Absolutely Useless - Account Settled (so I thought!!)

[Anonymous]

Well, having paid off my phone contract, I was assured that there would be no further charges against my usage tariff as all my obligations to O2 had been met.

A few weeks after making the payment, I received a bill for £165 for the remainder of my contract. Contacted an agent and was assured that this was an error and that it would be sorted out - always a mistake believing any company who tell you this!!!. A revised bill was produced showing a £3 credit, but sure enough, a few days ago the £165 was taken from my bank account.

When I called O2 this morning, I was told it could take up to 15 working days for the money to be credited back to my account, or I could sort out O2's mistake myself by ringing my bank and getting an indemnity against the direct debit.

Fortunately, the banks do seem to be on the ball with this and I had the payment recredited to my account as I was on the phone, and have ensured no further payments will be taken by having the direct debit removed.

I was also lucky enough to have sufficient funds in my account to cover the payment over the last few days, but rest assured, if I had incurred any charges, I would have been claiming them back from O2.

Anyhow - rant over - now I can completely sever any ties with O2.

[Anonymous]

Hi

Not a good experience and am relieved for you that the bank looked after you.

We do know that the online chat which is outsourced non uk call centres can get things muddled too.

I hope you find a better experience with any new network you have chosen.

This is also one reason why we suggest leaving a direct debit in place because even if it's o2's fault and should not take the funds if one bounces this can lead to credit file default markers which can take a long time to remove.

And yes your right about having sufficient funds as this could have led to bank charges too. 😞

Take care.

[jonsie]

Whilst mistakes can be rectified O2 don't seem to acknowledge how time consuming, frustrating and stressful this is and it's always down to the customer to have to do the chasing up. As you say, some customers could quite easily incur charges if they go overdrawn to basic errors like this and again, down to the customer to get those charges refunded.

[MI5]

I'd still leave the DD in place a while longer, just in case

[Bambino]

From the sounds of it, it looks as if the OP has already removed the DD, which could be a mistake. He needs to go back and double check with O2 to make sure there are no outstanding charges.