Really Annoyed customer

[Anonymous]

Up until today, i thought that o2 were a decent company, now i see that they are just like all the rest of the thieving telecom companies, who commit fraudulant activity around the UK,.

Let me explain.

In Jan 2014 i started taxying, and purchased a contract, 2 year, with a nexus 5 phone, for £27 per month.

In sept 2014 i left the job due to earnings being crap, and not being able to support myself.. ie £150 for 80+ hours a week.

Up until December 8th my bills were paid every single month.

On december 8th my bill was due, i couldnt pay it.. on the 22nd december o2 turned off my phone.

on december 27th i tried to pay the bill via the automated payment line, but couldnt (phone turned off). also i had no internet at the time.

Now i have no objection to them turning the phone off, even though it was pretty quick 14 days.. when i was doing this it was 28 days minimum before termination could be processed..

anyway, as i said, no problem

Today jan 22 2015 i paid my entire bill in full.. (£65) that is the december payment and the jan payment *which isnt yet overdue.

i phone o2 to be told in no uncertain terms,. You NEED TO PAY A RECONNECT FEE..

WWWWHHHHHAAAATTTTT

Im sorry.. but

1. i pay you £27 a month for a phone, I normally use no where near the amount of alloted minutes..

2. i have a 2 year contract.. ie YOU ARE BY LAW, OBLIGED TO PROVIDE ME WITH ANOTHER YEAR ON THE CONTRACT

3, disconnecting someone, and then charging them for reconnection is paramount to fraudulant activity.. (good money making scam)

NOW..

As i said, i have no problem with the disconnection..

my problem comes from the fact, i am no longer working, i am struggling but managing to pay the monthly bills.. I have one year to go on the contract, and now you demand more money (*EVEN THOUGH THE BILL IS CLEAR) Sorry not going to happen.

I am currently speaking with legal representation with regards to this..

i was basically told on the phone,.. either pay the connection fee, or pay the contract off.. (and people wonder why people end up in debt)

I still have a 12 month contract.. IF YOU ARE REFUSING TO RECONNECT THE PHONE< YOU ARE IN BREACH OF THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT.

not me.......!!!

Keith

[anticpated]

I emphasise empathise and hope you get something sorted soon.

[Anonymous]

We all empathise but o2 have not said that and they are under no obligation to do so.

When your circumstances changed did you call o2 to discuss your situation or did you (without wishing to be rude) bury your head about it all?

Had you spoken to them they might have been able to put a plan together. I suspect though that you did nothing so got disconnected.

From a contractual point of view o2 are faultless here. Sorry to say that but they are

[Bambino]

We 'get your point', but the reality of the situation is that what you're wanting O2 to do isn't going to happen. If you want to get your contract back up and running you'll have to find the money from somewhere to pay the reconnection fee. There isn't any other way around this.

[Beenherebefore]

@Anonymous .....you really don't appreciate how contracts work.

Take proper legal advice before you go any further.....legal advice may seem expensive now but it will save you money in the long run especially if you're thinking of challenging O2 in court.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous

Or you could just go the easy way and pay as per the terms of your contract.

You could also try calling o2 again and explaining politely your circumstance to see if you get a more sympathetic advisor but to be clear IF they we're able to do anything to help it would be as a good will gesture. O2 are under no obligation on this case.

And to answer your point about having to pay your monthly bill when you are not receiving the service (and you feel o2 are in breach as they are not providing you airtime) sorry but you are 100% wrong. You are not getting service because of YOUR breach by not paying. You have now paid but one of the terms of your contract provides that you have to pay a reconnection fee.

Your reference to the banks in the past is irrelevant and very different. Argue the point on here all night if you wish but it will change nothing.

[sheepdog]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Think of it this way..

if the government said..

if you have a car you have to pay car tax, but if you dont have a car, we are going to charge you car tax anyway because the option is there to have a car.

How would you react?

its the same principle, you cannot be charged for somehting you dont use or have..

---

The analogy is wrong. Its more in line with the policy you have with car insurance. Is if you pay by installments,  you are still liable to pay up your premium regardless if your car is written off or not. Then pay an admin fee when you terminate early.

[anticpated]

God it's like a night out with lawyers. 

[Anonymous]

After reading all of this, I have to agree that you don't have a leg to stand on. As per the terms stated by @Bambino shows when you sign an O2 contract, they have a right to ask the reconnection fee as you missed one payment & couldn't pay on time then waited a while after they disconnected you. They then have to alter things on systems & accounts so it's badically a charge for in barring your phone & changing the systems again allowing you to continue using the network

The phone is O2 property, you don't own it outright yet. It's basically paying off a loan essentially. They are entitled to do this, it's in the t&c

[Anonymous]

I still can't help but think the reason for the disconnection was a failure to talk to o2 when the OP circumstances changed. Had he done so there might have been more options.

It is a lesson to everyone. If your circumstances change financially talk to those you owe money to and agree solutions.

[cyrillicguy]

Talking about contract terms.... Is it just me, or would anyone else agree with the opinion that the terms of most of the contracts are very much imbalanced? Looking at them I always get the impression that it's the customer who always "must...", "is obliged to...", but not so much the company? I mean, say if the company is not able to provide a service (technical reasons etc...), I'd have to just bite the bullet and wait for the company to fix it "as soon as they can", yet to continue paying. If any compensation follows, it always seems to be a "goodwill gesture", nothing there states that the company "must" compensate me, as there are almost no guarantees of service availability. But if a customer is unable to provide timely payments (could also be down to various genuine reasons) then he/she is getting penalized left, right and center...