My o2 Nightmare help me please

peteb93

Hi everyone this is a long and boring story but im hoping someone can advise me what to do.

Ive been with o2 for 6 years and had 2 phones on the same contract because my partner is disabled so we needed 2 phones.

Ive never had any probs with o2 up till now and this is where my nightmare begins.

On the 25th of Feb 2010 i went into the o2 shop and enquired about one of theyre moneycards and was told that i had to apply online.
Anyway i applied for a card the next day but it wouldnt go through and told me to ring customer services which i did and was told that my old account was on the old billing system it would have to be moved across to the new billing system which i said was fine and to go ahead with it.

Then in the beginning of march i got a welcome pack from them saying thank you for opening your new account etc etc so i rang them and was told that they would port my existing number over to the new account and that would be no problem and they would do the same with my other number because you cant have 2 numbers on my account now apparently.
So i left it at that and thought everything was ticking along nicely until i got a txt saying my account was overdue and if i didnt pay it my service would be restricted.

So i rang customer services again and was told that i had a £30 fee to pay because i had started a new contract.I told them it wasnt a new contract and i werent prepared to pay it and i was told that the account had been set up instore on the 26th february and i told them that werent possible because i dont have the id to do that and also i would fail any credit scoring and the advisor did admit it was strange because there was no new handset showing on my account.So they advised me to go into my local o2 store and get them to cancel the contract anyway i went into the store and the assistant said that was the last thing i should do because they had obviously messed up and if i cancelled my contract that would close the matter.She rang o2 and they took my details and said they would ring me back in 48hrs and it would probably be passed over to the fraud dept(i dont know why because its so obviously a screw up on there part.
Anyway i left it at that but never recieved a call back from 02.

On saturday 20th March in the evening my partner said her phone said restricted services so i rang up on sunday and they said that they were carrying out a sim transfer request so i thought perhaps things had been sorted again.

Today i found my phones been blocked and when i rang them up its because theres £30 owing still on my account so i explained it to the advisor and he told me basically whoever had dealt with it originally had messed it all up and it was showing i was on a new contract he said i could pay the £30 owed and keep the new contract but it would mean that it would be another 18mths before i could have an upgrade and the same applied to my partner.We're both due upgrades hers in august and mine in september so i said i werent happy with that because to be honest my phones on its last legs and i was originally ringing to claim on my insurance.He said what had happened was whoever dealt with it originally as soon as they ported my number across it closed my old account so there are no details of me at all anymore.
He tried 5 different departments and said that non of them were taking responsibility and that what he advised was for me to apply for a new contract and if that went through to cancel the existing one.Anyway i applied for a new contract and was turned down because of the credit scoring (which i knew i would be) and was put back onto customer services and i have to give the advisor i spoke to credit she has taken all the details and dates and has said she is going to talk to her manager and ring me back.
Ive told her i will happily carry on with the contract if they can give me a new phone if its going to be classed as a new contract.

Have i done the right thing and if they come back and say they wont do that what should i do next bearing in mind myself and my partner know we wont get new contracts because of out credit ratings and we need our phones because she is disabled and im her carer.

If anyone can help i would be extremely grateful.

iwanttosave_2

You've had the misfortune of speaking to people who don't understand the billing migrations.

You were on a system called DISE which isn't an old billing system, its just not used for consumer customers anymore but there are still some stragglers on there.

When your account has moved over to the new billing system it will look as though it is a new order, it even says new order, but once you go into the order it should be apparent because everything will be zero's and the code for the point of sale will be an internal one.

The £30 will more than likely be a pro-rata bill, they do try to migrate you around your bill date so it doesn't affect you but if it has gone over mid-cycle then it will produce the pro-rata bill, this is simply because the computer cannot differentiate between a migration and new connection. You will need to pay this because it is owed.

With regards to your upgrade, you are not tied in any longer than when you last upgraded! When you come round to upgrade you will have to advise them that you have migrated from DISE and your last upgrade was while you were over there, they can then contact the correct department to verify this (they wont have access to DISE to check)

peteb93

Thanks that actually makes things a lot clearer but i still cant understand why they cant find any record of my old account surely there should be something somewhere because they have no past bill payment history for me and i also had both phones insured which they have no record of now.
Also my partner got a call on her phone yesterday to say that they were showing that £100 had been payed from her bank which was for out last bill that was due on march 12th and they just wanted comfirmation it had been payed.But now they have no record of it.

Theyve also told me that i started my supposed new contract in a retail store as well

iwanttosave_2

There are very few people who have access to both of the billing systems so it requires a call to the teams that do have DISE to be able to clarify everything.

A while ago it used to show the order as "Migration from DISE" and it was then obvious what had happened. Like I said, now it shows as a new order. Unless an advisor knows what to look for then they would just see it as a new order.

To get the records all correct you need to phone them and ask them to phone "DISE consumer" department to confirm your old account details. They can also bring your insurance over to the new account. Your partners payment was more than likely for her final bill when she was on DISE.

peteb93

Ok so the woman i dealt with yesterday rang me at about 6pm last nite and said in the notes i was to deal with the guy i spoke to yesterday afternoon and she said he would ring asap after he had started today at 1pm and im still waiting at 3pm.

What should my next course of action be i dont really want to ring customer services again because i was on the phone for over an hour yesterday and at 5p a min its gonna work out expensive and theres always the chance i will get someone who is totally clueless like i have done in the past.

iwanttosave_2

How come your paying to phone? Calling 202 from your handset is a free service, if yours is still blocked then use your partners.

Customer service is an inbound call center so do be patient waiting for a call back, if there are a lot of calls in the queue then the advisor wont be permitted to call you back.

You could phone them back and ask to speak to a lead advisor, explain to them what has happened and that you have migrated from DISE, leave this thread open so you can refer to it if you need to.