O2 refused to provide service, now wants me to pay £233 bill

[Anonymous]

I just want as many people as possible to know what you sign up to once you decide to join O2.
Long story short, I signed up for Home Broadband and Phone in October 2010. Waited 2 months, got confirmation that the starter pack was on its way and a letter with all the details (including the landline number) but the landline was never connected, the address in the system was wrong and never got updated even though I asked twice and the advisors confirmed they'd updated the details each time I asked. Needless to say we got charged the connection fee for the phone line that never got connected. When I called the helpline at the end of November the advisor told me O2 wouldn't be able to provide services since our address, let me quote, "is not in the Royal Mail database". I contacted Royal Mail immediately and received confirmation that our address was in fact in their database. Next day I spoke with the helpline again to be told that still the company wouldn't be able to provide us any service and that our contract would be cancelled in the next 2 weeks.
I came home from a holiday in January to a mailbox full of threats that our non-existent home phone and broadband would be disconnected and the details would be passed to debt collectors. We thought it was a mistake when 2 days later I received a text saying "thank you for paying your bill".
Over the course of 2 months waiting for our broadband I think I spent over 3 hours in total chatting with your helpline trying to get to the bottom of the problem.
5 minutes ago I received a text and an email stating I owe O2 £233 and some other payments and by this time I just want to never hear about you company ever again.

[perksie]

Contact their complaints department here:
Link: http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN ... CASE=13668
You have had a bad time with this and I think you should seek advice from either a solicitor or the Citizen's Advice Bureau on how to put a stop to this shameful incompetence.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely agreed. This is clearly ridiculous and I would hope the complaints mob sort it for you immediately

[perksie]

I would have pointed the OP to the Site Admin, but we never know whether they're going to be here or not.

[jonsie]

Once things go wrong on O2 it seems they invariably go worse. In a case like this there needs to be some sort of instant action department or high resolution complaints procedure. Waiting 5-10 working days for the complaints review service is not acceptable when a debt collection process has commenced and allowed to get into such an advanced stage.
There used to be such a department in the Bury call centre. It was called Farside and worked really well. I don't know why but they closed the department so there was no on-site process for escalated complaints and no one to take ownership of a ridiculous error by O2.
Perksie has given you good advice, get a solicitor involved and claim damages, costs and stress compensation.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much everyone for your support and advice, especially perksie for pointing me to the complaints department.
I just got off the phone with the helpline, a highly competent and helpful person was able to get the issue sorted for me, waived the £233 bill and gave the connection fee refund.
I really hope this will be the end of that story.

[perksie]

Well done, and I hope that's finally sorted out for you, good luck.