Cancelling contract impossible.

[Anonymous]

I have been trying to get through to customer services for 3 days. How ridiculous is that? 

Ideally I want to get my PAC code but now I don't really care. I'd just like the courtesy of speaking to someone rather than listening to music for hour on end. Pissing me right off. Sorry O2 but 5 years of good experience has just been written off. Livid. 

[Liquid]

Eh, contact them or don't, not my problem my friend.

I wish you the best of luck.

[Anonymous]

I will be contacting them, just not by phone.

And thanks for the luck.

[Liquid]

Honestly I do wish you good luck.

I've been battling for 2 months now to get them to remove the payment defaults O2 placed on my account:( its hard enough to get a business loan at 22 without having my credit rating adversely affected falsely:(

So I do understand how bloody difficult they can be to deal with:(

Only reason I mention phone is they tend to be a lot more efficient (well more than nothing in cases like yours)

We also have a fairly big thread of people who've had contracts activated fraudulently.

[Anonymous]

In your shoes, I wouldn't be battling O2. Just ask them for a "deadlock letter" and contact http://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html [OfCom related ADR scheme that O2 are signed up to].

Let them review your case, and they should come to a fair outcome. That's all I'm after, I'm just more than happy to drag my case through court if required. You're past the 8 week waiting period, so allow O2 14 days to reply to the "deadlock request" and then get in touch with the ADR scheme using their website form. They should also be able to make an order correcting your credit rating, or at least refer the case to the FSA who can do so.

Edit: If there's a big thread on fraudulent contracts with O2, then O2 need to be doing a fairly indepth review of their own system IMO. Adding 1 complaint to that probably won't do much. I know my money etc is safe, so meh, O2 can do as they please with future custom.

I've no faith in phone based CS (I used to be one, so I understand how their hands can be tied & even the ones that want to do a good job are prevented from doing so by red tape). Therefore all dealings I have with every company is in writing where possible.

[Anonymous]

If I had a £1 for everybody that says they are in IT/ITsecurity I would a very rich man. 

I am not doubting that you are but I could probably open a account in your name tomorrow if I wanted too. Hacking a online account is the harder option to taking over somebodies details using a combinations of online tools to get your personal information. So do not be so quick to think somebody does not have access to your name, address and DOB. 

Good luck with your case but I think you need to cool your jets and deal with the subject matter rather than hoping they will take you to court plus billing them for your time. Throwing your toys out the pram is not going to get you anywhere.

[Anonymous]

If I had £1 for everybody on the internet that replies "If I had £1 for every...."

Good luck opening an account in my name, even with access to name/address/DOB and even National Insurance number. I fail credit checks regularly because my property doesn't exist according to the UK postal service (amazing fun every year arguing my car insurance renewal). I also apparently don't exist according to the govt when searching for my Nat. Ins. number - which has caused no end of pain the few times I've been between jobs (they tend not to pay Income Support to people that don't exist - or rather, can't be immediately located within their computers). I guess I should stipulate that no credit check is required for an upgrade, but then, that's not exactly opening a new account either.

I'm perplexed though, you seem to think I need to "cool my jets and deal with the subject matter" - perhaps you've not read my posts properly. Did I not say I was along the path with an official written complaint? Did I not say I would be contacting O2, but not by phone? Did I not advise another poster about the ADR scheme that O2 subscribe to (thereby implying that I fully comprehend the official complaints procedure) as opposed to continuing an argument with O2? I've just checked my posts, and yes, I did all of those things. Yet apparently I'm "throwing my toys out of the pram"?

If I truly were throwing my toys out of the pram, I think for starters I'd be wanting to bill O2 more than £5/communication (but I'm aware that there's a "fair and just expenses" clause to such invoicing). I also don't think I'd be following the official complaints procedure in writing.

At the end of the day, yes, my details may have been used fraudulently to create an account. Social engineering is far from difficult. However, my bank have been informed of the situation and I'm not a fan of borrowing money, so I really couldn't care less about my credit rating. Whoever (if anyone) has my details is most welcome to them. I've dealt with far worse than someone impersonating me, and I have a pretty good grasp on the financial laws in the UK. I'd honestly rather save the hassle of being in Court - but I'm happy to play the game whichever way O2 wish to play it. I'm certainly not going to put in more effort than I think is required, in order to avoid court when I'm not the party that's made a mistake.

Now, I'll forgive you for making the assumption that when I wrote "I feel an irate letter to OfCom coming on..." you took that to mean I was actually angry/upset over this incident. However, as I'm sure you're aware, OfCom do not look into individual cases (hence the ADR schemes), so writing to them would be more than a little pointless. That was actually a tounge-in-cheek comment. I actually found this thread by Googling "o2 cancelling contract" - I think it's the 3rd link at the moment. It made me laugh, and the title was accurate for my perception of my case, so I figured I'd add to it.

Finally, "hacking" an online account is virtually impossible. But I'm going to go ahead and make the assumption that you meant breaching the account security. That's not particularly challenging, so I'm not sure why you think it's the "harder option" - I mean, how many Twitter accounts were comprimised recently? I'll let the ambiguation slide (through gritted teeth) as I know mainstream media often get the terminology wrong.

Gosh that was a lot of typing, I think I need a lay down...

[Anonymous]

I was going to respond in detail but having encountered many people like yourself I know I would be wasting my time......

Good luck with your case, I suspect you may need it. 

Am off to teach myself again how to use Perl, Python, php, Assembly. C, C++, Ruby, Javascript etc etc etc 

[Anonymous]

Update to my situation: I have received a letter from the O2 complaints department which apparently is referring my case to the O2 Fraud Team (although I thought this was done by the webchat op in early Jan). The letter also states that O2 have credited my account with money to cover the line rental incurred etc.

I've just signed into the website to check my bill etc, and I get "sorry, we can't find a phone number associated with your account" - therefore I assume that the account is now sucessfully closed. So long as I don't receive any more bills from O2, I'm happy. And if I do, I'll deal with those bills appropriately.

@steersy: It seems I didn't need the luck you so graciously suscpected that I would. I love the way you write that you were going to respond in detail, but would be wasting your time, then tack on a comment about programming languages you know. That really made me chuckle, since it was you who implied I didn't know much about the subject matter, and I made no such implication. I'm not really sure how programming languages are relevant either, other than to demonstrate you have a background in IT (which was never questioned). I didn't bother replying when I saw your post, I just closed the tab. I've seen enough of this forum to know that experienced members tend to look down on newcomers (to the extent that a staff member posted a polite warning to some users in one thread).

Alas, I'll leave you with this; How many Pentium engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 0.999854313 - well, it's a close enough approximation.

[Liquid]

Great to hear you've had a sucessful solution:)

Also thank you for the advise post I hadn't seen it until now.


Why do programmers always get Christmas and Halloween mixed up?
Because DEC 25 = OCT 31

[Anonymous]

No problem re the advice.

Lo and behold, I've just had an email from O2, stating I owe them £56.77. Funny, I thought they'd credited the account, and the fraudulent contract was for £41/month. So I'm not entirely sure where this £56.77 comes from.

Rather ironically, but in the email is has the usual "click here to see your bill" - I click there, and I get the "Sorry, we can't find any phone number associated with your account" error message. Pretty comical.

So yes, it does appear that even when O2 cancel the contract, it's something they feel they can still bill for. LOL.

I'll write back to the complaints dept this evening to see where we go from here. Note, before anyone brings it up, letter from O2 stating they'd credited the account was dated 13th, email received today. 48hours should be more than sufficient for them to prevent the billing system automatically emailling me.