Phone Completely Barred for 3 Days Now. No-one I've called at O2 knows hows to fix it.

[Anonymous]

I have been a loyal O2 customer for over 10 years. I have stayed with O2 because I believe they provide a good service. My experiences recently have made me severely doubt that.

Early on Wednesday, 4th February 2015 while at work I received a call from an individual from O2’s fraud department stating that my phone was going to be permanently barred as it was connected to a fraud case. I asked for more information but I did not get any. The caller “Cath” was unhelpful and rude throughout my contact with her. She did not want to hear any explanation from me and had a smug and unprofessional attitude throughout the call. This whole thing was totally new information to me as I purchased the phone through proper legal methods and paid almost £600 for it.

I decided to contact the original seller of the phone who said she would contact O2 to resolve the issue. The seller assured me the issue had been settled and it was due to a mistake on O2's part.

On Thursday, 5th February 2015, I got into contact with “Cath” again to confirm I was in the clear but she was yet again unhelpful and refused to give any more information on the case.

My phone was disconnected from the O2 network soon afterward. This is the phone I use for my work purposes as well as communication with my family and friends. It has now been disconnected for over three entire days.

On Friday, 6th February 2015, the phone seller and I took hours of our own personal time to contact O2 via phone and get through to someone who could help. I was assured the phone will be fully working by Saturday.

It is now Saturday, 7th February 2015. The. Phone. Is. Still. Not. Working. I have called O2 again for about the 15th time but nobody has any clue whatsoever how to help. I kept getting told to clean the sim card, restart the phone, reset settings, etc... I've done all this already anyway. No-one has yet solved the issue unsurprisingly.

I have been offline for over 3 days now. I did nothing wrong and I am being punished for the ineptitude of a few O2 employees.

I have not been able to access any text messages, I have not been able to receive any phone calls, I have not been able to access my voicemail, I have not been able to access my email, I have not been able to connect to the internet.

I have had to use public payphones with extortionate rates, I haven’t any idea who has texted me in the last few days and I don’t know who has called me.

This whole situation could have been easily avoided.

I am extremely disappointed in how I was treated by O2 staff and the resulting lack of the service I have received as a result.

This whole situation has made me question whether to stay with O2 or not.

This may sound like a self-entitled rant, but I expect at least the very basic of services from my phone company. I do not expect to be treated like a criminal when I am a loyal customer. O2 has made an epic fail at "Customer Service 101".

[Anonymous]

Basically a seller advertisers a phone
The phone is sold.
The phone is delivered.
The phone may be used by the buyer
A few weeks later the seller claims on insurance.
Insurance company pay out.
Insurance company block imei on the networks.
Buyer has phone they can't use.
Buyer claims off paypal who lost out.

[Anonymous]

Here is sellers response, hot off the press

"

Your phone was my sons phone which I sold on his behalf, it was nearly new and he was promised a company mobile and didn't need it.

At some point my son rang O2 as there was something on his credit file he wasn't sure about, they thought he was saying he was a victim of identity theft and blocked your phone and his sim. It didn't help that he lost (previously thought stolen) his own phone, which has since been returned - which is what we originally believed had caused the block.

Left hand and right hand have never since connected. He phones them last week and they say they understand and take any blocks off, but your phone still doesn't work. After many lengthy conversations and many more reassurances it still doesn't work. Today they speak to you, I then ring them on the number you gave and explain that you are the new owner, my son was the original, they say all blocks are off and they ask my son to phone. He then phones and gets someone new who then is not sure whether the phone is working or not. Unfortunately my son is not the best at explaining himself and this just leads to further confusion with three of us now contacting them.

I am truly sorry for this and no idea why this is not simply resolved. My son has passed all their security checks, said that he has not reported fraud/identity theft against him and just wants the phone switched back on. They have quite happily sent him out a new SIM card!!

I no longer know which way to go, we have never had previous complications when we have sold phones and we are all quite embarrassed about the whole thing. My son, I believe, has to phone them again tomorrow, for what reason neither he nor I know.

"

Hmm... Its a feasible story. I will find out tomorrow when I ring O2 again.

[MI5]

If it's only been reported lost they can lift the block, however if the report was stolen and claimed for off insurance there is no chance as the phone now belongs to the insurance company.

[Anonymous]

Why would the seller remain in contact with me all this time though. If there is a chance of me figuring this all out. I've seen a few scams in my time and never have I seen the scammer stay in contact with the buyer. Also why do it on an eBay account with almost 600 positive feedback.

I think there is something fishy going on here, but neither the scam story or the sellers story add up 100%.

[MI5]

Bluff to try and confuse?
But I agree - it doesn't add up at all.....

[Cleoriff]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Why would the seller remain in contact with me all this time though. If there is a chance of me figuring this all out. I've seen a few scams in my time and never have I seen the scammer stay in contact with the buyer. Also why do it on an eBay account with almost 600 positive feedback.

I think there is something fishy to the story but neither the scam story or the sellers story add up 100%.

---

I will tell you why. This seller is desperately trying to make sure you dont give him a bad rating. It would affect his business on Ebay quite dramatically

[Cleoriff]

My husband buys and sells on Ebay a lot.  His reputation means everything to him. If anyone gave him a bad rating it would affect him.

He bought a genuine Gucci watch from a site in the USA. It came with tags but no box. (A gucci box is quite a nice item to have). He contacted the seller, who, desperate to get a good rating, offered my husband either the box by next post.....or 40 dollars refund.  We went for the refund.

Nothing to do with your particular case but an explanation of how important rating is to Ebay sellers.:smileywink:

[Anonymous]

Yeah well it goes without saying that if the phone remains blocked they are getting a negative feedback as well as reported to eBay and PayPal, so I don't think this person would risk that. For now I think the seller is genuine. I will let you know tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

More fresh information today.

It appears the seller was not telling me the entire story. The fraud team informed me today the reason it is barred is because the seller has not finished paying their contract fee and refuses to do so. What a **bleep**ing prick, lied to me for almost a week about this entire thing and I had to rely on O2 to tell me this.

I did not expect them to be this stupid. For a eBayer with almost 600 feedback, they are going the right way to lose that clean sheet.

I have talked to O2 and they said the only way to correct this situation entirely is if the person pays off the contract in full straight away. I have calculated this on the O2 site to be somewhere between £1311-£1662 minus what they already have paid.

I've told the seller to pay the outstanding balance immediately so the phone can be transferred to me or "I will be reporting you to eBay for selling something that you did not own, I'll give negative feedback, I'll inform PayPal, get my money back and call O2 with my suspicions of fraud. Do not make me have to do this."

This is likely an insurance scam of some type, I just can't put the pieces together right. Anyone have any ideas of how this could have worked.

[Anonymous]

Actually I'm going to post the whole reply to the seller here because it is kind of badass:

"

I was through to O2 today and they told me the reason I have been blocked is because the original phone owner (your son) has refused to pay the rest of their contract. What the **bleep**!

Why would you sell a phone that was not paid off yet? What was all that about identity theft and a reported lost phone? Were you just flat out lying to me.

This whole thing is seeming dodgier and dodgier by the second. My friend told me it all rings of some type of insurance scam and to me that sounds entirely plausible and honestly the most likely scenario at this stage.

You are completely beyond the line of acceptable behaviour here. Unless the phone is sorted by tomorrow 18:00 and paid off in full for rest of its contract, I will be reporting you to eBay for selling something that you did not own, I'll give negative feedback, I'll inform PayPal, get my money back and call O2 with my suspicions of fraud. Do not make me have to do this.

Sort this out like an adult, like you should have done a week ago. I have been extremely understanding in this entire fiasco but I am having no more. This is your ultimatum.

"