o2 Disconnection woe

SmackEater

Hi,

I cancelled my O2 contract last month on the 5th of January. My contract finished in December 2006 (18 month). My billing date is the 1st of the month. So, my phone was disconnected on the 4th of February.

I got a bill yesterday through the post for line rental 01-28th February. I tried ringing O2 on my replacement (Vodafone) mobile, but it told me the number wasn't on the O2 network, so I couldn't speak to them. I then tried from work, and the assistant tried to tell me that even though I had given them a months notice, I had to pay line rental until February 28th. Despite the fact that the phone was disconnected on the 4th. I didn't ask them to disconnect it, I just told them I wanted to finish my contract, and gave them a months notice.

The money is meant to come out on direct debit next week. What should I do? The O2 customer ill-adviser said that the whole line rental will come out and I have to pay it. I've contacted my bank, they said it was best to let them take it and then claim it back under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

Is there a way to just make them charge me until the 4th Feb? I'm happy to pay 4 days line rental, I don't see why I should pay for 28 days of phone connection that they haven't provided me with!

JAYMARSH2005

Its just another case of greedy phone companies making far to much money !!
Cancel the direct debit and send them a cheque for 4 days line rental (monthly line rental divided by 31 multiplied by 4) you have given them enough notice as your contract has expired which means you are free to cancel at any time. Why pay for a service they have not given you ?

MrRincewind

they will claim the full line rental, then deduct the actual part month that you owe them and the rest should sit on you o2 account as a credit, they can`t charge you for servces you have received, call them back up a few days after the D/D has gone out and there should be a credit balance showing

JAYMARSH2005

He is no longer with O2 so it is useless having the money in his O2 account, I would just pay the 4 days lin e rental because getting the money back off them will take months.

redux

In theory they bill this then refund the following month.

The reason would be that on the 1st February, it cannot be known how many minutes you would use in the next four days; you might use more or less than the pro rata amount, or even a whole month's worth, in which case a whole month's rental is due.

I'm not saying it's fair, but it does have some sense behind it, though it looks more dramatically over for four days than it would for say twenty-five when there would be a good chance of a full month's tariff being used anyway.

Take a look at how many minutes you actually did use, whether this is below or above pro rata, and discuss it again, including whether the subsequent pro rata refund arrives by cheque or reverse direct debit, and when, as it seems to me it should be possible to manually instigate it now.

MrRincewind

JAYMARSH2005 wrote:

He is no longer with O2 so it is useless having the money in his O2 account, I would just pay the 4 days lin e rental because getting the money back off them will take months.

i know he is no longer with o2 what i meant is that as it shows in credit in his o2 account he can then request refund either via cheque or through his bank card, as redux rather more eloquently put

SmackEater

Hi, Thanks for all the useful replies. After a few more calls to O2, they actually instructed me to cancel the direct debit. Apparently their billing system issues a bill for the whole month on the 1st, then 14 days after the disconnection date (the 4th, so should be billed on the 18th), it issues a bill for 4 days and cancels the old one. If you cancel the debit then ring and pay by card apparently there aren't any extra charges.

Apparently it was just the first advisor being inept and telling me I had to pay then wait for a refund!

Thanks,
Josh