Help O2 mis-sold contract

MrsElliot

Been advised to remove aspects of original post.

Sister unwittingly signed up to business account with O2, phone broke after 4 months, deemed unfixable, unable to terminate contract without proof of business - Bill £700 but unable to end contact.

Advice sought on how to prove not a business

JJ_Egan

They will demand the contract is paid off be it a personal or business contract .
It will not go away but move to debt collectors and a trashed credit record .

How long has the O2 contract to run ??

Jon_01

Why didn't she get the iPhone fixed at an Apple store? A phone failing isn't a get out of the contract, also she could have put the same sim into another phone and used that rather then getting a new contract.

Do she have the paperwork that came with the contract when she signed up, and was with O2 direct or with a dealer?

As above, this will not go away, if it's left it'll go to a collections agency who will add their own charges and things will just get worse.

Kim_13

She should have got the phone fixed (it'd have been free if it broke within 12 months; warranty, which it sounds like it did.) However, now it's past the 12 month mark, she has no way of proving it broke within the warranty period (warranty is 12 months.)

She may be due some compensation for the business contract, however having missed the boat for the warranty, she'll just have to pay up the rest of the months. Had the warranty been pursued and a satisfactory repair not been delivered, she may have had a way out of the contract.

MrsElliot

To answer some questions and to clarify:

phone bought in June 2015, two year contract ends June 2017

She had the phone approx four months, she went to O2 shop where she bought it from and asked what could be done, they refused to deal with her, said it was unfixable and it was her fault and told her to ring O2. She thought she had insurance but it turned out she didn't

Sister found out through 3rd party that phone contract was a business account not personal

Sister then rang o2 again and said she would pay for the contract to end but O2 wanted proof that she was a business to end the contract which is the problem??!! She has contacted Ofcom who have told her to write letters, she has been mis-sold etc but O2 are ignoring her.

My question is how do you prove you are not a business?

grumbler

You can prove that you are business, but you can't prove that you aren't.

Ask O2 shop what exactly 'business' they think it is. If they keep giving runaround, complain about this and about the alleged misselling:
http://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain

OR

http://www.resolver.co.uk/companies/o2-complaints
(Resolver, free online complaints tool - Money Saving Expert)

However, she will gain nothing by "paying for the contract to end" as this will be not cheaper than to keep paying for it monthly.
The main problem is how to terminate the contract when the minimum term ends as otherwise it'll go on forever.

Jon_01

I'm still not sure why the phone wasn't fixed? If it was bought in June 2015 it still has 5 months of the Apple guarantee left even now?
Unless she has damaged it, then Apple will check it over, confirm it's none working and just give her a new one (well, a refurb, but just as good as a new one).

But she does have to get this business thing sorted, or as grumbler says, she'll never be able to get it closed.
Does she still have the contract (ie the papers) from when she signed up, that might be helpful?

MrsElliot

I am still wondering how they signed her up to a business contract in the first place, I would have thought you would have to give a business reg. number and relevant checks are made. Looking online she doesn't seem to be the only one this has happened to. Do reps get more money if they sell a business contract?

Anywho she is no longer laughing at my nasty nokia that I pay £9.50 a month for

grumbler

There is no point in wasting £700 (a lump sum or monthly). She can use her SIM in any phone (not locked or locked to O2).
Getting a new contract phone with a new provider (if it's what she had done) was anther stupid thing to do.

DCFC79

If she signed a contract did she not read it ?

I'm also wondering how she managed to damage the phone so it was unfixable.

MrsElliot

Yes she has been naive and stupid, who knows why she didn't take out the sim and buy a perfectly reasonable phone to use it in, instead she rushed to buy a new phone contract without sorting out the old one without telling anyone.

Maybe it was the lack of customer care from O2 or maybe it was the lack of access to snapchat/facebook that fuddled her brain. Some people need constant supervision and she is living proof of that.

She has already had a b0110cking from me and other members of the family and has retreated into the sulky irresponsible attitude of most millenials.

Also I don't know what she has done to the original phone. I have been told its unfixable, if I find out its a cracked screen I will kill her!

Sad fact is she signed up a contract that should not have been offered in the first place and she didn't read the small print - she is not blameless but then neither is O2. Harsh lesson but one she is better learning earlier rather than later on in life.