay for spare parts. The memory card is bust, but I work at Maplin, so I can get hold of one for pretty much peanuts.

It is a Sony Ericsson w910i. It's an ok phone, the firmware is buggy in places but its easy enough to use.

I think I'm just !!!!ed off on the whole aura of sods law which surrounds this issue. I was pretty !!!!ed off when the supervisor told me that insurance gets renewed without permission though :-/

Cavey

O2 insurance covers whatever phone is attached to your phone number. So if it can be fixed professionally, that's great, but if it were annoyingly to break again in the future, I would guess that it should be covered by the insurance.

(Although by taking it apart there might be some issue over you wilfully damaging the phone or something, so you might want to avoid doing that again).