Help me with o2 and a huge phone bill!

mj2000uk

Morning,

Please, someone inspire me!

Here is a very concise situation.....

We have a teenager who is not living with us, we provide teenager with a mobile phone. The teenager knows that the mobile has a tariff of 300 minutes and unlimited texts. This has never been a problem and each month, the bill comes in around 17.50.

In the last 2 months, the teenager has run up ridiculous bills. We have one for over £250.00 and we have one for £90.00.

Before anyone points out the obvious things that everyone thinks. No, we do not monitor the bill daily as we have no reason to expect a huge bill.

We have now moved the teenager onto a new tariff which includes unlimited minutes and texts.

The problem was that the teenager started making hour long midnight calls to his girlfriend and this exceeded his allowance very quickly.

So, as a loyal customer of o2, I called and asked for help. While they were sympathetic, they declined any help and on pressing them, they would not refund anything but they offered to submit a case for a full or partial credit to the account to a value.

I have not had this case approved and was read out that the usage of the phone is my responsibility and mine alone.

So, instead of tearing a strip off the poor lady who delivered this news, I am about to email them to appeal against their decision.

I am sure there will be some "matter of fact" advice that people want to give me so please see a list of "things already considered".

1 - I cannot kill the teenager, we were all young once!
2 - The teenager is not in a position to pay the bill himself and I am not in a position to deduct it from any money we give him. We dont give him any money!
3 - I cannot take the phone from the teenager as ultimately, while I am very angry, I cannot cut our only method of communication off.
4 - I cannot rely on the teenager to monitor their own usage, it would be easier to split an atom on my kitchen table.

I am let down by o2 here. Usually they are OK but they did not make any effort to inform me when the minutes exceeded, they do not block usage when suddenly a phone starts racking up a huge bill and they do not switch automatically to another tariff when the current tariff is exceeded.

I am putting pen to paper to them shortly, any advice would be welcomed!

Regards

Mike

macman

So whose responsibiloity did you think the usage was? The contract is in your name and is therefore your responsibility to pay the bills. O2 have no idea who uses the hanset or under what circumstances. You chose to let the teen use the phone without supervision. The simple solution is to never give a teenager an uncapped contract phone. Either use PAYG or use a capped contract (Tesco Mobile). Would you give a child your credit card and PIN number to use? There's no difference.
Since the phone is not in your possession, how could O2 inform you if the monthly limit was breached anyway? No provider cuts the phone off when then monthly limit is exceed-can you imagine the legal ramifications of this in an emergency?
You can plead a case with O2 for a one off reduction, but they're not obliged to give you anything, as you have found.
Perhaps you'd be better off using your time talking to the teen, since he can access the phone logs and therefore would have been well aware that he was going over the limit. Instead you've 'rewarded ' him by changing him to an unlimited tariff-so what happens now when he goes abroad and runs up huge data bills when roaming?

mj2000uk

Macman, thanks for your moral judgement and re-iteration of points already made.

Just so you are aware, o2 do not inform you by any medium where the tariff is exceeded. Not a text (which I would not see as you have rightly pointed out), not an email and not a letter or a call to a landline.

Not a very helpful reply but a reply all the same.

grumbler

macman wrote: »

...Instead you've 'rewarded ' him by changing him to an unlimited tariff-so what happens now when he goes abroad and runs up huge data bills when roaming?

Another less remote possibility is premium numbers, not to mention 08, 070, 09 numbers and international calls.

If a teenager isn't capable of understanding a simple fact that hour-long calls quickly leave him without any inclusive minutes, then the only suitable options for him are PAYG or a caped contract.

At least it's worth making sure that as many as possible out-of-allowance options are blocked in the new 'unlimited' contract.

Re 'help', nobody can help here. You are at 02's mercy and the only you can do is to appeal to their goodwill.

kingrulzuk

End of the day o2 is a business and this is how they make their money. It’s your contractor so it’s your responsibility to keep an eye on it.

Why don’t you get a PAYG sim card? And just top up every month.

mj2000uk

kingrulzuk wrote: »

Why don’t you get a PAYG sim card? And just top up every month.

Thanks but we are mid contract on this phone until August 2015 so there is no option to switch to PAYG right now.

Otherwise I would!

We didnt see this coming and hindsight is wonderful but I am stunned that o2 do so little to protect you from such things.

I completely get the fact they are a business and they are there to make money but to be honest, when the contract renews I wont renew with o2. They can see my history and the pattern of what has happened here and a little compassion would not go amiss.

All future phones will be renewed elsewhere. So that means they lose the £648.00 guaranteed on this tariff in future, they lose my £1056.00 tariff for a 2 year iphone and they lose my wifes £768.00 contract for an iPhone.

These wont make a ripple to o2 but they will lose them and it is o2 who, with a little understanding, are the only people who can do anything about that.

Anoneemoose

To be honest, I don't know what you're expecting from the responses. What Macman said it completely true and although it might seem harsh, in reality, it sounds like this is what you need.

All of the things you have pointed out sound like 'excuses' as to why you won't take responsibility.

I have a contract for my 18 yr old that I get a discount on it because I used to work for Orange and have f&f discount from someone who works there still. I initially had a SIM only for my son from aged 16 on the proviso he DID take responsibility for his usage. He was shown from the start how to monitor his usage and was told of the consequences of going over. Happily he has only ever spent the odd 10p extra on Orange Wednesdays. He also once rang an 08 number and it cost him a couple of pounds. He did extra chores to make up for it. Made him think.

I also monitor his account regularly by logging in online. And I know that should anything happen and he does run up a big bill, it is MY responsibility and MINE alone.

O2 have no obligation to refund anything. You can of course ask but not much you can do if they say no.

grumbler

You will gain nothing by leaving O2. All networks are the same. They make very little from 'inclusive' allowances and their main profits come from out-of-allowances spending and roaming.

Anoneemoose

In addition, there is no guarantee that their systems will highlight any additional usage as the systems that 'monitor' that are normally used for suspected fraud in the first few months of a contract and not for monitoring teenagers with a new girlfriend.

You say you will leave O2 - obviously your choice but unless you get an official fixed contract, all of the other networks operate the same.

JJ_Egan

But that's the same for all networks they expect the user to keep within tarrif . There are multiple identical posts on here for all networks kids ran up bill i ran up bill i roamed and ran up bill
Phone might be on a contract but it can be unlocked and a PAYG sim used and the existing contract sim used in another phone .

mj2000uk

So....

Thanks for responses.

I shall draw the line here now, it is the case that I will write to o2 and see if they are willing. I shall make sure that I appeal to their compassionate nature but also point out that their current decision, in my opinion, is the reason I wont be renewing with them in future.

I will take what I have learned in hindsight and ensure in future that phone contracts are capped where they could be potentially abused.