Are o2 at Fault or my daughter?

[Janice44]

In August this year I received an email from o2 stating with my Family Account I would have free access to Quastodio Premium Parental Control Service. I knew nothing about this except that my daughter had gone to get her daughter a phone in the o2 shop. I rang her and she said that they had probably sent it to me by mistake. I heard nothing more until the 17th of September when two amounts were taken from my bank account £78.78 + £16.00. I was in Jersey and arranged to deal with it when I was back in the UK. On Tuesday 25th of September along with my daughter, granddaughter and husband, we paid a visit to the o2 shop thinking it was all a big mistake and something we could sort out. My daughter already had her phone on my bank account as at the time she had no bank account of her own, so we were hoping to transfer it over to her new one. They brought upmy daughter's bank account and said she had insufficient credit rating but if she paid £250.00, they could transfer her daughter's phone over to her bank account. She didn't have the cash so couldn't do it. Meanwhile tears of pleading from my granddaughter to let it remain in my account. I told her I didn't want anything new in my account as at the age of 74, I don't want the responsibility of it in case anything happened to me. The manager took the phone off my granddaughter and said he will return it as damaged!? I stayed in there arguing with him all to no avail. The next day I went back to the store and demanded to see a copy of the contract. He said it was sent back with the phone. I came back, rang the helpline and was promised an investigation into it. After chasing it up twice, I heard nothing within the 28 day time span. They did however block and blacklisted my daughter's phone as I didn't want it on my account. I asked her three times if she wanted me to try and transfer it over and she told me NO! I then sent an email to the complaints department. They got back to me in five days and said there was nothing they could do as my daughter had my bank details. Well if you ever pay by cheque, your sort code and account number are on there. She did not have my bank card,neither did she have my PIN number. So I fail to see how the blame is now at my door. I had hoped that the store would have been investigated but nobody has done that. Meanwhile o2 took another amount out of my account on the 17th of October £64.44 + £16.00. Today I received another sum of£66.00 + £16.00 against my daughter's phone which has been blocked and blacklisted. What the hell is going on. I have cancelled my daughter's DD. Ialso wrote to the ombudsman on the 28th of October. Am still waiting to hear back. Are there any views on this as to whther people think it is my fault? Thank you for reading this.

[Anonymous]

Eyes bleeding...

You helped your daughter get a phone contract, and now she’s done the same for her daughter, but hasn’t told you..

Is that right?

[Cleoriff]

@Janice44

Reading through that twice it appears to be your daughters fault.

If YOU didn't order the phone, then someone with access to your account has.

Phones are usually delivered to the cardholders address. You said it came to yours but your daughter said it must have been a mistake. Yet you are the one being billed?

I think you need to have a word with your daughter.

I can't see anything in your post to assume O2 did anything wrong.

There's something very underhand going on.

You could report it to O2 via this route but you may not be happy with the outcome.

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/safety-and-security/fraud-and-phishing-advice

You could also make a complaint here https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain

Just remember O2 don't send out expensive phones without an order being placed.

[MusicIan]

I don’t work for O2 nor do I have anything to do with them.

I’ve read your post a few times and feel driven to suspect that you have not been treated fairly by all parties.

As I understand it, both your daughter and your granddaughter have phones which they are purchasing through O2 and both have pay monthly accounts which are bundled together in order to avail themselves of the family discount. The payments for the contracts they have entered into are being taken from your account.

You say that the first you knew about this arrangement was from O2 informing you of a parental control facility and that when you asked you were told it was a mistake. This suggests to me that your bank account was being used without your consent. This is a matter between you and your daughter and granddaughter.

Possibly the reason for the unusual response in the O2 shop Is down to the member of staff suspecting that a fraud had been committed in order to obtain credit.

If this were the case, then the obvious conclusion would be to cancel the whole agreement. Yet you say that O2 are still taking money from your account for 2 phones and two pay monthly contracts, even though they have repossessed one of the phones. Once again I can only suggest that the member of staff thought that he or she was being diplomatic by saying that it would be returned as damaged. It does not excuse them for continuing money from your account.

It would appear that O2 have reached decisions and decided on a course of action based on information they have. They are duty bound to respect people’s privacy and are using this to withhold information from you, even though they are still taking your money for what they believe was a fraudulent transaction.

Are you sure you have cancelled the direct debits? Have O2 reinstated them without your consent? If this is the case, your bank has to refund you and O2 have to answer for this.

Whatever happens, O2 should be made to explain why they have behaved as they have done.

I do hope all this helps - it’s my view based on what I understand of this situation.

But in your situation my next call would be to the bank. Make sure the direct debits have been cancelled, and if not, why not.

Hope it helps.

[sheepdog]

Bit of a read but seems that the daughter has somehow used the account holders details to add another phone contract. That bit is interesting - did the daughter have written permission to act on behalf of the account holder? I'm presuming there was already an active o2 account. If so then its likely all she did was provide proof  she could act and the bank details were automatically applied to the new contract. Or as simple as taking the details from a bank statement. 

Personally, I don't think you are at fault here in your actions, its your daughter she has - and I can't really avoid using the word - seemingly acted fraudently here. Which is backed up by the bit about she not wanting to transfer it so effectively dumping you with all the responsibility of having to deal with the aftermath. 

I think the best course here is to determine what O2 has done and by date order. What's more important, is to discover where things are getting delivered (as in any post) as I suspect it may be not at your address. Though you also need to check if the daughters phone is actually barred and it hasn't been un-done by her.

[Cleoriff]

@MusicIan

Cancelling the direct debit may not actually be a good move for the OP.

Someone has taken taken out a contract using @Janice44 bank account details.

It appears it may have been the daughter.

However, to all intents and purposes, O2 had no knowledge that the OP @Janice44  didn't actually order the phone herself.

So bottom line, if a contract is still in place and a direct debit is cancelled, then debt will occur.

That will create a whole world of pain for @Janice44 which she doesn't need.

A difficult one to untangle on the information we have been given.

The way forward is to report it via the link to the Fraud Investigation team I gave in my first post.

An awful situation to be in.  

[Janice44]

Thank you for all your replies. I have read each one of them carefully. I cancelled the direct debit for my daughter's phone online today when I received yet another statement. Her phone was blocked and blacklisted by o2 on the 26th of September while I was speaking to a member of the fraud department online. I know two weeks later she tried to put a sim in it and it wouldn't work. I was told by o2 that the phone is useless. She cannot use it, neither can she sell it on. This is why I find it strange to get yet another bill from them when she doesn't have that phone anymore. I think the money that they have deducted when she has not had a phone should be refunded back to me. I will inform the Ombudsman on Monday what has happened and that I have cancelled the DD. I'm afraid I don't know what went on in the shop on the 31st of August as I wasn't there so can only assume. My daughter and I aren't speaking and I know I will not be able to get money from her to reimburse me as she doesn't have the phone and obviously takes the view of 'why should she?' To make matters worse, it was all over social media about what a  bad mother I am, all the family are nice to my face but dislike me behind my back. I decided to just cut that side of my family off as it is not something I need at my age. I can't get my head around as to how (if indeed it happened this way) my daughter could get a phone put on to the o2 account when I am the account holder. Why did they not check her identity and bank card? So many unanswered questions and only me who is out of pocket. They took the granddaughter's phone back, they blocked and blacklisted my daughter's phone so the only one that should appear on my bank statement should be mine. Why also was I not allowed to se a copy of the contract? Even the fraud online said it sounded like an inside job. But what do I know?. Just so upset and worried as I am £200 overdrawn and nobody is taking responsibility for it. My last resort is the Ombudsman. Thank you everyone for your helpful input.

[Janice44]

They didn't send a phone to my address. The phone was picked up instore at the time of taking out a new contract.

[Janice44]

Thank you. I am the only account holder with o2. I have uploaded another comment further down.

[Janice44]

Not quite like that - no. She went in to get her daughter a phone and said it was going through her bank account. However it didn't work out like that...