Aerial Direct mis-selling

marcarm

I have recently found out my girlfriend has been mis-sold a mobile phone contract, but it happened a little while ago. 

She was contacted by Aerial Direct "on behalf" on O2, who sold her a contract. 

On speaking to her, it seems she was sold a 36 month business contract, and this was not mentioned to her. She has not and never has ran a business. 

I have also found out that 36 month contracts to consumers were made illegal in 2011. 

On top of this, they added Office 365 to her account and has been paying £5/month since March 2019 for this, despite not requesting and never using it. On speaking to them last night, they agreed to cancel this but not until 60 days have passed. 

In March 2019 they called her and talked her into a contract extension (I believe this is her first extension, so second period of 36 months). 

I have sent a formal letter of complaint to them, and on searching there seems to be a lot of stories of them using underhand tactics to sell long contracts. 

I will also say she has severe mental health issues, and things like this cause her great anxiety so this is why I am taking it on for her. 

Any advice? I have mentioned the Misrepresentation Act in the letter (the material fact this was a business contract) so they have mis-sold on that part. They happened to call when she was on the way to hospital for test results so was not in a great frame of mind at the time, and they did not take any of that into account, and of course as it is "B2B" there is no cooling off period. 

liggerz87

Speak on the O2 community these clowns are still at it there not behalf of O2 they have also used we are i3 and can upgrade you because there O2 partners they have the contract deal also get your girlfriend to check the contract as what they have also done is say you have a year left on your contract they call you say you can upgrade and what they do is upgrade you to a 3 year contract and ad the year onto it aswel

liggerz87

Could also try calling O2 and begging them to help and this is why you never do unexpected incoming calls claiming to be whoever that why you'd like call 202 or 150 for ee to confirm if they just called

born_again

marcarm said:

I have also found out that 36 month contracts to consumers were made illegal in 2011. 

Someone better tell the mobile phone companies as they pretty much all offer 36 month contracts.

marcarm

https://www.cnet.com/news/ofcom-bans-36-month-contracts-and-makes-number-porting-easier/
So is this wrong then? 
Has it been lifted as I just looked on O2 and you can get the new iphone on 36 months??
Now I'm confused

Money_Grabber13579

Looks like that only applied to airtime contracts and they got around it by separately contracting for the airtime and the phone (as O2 do).  There was a proposal to ban this also for 36 months but not sure it ever came into effect.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2019/new-measures-fairness-for-mobile-customers

marcarm

She only has an airtime contract as she has bought her own phone and never had one from them. 

She is paying over £40 a month for unlimited minutes, texts are chargeable and 6GB data. 

She was also paying £5 month for office which she never asked for or used. This apparently takes 60 days to remove. 

marcarm

Thought I would post an update.

 

I spoke with Christian today and after some telephone tennis, managed to have a chat. 

 

Long story short, he said there are 2 ways to deal with this. He can offer to change her tariff or to cancel the contract medical proof of her issues would be needed.

 

At the end of the chat, he had offered to reduce her contract to £15/month for 24gb data. Which is substantially better than +£40 for 6gb. 

 

Regarding Office 365, he said that he cannot access the system to see whether it had been registered but would take our word that it hasn't (I know it hasn't as she has no use for Office at all). He is going to remove that and credit her account with £118.08 going back to March 19 when the upgrade was taken out. 

 

All in all, a positive result. 

 

I will say the complaint letter has not reached them yet, this has come from me posting on their facebook page and them contacting my girlfriend to obtain my number and her authorisation to speak to me. 

 

Pleased to have got it sorted out so quickly, and a big relief for my partner that she does not have this big bill each month going forward.