Where do I stand with reclaiming 02 charges

sjb123

Hi all,

I would just like some advice as to where I stand with possibly reclaiming 02 bank charges.

I took out a contract with them in September last year, knowing that it could be cancelled within 28 days. I did this because I am an English teacher for foreigners and so I knew there was a possibility of going to work abroad. Sure enough, in October I found a job in Italy and off I went. I promptly cancelled my contract and waited out the 28 days and the charges were as I expected.

However, before taking out this contract I had had an 02 pay-as-you go number and so I converted it to the contract so as not to have to give out my number again to all my friends etc. Now, shortly after cancelling the contract I realised that I would lose my number completely and so I promptly called 02 from Italy asking to be reconnected to my PAY-AS-YOU Go number and NOT MY CONTRACT! The person dealing with my query told me that there would be a £20 reconnection fee to get back my pay-as-you go number, to which I agreed in order to avoid the hassle of getting another number (in hindsight, it wouldn't have been hassle at all changing compared to what happened next!!). At the end of the month (late November), the £20 charge came through as expected on my bank statement and I turned the phone on and it seemed to work fine (I did not try it out as I was abroad all the while).

In December, I returned to the UK and tried to use the phone and it worked fine. I continued to use it thinking that I had my free text allowance as per usual. However, at the end of December, a direct debit came out of my account from 02 - they had reconnected me to my contract. Being unexpected, this also took me over my overdraft limit, which incurred a £30 fine!! I called them as soon as I could and, of course, this meant I would have to pay another month of the contract before disconnecting. This came out of my bank 4 days before my wages and so I incurred yet another £30 fine and was paying for a phone contract I had asked to opt out of!!

As I made the call from Italy, to save money, I had been using a voip online phone client which allowed me to see exactly when the call was made and to what number, the duration, etc. Is there any way they could not have a record of the call? I remember clearly stating that I did not want to reconnect but rollback to my pay-as-you-go account and number.

I would just like to know where I stand legally as I specifically did not ask for the reconnection to the contract yet I ended up paying £60 to 02 and £60 to my bank as a result!!!! I would very much like to hear your opinions and thank you for your time in advance.

Kind regards,

Steve

sayedrahul

hey, a quick call to the company using your phone would do the trick they will have record of your call and log and who answered etc which is what you should have done from the start

every time i had a problem with t mobile or my insurance company they always refute it and then i speak to them in a no-nonsense manner they always end up refunding me the money

legally you may not have any grounds because it falls into hear say if you noted what team and name of the person you called then maybe there is a possibility, big companies like o2 either give you back your money for fear of bad publicity or they will take you to the courts and will always win more or less and you end up with all the legal fee's

the best thing to do is to speak to them and hold your ground do not back down and always ask to speak to someone above the person you are on the phone to. 9 times out of10 it works it's the odd 1 that will require further legal action against.