Billed £400 for airtime, after paying off device plan and requesting account to be closed.

[Anonymous]

Hello all

I took out two o2 refresh contrracts a while ago, and paid off the device plans in full, requesting for both to be cancelled with immediate affect.

The next month, a direct debit payment was taken from my account for over £400. I called o2 and they advised that this was an error and I should call my bank and request a charge back, which I did.

The account was then closed (as far as I was aware, I didn't here back).

Roll on to my current mortgage application, where I had very good credit and the offer had to be extended. I failed the check due to poor credit, as a result of two payments in arrears for o2 wanting the £400! I logged in to my o2 account, and i have no bill oustanding. Both accounts are closed.

I am now waiting forr a reply within 10 days of my email to the referrals team. I could lose the house if this isn't rectified, costing me around £2000 in solicitor fees...all because of an o2 error.

I really need a letter confirming that this is being rectified and that I wasn't at fault, as it could take weeks for my Experian report to be updated.

Any help or advice on how I can speed this up would be greatly appreciated

Many thanks

Liam

[Anonymous]

Hello @Toby and others

O2 have finally rectified the issue. It took over 2 weeks from my first email to the credit files team. Originally they just settled my o2 account, and they advised that my credit file would follow but when I chased (again) this had not actually been addressed.

I received an email from the credit files team acknowledging my complaint, and they agreed that it was of course an error on their part.

They have offered me a credit of £50 which is very generous, however it doesn't make up for the weeks of stress for myself and my family, the now £800 on rent and storage for some of our belongings, and the fact that we won't now be in our house for Christmas. 

I suppose life could be worse, but this has been the most frustrating thing I've been through! 

I would like to thank all of you for your advice. Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened with o2 (a quick Google showed me a newspaper article with a very similar topic...), and the letter that I received did not identify what o2 plan to do to avoid this happening to other customers. 

[MI5]

There's hundreds of similar complaints on here too.
It's pathetic really....

[jonsie]

This happens to far too many customers I'm afraid and O2 seem to be very uncaring about the effect on a person's credit rating and all the resulting problems that people face through their incompetence. I just wonder if anything is actually done internally to people not doing their jobs correctly....

[Toby]

Hi @Anonymous,

I'm so glad the issue is rectified but apologies for the amount of time it took. I shall also make sure your thoughts and feedback on the whole process is passed on so that we can see what we can do to improve.