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Accidently topped up the wrong Phone number!

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  • I do have sympathy for OP, it's an easy mistake to make.

    However, I've heard of this woman who deposited something like £2500 into the wrong account and the bank could not claw back the money (they could only ask for it to be paid back; there is no legal requirement to be paid back).

    I believe from a legal point of view O2 is in the same position if the number belongs to another customer.
  • Jon_01
    Jon_01 Posts: 5,915 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    O2 can't access an acc without the owners permission (data protection act).

    If the op paid by cc they could try to get the card company to claw back the payment. The only problem there (if O2 work the same way as the network I work for) if a card payment is resined the card is blacklisted on the network so it doesn't happen again...
  • jamiex
    jamiex Posts: 207 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Jon_01 wrote: »
    O2 can't access an acc without the owners permission (data protection act).

    If the op paid by cc they could try to get the card company to claw back the payment. The only problem there (if O2 work the same way as the network I work for) if a card payment is resined the card is blacklisted on the network so it doesn't happen again...

    I was going to suggest the same thing.
    You've paid £15 to top up your phone. O2 have not topped up your phone and refuse to do anything about it (never mind whose fault it is). Therefore you haven't received the service you've paid for, so maybe the card company could get the money back. I wouldn't mention that it was your fault though!

    If the card is then blacklisted then you can easily top up using other methods: at an ATM, using a top-up card, or with a different card. Or a quick call to customer services and they might be able to un-blacklist your card.
  • Jon_01
    Jon_01 Posts: 5,915 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    jamiex wrote: »

    If the card is then blacklisted then you can easily top up using other methods: at an ATM, using a top-up card, or with a different card. Or a quick call to customer services and they might be able to un-blacklist your card.

    Don't know how O2 do it, but with us a quick call to CS won't do it. Once you claw back a payment it goes it a finance dept which isn't customer services. They need in writing why the claw back happened and a guarantee that it won't happen again, other wise it's a matter of only be able to top up with cash...
  • student_84
    student_84 Posts: 105 Forumite
    I worked for t-mobile for quite some time on customer service and agree with the above posts, firstly it was your mistake not theirs so they are not obliged to help you get the money back you gifted to someone else, secondly it is not an easy mistake to make as the ivr's are set up to block suspicious payments. For o2 to access someone else's account to remove the top up would breach the data protection act and any decent advisor wouldn't. Yes it is a small sum of money to o2, but not compared to the cost of you calling customer service as the average cost of a call to them is approx £6.50, but you wont be able to resolve this over the phone. There are 2 courses of action, 1 you send a polite letter to them explaining the situation and appealing to their good nature, 2 make a charge back via your card issuer, yes the card will no longer be accepted on o2 but you'll have the cash.
  • CG19a
    CG19a Posts: 765 Forumite
    jamiex wrote: »
    I was going to suggest the same thing.
    You've paid £15 to top up your phone. O2 have not topped up your phone and refuse to do anything about it (never mind whose fault it is). Therefore you haven't received the service you've paid for, so maybe the card company could get the money back.

    The card company can only do this for things over £100 in value and under £30000. Its true you only need to pay part of it on your card, ie £10, but the value of the product needs to be at least £100.
  • student_84
    student_84 Posts: 105 Forumite
    CG19a wrote: »
    The card company can only do this for things over £100 in value and under £30000. Its true you only need to pay part of it on your card, ie £10, but the value of the product needs to be at least £100.

    this is a section 75 refund <<<clicky>>> which is not what the op needs to do a charge-back is where you tell the card company you didnt authorise the transcation and that you want the money back.;)
  • CG19a
    CG19a Posts: 765 Forumite
    student_84 wrote: »
    this is a section 75 refund <<<clicky>>> which is not what the op needs to do a charge-back is where you tell the card company you didnt authorise the transcation and that you want the money back.;)

    Technically they did authorise the transaction by typing in the wrong number. The OP is just making an issue about how the mobile company won't help rectify the mistake.
  • student_84
    student_84 Posts: 105 Forumite
    and why should they rectify the op mistake? I have seen card co's accept this as a reason for a charge-back.
  • Old_Gold
    Old_Gold Posts: 908 Forumite
    student_84 wrote: »
    I worked for t-mobile for quite some time on customer service and agree with the above posts, firstly it was your mistake not theirs so they are not obliged to help you get the money back you gifted to someone else, secondly it is not an easy mistake to make as the ivr's are set up to block suspicious payments. For o2 to access someone else's account to remove the top up would breach the data protection act and any decent advisor wouldn't. Yes it is a small sum of money to o2, but not compared to the cost of you calling customer service as the average cost of a call to them is approx £6.50, but you wont be able to resolve this over the phone. There are 2 courses of action, 1 you send a polite letter to them explaining the situation and appealing to their good nature, 2 make a charge back via your card issuer, yes the card will no longer be accepted on o2 but you'll have the cash.
    It is interesting that you talk from the point of view as a CS operative and therefore have the thinking of what causes so many problems with customers. You start and finish with the attitude of being completely in the right and the customer in the wrong.
    Any system should take into account possible mistakes that can happen. One of these can be a customer wrongly pressing a button and therefore depositing their money into someone else's account. The question here would be have the organisation taken enough reasonable care to prevent this? If it was taken to court I am sure a good barrister could art#gue the point for the op. However what a waste of money and resources this would be.
    I do agree about your point of a polite letter but this would in most cases have to be directed at the CEO as in most cases the Customer Services dept. will cause more rift with the customer than resolving anything. Of course you being CS I dont expect you to agree with this otherwise you would not be CS.
    My advice to anyone is to ignore CS if it is not working and go straight to the CEO's dept. If we all did this instead of taking the BS handed down to us Companies would soon have to change their mode of working. Bring back Complaint Depts instead of CS.
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