Aerial Direct

[marcarm]

I have been brought here via google and a lot of the threads I've seen are from a few years ago so apologies if I'm asking something that has been done to death. 

I have recently found out my girlfriend has been mis-sold a mobile phone contract, but it happened a little while ago.

She was contacted by Aerial Direct "on behalf" on O2, who sold her a contract.

On speaking to her, it seems she was sold a 36 month business contract, and this was not mentioned to her. She has not and never has ran a business.

I have also found out that 36 month contracts to consumers were made illegal in 2011.

On top of this, they added Office 365 to her account and has been paying £5/month since March 2019 for this, despite not requesting and never using it. On speaking to them last night, they agreed to cancel this but not until 60 days have passed.

In March 2019 they called her and talked her into a contract extension (I believe this is her first extension, so second period of 36 months).

I have sent a formal letter of complaint to them, and on searching there seems to be a lot of stories of them using underhand tactics to sell long contracts.

I will also say she has severe mental health issues, and things like this cause her great anxiety so this is why I am taking it on for her.

Any advice? I have mentioned the Misrepresentation Act in the letter (the material fact this was a business contract) so they have mis-sold on that part. They happened to call when she was on the way to hospital for test results so was not in a great frame of mind at the time, and they did not take any of that into account, and of course as it is "B2B" there is no cooling off period.

This has only come to light due to severe issues that she has, so now I have been made aware I am trying to sort it out for her. 

Thank you for any help

[Bambino]

@marcarm Posting this at this time on a Friday is probably not going to help you much. Also posting at this time of year, when O2 admin are taking time off won't help either. I will tag @Marjo, but she most likely won't see this until Monday. If admin can't help, you can lodge a formal complaint here: How to Complain | Help | O2 but wait until admin responds before you take the complaint route.

[marcarm]

Thank you for your reply, I wasnt expecting an immediate response but thought I would get it out there while I had some time. 

thank you for the tags, hopefully I can get this resolved for her. 

[MI5]

I'll also tag in @O2Georgina who will be on in the morning.

[marcarm]

Your help is appreciated both

[Bambino]

Good luck @marcarm. You've obviously know that there are many who have been conned by Aerial Direct. We see posts on here about them all the time. Why O2 considers them a 'trusted partner' is totally beyond me. I hope you're able to get this resolved.

[O2Georgina]

Morning @MI5  Thanks for the tag 

@marcarm  Im going to send you a private message so we can have a chat

[marcarm]

Thought I would post an update.

I spoke with Christian today and after some telephone tennis, managed to have a chat.

Long story short, he said there are 2 ways to deal with this. He can offer to change her tariff or to cancel the contract medical proof of her issues would be needed.

At the end of the chat, he had offered to reduce her contract to £15/month for 24gb data. Which is substantially better than +£40 for 6gb.

Regarding Office 365, he said that he cannot access the system to see whether it had been registered but would take our word that it hasn't (I know it hasn't as she has no use for Office at all). He is going to remove that and credit her account with £118.08 going back to March 19 when the upgrade was taken out.

All in all, a positive result.

I will say the complaint letter has not reached them yet, this has come from me posting on their facebook page and them contacting my girlfriend to obtain my number and her authorisation to speak to me.

Pleased to have got it sorted out so quickly, and a big relief for my partner that she does not have this big bill each month going forward.