O2 Contract from 2007 [URGENT HELP]

mastero

I had contract with o2 in 2007, the contract was taking out online and for 18 months.

I work offshore on the oil rigs so was away for 2 weeks out of every month so I would only use my phone a little of the time when I was home.

I come home one day to find a bill for £357.00, I was straight on to o2 saying that they had an error and was requesting that they sent me out an itemised bill. The guy on the phone said no problem and requested it be sent to me. Few weeks passed and I was away offshore again and other family problems came in and I completely forgot all about o2 was last thing on my mind and I remembered got through to someone and they hung up on me my contract was due to expire anyways so I said f*ck them there taking the p*ss out me so I will go down and get a new contract, so I took out a T-Mobile contract and had that ever since without any problems.
I then never heard anything again until I was interested in a mortgage as I have met my girlfriend now and wanted to get a house and start a family and I went on credit expert and seen there was a default from Lowell portfolio.

I was straight on the phone to Lowell asking who and why they were on my credit file and they mentioned this debt from 2007 and o2, I said well the debt is incorrect and I am refusing to pay it as requested an itemised bill and still have never received it.
Then they harassment started they phoned my house and writing 100s of letters until this point they had never written to me, I stated I will get in touch with o2 as they were the original debtor and I will take it up with them.

I was straight on the phone I have been hung up on 3 times by their staff talked to like rubbish promised call backs and they never materialised then I got fed up went to the raw deal Sunday Post and they wrote me straight away saying they had been contacted and stuff and they tried to write to me (lies) and they are saying I have to pay the debt and its nothing to do with them as they have sold it on now they gave me a contact number for the guy so I was straight on the phone for 45 mins may I add charging me for the pleasure explained to the guy the situation I wasn’t happy with the charge and I was willing to pay any amount that they were due and any line rental and stuff but all I want is the itemised bill, he said we can’t get it any more we don’t keep it, so I said o basically you have no proof that I am due that amount and you can in essence make up any figure in your head and say to me I am due that amount he said yes technically we can but o2 would never do that. I said have computers ever been wrong he said obvcourse they have I said well how do you know its not another case of this being wrong.

I have contacted trading standards/consumer direct, The Sunday Post nd my solicitor (he said I cant take them to court as I am not sueing them for anything and even if we did they would just sell the debt on before it went to court)

I wrote to Lowell saying I was proceeding with court action and they have now sold the debt onto another company.

Please help where do I stand and what can be done, this is affecting me and my personal life!

mastero

:money:Thanks, I am willing to try anything

If anyone else has any further advice if i have a case please get in touch

visidigi

keep it simple! Don't rant in the email, keep it brief, to the point and keep it simple.

Remove emotion and consequences - coulda woulda shoulda won't help your case and anything you write could come back to haunt you if you do claim in court further down the line.

e.g. don't make a big deal of asking once for an itemised bill (I am sure they have been itemised for free, with o2 on your online account for at least three years - mine have and this could be a problem for you) - leave out emotion (your post above comes across as angry which is best avoided).

Remember, keep it brief!

Techhead_2

Exactly, free online billing and usage were available then, paper bills were an optional extra. So the OP should have been checking their bill each month anyway. As the OP openly admits they abandoned the contract, I think any complaint will fall on deaf ears.

Ialso think that ignoring the solicitors advice over court proceefings is not a good idea. Especially because O2 will have records and the OP says they were in a muddle then, due to working off-shore and family events.

visidigi

for me one request and abandonment of the contract wasn't a good idea - especially as provision was like we say made for the billing to be viewed (I just logged into myo2 and I can see bills from the last 24 months online without special request)

OP - were you on a direct debit? Did you cancel the direct debit because of this bill?

If you were and you did, then I suspect you may have even less of a case than you're currently grasping onto - the fact you recall the entire process including amounts strikes me you are looking for a technicality to get out of an amount of money you were aware was charged to your account which you failed to resolve when first made aware.

CoolHotCold

All O2 have to do is prove you owe them that amount (with a very simple bill statement) and that you didn't pay.

You can try taking whoever you want to court, but you'll loose if O2 can provide this simple statement.


Long and short is, you stopped contact with O2, you didn't pay what you probably owe, now it's came back to bite you.

mastero

Yeah but I don't understand this though, I have always had a problem with the amount they are requesting me to pay all I want from them is a list of the calls they are saying that I made during that period.

No other company would be allowed to demand money and not prove why they are asking for the money?

They can in essence make up a piece of paper that says Mr Mastero your owe £1000 and I cant argue the fact that I am due the amount I am just supposed to roll over and take it? Surly there is something wrong with the law and o2 then - companies should be made to keep these records for aslong as the debt is due!!

visidigi

You had plenty of opportunity to access the information you were looking for. The evidence was available to you for 24 months - o2 are only unable to provide this now because you thought it would go away if you ignored it.

There is nothing wrong with the law here, there is on the other hand a 'head in the sand' issue which no amount of legislation will unfortunately fix.

You didn't answer what you did about payment of the rest of the contract etc? Care to elaborate?

mastero

I have wrote to the CEO of O2.

I will do anything to fight this debt so we will see how it goes thanks guys - I never had Internet Access at this point although it was taken out online I never used the computer, I was unaware i could check my bills online.

JimmyTheWig

OP, I believe (and I may be wrong) that you hoped that this debt would just disappear.
I find it very hard to believe that you had forgotten about it all this time.
I believe that you took a gamble which you have now lost.

I would like to think that at the time it should have been quite easy for O2 to sort out. I would like to think that they would have been able to provide you with the correct bill, hopefully with a little knocked off as goodwill for the inconvenience of getting your bill wrong in the first place (or being able to provide a breakdown of why your bill was correct).
I can imagine, now, that it is not that easy for them to do.

But I would also like to think that they would keep some record of the charges of an account which went into arrears. Fair enough if it is not easy for them to get to those accounts (e.g. they have been archived) and they need to charge the customer to access them. But they should still be kept, i would have thought.

The trouble is, even if they produce a bill which showed you voted for an X-factor contestant 300 times, how on earth are _you_ now going to prove that you didn't?

And given that you are no longer a customer, there's not an awful lot of goodwill for them to preserve.


I think your best bet will be to negotiate something as full and final payment and move on.

mastero

Thats what I have been trying to do with them obviously I am due some of the money as I did use the contract not just the full amount.

I have told them the whole way through I would pay what I was due. I had actually forgot all about it as they never wrote to me.