Unfair entry on my credit file

sfax

OK, that's not quite as I understood it. So O2 passed the account onto a new address and a new name at the point you stopped receiving a paper bill - and they (not you) cancelled the direct debit? I think if that's what happened then you have a case.

Have you emailed complaintreviewservice@o2.com? I wrote a detailed email to this address after disputing an unfair disconnection charge (BT unexpectedly switched over to BT Infinity a day early) after I was wrongly advised on the phone by O2 (nothing in writing). A lady from O2 called me a few days later, they refunded all of the money and also paid some compensation. Worth a try.

FOS probably not the best course of action as you don't really want compensation, just a clean credit report.

Bianca47

sfax Thank you so much. You're a star! I'll get on to this right away.

Thrugelmir

sfax wrote: »

OK, that's not quite as I understood it. So O2 passed the account onto a new address and a new name at the point you stopped receiving a paper bill - and they (not you) cancelled the direct debit? I think if that's what happened then you have a case.

The DIL appears to have been settling the account satisfactorily for a number of years. Before the issue arose.

For whatever reason the DIL appears to have ignored demands for payment etc from 02.

Taking out contracts on behalf other parties is not advisable.

I took advantage of a Carphonewarehouse deal and introduced a friend who received a free laptop and phone for starting an account with them. It was only after I'd done this that I found the contract was actually in my name,

Given the paperwork that requires completion to enter such an arrangement. Something more to this tale.

matttye

Write to them saying that one of their employees indicated that the contract had been transferred to your daughter in law and you acted on that information in good faith. Say that had you been advised that the contract couldn't be transferred, you would of course have made sure all payments were met.

I think this will be an uphill battle but good luck!

Bianca47

After I last posted on this forum, I replied to o2's last email as follows:
　
As I have already pointed out, I did not know that my supposed email address with o2 existed. If I had known, I would have configured it in Incredimail in case I needed to use it. Can you not understand that I never received your "chasing emails" because they were not being sent to a valid or active email address, and that therefore I had NO KNOWLEDGE of this debt until it appeared on my credit file - some 6 months on? So how, in God's name, can you penalise and punish me like this for something I knew nothing whatsoever about?

Furthermore, I had been led to believe by the person my daughter in law and I spoke to at o2 that the contract was no longer in my name and that it had been transferred to her. This being so, I had no reason and, as far as I am aware, no right legally, to check up on it, any more than I would check and see if she had paid her rent, her Council Tax or her water rates.

Bearing in mind these two points, how, in the Name of all that is Holy, can you justify what you have done to me and my reputation? In my entire life, and I am 66 in August, I have NEVER had a late payment, a CCJ, or any kind of default in my entire financial life. Loans have been paid in full, on time, and frequently settled before the date laid down in the contract, as have credit cards, catalogue accounts, and household bills. All been paid in full and on time. You say you can not remove the default. I believe that, for some unfathomable reason, you WILL not remove it, even though the day I found out about this bill, I paid it in full, and now have no financial connection with o2 whatsoever. It just feels that you are being very spiteful, though I cannot understand why you would wish to be.

Regarding this email address you were trying to contact me on, please tell me the date this email address was created, and by what means I was told about it? Also, was it password protected, and if so, what was the password, and who chose the password because I certainly didn't?

You say "Bearing in mind that the account was in arrears for 6 months, your daughter in law (believing that the account was in her name) must have been wondering why she wasn't receiving invoices, but we had no contact to query this from her?" You need to take that up with her. I have absolutely no idea what my DIL was thinking regarding your invoices, and to be honest, I don't think that is relevant to me, to the dreadful situation you have put me in, and the extremely unkind and unfair way you are treating me.

The following day they replied as follows:

The email address was provided to you (as per the terms and conditions that you agreed to at the point of sale) as a username to access your O2 online account.
The T&C’s also specified that we would send the invoices to this email address. Are you confirming that you didn’t fully read/understand the T&C’s prior to signing the contract?

You can refer to the original T&C’s we sent you with the original packaging, or for ease see the latest ones below: (As a new user I am not allowed to put this link into this thread. It is for o2's 2013 latest pay monthly mobile agreement terms and conditions.)
This team are unable to investigate the actions taken by the customer services team so I suggest you contact o2's complaint review service to escalate the issue.
If they find there was a fault, the Complaints team may be able to remove the defualt if our actions misled you.
　
When I looked at the latest T & C, I knew I had never seen them before, so I Googled for the 2009 T & C which were in force when I first got the phone. Those I did recognise, and there was no mention in them of providing me with an o2 email address to access my online account or of o2 emailing me my invoices. I always received paper invoices from them through the post. My response to this latest email was:

I think I should point out that the Terms and Conditions you have referred to throughout our correspondence are not the same Terms and Conditions which were in force when I arranged the Contract for my friend. The older 2009 T & C did not involve giving me or her an email address and sending all invoices to it. The only invoices I received when she had the phone were paper ones through the post. Here are the 2009 T & C: xxxxxxxxxxxx So, in answer to your question, no - neither she nor I read the T & C you refer to as they did not exist at that time.
The email address in question was not given to me or my friend as a username to access my/her o2 online account. As far as I know, I have never had an o2 online account, and I don't have the foggiest idea how one would use it on a mobile phone, anyway. I only know how to send emails using my computer. In any case, the phone was not for me. It was for my friend. She was with me in the shop. If either of us had been told about this email address, we would have pointed out that it should be in her name as she was the one who would be using the phone.
Thank you for giving me the Complaint Review address. I shall be writing to them later today.

After I had sent that, I then emailed o2's complaint review service appealing against the unfair entry on my credit file. I copied all the emails to and from o2, and added a final couple of paragraphs as follows:

There was a reason my daughter in law went into arrears, by the way. Early in 2012, her father became very ill with emphysema and COPD. His condition worsened until he needed daily care. He didn't want to go into hospital, bless him, so my DIL became his main carer, travelling to where he lived every day for many months, as well as trying to hold down a job. At this time, she was engaged to my son. Round about September, her father took a turn for the worse, and an end-of-life plan was drawn up for him by the Macmillan nurses, and it was decided that she and my son needed to move in with him quickly so someone was always on hand to look after him. They moved to his house a few days later. Her father desperately wanted to see her get married, so she and my son brought the wedding forward and they married in October 2012. Her father died about 2 weeks later in her arms.

As you can imagine, she was completely distraught and just went to pieces for months. Years ago they would have said she had a nervous breakdown. The only things she managed to do was to change her name with her bank and with her email provider. She says that thoughts of phone bills didn't cross her mind. She was suffering really deep depression and just couldn't cope with anything. This is why she did not receive any emails or letters from o2 about the arrears. It is only recently that she has started to overcome the depression.
This whole episode has been a complete nightmare for me. I have hardly slept for nearly two weeks as the very real fear that I will lose my job, and then my home (as I will not be able to pay the rent), and then end up homeless as I will not be able to find a landlord (for a cheaper property) who will take me on as a tenant, has been preying on my mind, night and day, making it nearly impossible to sleep. But the worst pain of all is the loss of my financial reputation. The stress has been horrendous, and my blood pressure which was already high has now spiraled up to dangerous levels. It was 212/120 last time it was taken. The stress has also exacerbated the breathing problems I have with my asthma, bronchiectasis, emphysema, and COPD.

All this...ALL THIS, for something I knew nothing about, and as far as I knew, was not my responsibility in any case. And for your staff to mislead my daughter in law and me over the transfer of the contract... and to throw Terms and Conditions at me that didn't even exist when the contract was originally taken out...words fail me! It is completely outrageous. I therefore ask you to remove the default/notice of late payment from my Credit File immediately.

So that's it, folks, at the moment. I do feel a bit more positive about the situation, though I'm not holding my breath! If the Complaint Review Service turns down my appeal, I shall be contacting BBC Watchdog and Dominic Littlewood on the BBC show Don't Get Done Get Dom in the hope that they can help me.

And thanks again, Guys, for all the helpful comments and suggestions. I really appreciate them.

_Andy_

Why would you lose your job?

Bianca47

Andy Because of the particular branch of the financial industry I am in. Regular checks are made of all employees credit scores, and if they take a nose dive, we can no longer work for the company.

meer53

Despite your emails and explanations, if the default was applied correctly, it won't be removed.

I can't see Watchdog or anyone else getting involved, it just seems to be a misunderstanding on your part really. I've never heard of mobile contracts being transferred to another person, i've always been under the impression that the contract was yours until it ended (or you ended it)

matttye

The thing that's confusing me about this entire situation is this:

"In 2009, I took advantage of a Carphonewarehouse deal and introduced a friend who received a free laptop and phone for starting an account with them. It was only after I'd done this that I found the contract was actually in my name, and I was responsible for the bills."

If the contract was in your name, you would have had to have given payment information, name, address, etc. etc. Did this not cause you to suspect it was you signing up for a contract and not your friend? I don't understand how this can actually happen.

It also stands to reason that any e-mail address they created for you would be in your name, as the account was in your name. I think the e-mailing of the bills is largely irrelevant when you asked them to change the postal address to your daughter in law's address anyway.

I'm sorry to hear about the troubles your daughter in law went through, but everybody, and I mean everybody, suffers hardship/tragedy at some point in their life and this is quite simply not something that O2 can take into consideration, so I don't think the tragic loss of her father is the angle you should be taking to getting this default removed - especially when they are saying the contract is in your name. They are effectively saying it was NEVER her contract, so you need to be trying to prove it was indeed hers.

To be honest I don't think you're going to succeed in this unless you can prove they agreed to transfer the contract. Transferring the postal address for the bills and the switching the direct debit to another account does not mean anything. There's nothing stopping you from handing a handset to someone else and them paying the bills, but ultimately it is still YOU who is liable for it.

For example, I could ring up O2 and switch the billing address to my friend's address and change the direct debit to come out of my friend's bank account, but the contract is still mine and I am still liable for the bills. O2 are correct in saying that this would form a civil dispute between you and your daughter in law, because if you gave her the phone on the understanding she would pay and she hasn't paid, then you could seek damages from her.

Bianca47

As I said, I'm not holding my breath. I'll just have to wait and see what happens now.