Appaling O2 service, failing to adhere to contract and attempted theft. Will Complain to OFCOM

[Dave24]

I had the misfortune to sign up to a Virgin Broadband - O2 Volt contract and have to deal with appalling customer support and poor service particularly from Virgin (lots of broadband outages, faulty equipment, engineers leaving before fixing faults, shockingly poor customer services etc). However until recently I was stuck in contract with an early termination charge. However virgin tried to increase the cost of the service in contract which meant I could terminate the contract (including the O2 portion) without an early termination fee.
The below is the text from the email (verbaitum):
"If you're not happy with any of the changes announced in this email, including those to our out of home WiFi hotspots and pricing terms and conditions, you can change or cancel your package, including your Volt O₂ sim, any time before 4th April 2023, without paying any cancellation fees."
Obviously, I choose to terminate. It took 1Hr30mins of hard sell before I was able to terminate the virgin contract (they would take no for an answer- the appalling customer service I have come to expect from this company). Obviously they could not cancel the O2 part of the contract (again shockingly poor customer service) so I was then put through to o2 where I had to proceed to inform numerous customer support agents of the situations with all but the last person informing me that I need to pay an early termination fee.
After informing a customer support agent I would be making a complaint to OFCOM, I was put through to a UK operative who informed me that I was correct and that a credit would be applied to my account to remove the early termination fee. 
Imagine my surprise when I just got a text message informing me that my bill this month is 57.89.
Just the sort of customer support you should expect when you have a contract. I have tried to contact customer support and get a response "No one is available" so I will be reporting the incident to OFCOM.
Let this be a warning to anyone signing up to contracts with this company.

[MI5]

Has been raised before on here.

Advice from the team here is to contact O2 via social media.

If you message O2 on Facebook (https://o2uk.co/O2CFB) , Twitter (https://o2uk.co/O2CTW) or Instagram (https://o2uk.co/O2CIG) , they should be able to help you with this
Thanks

[Dave24]

Thanks for the Info MI5,
Unfortunately I don't use social media. I do find it absolutely shocking that this is a common occurrence. Just goes to show what a disgraceful organisation this is.
I will be complaining to OFCOM.

[MI5]

@Dave24 

You'll need to go through complaints first before you can escalate to the ombudsman.

Use Resolver https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain

[madasaf1sh]

@Dave24 

OfCOM will do nothing with your complaint, as they do not handle consumer complaints. 

Also the CIDAR service will also do nothing until you have followed the o2/ VM complaints processes in full, and have received a deadlock letter from o2... 
I would suggest to stop you wasting your time and the CIDAR services time, you follow the correct process. and then if you need to the contact the CIDAR services that o2 subscribe to.. 

And o2 have 40 days to respond to you from point you start the complaint process. 

But I will reiterate OFCOM DO NOT DEAL WITH CONSUMER COMPLAINTS AT ALL..

[Dave24]

@madasaf1sh thanks for the advice - I am currently in the process of writing the email to O2 to complain.
I am also phoning customer services. 16mins so far and no one from customer support has answered.
I was told that this had all been sorted. I find it absolutely disgusting that O2/Virgin can get away with this appalling level of customer service.

[Dave24]

@MI5 Thanks, I have sent an email to the complaints team now (After 20 mins I got bored of their Customer "Support" not bothering to answer the phone).
Thanks again for all your help. 
I am truly disgusted by O2's behaviour regarding this issue. Luckily I am able to fight my own corner. No doubt O2 were hoping that I was another vulnerable customer that they could take advantage and rip them off.
I think it is disgraceful that multinational companies can get away with behaving like this.

[MI5]

Good luck @Dave24 

Needs more people like you to make them take notice 👍

[Dave24]

@MI5 , I might even open up a social media account.  It seems to be that they will only start paying attention when their reprehensible behaviour is broadcast to a wider audience. Hopefully a fair few people who are thinking of taking up contracts will see this and decide against it.

[madasaf1sh]

@Dave24 

They wont pay any attention, a lot of companies, dont give 2 hoots about Twitter, or Facebook any more, as its just people ranting.. 

Best thing to do is as you have, as anything you post online, may be held against you if you go to CIDAR.. 

Just keep it civil and to be point...