02 and my bank details

HarriettPotter

Hi all

I hope I'm on the right board. I have a contact with 02 and have had for about 2 1/2 years. I pay by direct debit and have done for the whole of this period. This year in October they disconnected me without warning. This actually happened on the day I completed on my house so you can imagine what sort of state I was in. I called them and they told me I hadn't paid my bill. On checking I realised that the direct debit had not been taken. I explained that I had direct debit set up but they took the payment over switch in order to reconnect my service. Anyway - I blasted them and they promised me it wouldnt happen again.

The following month lo and behold no payment left my account. I called 02 and asked why. They couldnt give me an answer. I asked if I could check account details with them and they wouldnt give them over the phone! I read out my account number and they said it wasnt the same one! Eventually I quoted another nomber at them and they said it was that one - the number was my previous current account that I have not had for a year!!

02 refused to accept that they had been taking direct debits from my current account and firmly said that they had been using the previous account numbers. This is simply not possible as the previous account was closed. I had to resort to sending them a letter with copies of my bank statement to prove they had been taking payments from the current account and not the previous one.

They phoned and said that they have no explanation for why this happened and took my current account details to ensure the payment would come out in future and it has done.

HOWEVER! I am just not satisfied with this... I don't feel that 02 have looked after my account details correctly. I am so angry with them as I spent so much time talking to their next to useless helpline (at 50p a minute) and at one point I was phoning between my bank and 02 as each was blaming each other for the problem!

Ultimately I want to cancel my contract but do I have any case to do that? It is something I can speak to Ofcom about or not? My letter of complaint obviously had no impact and I feel that 'sorry, but we cant explain why we did it' isn't good enough. Is there any advice out there about how I can take it further?

matrix999

Sorry to hear about your problems but just to let you know that there is a cheaper option when calling O2 Online.

Visit http://www.saynoto0870.com for alternative numbers

carly

I had a very similar problem with O2, in September. I noticed by chance that my account was in arrears when checking their website. I do not get a paper bill. When I telephoned them to find out why i was told that my DD had failed ( this had been running smoothly for 2 1/2 years so I was a bit surprised ) I rang the bank only to be told that 02 had never requested the money, but that the DD was still live and that they could take their money any time that they wanted.
02 denied this totally for weeks, they refused point blank to continue with this DD, stating that they never requested payment once a DD had failed, and insisted that i set up a new one. They then failed to take money for the next two months, meaning that I had to keep checking with the bank and then make a manual payment at the last minute to avoid going into arrears again. Each time I rang them they had no record of me, my current telephone, or my contract details and I had to start from scratch with each new operator. Eventually, after 10 calls i refused to talk to any more idiots and got through to a complaints supervisor who admitted that in sept they had had a major computer problem which meant that they lost a lot of account details which explained why they had none of my details and why they hadn't taken the DD! After much complaining they agreed to reimburse me for all the phone calls. Two months later when asking for an upgrade I was turned down as "your account is in arrears". It wasnt, but it appears that they dont update all their systems. I asked for the disconnections dept and said I was leaving. Another dozen or so phone calls later i have an apology, a new phone and £50 compensation but i will be leaving 02 as soon as i can. I hope you get a result in the end, be prepared to have to slog it out with 02, they are a bunch of incompetent liars.

Milky_Mocha

Ultimately I want to cancel my contract but do I have any case to do that?  

I thought that since you've been with them longer than the 12 month contract period you can cancel whenever you want provided you give 1 month's notice? Or have you upgraded within the last month? If so I still think that given the problems (they must have breached some kind of agreement with you - read the small print) you should be in a position to make demands.

Good luck and update this thread with the outcome

Milky_Mocha

Or have you upgraded within the last month?

Sorry that should read 'within the last 12 months'

HarriettPotter

Hi there

Thanks all for your replies. I will definately check out the cheaper way of calling them. Carly your situation sounds almost identical to mine - and its coincidentally around the same time!! I will pursue it. Did you just keep ringing and complaining to get that result? I wrote a stinking letter but just got a bit of a wimp of a girl on the phone saying sorry... I might have to call them again..

Milky_Mocha yes I did upgrade in June so I am tied in until June this year as far as they are concerned but I may well ring and say that I am not satisfied with their resolution to the problem and that I want to leave.

carly

I rang many times with only limited success. Each time they eventually admitted their mistakes and promised to fix them. This never happened. however I did make a note of each operator's name and complaint reference number as well as the date and time that I rang them.

I then started emailing them. It became obvious that they barely read emails as their answers do not address any points that one raises and only give platitudes and vague assertions of their customer service standards. They then started claiming that I had never contacted them previously and that all the problems were as a result of my own laxity in managing the account! This got me really mad as I had spent a lot of time and money on the phone to them. ( incidentally I tried the numbers quoted on "say no to 0870" and on being connected was always told that i had reached the wrong dept and was forced to dial again using 02 own expensive number. )
All subsequent emails I sent included the phrase " get it right " in the header, as advised by 02 if their reply has NOT answered your problem. My final email began" it is obvious that you do not read or understand emails that are sent to you as you completely ignore the points that I am making. I want this email to be passed on to a supervisor for attention as you obviously do not have the authority or the knowledge to answer it correctly . As far as your claim that I have not contacted you before goes......... and then I listed the days that I had rung, the names of the people that i had spoken to and their reply. I demanded that they looked for the tapes of these conversations ( most companies state that they record calls nowadays ) to verify what I was saying. And that seemed to do the trick. I got a grovelling reply and a credit on my next phone bill. ( it did take 2 weeks to appear and I was beginning to think that they were up to their old tricks.) It was a long hard slog and in the end it was only anger that got me through it. Good luck.