Advice/help Regarding £1200 Dec Bill

Allybwoy

My aunt pays an O2 anytime 200Xnet minute £30 per month
deal, which her 16 year old son uses. She got the tariff in
October and the three previous bills were all around the £35 mark.

Last week her son comes in with a 'mum Ive got something to
tell you look!'. Incredibly O2 allowed him to run up a £1200
bill for the month. I was in disbelief until she showed me the bill.
A lot of 3 hour+ calls to his 'new' girlfriends mobile after his free
minutes had expired.

Surely O2 should not have allowed a £35 a month bill to rocket to
£1200. I was under the impression that even after £100 they would
have stopped calls (due to higher than normal usage) or for going over
a set credit limit that these companies usually have.

Any advice on an how my aunt can challenge O2 for allowing a £30 a
month package to make £1200 of calls in a month will be greatly appreciated.

Obviously her son is in the wrong for abusing his phone use and this has
been addressed! but surely O2 have to take some responsibilit for allowing
this to happen????? Thanks

-1-

There is usually a delay from the network to the customer service department with pending calls, so no call limit is guaranteed to work or stop at the limit.

Contract phones are for people aged 18 or over, not for 16 year olds, so it is your aunt's own fault she gave a limitless contract to a minor .

You could argue with O2 until you are blue in the face but in the end your aunt is liable for the calls, O2 may say "yes it is terrible and we can give a good will gesture of £200 odd" but your aunt is liable so they don't have to offer anything, it's down to their descretion.

Networks would rarther you pay something than ignore the bill and get into debt, so I would suggest coming to an agreement with O2 over the payment, they will ban out-going calls until the full bill is paid, but they will allow a lower rate payment until the balance is cleared.


Moral of the story, contracts are given to over 18's only as they are usually mature enough to use them as they should and not go mad on usage. But then again there are over 18's who give minors phones and basically say "fill your boots,".

Good luck.

Rex_Mundi

I don't know how you can consider O2 to be at fault here. They can't be responsible for how a customer uses their own phone! If the phone was reported stolen and the bill run up to this amount, it may be a different case, but seeing as it wasn't. I can't see how you've got a leg to stand on.

Check the terms to see if there are any clauses in there for a security check after high usage. If there is, and there was no check from O2, you could maybe challenge them through this. If there isn't, I just can't see what you can do.

If your aunt refuses to pay the bill. They will send it on to debt collectors, and/or court. This will affect her credit rating for everything she applies for (not good).

I would say that she will have to pay the bill, and ban her son from the phone. If it was me, I would make him get a job to pay me back! This may teach him a lesson for the future. It sounds like he is not responsible enough to use a contract phone. PAYG would be a better option for him.

I'd be amazed if you could get away with laying the blame at O2s door. I can't see how it's their fault!

michaels

I know the phrase hose, stable door bolted comes to mind but t0mobile do a suitable tariff called ufix where there is a standard monthly allowance but calls over the allowance require the purchase of top-ups.

One thing to look out for with o2 is how they have handled rollover minutes from the first 3 months double minutes offer, some people have found these have disappeared on the 3th bill - obviously won't be 1200 quids worth of minuts but every little helps...