o2 Mobile Phone Insurance - How can they?

GibsonSt19

Hi all, I bought my wife a Nokia 3200 in January 04 and aparently this came with 3 months free insurance (which is fair enough I guess); however at no point during signing up did I say I wanted insurance, and at no point was I informed that I'd need to cancel the insurance after the first three months.

It's an o2 Online contract (something I have also) and we therefore don't receive paper bills with cost breakdown. We were supposed to receive logon details at the start of the contract (I did, but my wife didn't) enabling us to view our bills online.

I wasn't too stressed that I'd not received the logon details for my wife's contract (even after having requesting them several times, without result), and I just made it my duty to check that the monthly amount debited wasn't astronomical. It wasn't, so I thought no more of it each month.

The latest bill came in and was some what irregular, (two thirds higher then usual) so I contacted o2 (again) for the logon details so that I could look into this a bit further.

I actually received the logon details very quickly (shock horror) and immediately realised that some of the increased cost was due to a few calls made from Holiday in t'Egypt.

I then noticed however, that there was a charge for the Gold Insurance of £4.99 and after looking back, I could see this has been charged for 13 months! (My wife wasn't making unnecessary calls afterall!)

I called o2, spoke to CS Manager who advised that I would have been told about the insurance needing to be cancelled after the initial free 3 month period, however I know for sure that at no point was I made aware of this. (I read every last detail when entering into ANY contract!)

The manager said he'd 'do something for me', which was to very kindly cancel the insurance we'd never requested. IMHO, I don't see this as him 'doing something for me', and would rather expect them to refund the £65 of insurance debits.

I don't know what to do now. If o2 had provided the logon details to my wife's account from the outset, I could have kept properly up to date on the account goings on. I really don't see why I should have to pay for this 'service' after having never requested it.

What do you think, my fellow MSE'ers?

Sorry the post's so long...I get caught up

Wig

I'm no expert but I think this is a case of:

1. Left it too late.
2. Did not keep printed copies of all agreements, emails & letters requesting log on details.

If you have printed copies of your t&c's, and you have been constantly badgering them for your wifes log on details, and you have kept copies of all such correspondence then you will have a case, if not.....tough.

When you enter into an online agreement always keep a copy of the t&c's either in print form or as a file on your PC. If something is not right (no log on details) get it resolved and keep copies of correspondence until it is resolved.

*On a similar note, I have telephone with Ntl, I used to have two lines for the price of one (one was for dial up) 9.50 month, a couple of years later I got a letter saying my line rental was increasing to 11.50 ish, (no problem thought I, nothing I can do about that), I was under the impression the line rental for a single line had risen to 11.50 as no indication otherwise was given in the letter. Another year passed and I noted someone's comment in a newsgroup that they were paying 9.50 line rental! Here was I paying 11.50! So I phoned Ntl to ask !!!!!!? and was told that one line was 9.50, 2 lines was 11.50. I said I was given an offer of the second line free with no expiry and no one had told me the offer was going to finish, all they had told me was that my line rental was increasing to 11.50 with no explanation.

I had not kept a copy of the initial agreement or the letter telling me of the increase. I therfore had no grounds except my word against theirs. I asked them to cancel 2nd line immediately, they said they needed 1 months notice, I said under the circumstances, You had better push a few buttons and get my 2nd line cancelled forthwith or else you will have me canceling both lines! They canceled the second line with effect from that day.

Cheers, Wig

rharper83

O2's Online customer service really does leave a lot to be desired, from my experience at least. If I was you, I would press this matter further, but I dont know what the chances of getting an outcome will be as it could be quite hard proving that you didn't agree to the insurance, or weren't notified of it. I'd pressure O2 into making a good will gesture towards you, hopefully of the £65, but I dont think you'll get a direct refund as such.

Keep us updated!

soolin

I don't like O2 after I had problems with them when I bought a faulty phone.

However, the insurance 'trick' is fairly standard across the industry, I've had it on every single contract I have taken out with them and other suppliers. In the small print they show insurance free for xx months and sort of leave it at that. If you don't know they are doing it it is easy to overlook. I think they rely on people not realising they have to cancel within the three months before they go onto being charged for it.

Like others have said if you have all your agreements, plus screen grabs etc when you signed up then if it isn't shown you should just keep on at them. They did cave in with me in the end, however I just kept on at them and went to head office rather than the customer enquiry line.

Soo

MarkyMarkD

Having just signed up my wife for an O2 contract (but through mobileshop.com) it was very clear at the outset that there was free insurance for 3 months, and the stuff which came with the phone also made clear how to cancel within the three months to avoid paying anything for it. In fact, you can cancel at the outset if you want to avoid the risk of running over the three months.

They can't sell you insurance of this type without sending you the documentation, so either you did have something and lost it, or never had it. But even if you didn't have it, the website should have included the relevant Ts & Cs.

If you really didn't ever get informed about the insurance, at all, then you have a case to complain ... but it's very late in the day to be raising this. Not bothering about getting logon details for well over a year doesn't exactly make them likely to believe you were on the case.

GibsonSt19

MarkyMarkD wrote:

Having just signed up my wife for an O2 contract (but through mobileshop.com) it was very clear at the outset that there was free insurance for 3 months, and the stuff which came with the phone also made clear how to cancel within the three months to avoid paying anything for it. In fact, you can cancel at the outset if you want to avoid the risk of running over the three months.

They can't sell you insurance of this type without sending you the documentation, so either you did have something and lost it, or never had it. But even if you didn't have it, the website should have included the relevant Ts & Cs.

If you really didn't ever get informed about the insurance, at all, then you have a case to complain ... but it's very late in the day to be raising this. Not bothering about getting logon details for well over a year doesn't exactly make them likely to believe you were on the case.

Not bothering? Did you take the time to read my post (as lengthy as it was)?

I made several attemps, initially via email... then via calls then via writing to obtain logon details, however as Customer Service means nothing to o2 (as I'm sure many other MSE'ers will confirm) this brought about zero results.

Maybe the saying about not saying anything unless you have something helpful to say applies here. You could have at least read my OP.

Nevermind.

MarkyMarkD

Yep, I read it. Long as it was.

It doesn't take 13 months to get logon details for ANYTHING - however rubbish the company's customer service is. Your OP actually said that you tried "a few times" to get the details, and then GAVE UP because you "weren't too stressed". Hence "not bothering".

It would seem that your phone was very poorly packaged - you didn't get the insurance details, you didn't get the logon details, you didn't get anything except the phone apparently. That's very poor indeed - but complaining about it well over a year after the phone was delivered is simply too late. That's what I had to say.

I can't see ANY reason why O2 should refund you for the insurance at this stage. Absolutely ANYBODY who gets free phone insurance on this sort of deal (which, as others have posted, applies on a huge proportion of discounted phone deals) could say to their insurer, at the end of a claim-free period of time, that they never intended to have the insurance. You have no proof that you didn't know about the insurance. It boils down to your word against theirs.

And like I've said, it should have been mentioned:

(a) on the website when signing up (assuming it was online);
(b) in the package when the phone was delivered; and
(c) on your bill every single month since it's been charged.

You expect them to believe that all 3 of these methods of informing you failed, the third because you didn't get the login details?

That's what I was saying.

My honest opinion is that you are flogging a dead horse.

GibsonSt19

The fact is, when signing up, it only stated that there was 3 months free. Nothing at all about having to cancel it after the 3 months.

And again, I'd made a great deal of effort to obtain the logon details to allow me to view the bills in detail online, however o2 never provided them and as the monthly bill amount were 'acceptable' and didn't reflect that of a stollen phone or anything like that...I left it (can you see where the 'bothering' came into it? Contacting them several times? That's called making an effort...something o2 don't seem capable of reciprocating), and just made sure it didn't exceed a certain amount each month. I 'wasn't too stressed' as relatively speaking, this issue is minute and I didn't want to loose sleep over the matter.

As it's an online contract, they send NO paper bills. And as I didn't have logon details, I couldn't check online.

This phone came with NO o2 paperwork (just the phone related docs...manual etc.)

My phone on the other hand, DID come with details of the contract.

I really don't care what they 'believe' about what I'm saying, the fact is I'm an honest person, and I hate being taken for granted.

Thanks for your thoughts though, I also feel like I'm probably flogging a dead horse by the name of o2 Customer Services.

MarkyMarkD

I know you're honest and I don't doubt that they have given you bad service. But you've also been slightly naive as there is no point in any phone company giving 3 months' insurance for free - it's only done as "a sprat to catch a mackerel" as my father would say. And that means that you are contractually bound to continue the insurance unless you exercise the cancellation option.

As you say the charge in dispute is relatively minute. But I would have noticed if my wife's mobile call bill was £5 too much every month. It's not hard to see (from the phone) how many minutes have been used in a month and to estimate the bill - or to see that it should be NIL, if it falls within the contractual allowance.

I'm sorry that you've been given a hard time by O2.

GibsonSt19

"What's that Mr o2 Customer Service Representative, you agree that o2 should make at least a partial goodwill gesture?"



I'm just kidding myself, aren't I?

Wig

I don't think they should make any good will gesture, I didn't expect Ntl (see post above) to make any gesture, I expected them to cancel straight away, but I wouldn't expect any back dating. It's a bonus if they give you it but not worth fighting for. I left it too late, I did not cover my back, I did not keep all correspondence between me and Ntl so I had nothing to fight them with.

You are in the same situation, you fought for a while to get your logon details and then you gave up. I can tell you I would never have given up on that, I would have been asking for supervisors, getting his/her name telling them to phone me back with their progress, and if they didn't phone me back I'd be phoning them next day to say "When you tell me you will phone me you had better keep your word in future & either you give me logon details now or an expectation of how many days this will take or I am cancelling the contract between us". Your "not bothered" approach has landed you here. Give up, move on.