Financial Ombudsman says they can't act/Issue with O2

eleventhirtytwo

Hi,

Last year the O2 app told me all my payments were up to date at the end of the month when I would normally check them (by which time each should have cleared).

Fourteen days later they sent a communication saying that one payment was in arrears (a contract for a tablet).

I attempted to make the payment when I could (my next pay day, two weeks later) but I had been blocked from accessing my account via the app.

I have difficulty making phone calls due to my Autism. As such I requested an alternative form of communication to solve the issue with O2. Despite their website saying this was possible in my circumstances, they refused to talk with me via any other means of communication than the telephone.

After an unsuccessful attempt to deal with it in person (I took a day of annual leave to do so, also because said phone line was only available during working hours) I ended up - despite distress, and being placed at an unfair communicative disadvantage - trying to resolve the issue with them on the phone.

They re-enabled my access to the account and told me it would take a few days for the payments I needed to make to show. After a few days I made a payment, but it was for less than the expected amount they had requested (I couldn't set the amount myself). I gave it another few days just in case another payment would show separately (they had warned me this was possible) but nothing came up. O2 then closed access to my account again and sent me a letter that they would no longer deal with my contract and had passed it to a collections agency.

I filed a complaint and they rejected it, making a number of false claims (including that they hadn't removed my access to the account). I asked for a deadlock letter and they provided one.

I then took my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. First they said they couldn't act as it wasn't their area, and that I would have to contact the communications ombudsman. I questioned this (providing links to similar cases from their website) and after 20 days they replied saying that they couldn't deal with it because the deadlock letter mentioned the communications ombudsman.

It is my impression that the communication ombudsman would just tell me that a case relating to a loan on a tablet isn't under them/should be with the financial ombudsman.

What should I do next? Am I wrong in thinking this is a case for the financial ombudsman?

What can I do about their false reports of default on my credit files (for payments I was attempting to make)? I'm concerned they have destroyed my credit rating/ability to apply for a mortgage in the next 5-6 years.

Thanks!

E.

Edit: Sorry if this is long, I felt like I was being concise while writing it!