o2 and Fredrickson International

heavyhorse_2

Firstly let me just give you some background information.

I am a student and I live in my fathers house. Now, he pays for most of the bills that come out of running the house and I chip in where necessary. I have had a phone contract with o2 for roughly 6-7 years that is in the name of my father, but I pay for it. It's in his name because he originally paid for it. When the original contract came to an end, I was in a position to pay for myself and wanted to change it into my own name. I, perhaps stupidly, decided to keep it in his name because of the "loyalty discount" it had accrued, meaning that I could get a better contract and better phone, we just transferred the payments from his bank account to mine. This has been fine for years up until now.

A couple of years ago, our internet contract with Sky had ended and as o2 were offering (at that time) a better deal we decided to change to them. As I had an o2 mobile phone I could get a better deal on o2 broadband, which I paid for. This was also fine. However around 2 months into my second 12 month o2 broadband internet contract my father neglected to pay the BT landline phone bill because of some disagreement to which I'm not privy, for some period of time. This resulted in BT cutting off the landline, which had the knock on effect of o2 cutting off the broadband. I was unhappy with this as I was willing to continue payment to o2 for broadband even though I wasn't receiving the service on the proviso that when the BT landline bill was paid and connection reinstated, so to would the broadband. This apparently is not how it works.

o2 cancelled the broadband contract and sent me a bill for £108 for early cancellation of the broadband contract. I spoke to o2 and understood why that had happened. However I didn't want the broadband to be stopped, so on that very same day that I had spoken to o2, I politely asked my father to just pay the BT phonebill to avoid me being out of pocket because of his disagreement with BT, which he did. We rang o2 back, with the landline reinstated and spoke to them. They said that the broadband contract cancellation was irreversible, but they negotiated that we would just start a new contract from that day and the £108 bill would be forgotten. This was march/april 2010. Everything, it seemed, was sorted.

Around December 2010 I got a phone call from a polite young man at o2 customer services asking when was I going to pay this £108 remaining on the bill. I explained what had happened and that we had started another contract and that the £108 should have been written off. He was seemingly unaware of this but was fine with the answer and led me to believe everything was ok.

Fast-forward to April 2011 and now I'm getting text messages every morning and phone calls in the afternoon from Fredrickson International saying that o2 have passed this debt on to them and they are now pursuing it. I have explained to them the situation, and they said they could offer me a discount, meaning I would pay only £65 to close that account. I have had no mail from this company and to be honest at first I thought it was a scam. However, I am worried because I imagine like everyone else I hate the idea that I am on some sort of list for a debt collector and am maybe naively expecting a call from bailiffs every hour.

I guess I would just like some advice on where I stand with this and whether I should pay the debt company or not. I have no fear that they are just making this up, the debt has very clearly been passed from o2 to Fredrickson.

I have tried to speak to o2 about this but they say they wont speak to me without my father because it is in his name (totally understandable) however I will not see him until Friday evening at the earliest and I would prefer to have this matter sorted out soon.

Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any responses.

dancingfairy

I think you're going to need to get this sorted in writing with O2 to be honest. You /your father need to write to them with the events that have happened and get it in writing that everything is sorted. You need it in writing in case it ever rears its ugly head again. Hopefully O2 will then recall Frdrickson International otherwise you will have to start writing to FI with the letter from O2 saying the debt is cancelled.
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lxpeanut

I have recently had dealings with this company the only way to get thme to stop is write to them asking them to proove you owe the money. They were saying I owed o2 money but I cancelled my account with them over 2 years ago and haven't had any invoices or contact from them to say I owed anything. They will then pass the debt back to o2 and will stop hasseling you. Oh and its unlikley they will send balifs this companies MO is to hassle you unitll you pay just to get rid of them but if you write to them they'll stop.

Culex

In whose name is the O2 broadband account?

If it is in your father's name, why the bu[STRIKE]gg[/STRIKE]ery are Fredrickson International bothering you about it?

If it's in your name, why can you not get on to the Chief Moron at O2 and tell him/her that, because of the silly shenanigans they've been up to, you'll cancel the account and take your business elsewhere?

Hannah_10

Two options:

Option 1, for an easy life pay the £65 and be done with it. Paying 60% to settle the value of a debt is not bad going. If you take this option you might want to check the wording on the letter with use first to make sure Freds aren't trying to pull a fast one.

Option 2, challenge it. This is going to involve a lot of letters and never ever speaking to them on the phone again. All of those letters have to go signed for. They will all take ages to get replies, if they get replies at all. Possibly a bit of escallation to the regulating bodies will be required. You will not get a quick result and it will be a total pain in the rear being honest, but you should get the right result, one way or another. Step one for playing hardball is the good old Prove It letter.

FireWyrm

For £65 - I'd pay them and be done with it. It's annoying, but if you challenge this, Hannah is right, you'll be tied up in paperwork until doomsday. Write to them giving them the money and stating that it is full and final and that you require acknowledgement in writing. Then ring the retentions team at O2 and cancel telling them why....you might be lucky and they might refund as a 'good will' gesture.....depends how good a customer you've been and how nice the CSO is feeling.