iPhone 6s preorder money error

[Anonymous]

So Saturday morning I went to preorder the new iPhone 6s for my partner (I ordered my own 5 minutes earlier with no problems), the website was slow and it kept saying card details incorrect. I tried it a couple of times and then it came up declined. It didn't go through so I had no confirmation emails etc, but then looking at my bank 20 mins later, two payments of £39.99 have been taken out of my bank account. I have had two live chats with advisors, been tweeting O2 and two phone calls with a 15 minute wait to connect and BOTH times the advisor has cut me off.
I am SO annoyed right now. It's been 5 days O2 have held my money and no sign of getting it back. I have moved from EE to O2 for this phone and already I am completely DISGUSTED with the service I have received.
O2 have made this error and are doing nothing to rectify it. One of the advisors told me it would take 14 working days to receive a refund. This is laughable!!! My partner also received this error when he tried himself and has had £39.99 taken from his account too. When the website wouldn't work he just went straight to apple and bought it outright.
Did anyone else have this problem?

[MI5]

Call CS early in the morning.
It's the best chance of getting answered quickly and getting resolved.

[Cleoriff]

CS are advising you wrongly. If they have taken the money in error they have a duty to return it immediately. I can't find the help link now but I am sure one of the more experienced guys will post it @Anonymous

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply @Cleoriff! That's what I thought, they don't seem to think so.
It's the lack of communication that is really making me angry. I have tried everything but because I don't have a confirmation number no one wants to bother to help. It must be too much effort.

[Anonymous]

02 customer service is terrible at the moment, I've spoken to them online and on the phone and they are really unhelpful. Think they are just so big these days customers are just numbers to them!! Hope you get it sorted soon!!

[Toby]

Hi @Anonymous,

Sorry to hear about your issues, have you spoken to customer service again this morning?

[Anonymous]

I Noticed the same thing happening on my attempts to pre-order.

I was using safari and i noticed whitespace at the start of the debit card number.  So when a user clicks submit, it tried to process the whitespace as a number causing it to fail.  

After my 4th attempt i realised this and deleted the whitespace and it worked!  Only charged once for the handset fee - thankfully! 

[Cleoriff]

Hey @Anonymous that's good to hear ...and thanks for the info on the way you fixed the issue. We may need to use your advice in future

[Anonymous]

Good advice to keep users updated @Cullen. Thanks for sharing!

[Benlfc]

14 working days for a refund is incorrect it is 3-5 working days for any sort of refund, but the problem is it isn't a refund you should be getting because O2 will not have actually taken the payment(s) O2 will have requested it but because the transaction wasn't successful it will be being held in an account which automatically reverses it back to you, the first thing I would be doing is contacting your bank and asking them wether the money is being held waiting for O2 to come and claim although with this happening to me plenty of times in the past they do usually have up until a certain date to actually come and claim it and it they don't like I mentioned the money is reversed back into your account, if your bank tell you they can't give you this sort of information because they don't have the means to they are talking rubbish. I wouldn't be to majorly concerned it's been 5 working days since the start of the pre orders I'm almost certain they have at least 10-14 working days (although I could be wrong with that part so please don't quote me) to actually come and claim the money, the bank should also be able to tell you what date they have until. Hope this helps