£`1.50 a month for a VAT invoice?

[Duncana]

Apparently the only way to receive a bill without "This is not a VAT invoice" on it and instead, a VAT number, is to shift to paper billing at £1.50 a month. 

Is this correct. It is what Customer Services told me. 

If so, would someone from O2 like to explain why before I throw my toys out of my pram on principle and go elsewhere? 

[gmarkj]

It is unlikely that someone from o2 will explain @Duncana as there is no one on here that works for o2.
This is a customer forum. There are some moderators who operate on behlaf of o2, but no o2 employees post on here directly/officially.
Did you call the customer services number or did you use live chat?
The regular contributors here always advise to use the phone instead of live chat because of issues with understanding/knowledge.
If this is a 1 off then try calling and ask to be sent a copy by email/post.
If an on-going thing, then you could also try but you may be asked to stump up for it...

[MI5]

Yes, it is correct.
VAT invoices are only required bu businesses so costs can be offset and it costs O2 to send out paper bills.

[Bambino]

@Duncana If you do decide to throw your toys out of the pram, be aware that you will still be responsible for your contract. 

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Cancelling-Your-Contract-A-Guide/ba-p/566774

[madasaf1sh]

All Mobile operators charge for paper bills or requesting one:

o2 is the cheapest by 4p 🙂

EE charge £2.56 for a copy bill which is ridiculous

[Duncana]

Thanks for the responses. I don't have a problem paying for paper bills. My point is, I do not want a paper bill, I want O2 to put a VAT number on my online bill, but since they cannot do so, not to charge me for the workaround to the deficiencies in their systems. i.e. they have to send me paper bills.  

[Anonymous]

This is only going to get worse for small businesses - see my post here. Esp. numbered paragraphs 1 - 4;  and this thread here

I don't know enough about real time digital vat interchange between organisations and HMRC but that would be the way to go. Or pay the £1.50.

[MI5]

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@Duncana wrote:

Thanks for the responses. I don't have a problem paying for paper bills. My point is, I do not want a paper bill, I want O2 to put a VAT number on my online bill,  

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They used to do that, but no one here knows why they changed.

I guess it would be different if you actually had a business account though......

[EmilieT]

Hi @Duncana! I've checked on my end and it is actually possible to have paperless online VAT invoices. You cannot however activate that yourself, you need to call customer service who will do a security check and help with activating this on your account  

Hope this helps!

[MI5]

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@EmilieT wrote:

Hi @Duncana! I've checked on my end and it is actually possible to have paperless online VAT invoices. You cannot however activate that yourself, you need to call customer service who will do a security check and help with activating this on your account  

Hope this helps!

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This is correct for airtime payments, but it won't work for device plan payments.

If you want a VAT invoice for the device plan, this must be requested each month and will be sent by post.

From O2 previously:

We don’t issue a VAT invoice on the device plans every month, the Refresh agreement is a credit agreement and unless it’s a business account we are not obliged to produce monthly VAT invoices. Customer services can complete a form to send out a device plan VAT invoice for a specific month but this needs to be requested by the customer each time they need it and will be sent via post.

A regular VAT invoice can be turned on by calling customer services for the airtime only, once the service is on the account the customer should then get the VAT invoice sent to them via post monthly.