Virgin Media opened an O2 account in my name without my consent or knowledge

MikeCSheff

I'm a VM Braodband only customer, and recently received a notifcation that my bill would be increasing by £8 a month from May.

On Monday 17th, I called VM and said I'll like to see if they could do anything about the price. The advisor immediately said, yes, no problem and infact she could even bring the overall price down by £1 a month. I asked if this was a new contract or if there were any other changes and she confirmed, TWICE, that no, only the price would be coming down. At no point did we discuss or even mention a Sim card or o2 contract.

At 4am on the 18th I recieve a text from 'o2' saying 'thanks for your sim order, it will will arrive in the next 3 days - I assumed it was spam and ignored it. Until the postman arrived and delivered a new o2 sim to me (with a slightly misspelled name for good measure). At this point I'm worried that I've been used in one of those scams where they order an iphone in your name, then send a fake 'courier' round to collect it, leaving me with an unwanted contract.

So I called o2. They were not much help, because I couldn't pass their security, because I knew nothing about the account, but they did mention it *could* be related to VM if I had made any changes recently. (o2 and VM have a partnership now)

I rang VM - they said they had no record of a sim card being ordered and put me through to o2, who cut me off.

I finally got through to o2 again, who insisted I active the sim to get a security code so they could speak to me. They confirmed that yes, VM had ordered the sim, that its for 18 months - £5 a month.

Back to VM, who this time could see that they had ordered the sim, and that this was how they were able to offer such a good discount - by having broadband AND an 02 sim, and that actually thats a really good price! I explained that is not the point, and that its totally unacceptable to set up a new contract without someone's knowledge. The advisor now explained that I could cancel the o2 sim but this would mean my contract would go to full price - I'd lose all discounts!.

I have raised a complaint - although I'm not sure the advisor knew the complaints process, because even when pressed she couldn't tell me what the complaints proceedure was other than that her manager would call me back but was 'not in the office today' - no reference, no time scale, no link to the complaint process.

I'm really not happy about this - I don't want an o2 contract and did not agree to it, this seems like a very serious breach. They have set up a contract, including DD, without my consent. It will appear on my credit file, which I don't want, and I'm not a fan of o2 after they screwed up a phone number port a few years ago leading me to lose an old mobile number (although it appears VM are the ones at fault here).

What regulations have VM broken by opening an account without my consent, and should I press for compensation eg -  for the impact on my credit file?

datz

MikeCSheff said:

I have raised a complaint - although I'm not sure the advisor knew the complaints process, because even when pressed she couldn't tell me what the complaints proceedure was other than that her manager would call me back but was 'not in the office today' - no reference, no time scale, no link to the complaint process.

It's fairly easy to raise a formal complaint with each of them online. Complaints will be handled by a seperate (usually more competent) department.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints (web form)

https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain (email)

Written is probably best, as it allows you to formulate a clear and concise complaint before submitting it. They should be able to review the phone call. If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint(s), you will have the option to escalate to the ombudsman for independent adjudication. It might be worth complaining to both, since I am not sure how far along into their merger process they are (i.e. how independent their systems still are, and how much data is shared between them).

I'd suggest if you want to avoid being locked into an 18 month contract with O2, that you get that cancelled asap (should be easy enough during the cooling off period - just make sure you follow the correct process for this). The search probably isn't much of an issue, but you can push to get that removed too via your complaint.

HampshireH

Goodluck getting a complaint response from Virgin.

I logged a complaint nearly 2 years ago and chased multiple times. I gave up in the end and it just sat open for months.

Their customer service can be absolutely shocking

I too have an O2 SIM from them at £25 a month which reduced our monthly price. Never used it. It's still in the envelope but it's onemore thing to remember to cancel at the end of the contract which is a nuisance 

MikeCSheff

datz said:

MikeCSheff said:

I have raised a complaint - although I'm not sure the advisor knew the complaints process, because even when pressed she couldn't tell me what the complaints proceedure was other than that her manager would call me back but was 'not in the office today' - no reference, no time scale, no link to the complaint process.

It's fairly easy to raise a formal complaint with each of them online. Complaints will be handled by a seperate (usually more competent) department.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints (web form)

https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain (email)

Written is probably best, as it allows you to formulate a clear and concise complaint before submitting it. They should be able to review the phone call. If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint(s), you will have the option to escalate to the ombudsman for independent adjudication. It might be worth complaining to both, since I am not sure how far along into their merger process they are (i.e. how independent their systems still are, and how much data is shared between them).

I'd suggest if you want to avoid being locked into an 18 month contract with O2, that you get that cancelled asap (should be easy enough during the cooling off period - just make sure you follow the correct process for this). The search probably isn't much of an issue, but you can push to get that removed too via your complaint.

Thanks  - yes I've put it through as a written complaint now and will see how / if they respond.

MikeCSheff

HampshireH said:

Goodluck getting a complaint response from Virgin.

I logged a complaint nearly 2 years ago and chased multiple times. I gave up in the end and it just sat open for months.

Their customer service can be absolutely shocking

I too have an O2 SIM from them at £25 a month which reduced our monthly price. Never used it. It's still in the envelope but it's onemore thing to remember to cancel at the end of the contract which is a nuisance 

That's bad to hear about the complaint response - didn't have a lot of faith in the agent today when she claimed that her manager would call me back tomorrow. It was pretty clear they didn't even know the proper complaint process, or were deliberately trying to avoid it.

So I've logged it online too - at least there is a trail of it there. 

HampshireH

MikeCSheff said:

HampshireH said:

Goodluck getting a complaint response from Virgin.

I logged a complaint nearly 2 years ago and chased multiple times. I gave up in the end and it just sat open for months.

Their customer service can be absolutely shocking

I too have an O2 SIM from them at £25 a month which reduced our monthly price. Never used it. It's still in the envelope but it's onemore thing to remember to cancel at the end of the contract which is a nuisance 

That's bad to hear about the complaint response - didn't have a lot of faith in the agent today when she claimed that her manager would call me back tomorrow. It was pretty clear they didn't even know the proper complaint process, or were deliberately trying to avoid it.

So I've logged it online too - at least there is a trail of it there. 

Yes you should be able to see progress (or not) online.

d123

MikeCSheff said:

(o2 and VM have a partnership now)

Just as an FYI, o2 and Virgin Media don't have a partnership, they have merged into a new company now called VMo2.