Problem with the Virgin>O2 handover

Vickyx26

Hi

I wondered if anyone could give me some advice please. As a household we have 5 mobiles and all of our TV/broadband with virgin media (although possibly not for long). As some may be aware virgin mobile recently switched everyone’s contacts/sims to O2 (although they are still part of the same family). We had no choice in this matter unless we wanted to leave virgin mobile. 

After a month of being with them 3 of the devices were offered upgrades which they took. Was on the phone for around 2 hours upgrading all 3 and they arrived no problem.
Then 3 months later we get a text from virgin mobile saying “even though you have a new handset with O2 you still have to continue paying us for the old one” however this was never explained to us during the upgrade process or the transfer to O2 process. If this was explained we would never have upgraded - my husband and I both work but still can’t afford 5 contracts plus an additional 3 payments of around 25 each. Given that the cooling off period for the new contracts had passed the option to send them back is no longer and option. I have lodged a complaint with virgin mobile and cancelled future DDs for now but they are saying it will start affecting my credit (which ordinarily I would agree with, if I miss a payment BUT we have NEVER before missed any payment with anyone and worked really hard to build up our credit and with them threatening to destroy that all over a miss sold contract on their part seems really unfair). 

Perhaps I should have asked but having spoken to them on the phone and been told that all 3 devices were Eligible for an upgrade I just took their word for it. Having spoken to virgin mobile a few times they keep saying “we’d part of the same company with o2” which I find even worse because we should then never have been offered upgrades if they knew we were in contract. 

Has anyone experienced this at all following the handover or have any advice on steps I can take to resolve this? Do I have any legal recourse? Thank you 

savergrant

Hmm. How were you offered the upgrade? By posy, email, text, or /cold call? And what documentation did you receive? How long was left on your contracts? It could be that you were offered o2 recycle and they expected you to send in your handsets. Have you cancelled any direct debits or have they tried to take monthly payments for your old plans?

Vickyx26

savergrant said:

Hmm. How were you offered the upgrade? By posy, email, text, or /cold call? And what documentation did you receive? How long was left on your contracts? It could be that you were offered o2 recycle and they expected you to send in your handsets. Have you cancelled any direct debits or have they tried to take monthly payments for your old plans?

Hi,
So I think one handset had a year. The other 2 had 6 months. The new contracts we have are on o2 recycle ones but the existing ones were not. The offer was on the “my o2” billing page when I logged in it said “congratulations you are eligible for an upgrade” so I called to ask and o2 confirmed it on all 3 devices with no mention of having to pay virgin as well. If they’d have said “you have a handset loan outstanding we can add it on to your bill” I may have said yes anyway and spread the cost that way but they want me to pay the same old monthly amount of £25 per handset plus the new £25 per handset and all of the airtimes also. They did take payments for the old plans and left us short for other bills so I had to cancel the DD and called and told them (didn’t recall the payment) to make them aware and lodge my official complaint. I just don’t think things are going to go my way at all. 

J_B

I took out an O2 sim only deal for a fiver a month on an MSE deal a couple of months ago (12 month contract)

My O2 app also offered "you are eligible for an upgrade" which I thought somewhat odd after only one month, but I just ignored it!

All advice on here is to never cancel a DD, especially if you are worried about your mythical 'credit score'

Vickyx26

J_B said:

I took out an O2 sim only deal for a fiver a month on an MSE deal a couple of months ago (12 month contract)

My O2 app also offered "you are eligible for an upgrade" which I thought somewhat odd after only one month, but I just ignored it!

All advice on here is to never cancel a DD, especially if you are worried about your mythical 'credit score'

Usually I would have ignored it but I called them to confirm which put my mind at ease but I’m going to have to ask if they’ll accept the phones back I think but with us being out of the grace period I don’t hold much hope 
what do you mean by mythical credit score? If it’s supposed to be a rude comment aimed at me - I’m not sure why when I’m only here asking for advice and my credit is fine. Or was but I will prob re instate the DDs whilst the complaint is ongoing. 

savergrant

J_B said:

I took out an O2 sim only deal for a fiver a month on an MSE deal a couple of months ago (12 month contract)

My O2 app also offered "you are eligible for an upgrade" which I thought somewhat odd after only one month, but I just ignored it!

All advice on here is to never cancel a DD, especially if you are worried about your mythical 'credit score'

I suspect 'you are eligible for an upgrade' is a euphemism for 'we would like to sell you something else'. The question which arises is why would they be happy to write off the rest of your contract? Answer possibly is to tie you into a (much) longer contract and make more money.
Anyway they aren't doing it out of kindness and if something sounds too good to be true it usually is.

J_B

Vickyx26 said:

 
what do you mean by mythical credit score? If it’s supposed to be a rude comment aimed at me - I’m not sure why when I’m only here asking for advice and my credit is fine. Or was but I will prob re instate the DDs whilst the complaint is ongoing. 

Many on here say that the credit score doesn't matter - I was just stating that fact. No rudeness intended

prettyandfluffy

As you are now aware, being offered an upgrade doesn't mean it won't cost you more.  I would call them and tell them quite simply that you cannot afford it and that if you had known, you wouldn't have taken the upgrades.  See what they can suggest but I would reinstate the DD because you are in breach of contract.

savergrant

prettyandfluffy said:

As you are now aware, being offered an upgrade doesn't mean it won't cost you more.  I would call them and tell them quite simply that you cannot afford it and that if you had known, you wouldn't have taken the upgrades.  See what they can suggest but I would reinstate the DD because you are in breach of contract.

Although an 'upgrade" wouldn't normally imply an additional contract running concurrently with the first one.  It could of course be for a higher payment or a longer time frame, but the op is being charged for two contracts.  What are the numbers involved? How much is each monthly payment? Maybe they have migrated your connection charges to the new phone deal? What happened to your old phones?

PHK

It's not clear what's happening.
I can only make sense of this if the OP was paying Virgin monthly (similar to a loan)for a phone and separately for an airtime contract. 

In which case the OP would need to continue to pay off the phone but would be free to upgrade the airtime contract to a contract with phone 

Beverley

I've just been moved over to O2 by Virgin and I read the comments on here so looked and checked. I found the following at the bottom of the 'upgrade' page.  "If you get a new device with O2 while you still have a handset loan agreement with Virgin Media Mobile Finance Ltd, you'll need to pay both loans. Not sure if you have an existing loan agreement?
Check here"

Looks like they've added this more recently or you missed it at the time.