Phone cut off

[Anonymous]

I’ve been an o2 contract customer for six years. I run a small business and use my phone extensively, resulting in bills of around £100 per month.

A couple of weeks ago, got a text message out of the blue from o2 informing me that I had been disconnected. Not only had outgoing calls, texts and data been barred, but I was also unable to receive incoming calls. In other words, the SIM had been completely disconnected. 

My account was up to date as I’d paid the last bill a week previously. The text basically told me that I’d been disconnected because I’d spent £35 over my monthly contract amount. However, this wasn’t an unusual pattern of usage for me as I use a lot of 0845 numbers in the course of my business.

This caused me great inconvenience. I was working on a site with no access to a landline and was obviously unable to contact o2 from my mobile.

When I did eventually manage to contact o2 I was told that this was a result of a new credit control policy implemented by o2’s management. Although I was immediately reconnected, I had at this stage been left without any means of communication for several hours.

Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated, because I am now having great doubts about the integrity of this company.

Gary.

[perksie]

You seem to have posted this twice in the same section.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, i edited the message and it posted again. I've deleted the original.

Gary

[perksie]

If this is a new policy hopefully one of the O2 staff who post on here can help explain what's going on.

[Anonymous]

I hope so because I'm pretty upset about the whole thing!

[Anonymous]

I suspect it is in place to cover you as well as O2 in case you had lost your phone and some smart little bugger decided to rack up a nice large bill for you. 

Same they did not contact customers to make them aware though. Sure somebody form O2 as has been said might be able to clarify the situation.

[Anonymous]

If that were the case I wouldn’t have minded. However, o2 Customer Services themselves told me it was a policy implemented by the Credit Control department and NOT as a security measure. Also, if it were a case of protecting me, why were incoming calls barred also? This doesn’t make any sense at all.

Surely if there were a potential problem, a text or call to establish the facts would have sufficed. To completely cut somebody’s services without warning is appalling customer service at best.

If this is in fact a new policy, it’s a disturbing example of corporate bullying and indicative of the contempt this company really has for its customers.

Is there anybody out there from o2 who can clear this mystery up?

Gary.

[Anonymous]

This is a customer forum fella so only us customers here.

Sorry but I guess only O2 can help to answer you questions. Are you a business customer?

[Liquid]

I guess it's a good idea to stop people unwittingly getting themselves into a situation they can't pay.

Ridiculous to enforce it like this though.

Would of thought that previous bills of the same amount would negate the need to block your card.

[Anonymous]

Yeah theres nothing like trying to push customers away.

I wonder if this was a mess up and they needed an excuse to hide it !