I am a long-standing customer with 02, having first opened my
account some years ago whilst the company was known as BT Cellnet.
My primary mobile number was opened for my sole use whereas the
second mobile was opened for my son to use.
Understandably, I have requested that certain limits be set for
the call charges on my sons mobile to avoid excessive bills and
I have always received confirmation, either verbal or written,
to confirm that the agreed limit is in place.
On many occasions, however, without any notice or the request
of myself, this instruction has been ignored by BT/02 who have
increased this limit. This has resulted in large invoices been
received and many telephones calls to the company to resolve the
issue.
In December 2002, I upgraded my sons mobile to the 02 200 calling
plan. The operator who upgraded the account assured me that a
monthly restriction of £30, inclusive of all line rental
and talk plan charges, would be placed on the account. Furthermore,
I was advised that I would receive a loyal customer discount of
up to £6 per month that would be deducted from my bill.
You can therefore understand my shock and disappointment when,
on January 10th 2003 I called an O2 advisor to be told that the
total limit had not been set to £30 inclusive per month
but rather, had been raised to £150. As the call charges
had already reached £43.69 an immediate bar was placed on
the phone.
I was far from impressed that I was expected to pay this amount
and did inform O2 that I considered it a breach of contract. On
that occasion I did pay the total amount on the understanding
that it would never be repeated.
The invoice dated 17th January 03 for £112.32 was way
beyond anything I was expecting and on receipt of the invoice
(26th January) called O2 (spoke to Ms K). She assured me that
the credit limit would be set at £30 once the account was
cleared and that the first month’s subscription charge would
be credited as agreed when the contract was taken out. I contacted
O2 on 4th February and was assured that the credit limit was indeed
£30 and that this included ALL charges to this account (ie
service charge £25 + £5 call charges)
I then receive an invoice dated 17th April for £73.34! Again
I contacted O2 (Ms R) who informs me that the credit limit of
£30 is for call charges only and that the subscription charge
would be on top of this. This is clearly at variance to the agreement
and certainly not what I would have agreed to at any time. As
far as I am concerned my contract with O2 was for a total credit
limit of £30 inclusive of all charges.
I was told that Ms K would be asked to contact me(27 or 28 April),
which she eventually did having first phoned my son. She did not
seem able to say much and was unwilling to confirm our original
agreement.
I emailed customer services on 27 April and have so far received
two phone calls both of which were totally unsatisfactory. I have
also, due to my total dissatisfaction with O2 and their standard
of service, placed a stop on the Direct Debit for this account
until this matter is resolved. I am now getting calls from the
accounts dept at O2 telling me I am in debt (I have advised them
to contact their customer services.
I have also today again emailed O2 requesting that they reply
to me in writting as I am not prepared to take phone calls at
work or to discuss any issue until I do have their written response.
Links to other O2 Complaints
