VAT Invoice

[nhb]

I am an O2 personal customer, but as I use my phone for business purposes, I need a VAT invoice to assist with reclaiming expenses.  Based on some previous questions and comments from the O2 Community, I gathered that VAT invoices could be requested by calling 202 and asking for VAT invoices to be enabled.  However, when I called 202 and asked for VAT invoices to be enabled, I was informed that only "paper" VAT invoices could be provided and that I would be charged £1.50 for each "paper".  Is there a way to get downloadable VAT invoices, rather than paying an extra £1.50 a month for a "paper" bill?  

[Cleoriff]

@pgnI have done...but am I right in thinking you had it enabled originally and then it stopped?

Edited to add I have just seen @MI5's post on the previous page. I am slow typing

[pgn]

You have a point, @Cleoriff and @MI5, as I've been with O2 forever, with contracts from O2, Phones4U, Cellnet, among others over the years, so perhaps the switch is on my account where it is not on those stepping onto the O2 Refresh train as a first contract. It still took me 5 or 6 calls over 10months before I landed with one CS lady who knew exactly what needed to be done to re-enable VAT Invoices for me.

Several of them did say I would have to ring each month to ask for the VAT Invoice to be posted, at a cost of £1.50 a pop. 

What a shambles. 

Please, @nhb, do let us know how you get on with just that one question "Hi, please can you enable VAT Invoices on the Airtime portion of my MyO2 account?" .

[nhb]

Thank you to everyone for your input and suggestions on this matter. 

I am surprised that O2 make it so complicated and difficult to request a VAT invoice.  Up until a couple of years ago, I was with T mobile and never had an issue getting a VAT invoice.  I can only imagine that O2 make it difficult to get a VAT invoice for a personal contract to encourage people to take out a business contract which they charge more for (£43.30/month vs. £39.00/month for the same phone on the same contract in the example I checked).

Anyway, I phoned 202 this morning and the Customer Services representative that I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about when I asked to enable VAT invoicing on the airtime portion of my MyO2 account.  However, she did say that she could request for a VAT invoice version of my most recent bill to be sent to me in the post and that there would be no charge for this!  Therefore, I took her up on this offer.  I will let you know when the invoice arrives in the post and whether a charge is applied to my account or not.

[Cleoriff]

Thanks for the feedback @nhb So it does seem that you will need to phone and ask every month (if you need vat invoices regularly)... as you are a 'new' customer requesting this ? (In other words ..you haven't had vat invoicing turned on previously?) ...This is pretty much what we were told by @Marjo)

[pgn]

And the downside is, @nhb, that you've to wait until your next billing cycle starts to see if the invoice setting on your MyO2 is set for a VAT invoice, or not... 

[aldaweb]

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@pgn wrote:

Several of them did say I would have to ring each month to ask for the VAT Invoice to be posted, at a cost of £1.50 a pop.

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 @pgn Odd, maybe it's because I have had paper VAT bills since they first stopped them by default, but I only pay £1 for each one.

[pgn]

@aldaweb Possibly. I am morally opposed to paying for something just to appease the taxman, so I made sure that I could access VAT Invoices on-line, stipulating it as one of the conditions of taking a contract many years ago.

I find it hard to believe that Refresh implies I am a boob who needs no vat invoice...