Unable to contact o2, charged for months for inaccessible/unknown service after virgin merge

[A_Kirby]

Hi there. I know this is the community board but I assume a member of o2 staff must see it eventually, or someone can give some advice.

I've been having issues for a while, any time I try to call o2 it says it'll put me through to a person then goes silent for 10mins before hanging up. I also couldn't create a My o2 account for ages as I didn't have access to the phone number it wanted me to confirm from.

The o2/Virgin merge/takeover happened while I was stranded away from home due to losing my phone (as well as my bank card, ID, etc, hence being stranded) while in a city far from my home. Once I convinced the bank I was me, I checked with them to see if virgin was still billing me. Seeing nothing, I assumed the service had been stopped due to it being unused for several months. I saw o2 charges but assumed it was from the new giffgaff account I had just set up, not realising it was essentially charging double, one for the unused account and one for my giffgaff account.

Once I managed to get home, I decided to double check and get my affairs back in order, leading to me finding out about the takeover and begin attempting to contact o2. There was no customer service email, the website kept requiring a code sent to the number I didn't have, and the phone line kept hanging up. I couldn't request a new sim, or cancel my service, so I cancelled my direct debit assuming that the lack of use and stopping of payment would make it obvious I wanted the service stopped. For some reason they continued trying to bill me for around 3 months and then set debt collectors on me, all the while being impossible to contact. I even emailed their complaints service to no avail.

I assume it's now let me make an account here as the phone number has been disconnected due to lack of payment so it can't demand a code sent to it anymore, but they're still saying I owe them money. After several weeks I finally managed to get a response from the debt collection company who said they've put it on hold while I try to contact o2 again, and said o2 told them they have no record of complaints sent from my email address.

I still can't get through on the phone, but finally it let me make/access this account/this website as mentioned. I haven't had access to or used the phone number/account in question for around a year or more, and in my opinion o2 owe me far more money than they claim I owe them, as I've been making attempts to contact them for at least half to 3/4 of that time and never even had an agreement with them in the first place, I also especially don't appreciate having debt collectors sent after me when all methods of communication are ignored or made impossible to utilize (such as requiring codes sent to a completely inaccessible phone number).

 I have no intention of paying for a service I've never used, with a company I never made an agreement with, and preferably would quite like the rest of the money back to boot, but I'd settle for the hounds being called off and any damage to my credit score etc. rescinded. At least opening of a dialogue with an o2 rep to work it out would be nice to start. Thanks for any help anyone can give!

[madasaf1sh]

@A_Kirby 

There is no o2 support on here.

Sounds like you assumed wrongly that because you didnt use the sim, you didnt have to pay for it, not sure why you would think that would be case, you agreed to a contract with Virgin for a minimum term and those payments are due if you use it or not, or if you lose it or get it stolen, it quite clearly states in the T&C's. 

You could get through to o2 without a text code, as all the numbers are available on the website, and even  Virgin could have put you through, and security would have been done in a different way. 

Virgin Media transferred the contract to o2, and they spammed me and many others about what was happening, and it was public knowledge so that is no defence.

There hasnt been a customer services email for a good while, as its insecure, and you can call without getting a code

Im sorry to say you need to pay the Debt Collection Agency, and o2 dont owe you a refund or any money.. In fact you have failed in your duty under the contract, by failing to pay.. 

[A_Kirby]

The minimum term was over years ago, and I didn't so much assume if it was unused that I'd not have to pay for it, as have no idea o2 took over virgin. Hence why as soon as I got home and had means, I double checked and started attempting to contact them by all means necessary, and failing that I cancelled the payments once I had no other option. 

If it's not paid, why continue the service? 

Every attempt to call them resulted in silence then a hang up.

Any attempt to sign in to the website asked for a code from the old number (Until the number was disconnected, which I would preferred they did as soon as payment ceased).

I literally emailed every email I could find, repeatedly attempted to call them on every number, and repeatedly tried to sign in to the website, to no avail.

[A_Kirby]

As I said, I was stranded away from home, with no money, ID, internet, phone, anything. Thus no means to know about the switch. It was several months before I could access my banking, and thus get a phone or means to travel. Before I could check properly, the only preliminary check I could do was see if any charges were outgoing to virgin. There wasn't, and I did indeed think it likely wouldn't be automatically cancelled if not used, hence checking once I could.

That wasn't so much the issue, as the inability to contact them/lack of responses when I could indeed reach out. 

I can assure you, I could not sign in to the website without it wanting me to access the inaccessible phone number.

[A_Kirby]

Anyway, do you have anything actually helpful to contribute such as a means to contact o2 that actually works, unlike their phone system, to attempt to discuss the matter with them, or do you like being useless and sardonic? There's mentions of a live chat here but one doesn't actually seem to exist that I can find. 

[Bambino]

@A_Kirby All ways to contact O2 can be found here: How to find help & contact O2: A Guide - O2 Community

[Oxonian]

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@A_Kirby wrote:

Anyway, do you have anything actually helpful to contribute such as a means to contact o2 that actually works, unlike their phone system, to attempt to discuss the matter with them, or do you like being useless and sardonic? There's mentions of a live chat here but one doesn't actually seem to exist that I can find. 

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@A_Kirby 

You need to contact O2. Unfortunately, this is a customer to customer community so we cannot access your account or offer other direct help.

I would recommend that you message O2 on social media :-

Facebook : https://o2uk.co/O2CFB

X (previously known as Twitter) : https://o2uk.co/O2CTW

Instagram : https://o2uk.co/O2CIG

The social media team are based in the UK and have a good reputation for solving problems. 😀

[A_Kirby]

Thank you Bambino & Oxonian!

[Oxonian]

You are welcome @A_Kirby ! 👍