Incorrect bill of £99.85, normally £30ish!!! what do i do?

jaxxy00

:mad: After phoning o2 the other day to get the other 50 texts put onto my o2 200 tariff (instead of the current 50 due to advice given on this board, thanks), i was told they would take effect from 28th Feb which is my billing cycle.

I logged onto o2 last night just to see if they had been put on and was absolutely horrified to find my monthly bill was £99.85. Its normally £30ish as i sometimes go a couple of texts over my current 50. I had no idea at all why that was so and checked through and found 2 phone calls which were just over an hour long each to another mobile. I was not suprised by this as i had purposely been giving my daughter my mobile to ring her boyfriend to use up some of my minutes. Me and my bf have the o2 contracts and our minutes mount up and get carried over so we have many hours free.

When i checked online last month i saw that i had over 900 minutes to use for the following month which i knew was over 15 hours. So how can they charge me for minutes i should get free!!! Im so mad. This is month 7 of the contract and if htey dont sort it out i would so much like to tell them where to go but would not do that due to the messing involved with the payments coming out the bank and any bad references i may get.

I emailed them to say about having been charged that amount and could they check it as i dont agree etc. I got a reply to say that the charges were correct and they hoped it answered my queries but if not reply with 'Get it Right' in the subject line and they will get back to me. I have done that this afternoon and have given more indepth details about the previous months minutes and how many i had to carry over etc... I also stated that for the past 6-7 years of having a mobile be it contract or payg, i have always used o2 but if they didnt put this right i would seriously consider changing (thinking about it though they know i cant as im tied to the contract).

Sorry to ramble on but i would like to know if anyone else has had this happen and what the outcome was?

Also if they admit to overcharging will they still go ahead and take the £99.85 but then correct it the following month or how does it work?

I have this one, my bf and my 2 daughters 7600 contracts (full cashback) to pay which will be a few pence short of £200 this month and i just cant do it. So im hoping to get it corrected before they take it from the bank.

jumper_2

This "mistaken error" in O2 online minutes came up the other day in a thread. O2 settled for an amount half way in between with that customer. Anyone post a link to the thread?

jaxxy00

Well ive got a reply just now and this is the email they have sent:-



Thank you for contacting O2 Customer Service.

Please do not refer to the "Inclusive Allowance Details" section of our website
as it is presenting incorrect information about the minutes and text messages
that are available.

We are at present working to rectify this fault and advising our customers, not
to use the information contained in this section as a means of checking the
minutes and text messages that are remaining.

You can contact our Customer Service team on 08702 410 202. The lines are open
Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday from 9:00am to
6:00pm. Calls are charged at national rate.

I am sorry for any inconvenience that may have been caused.

If you need further information about this matter, please reply to this email.




So they are admitting its their mistake but just say sorry for the inconvenience. They are not the ones out of pocket. They say they are advising customers not to take notice of the 'inclusive calls allownce', well i havent had any notification, either by email, text, phone call or letter, so how am i supposed to know that. I certainly didnt see anything online warning me of this either. Im certainly not going to be contacting them via phone as i like to email them so you then have it in black and white as to what has been said, when said and by whom.

I have posted this on here before emailing them back as i was hoping for some suggestions as to how to reply. Should i just put that i havent had any notification about incorrect minutes showing online and that its their mistake and they should pay for it? I do have legal cover with my house insurance that i pay extra for and they will help in any disputes and pay legal costs etc if required. Do you think this is a route im going to need to take?

ka7e

I got the same email, but only after I'd queried the discrepancy in my "available minutes". I'd just renewed my contract and thought they might have given me double mins/texts for the first month. Like jaxxy, I was then told to ignore the online info.
Unfortunately they also messed up my first bill, overcharging me by £20. I was told there was no way they could alter the amount of my dd and the correction would be made on my next bill!
O2 definately need to be accountable for this overcharge if they haven't informed customers of the system being incorrect.

digp

It is nothing short of scandalous.

jaxxy00

digp wrote:

It is nothing short of scandalous.

Yes definately so. It makes me wonder how many more poor people there are out there that are unaware of the situation and could be running up bills they have no idea about. The first time i checked for these minutes was 17th Feb so you would have thought a large company like o2 would have it sorted by now but no they havent. I find it irresponsible that they cant even send a text (i would say thats probably the easiest) to warn people to ignore the online system as its incorrect. Will update when i receive a reply to my last email i sent.

belfastgal

o2 are renown for this it happens me every month but they still charge you and refund your account a little bit the next month. never the full amount.they always charge you for texts and phone calls - say your bill is 27th of each month the next month i seem to have texts and calls for the 24 th 25th 26th on the next months bills - reducing the allowance for that month.they need to get their act together

redux

belfastgal wrote:

- say your bill is 27th of each month the next month i seem to have texts and calls for the 24 th 25th 26th on the next months bills - reducing the allowance for that month.they need to get their act together

The calls in the last 2 or 3 days of the billing period come from the correct period's allowance, but are listed on the next month's bills - so it doesn't reduce that next month allowance.

belfastgal

redux wrote:

The calls in the last 2 or 3 days of the billing period come from the correct period's allowance, but are listed on the next month's bills - so it doesn't reduce that next month allowance.

sorry what i meant was i have them on the next months bill as well as the previous months so i pay for them twice. i eventually get credited for them but its a nuisance having to check every month as i am on a "online tarriff"

redux

You don't pay for them twice - they are in the previous allowance only, but listed later. Sometimes you see the first calls are charged (because the previous month's inclusive minutes were exceeded), then the next ones are free.

I don't know why they haven't moved on from this confusing system, which makes people worried about overcharging.

RightRevBod

ka7e wrote:

I got the same email, but only after I'd queried the discrepancy in my "available minutes". I'd just renewed my contract and thought they might have given me double mins/texts for the first month. Like jaxxy, I was then told to ignore the online info.
Unfortunately they also messed up my first bill, overcharging me by £20. I was told there was no way they could alter the amount of my dd and the correction would be made on my next bill!
O2 definately need to be accountable for this overcharge if they haven't informed customers of the system being incorrect.

If they are trying to take more than they should by direct debit, then make use of the direct debit guarantee. You tell your bank that the amount is wrong, then they get the money back from O2. Is is then up to O2 to either re-issue the invoice for the correct amount and claim the correct amount on the DD, or to roll the amount over to next month.