Banging my head against an O2 simplicity wall

[Anonymous]

Apple at home since 2001 and at work since 1998. 2012 Inherited sister's iPhone 3, signed up with my son to O2 simplicity £15.50 a month each with £6 bolt-on refund for iPhone and 500 Mb data download. Moved from O2 pay as you go to O2 simplicity contract for one year.

Turned son's 3G on after 2 months of trying by going into shop (samsung). Unbeknowingly charged for data dowloads. Argued with O2 on Jan 3rd, left bruised and battered. Subsequent monthly bills of £47. Online chat says I removed bolt-ons (which were free in the first place). Online chat service useless, read from a computer screen (O2 simplicity right there). Shop lady turns head towards side, understands, has requested response, they said 3 days last Tuesday, now after 7 days they say 10 days. Haha.

Writing to Dunne, Telefonica and regulator, willing to pay whatever into Spanish public finances just to get a REPLY.

If I'm wrong, say I'm wrong. Direct debit stopped, my only one power over big mobile operator, oh and blogging. The end of BIG.

Jilly

[Anonymous]

Is your Simplicity tarrif a 12 month contract or a 1 month contract? if its 12 months, the worst thing you could do is cancel the direct debit as this will affect your credit rating.

because you have been so brief in your description of the problem, I dont quite understand why you have taken an iPhone into a Samsung shop?

Data will be charged after your son went over the 500Mb data allowance, which is very easy to do with a smartphone. Your son should be connecting to WiFi wherever possible to prevent the data allowance being eaten into.

Its also worth bearing in mind that recieving emails and using some apps whilst on the cellular network will use up data. In fact some apps can and will use data even when they arent open.

I'm not sure what you want O2 to do?

[perksie]

Very confusing post.

You seem to have removed the data bolt on and are being charged for data, this would be correct and you don't seem to have understood how the contract works.

As PapaDug says stopping the direct debit will hurt you far more than O2, who will simply pass the debt to a collection agency and place a black mark on your credit record, hardly seems worth the hassle does it?

Making a formal complaint to O2 in a calm and reasoned manner will get you a lot further.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I'm angry because nobody seems to answer me. Re: direct debit I don't care about my credit rating as when I complain to the regulator this will be rectified and I'm willing to PAY ANYTHING now. It's not about the money or the credit rating and I'd willingly pay £100 for better customer services.

We had two free bolt-ons but were being charged on my son's account because O2 said I removed the data bolt-on when all I was doing was trying to check what they were charging for as my son has wifi at home and at school. If he has gone over his usage I'll pay I don't care but I signed up to two free bolt-ons but it seems this was or has never been applied to my son's account. 12 months 500 Mb free bolt on with my O2 simplicity contract. Our data usage has been low.  (Facebook, BBc etc free, last weekend was my first live streaming 20 minutes of Lions)

We were supposed to be able to share minutes for phone calls but I was later told in the shop that this was only for business users. I let that one go.

As a customer I only seem to get through to the first port of call, have to explain over and over so I'm not that impressed with customer services, the only one who understood was the lady in the shop and she managed to get through to customer services who are looking into a call that I made where I supposedly asked for a free bolt-on to be removed. LOL

I thought if I cancelled my direct debit, I might at least get somebody to answer me properly. They can send me a paper bill.

[Bambino]

I think you'll find that you will care a lot about your credit rating if O2 put a marker on your rating. You have no guarantee that taking this to a regulator will end up with a you getting a positive result. If you then decided to move to another mobile phone provider, you wouldn't get a contract because there would be a marker against your credit rating. I'd think about it before you do something you might regret.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I can only assume but it's possible O2 didn't activate your new service correctly (read: convert) when you switched from Pay As You Go to Simplicity.  Although as a consumer any changes should be transparent the back office stuff is more complex than we'd expect and at times they (suppliers) get it wrong.  This could well explain why you had no data when you should have and the tech said you'd removed it (you did and didn't when swapping tariffs).

As others have said, cancelling your direct debit isn't a good move -- but it is as long as you respect what you've done and accompany it with other actions.  If you're in a 12-month contract and have stopped your DD then you also need to do the following.  Cease using the service/SIM/number associated with the debit.  You also need to 'write' to O2 to explain that you have 'temporarily' suspended payments whilst the matter is resolved.  If you continue to use the phone/SIM/service as normal then it will go against you.

Although a major inconvenience you will be able to claim compensation once O2 recognise and rectify the problem.  And going forwards you should ideally use face-to-face comms in an O2 shop and only use telephone services if you have to.  Don't bother with on-line 'Guru' services (this is just a cost saving 'triage').

Jonty.

[Anonymous]

Jonty you are sooooo right, finally found someone in Belfast who is doing a network investigation.......all this time just to find someone who'll listen and look and investigate.

I'm only using wifi and my iPad which is only wifi enabled. Of course I'm paying for no service.

The number for customer services is 08448090202.

Don't bother with O2 guru or online chat service .....useless if you have a real problem but  make sure you email yourselves the online chat to keep a record of ineptitude.

[Anonymous]

I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT I AGREE WITH YOU COMPLETELY, as a customer with problems they stonewall you  with their FAQ'S or guru's and chat, and even if you have a reasonable understanding of what's going on, you have 'very' very, very, few ways to express your anger, me I swear a lot, then apologise, but ' it's that constant polite 'read from a board, computer program's voice, that does more harm than good as it makes you more, (well in my case anyway) angrier, and frustration set's in which again makes it worse, as they have you by the short and curlies, and they know it, I'm sorry I can't help, apart from sympathise and encourage your  stand on principles, but 02  are not the worst

[perksie]

It's quite simple to raise a formal complaint if you need to:

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=Companion,question=ref%28User%29:str%28Mob...

Swearing at CS staff is not the way to carry on under any circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Great link, it has header saying 'How to complain' then it is blank.

says it all really.