O2 have destroyed by credit score rating - very bad situation

[MartinMcC]

Hi fellow O2 customers,

My house has been sold and I have today been refused a mortgage on my next property on the basis that I have ‘defaulted’ on an O2 phone contract/credit agreement in 2015. This is an O2 error. I have full O2 chat transcripts showing that I cancelled the contract and payed all airtime and device costs due. I was given confirmation from O2 the account was settled and closed. I made every effort in 2015 to ensure this would not be a problem.

It was an O2 refresh contract. I cancelled the airtime contract and then paid off the remaining device balance for the remainder of the 24 month contract.

The Experian credit report states that I owe O2 £555 from 2016. 

I’m a current and long term O2 customer at the same address as the alleged default occurred. I have never been advised that this default/debt was still outstanding even when taking out new contracts with O2.  

I attempted to call O2 customer service several times and was passed from pillar to post without any success. I have since logged my complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service and will be seeking legal advice tomorrow. 

I will be communicating this on Twitter etc with full details of the conversations and problems encountered in dealing with O2. It's clear this is not my fault and made every effort to avoid this becoming a problem.

It needs to be made known that O2 is damaging peoples credit scores so recklessly. It's an acceptable way to handle your customers. This is now a very stressful situation as I have a young family and currently we’re unable to apply for a mortgage until this is resolved. 

Who do I contact to get this resolved? @Martin-O2   

Thanks,

Martin

[madasaf1sh]

@MartinMcC

The FOS wont do anything about this, as you have not followed the correct process in the first place and they will only deal with the CCA and not any Airtime, a lawyer will probably say the same.

They may ask for a deadlock letter.. and o2 have upto 8 weeks to reply. 

You need to follow the o2 complaints process full details are here :

https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain

Also be aware that if they do agree to remove the incorrect record it can take upto 60 days for the CRA to remove it once o2 tell them too If they tell them too). I would recommend raising a dispute with each of the CRA's in the mean time to show that this is disputed with o2 which any reputable (if there are any) bank will take into consideration.

I will also tag @Anonymous to see if he can help as well?

[MI5]

I'lll tag @Anonymous too for you @MartinMcC 

An email address you can write to also is:

creditfilereferrals@telefonica.com
Credit File Referrals Team
Suite P
Arlington Business Centre
Leeds
LS11 0NE
Fax 0113 2025865

[MartinMcC]

Many thanks for the prompt feedback @MI5 and @madasaf1sh . I will read the complaints procedure and email them. I'm hoping I can get it resolved quickly 😞 what a disaster. @Anonymous 

[MI5]

You're welcome @MartinMcC 

Good luck and this happens all too often unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

@MI5 and @madasaf1sh thanks for the tags 

@MartinMcC 

So sorry that you are going through this situation with the credit score issues, the information already passed to you is the correct way to contact the credit file people, and they are the only people than can resolve this issue for you as no other team has the ability to change credit scores due to the legalities around this.

Please by all means contact the complaints review service if you wish to due to the failure in 2015 but we would advise sending the information you have got regarding directly to the issue over to credit file team so they can start resolving this for you firstly and foremostly.

Many thanks

O2 Simon

[MartinMcC]

Hi @Anonymous , I have submitted this as a complaint and credit file dispute last night. Can you please confirm it's being processed/reviewed?

Thanks, Martin

[jonsie]

As this has now been entered as a complaint I'm not sure anyone on the community will be able to help further.

[MartinMcC]

Thanks @jonsie . It's difficult because theres nobody at O2 that I can speak to about this. Customer service just tell me to email the complaints department. Very frustrating and distressing. 

[MartinMcC]

Still not resolved 😔