O2 Debt Collection issues

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Can anyone help with this?

Last year I ran up a large phone bill with O2 which I was unable to pay. It was passed to Wescot, a debt collection recovery agency, and I entered an agreement with them to pay £30 per month. I did this each month and didn't miss a payment. Last month I emailed them to see if they would accept a settlement figure for the oustanding balance and they came back to me with an offer after speaking to their client (O2). I was able to make the payment in full and did this. I was told my account with Wescot was now settled and would be closed and they would get O2 to update my credit file accordingly.

This week I emailed O2 to check my credit file had been updated and they have replied to say I still owe them in excess of £200. They say this is because the money I was paying to Wescot was for the device plan only, not the airtime plan which they are saying is separate. This is the first I know about this and at no point has it been pointed out that the two debts were separate. I would not have known anything about it had I not emailed O2 about my credit file. In all my time of paying Wescot £30 per month I have not had any correspondence from O2 about the outstanding airtime balanace. 

Has anyone else experienced this before?

[viridis]

How far into the contract are you now, is it past the initial 24m

[MI5]

Technically this is correct unless you gave notice to cancel your airtime part of the refresh contract, however, you would have thought this would have been done for you or at least you would have been told about it.

[MI5]

I replied to this too @Toby

[Toby]

Hi @Anonymous,

Welcome to the community! I have created a page just for you and your post, so that you're likely to receive more advice from others. Please take a look at these replies and see if they help.

@MI5, I had to move one post at a time

[MI5]

Sorry caught up now

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

From going through my emails it was a 24 month contract taken out in Feb 2014. I was disconnected around this time last year for not paying the bill and that is when it went to the debt collection agency. I was paying what I assumed was the overall total owed, I've not heard anything about the airtime plan being outstanding.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

I think the best you can hope for is asking CS for a goodwill gesture.
Unfortunately, legally, you still owe the money but based on you not having being fully informed, they may reduce what you owe.

[Beenherebefore]

This particular example and the lack of individual communications regarding Webmail closure truly highlights a major problem within the O2 organisation.

These errors are not one-off insignificant failures on O2's part.

[Cleoriff]

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@Beenherebefore wrote:
This particular example and the lack of individual communications regarding Webmail closure truly highlights a major problem within the O2 organisation.

These errors are not one-off insignificant failures on O2's part.

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I would agree. Appalling 'communications' from a so called telecomm giant....