Help I did a secret shopping assessment with O2 and I've been billed

TheNewGuy_2

Hey all,

I won't go into specifics but I was required to take out a phone contract with O2 and then return it two days later. O2 has now billed me (which is the same as the actual payment I am due from the secret shopper site) and both O2 and the secret shopper site are refusing to reimburse me.

Who exactly is at fault here? Are O2 allowed to bill me if I cancelled within 14 days or is the secret shopper site shrinking from their responsibilities?

Any advice would be appreciated! Not quite sure how to approach this one.

scaredofdebt

The brief supplied by the mystery shopping company should give you instructions that if you follow correctly will mean you don't get billed.

Did you follow the instructions to the letter?

If you did then contact the mystery shopping company and explain the situation and they should liaise with the client to get it sorted.

galaxynicole

Normally they can bill you up to the day that you cancelled so if you cancelled on the 14th day, they would bill you 14 days line rental but maybe due to their billing system, it's created a full bill as they aren't to know that you are a mystery shopper and the system might produce another bill the month giving you some of the money back. I've done one of these before and it's the mystery shopping company's responsibility to give you the extra back as long as you follow their guidelines. So mine was I had to follow a complete customer journey, i.e. cancellation, billing (which I had to pay and was reimburse by the mystery shopping company.)

I'd say you have to speak to the mystery shopping company.

TheNewGuy_2

I absolutely did: I took out the exact contract and handset they specified and returned it after two days which, again, I was instructed to.

I have already contacted the mystery shopping company but they insist it's something I have to take up with O2, yet O2 isn't budging on the bill.

TheNewGuy_2

Thanks for both your advice! I'll attempt to contact the mystery shopping company again.

scaredofdebt

The MS company needs to know as their brief may not be correct - but equally O2 may have made a mistake so you may need to speak with them as well.

fergual2

Had same issue with O2 probably 2 years ago - the MS was a nightmare having to collect/return phone to O2 then later getting a bill from them. I vowed never to do an O2 MS again because of this experience.


If I remember rightly I got in touch with O2 Customer service. They checked records and agreed to refund in the following billing cycle. So had to a wait a while but did get money back to bank account.


Just escalate up channels to supervisor/head of customer service if need be.

TheNewGuy_2

fergual2 wrote: »

Had same issue with O2 probably 2 years ago - the MS was a nightmare having to collect/return phone to O2 then later getting a bill from them. I vowed never to do an O2 MS again because of this experience.


If I remember rightly I got in touch with O2 Customer service. They checked records and agreed to refund in the following billing cycle. So had to a wait a while but did get money back to bank account.

Just escalate up channels to supervisor/head of customer service if need be.

Sounds like we had the same assignment, unbelievable that they still haven't fixed it!

Thanks for chipping in. I do think that my best bet its actually with O2 and not the MS company as they're point blank refusing to even discuss the issue!

TheNewGuy_2

The MS company finally agreed to pay me. This whole assignment was not worth the amount of hassle it's caused me.

Wizzbang

My advice would be to avoid those kinds of MS assignments. I think any where you have to take out a contract are dangerous ground. I also avoid any with high amounts of cash that have to be paid upfront, like the train assignments another company used to do.

TheNewGuy_2

Wizzbang wrote: »

My advice would be to avoid those kinds of MS assignments. I think any where you have to take out a contract are dangerous ground. I also avoid any with high amounts of cash that have to be paid upfront, like the train assignments another company used to do.

You're right and I feel incredibly naive puttin my trust completely in the MS company to fix any problems I might face with these assignments.