Cancellation not working

[Mad666]

I have been trying to cancel this contract which was a Virgin pay monthly.   It morphed into a two year contract, without my consent. I gave 6 months notice and paid monthly to completion.  It is pay monthly now since September when my paid 6 months notice to cancel worked, but you are now billing me monthly for an account I gave 6 months notice on. You are making this impossible and my only recourse is to cancel the direct debit, which is what I have done.

I have made numerous phone calls but cannot get any sense.  

You are now complaining about this non payment, I gave notice early this year and completed notice period but cannot get any sense from anyone.  See you in Court.

[Enlli]

Cancelling Your Direct Debit was the worse thing you could have done. All that will do is put you into arrears and eventually the debt will be handed over to a recovery agency and bang goes getting any credit.

Something here may help. The PAC or STAC route means no need to talk to customer services

Guide: Cancelling Your Contract 

[Mad666]

Yes PAC or STAC route is better except The cause of all this was when I purchased O2 via shop instead of upgrade path  I bought a new contract thinking I would carry on with my number, did not work I ended up with two contracts and a phone number I cannot use since I have no SIM for it, PAC and STAC all need to send code to affected mobile, new phone is electronic SIM !

the only other thing I can think of is converting my monthly account to cheap PAYG monthly and just not using PAYG which will expire all by itself.  That's a last ditch effort, contacting O2 seems futile.

I have written to their correspondence address  with the sad saga but not expecting great things.

I note you remarks about the Direct Debit cancellation, may have to settle last months bill to shut them up then I think its the PAC onto cheap PAYG.

Thank you for post and suggestions, will leave until after Christmas and see if my letter has achieved anything then activate Plan PAC/PAYG

[Bambino]

@Mad666 Do not leave it until after Christmas. The longer you leave it, the deeper the trouble becomes.

Speak to the Payment Management Team on 0800 902 0217.

The opening times are:

Monday to Friday – 8am to 8pm

Saturday – 8am to 6pm
Sunday – 9am to 6pm

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/account-and-billing/payment-support

[Oxonian]

@Mad666 

Not doing anything material around the PAC/PAYG route until the New Year seems a good option, but whilst you are waiting for a reply to your letter, I would be inclined to continue to pursue O2. The social media team have a good reputation and can be contacted on Facebook, X (Twitter) and Instagram :-

Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

Another option is to continue to 'phone Customer Services on 202, but to try about 8.10am. You have more change of getting a UK-based advisor at that time and they often have greater experience. 

And please don't forget to speak to the Payment Management Team as @Bambino has suggested. 

Please keep us updated on developments. 

[Mad666 · Accepted solution]

Well, I went down the pac/payg route. Paid arrears then tried to get a PAC code via customer service but they say they can only send code to the affected card.  So requested new SIM card for the poison number and actually got one sent, stuck it in my CAT25 dumb phone and requested online PAC, and Hooray! actually got it.  

Registered with GIF GAF, I know they are piggy backed onto O2 but have cheap deals which serve my purpose.  

Nothing heard from O2 Correspondence unit,  will post it when I get one.

Thanks everyone for helping. Stay safe.

PS O2 guides seem to disagree with each other, nothing works as claimed.  Trust the PAC or STAC / PAYG  route, the most effective to date.

[Oxonian]

Thanks for the feedback @Mad666 and good luck with your new provider. 

Do please let us know what response you get to your letter. 

[Mad666]

Yes...The long awaited letter was useless, misread and misunderstood, unable to do anything due to system limitations, ring customer service on 202 (not even a direct helpful number) and a link to www.o2.co.uk/complaints which I suspect is lipstick on the p##

thank you all for your interest and suggestions

[Oxonian]

@Mad666 

You are welcome and good luck. 👍