Rights with O2 data

Lisaw47

Hi, at the risk of being highly embarrassed & being termed v stupid: I wanted to ask a question re my rights with O2 packages. I’ve been customer of O2 for many years. In June 2020, I/O2 set up a monthly package so I could get an IPad Pro. I’ve been paying monthly for the Device at £22.30 & the Airtime of approx ?£20.85. 
I suspect I have not been receiving the data/airtime…. I know people may not believe my stupidity but I’ve always used my iPad indoors via our Wi-Fi. It was only today, when I took it somewhere else, I noticed ‘No Service’ in the left hand corner of my device. 
I’ve lots of mental/physical health difficulties & have had a particularly difficult time since 2018. I’m also not very technically minded. Please don’t condemn/slate me as I already feel very ashamed at my stupidity. 
I want to address this with O2 as I’ve been paying for a ‘service’ (talking £1,000s) I’ve not been receiving! Before I approach them, I wanted to check where I stand legally on asking for a refund. Is the onus on me to check I’ve been receiving Data/Airtime Or on O2 when it was set up? 
I belong to Which & they are doing an offer to set up access to ongoing ‘Legal advice & Services’ for £29 & £9 per month thereafter. This could help me but my husband is now unable to work due to stage 5 Kidney Disease & need to do home dialysis every night at home. So we are looking at benefits; grants etc we may be entitled too. So it’s a v busy time. Thank you in advance. 

tightauldgit

I think Step 1 would be to phone up 02 and ask them what the situation is and why your connection didn't work when you tried it. If you aren't very tech minded then it's possible you haven't set it up properly? Have you put the SIM card in and registered it and/or done whatever might be necessary to initiate the service working? 

I think legally it's a bit murky because it's not that you haven't been receiving the service but that you haven't been USING it, which wouldn't entitle you to a refund. If 02 genuinely haven't been providing it (and I think that's unlikely) then you might have an argument but even then I think you might struggle slightly as a) presumably it's part of the contract for the iPad and you've had the iPad and use of it for this time b) you haven't really suffered much in the way of loss as you say you haven't been using it anyway c) I think there would be some expectation to raise the issue prior to 3 years elapsing. 

On the other hand 02 should have a record of you having had zero usage on the account for 3 years so if you explain the situation to them they may well be willing to offer you something as a goodwill payment. So I'd call them and just politely explain the situation to them and see what they say. There's no need in the first call to start discussing legal rights or wrongs, just tell them what's happened and see what they suggest. 

I'll not go into the rights and wrongs of paying £20 a month in airtime charges for an iPad that never leaves your home Wifi but that's probably something that you shouldn't do again and you should get out of as soon as contractually able to. 

Lisaw47

Thank you very much - fully understand what you’re saying about the data etc
I had planned to use my ipad outside but my poor health & that of my husband has prevented my plans. That’s why I’d agreed to the airtime costs. We need to go into O2 to negotiate better prices for the plans for our other devices. So will give it a go with O2. Thank you again. 

unforeseen

This may be a daft question but do you have a sim card fitted in the ipad? 

DullGreyGuy

There are people that buy things for a purpose and then for whatever reason that purpose doesnt come into being and there are others that buy a service as a backup in the hope of never needing to use it but its there just in case. 

Some may think its a bit silly to pay X in case something happens rather than waiting until it does any then paying it then but then most people buy home insurance hoping their home is never flooded or burnt down.

Generally speaking, have signed up for a service you cannot cancel it months or years later and hope for a full refund because you chose not to use it after all. Were that possible we'd probably see a lot of bankrupt gyms all of a sudden. Its slightly different potentially if the service was faulty but theres still arguments that its only really from the point of fault not from the start that the claim can originate.

In the first instance you should go through the O2/Apple troubleshooting guides to work out why its not working. First steps will be to ensure you put the sim in (correct way round) and registered it correctly. Then ensure mobile data is turned on in the iPad settings etc.