O2 cancelled my contract without me asking and charging me £200

Jaffabfc

Hi,

So i had a monthly sim only that is now about 2-3 months old and i decided to get a new phone on a different contract with a different provider ID. I transferred the telephone number number from O2 to ID and was going to transfer the other number from ID to O2. 

I have changed the O2 to ID and now been told i owe nearly £200 for early termination but i am not wanting to terminate, i am wanting to switch numbers (done this numberous times over the years). 

I have just rung them and they have said there is nothing they can do and that i have to make the payment, this is a payment i cant afford, as well as it been 3 months in and paying £200. Is someone on here able to help or advise?

I am also a customer of Virgin and if they force me into making the payment then i will have to pull out of both suppliers and not use them again. I am not been forced into something that i dont want to do.

QrizB

Is someone on here able to help or advise?

Porting your number from mobile account A to account B always closes account A.

By porting your O2 number to ID, you terminated your O2 account. As you were still in contract you've incurred early termination penalties.

By the same measure, if you'd managed to move the ID number you'd have closed the ID account.

flaneurs_lobster

You have swapped phone numbers between two SIMs before? Don't think so.

You can move a number from one SIM to another but the SIM moved from cannot then accept a new number - it's a dead SIM.

Presumably you used a PAC code to move your number from O2 to iD? That does two things, cancels your contract with O2 and overwrites the iD number with the one from O2.

Cancelling the O2 contract means you are liable for early termination charges of approximately what you would have paid if you had left it to term.

Overwriting the iD number means there is no number to "swap back" to the (now dead) O2 SIM, nor indeed any mechanism to do so, you've ended the service contract with O2 (but not your financial obligation).

I suspect that threatening O2 with the termination of your Virgin contract (is that contract still subject to a minimum term too?) will make no difference whatsoever.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6663114/o2-cancelled-my-contract-without-me-asking-and-charging-me-200

Yes, you messed up a bit there I'm afraid. It's a bit late now unless you can get both parties to help, but would it have not been simpler to simply swap sims over if you just wanted a new phone on your main number?

Jaffabfc

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953655#Comment_81953655

not really as one had more data than the other etc, one is for my son and the other is for my partner.

It sounds like i did mess up but i contacted them first and they told me to do this which is more annoying.

And yes i have done this before, did it about 6 months ago with my own number.

Frozen_up_north

Jaffabfc, you mentioned "they told me to do this"… Ages ago we were with O2 and made a call while roaming in an EU country, the call was from one EU country to another and got charged for it. The call taker at O2 said that was correct as they only offered EU roaming calls back to the UK. I pointed out their terms and conditions differed from what the call taker was saying.

When back in the UK I escalated the charge to O2 supervision who said the call taker and their system were both wrong, and that they should not be charging for those calls, he refunded the cost and added £10 to the account for the trouble they had caused.

Bottom line, do not accept anything a call taker says. Refer to the published terms and conditions.

QrizB

And yes i have done this before, did it about 6 months ago with my own number.

What exactly did you do six months ago?

Porting a number from one account (which automatically closes) to another account (which loses its previous number forever) is quite routine.

But what you were trying to do (swapping numbers between two accounts on different providers while keeping both live) is practically impossible.

flaneurs_lobster

With such matters the details are very important.

 ….but i contacted them first and they told me to do this which is more annoying

Contacted who, O2 or iD?

Told you to do what, precisely.

What exactly did you do, and how, 6 months ago with your own number. Were you in a minimum term agreement?

Jaffabfc

i contacted o2 as i wanted to upgrade my phone which had broke to keep with the same contract as i get virgin media double speed with having an o2 contract. they told me they couldnt give me a good enough price on an offer, so i went away and looked elsewhere.

I found on ID a much better price so rang O2 and asked if they could match it or better it and they said no.

I went in the shop as well and they also said no.

I then asked in store if i could sign up and just put the new number from ID on this contract (the o2 pay monthly) and then the o2 number on to the ID contract they said yes you would need to contact customer services and get some sort of code, which i presumed was a PAC code.

I rang O2 and tried negotiating again but got nothing out of them so i decided to ask about this number swapping and they said yes you would need a PAC code from us and one from ID and this would swap over the numbers, but they said so i didnt lose my number to let the O2 one go to ID first and then within 28 days transfer the other number back over to O2, as thats how long the account is kept open for.

I got a PAC code from O2 and gave it to ID who changed the number to ID within 48 hours.

I was then on holiday and received a message saying i owed nearly £200, as soon as i came back i contacted them and they advised the above, saying that once its gone thats it, even though the original customer service person said i could swap O2 to ID and ID to O2.

They have openly admitted on the phone that that is wrong and i shouldnt have been advised it but are still telling me i need to make the payment.

I understand it probably is in the T&C's but if someone tells me something that it would work who works for O2 then i expect it to work no matter what the conditions of the contract are.

And several months ago i changed my contract that was with EE to ID and swapped the numbers back and forth using a PAC code, this sim is now in a tablet we use when we are out and about. I did it with them without an issue

Frozen_up_north

”I understand it probably is in the T&C's but if someone tells me something that it would work who works for O2 then i expect it to work no matter what the conditions of the contract are.”

That’s exactly the issue. Obtaining a PAC and using it cancels the existing contract, regardless of anything a call taker or shop assistant might say.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/switching-provider/switching-mobile-phone-provider

Jaffabfc

Just a quick update, i spoke to someone at O2 who could finally understand me correctly and they agreed that they have it on log that they informed me incorrectly.

They have now wrote off the debt and advised me if i want to stay with them i could sign up with a new contract or sim only and port the number i wanted over.

If not i could leave O2 and still keep my Volt package with Virgin because until i upgrade my Virgin it wont check to see if i am a customer of both again.

So a little trick there if anyone wants faster internet speed with virgin, buy the cheapest O2 sim connect it to the volt package and then cancel it (currently £7 pm on uswitch), so you can get a double speed virgin for an extra 1 off payment of £7.

Anyway i got all confirmation on my account and also via email that it was cancelled last night.

All is now good.