O2 Problems with Home Phone and Broadband Account

Butterfliesarepretty

I have two accounts with 02 - Mobile and Home Broadband/Home Phone Account. Both have separate bills.


In March I had noticed that the direct debit for my home broadband/home phone account had not been taken in march, so I sent them and email asking if everything was ok and they replied saying the direct debit was still set up and the amount of £29.42 which is march’s and april’s bills will be debited on 5th april.

I checked online to see if my direct debit was set up as normal and it was.

But only one direct debit was showing on my bank account as being set up which is my O2 Mobile Contract Bill which is set up ok.

But after phoning them up on the 21/3/2011 after receiving warning texts and emails from o2 I had to send this complaint email.

"On friday I noticed you had not taken march’s bill from my current account and so I sent you an email asking if you still had my bank account details on file to take the direct debit. I also asked if the same direct debit was set up for my mobile bill and you sent an email back as attached above saying the direct debit was still set up and the amount of £29.42 which is march’s and april’s bills will be debited in april.

I also had some missed calls on saturday the 19th march on my mobile. I think you were trying to discuss my mobile account with me.

So I was happy the £29.42 was being taken in april.
then I get an text message and email this morning telling me ‘sorry but calls from your home phone have been stopped account number 134026. to keep using the internet call 0800 131 3138’.

I phoned your bury office to be told by the lady that I had to pay the £29.42 today to keep my account going and take the bar off my phone. I argued over the phone that for some reason O2 did not take the direct debit of £18.35 from march and that the email told me i was ok to let it be taken on the 4/4/11. This lady kept asking her manager Julie and the manager kept telling her I needed to pay the full amount.

They then came back and told me it was O2’s error in not taking the amount and could be due to me renewing my contract in february with the home phone and the fact I got three months free broadband with it too.

But they still wanted me to pay £29.42 despite their error. I refused and said I would pay the £18.35 bill today if the bar was taken off. This conversation and putting me on hold four times I ended up being on the phone for 29 minutes and I eventually had to end the call while on hold as nobody came back and said we will phone you back while we look into this. I had to go out and just as I was about to go out the lady who spoke to me called back and said they had looked into the account and emails and calls and decided that I would not have to pay the full £29.42 until April 2011.

Now for one I was really angry that I was kept on hold for so long and that I was made to feel as if it was my fault when O2 had already admitted their error in not taking the direct debit in march.

The girl who dealt with my query was not very well trained and in my opinion it was the manager at fault for instructing her to get me to pay the full amount.

Why has this happened and why in 3-4 years of being with you on broadband I was treated like this. It has now made me think about changing over to a different company.
I would like an apology and compensation for my time being wasted in sorting this out on the phone."

Anyhow yesterday i checked and again the bill had not been taken so I phoned and spoke to someone called Adam in scotland who was helpful and told me that their system was not accepting the new sort code from my bank santander and he thought that was why the payment was not being taken. Anyway he said he was going to call me around 4pm today and I have still not had the call. He also asked me to attach the complaint email and send it to his email address which he gave me so he could chase that too.

Now I have just checked my account again and the £29.42 has not been taken. He has not rang me back or emailed me with any update even though he promised to.
So I have emailed back to him and also the complaints review service to say I am really not happy with this and want the whole £29.42 balance wiped clear as an apology and the direct debit to be re-set up from 1st may 2011.

I offered to pay the £29.42 yesterday but adam said no worries the d debit should go through.

I am really disappointed in o2's service it used to be so good and I never had a problem with it before until now.

:mad:

Mark_In_Hampshire

I have a feeling I've seen something about this over in the Budgeting & Bank Accounts forum on here, and if it's the same cause, then it's a fairly widespread Santander sort code/account number problem - might be worth a search.

Butterfliesarepretty

Im still having the same problem with this direct debit.
O2 have now paid my bill for all the problems they caused.

I went into my bank and explained the problem, they gave me a new sort code and my account number for direct debits.

O2 still cant set it up.
Im fed up of this and have even sent a secure message to the bank to which they have not replied to.

I emailed o2 again and got this reply.

Hi Tracey

I'm sorry for trouble you're facing.

Our support team as investigated on this issue. We found the you need to
talk to your bank and get the sort code updated on the Direct Debit
database. We can't do this, as you had to discuss this with your bank.

I hope things sorted soon.

Regards

Anwar
O2 Home Phone and Broadband Customer Service Team