O2 - Online Minutes Incorrect

eamonn321

On my last 2 months' bills (these are paper bills, not online) I have actually counted the free texts on the itemised bill and found that they fall short of the 200 free texts allowance. For example on the latest bill the 10p per text charge kicks in after 161 texts and last month it was after 166. O2 were supposed to "looking into it" but they haven't got back to me yet.

grreenfingers

redux, I'll skate closer for you and say that this is in effect malpractice. The logic is as follows:

Are they aware of the problem?
Yep.

Do you think what I and john306 encountered is unique?
Nope.

Have they done ANYTHING to notify customers or remove the service?
Nope.

Are they happy for cutomers to be misled by their own system and be overcharged?
Yep

Do they try to blame their customers such as john306 and I?
YEP!

Absolute guff - dont try to defend their "error"!

mancitychick

I don't think this is just O2. Orange are as bad if not worse with the free minutes data. For example if you ring ornage or log on to your account to check your minutes, it tells me I have 103 minutes left BUT that it was last updated on 30th January and my billing cycle runs 10th of month to 9th of following. In all honesty what good is that to anyone?? Sometimes it is upto date others it isn't. When I raised this with Orange, after it cost me an extra £15 on my phone, they are of the opinion that you should use your call timer on your phone and reset it each month and that the ability to check your remaining minutes is just a service they offer to try and assist you but primarily you should monitor the mins yourself. This is all very well but the call timer logs all calls made not just calls that count towards your inclusive mins.

redux

There appear to be 3 separate complaints here.

1. the unbilled use is not always up-to-date

2. some people have other odd glitches in the billing

3. some people allege this is deliberately fraudulent


In respect of this, there seem to be have been goodwill payments greater then the loss incurred. In effect you have claimed and had more free minutes than entitled. This is not overcharging or malpractice.

In return for this goodwill, this advice

Wasn't trying it on with them but I guess others could.

Tell them you've used the online systems as your guide for the month - I cant see why they wouldnt give you a refund of the charges above your monthly allowance

.

If I look at the unbilled part of the bill, and it only goes up to 5 days ago, I hope I can remember roughly how much I have used the phone since - I recently got this wrong though, by not seeing there was a page 2.

But if there were calls missing earlier in the middle of the billing period, which are then later brought in, then you have a good point, that it led you to over-use. To avoid further misunderstanding, perhaps you could say which.

grreenfingers

Are you reading this Martin?

Sounds like there are plenty of people relying on shonky systems and getting over charged.

Action needed!

(redux, I've already replied and said you're right, on reflection I dont think people should use this as a loophole. I started this thread to warn people, read the three or four repsonses from others who have also been misled and not just from O2. Stop defending these arrogant companies. Their systems dont work properly and they'd happily over-charge YOU if you hadn't "double checked".)

redux

We seem to have some problems in the choice of words.

It isn't an overcharge to bill you for calls you made. It is slightly unfair for you to describe as arrogant the behaviour of a company that goodwill refunded you for your overuse.

Clearly the information systems sometimes have problems. But some of the people complaining say they were aware of that. The info always has a date when it was valid, so it is up to the user to add the recent use.

Unless you allege, which you've just ducked from saying, that calls are added in random order eg retrospectively into a period before the last valid date, then perhaps the suggestion that this is likely to be misleading - or worse, deliberate in order to induce overuse - is not quite warranted. We are all responsible in the end for picking up the phone and using it; this is not an abuse by the provider of the facility.

lanko

02 customers service is scandlous they lie cut you off on purposesend you to differnt depts and make large amounts of money via 0870 numbers from there own mistakes.anyone know what the nearest trading standards are still waiting for an item promised in december after numerous calls.if an ordinary person was doing this they would be done for fraud

john-306

Redux......
You seem to be misunderstanding what the true problem is here, you say "It isn't an overcharge to bill you for calls you made"
So let me put it this way to you.....
I get rollover minutes every month (double rollover the last few months), every month that passed to this month I have not used all my 200 minutes up therefore I can 100% guarantee that I easily had enough to cover my 1 hour excess this month, but due to O2s website error they began charging me after my 200 mins had been used up, so it is an overcharge pure and simple!
They even credited my account with the words "Goodwill Misinformation"

I don't know why you are fighting their corner but thanks for your opinion anyway.

redux

There are different problems here. Some only used the phone more as they thought they had more spare minutes due to the slow update. But yours was an error.

You got a goodwill refund. This is not the action of a would-be fraudulent company that some people are portraying by using the words scam and fraud. In the past they have made refunds not only for a mistake (like starting ITS too late), but for the time spent on the call about it. Now I can call 100 free that cost doesn't occur

I'm not fighting their corner; only asking for more accuracy.

It looks like they've altered the rollover you've mentioned. On my new contract the ordinary allowance rolls over, but the doubled ones say they do not. But I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks.

michaels

redux wrote:

There are different problems here. Some only used the phone more as they thought they had more spare minutes due to the slow update. But yours was an error.

You got a goodwill refund. This is not the action of a would-be fraudulent company that some people are portraying by using the words scam and fraud. In the past they have made refunds not only for a mistake (like starting ITS too late), but for the time spent on the call about it. Now I can call 100 free that cost doesn't occur

I'm not fighting their corner; only asking for more accuracy.

It looks like they've altered the rollover you've mentioned. On my new contract the ordinary allowance rolls over, but the doubled ones say they do not. But I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks.

I had the same after 3 months - the issue isn't whether the extra minutes roll over or not - they fdon't - the question is which minutes are used first.

The online billing shows the extra minutes being used first and any unused ordinary minutes then being rolled over. However after 3 months of connection (even if this is half way through a billing period) the system suddenly adjusts and acts as if the ordinary minutes were used first and that therefore there may not actually have been any minutes rolled over. At this point everyone gets charged for the minutes that they use over that months allowance, even though the last time they looked they had plenty of rollover minutes to use.

The reason this is 'fraudulent', in my opinion, is that it happened to me 4 months ago, O2 were aware of it then, are still aware of it now, will refund payment to those who complain but not to those who don't.

O2 also changed my tariff when I requested it to 1000 mins off peak same net (25 quid a month) but managed to set up my account to be credited with the minutes for the 500 mins xnet offpeak tariff (25 month). They were then unable to comprehend (till I contacted otelo) that they had made this mistake and that therefore I shjould not be charged for minutes used over 500 - I did my complaining by email as this seemed to be cheaper but takes a long time.