Been chasing refund from O2 for 2 months

Smeags

Hi,

I'm posting this looking for advice, because I just don't know what to do at this point! My experience with O2 has been atrocious! Do I need to go to the county court perhaps?

On the evening of December 5th, I ordered some Samsung Galaxy Buds, 3 pairs, from the O2 online store. The price was £297 (£99 each).
Immediately, I received an email saying sorry, they were out of stock, but would be dispatched in a few weeks when back in stock.
A few hours later, I received another email saying the item had been dispatched, which was surprising, since they were apparently out of stock.

The next day, I received something from DPD which said next day delivery on it. It was an empty envelope! (apart from a piece of paper, a Samsung promotional flyer).
I phoned O2 to ask why I had received an empty parcel - they said don't worry, the buds will be sent when they are in stock.

December 15th, I decided to cancel the order. 
Made several calls after this date, and I kept getting told different things on each call. That the item had been dispatched already, that it was showing as delivered, that someone would investigate... (it appeared, because they had sent that empty envelope, this was causing some confusion)

December 31st, it was established with someone that the Buds had definitely NOT been dispatched. Someone was able to confirm this because he was looking at the weight of the parcel that had been sent to me, and knew the Buds could not have been inside, based on the weight. He tried to process a refund but this never came through. On the following call, I got told their payments department had rejected it for whatever reason, because of what was showing on their system.

Several phone calls later, I have now had 3 people tell me they were processing a refund for me and it is not coming through! On each attempt, they told me to wait 5 working days for the payment to come through. It has not done. 

Fed up now because it has now been 2 months since I placed the order! How hard is it to just send a payment?! I know I have a legal right to get this refund, but don't know how to proceed when I don't get it? If the advice is to go to the small claims court / county court, I don't know what evidence I could show because everything has happened by phone call? (I have kept a diary of every phone call, with what has been said, that I could send).

Thanks

powerful_Rogue

Smeags said:

Hi,

I'm posting this looking for advice, because I just don't know what to do at this point! My experience with O2 has been atrocious! Do I need to go to the county court perhaps?

On the evening of December 5th, I ordered some Samsung Galaxy Buds, 3 pairs, from the O2 online store. The price was £297 (£99 each).
Immediately, I received an email saying sorry, they were out of stock, but would be dispatched in a few weeks when back in stock.
A few hours later, I received another email saying the item had been dispatched, which was surprising, since they were apparently out of stock.

The next day, I received something from DPD which said next day delivery on it. It was an empty envelope! (apart from a piece of paper, a Samsung promotional flyer).
I phoned O2 to ask why I had received an empty parcel - they said don't worry, the buds will be sent when they are in stock.

December 15th, I decided to cancel the order. 
Made several calls after this date, and I kept getting told different things on each call. That the item had been dispatched already, that it was showing as delivered, that someone would investigate... (it appeared, because they had sent that empty envelope, this was causing some confusion)

December 31st, it was established with someone that the Buds had definitely NOT been dispatched. Someone was able to confirm this because he was looking at the weight of the parcel that had been sent to me, and knew the Buds could not have been inside, based on the weight. He tried to process a refund but this never came through. On the following call, I got told their payments department had rejected it for whatever reason, because of what was showing on their system.

Several phone calls later, I have now had 3 people tell me they were processing a refund for me and it is not coming through! On each attempt, they told me to wait 5 working days for the payment to come through. It has not done. 

Fed up now because it has now been 2 months since I placed the order! How hard is it to just send a payment?! I know I have a legal right to get this refund, but don't know how to proceed when I don't get it? If the advice is to go to the small claims court / county court, I don't know what evidence I could show because everything has happened by phone call? (I have kept a diary of every phone call, with what has been said, that I could send).

Thanks

Send them a Letter Before Action. Short and sweet highlighting what the issue is and how you want it resolved.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/Problems-with-goods---letter-before-court-action/

Smeags

Thank for you this. I was planning to do this, but got it resolved just after this post was made.

I called my bank to do a chargeback. The next day, O2 contacted me, put a refund request through (the 4th attempt) and it actually worked this time! So have actually been refunded twice now, but expect them to take the chargeback money back.