Hi there
I am so glad other people are having problems with Aerial Direct! At least I am not alone!! I need to get out of a new contract with them due to being misled and conned like most of you too.
Five years ago or so, I'd been with O2 for around 10 years and they offered to pass me onto their "trusted business partner" Aerial direct, who deal with business accounts.
i am not a business customer, but they said, aerial direct will be able to give me much better "business deals" that they dont have access to. That i would have a dedicated customer account manager so no waiting in long call hold lines. That my account manager will review my usage and give me the best deals out there.
I stupidly accepted and for a few years it worked fine.
Until last year, i was getting harrassing calls up to five per day from aerial telling me to renew my contract. eventually i blocked their number because it was non stop. i also complained, and told them not to call, but they started calling from another number.
In december, my contract was due to be renewed. so i assumed, same as in previous years, they would offer me the best deal for my usage. i clearly stated in the call, that i assumed my minutes would include european calls. instead of correcting me and saying, no , your assumption is wrong, it doesnt, they went off on a tangent talking about rest of world pass. eventually i got an ok deal for £15 a month.
when i got my first bill on the new tarrif it was huge because it actually didnt include european calls.
i made a complaint, saying i thought it did, and i had stated my assumption in the call, and they had not corrected it, so i contnued to assume it was true. they said, i am wrong, and there is nothing they can do except reduce it by 25%. it was a five minute call with aerial direct manager, and they said if i dont like it, i can write a complaint, it will come back to him after 6 weeks, he will tell me the same thing again, and i could write to the ombudsman who will side with them. he said i have to sort out paying this huge bill with o2, because otherwise i could get cut off.
so i called o2 to sort out billing. explained exactly what happened to o2 billing team. they were so shocked, they said it was clear i was misled, and as a customer of "o2 and their trusted partners" for over 15 years, it was awful how i was treated by aerial direct. they also said i was not offered the best contract - on the o2 website there is one for £13 a month with double the data and inclusive of european calls, which is far better than what i was offered. they said i had been conned and advised me to call aerial direct again to try to sort it out amiably, but he agreed with me that aerial was in the wrong. however, i followed the o2 guy's advice, made the complaint, and o2 just refered me to aerial.
i now realise that my aerial "dedicated account manager" and my fake "business contract" are not preferential for longstanding o2 customers, neither are they the best tariffs o2 can offer. because they are not o2!!!
at this stage i will write a complaint to aerial direct, asking for a credit for the bill, and to completely rescind my contract with them due to them misleading me as to
a) what was included in my contract (when i clearly stated my presumptions and they did nothing to correct them, as recorded in the call)
b) why i was given a business contract and
c) that i would get the best deals via my account manager - when in fact, o2 new perwsonal customers are getting much better deals than i was offered , despite me being a loyal o2 customer for over 15 years and
d) being misled as to the relationship between o2 and aerial direct.
i am not expecting much from this con company. if they had dealt with my complaint better, perhaps i would have been less likely to want to rescind my contract but now i want out. i am also going through the GDPR to get records of all my calls . so i am going to go through the motions of the complaint but really no one should have to go through all this stress. if i cant get the above, or at least, a credit to my account for the full amount of the bill and matching of that o2 contract, then i will be going to both the ombudsman and also seperately, through the court.
I have no idea how this works and neither does anyone else so i am trying to get deadlock letters from both o2 and aerial and take them both to the ombudsman to let them sort it out between them both and myself. if o2 really viewed them as a trusted partner, and really valued customer loyalties for almost 2 decades, they would intervene and sort it out for me.
DO NOT USE AERIAL DIRECT THEY ARE A HUGE CON!!! ONLY USE O2 DIRECTLY.
IF YOU ARE OFFERED A BUSINESS CONTRACT AND ARE NOT A BUSINESS, DO NOT BE FLATTERED BY THE LIES THAT IT IS A PRIVILIEGE FOR THEIR BEST CUSTOMERS. IT IS NOT, IT IS A WAY FOR CON COMPANIES LIKE AERIAL TO ERODE YOUR RIGHTS.
DO NOT BELIEVE YOUR AERIAL ACCOUNT MANAGER HAS THE BEST DEALS FOR YOU.GO STRAIGHT TO O2
I AM SUPER STRESSED RIGHT NOW AND LOOKING JUST TO GET THIS THING WITH THE OMBUDSMAN OVER WITH. NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS. IF YOU ARE WITH AERIAL DIRECT, GET OUT BEFORE THE SAME HAPPENS TO YOU. IT COULD HAPPEN ANYTIME, I HAVE BEEN WITH THEM FIVE YEARS AND O2 DIRECTLY FOR 10 YEARS
O2 IF YOU ARE LISTENING, GET RID OF THESE CON ARTISTS!!!! They are harming long term customers!!
I am going to try to keep these forums updated re my two deadlock letters and trying to liaise with the ombudsman, but it will take a couple months at least.
The ombudsman deals with fairness, but the court deals with legal principle, and you can go to court if you don't get the right outcome from the ombudsman.
