Reconnection charge

[Anonymous]

Has anyone else had this ? For the last six months I have been paying my bill by card and more often than not I have gone over the month and had calls barred or restricted and then paid the bill.There was never a problem with this and this month I actually paid the bill a day earlier than usual.the operative took my money and in the usual way I expected service to be reconnected.After a day I contacted and was told that with a new computer system there is now a reconnection charge of £15 This was never explained to me beforehand or at the time of paying the bill itself.My complaints over the weekend were met with no intelligent response save for pay the 15 quid and if you are thinking of leaving us we want 250 quid end of story. I am hearing that O2 customer service is regarded as lacking at the moment. Is this a temporary glitch does anyone know?

[MI5]

Try setting up a direct debit with the payment date of your choice which will avoid all further issues.
There is and always has been a reconnection charge in certain circumstances so I guess you ran out of luck with not paying it previously.....

Also, I've asked for your post to be moved to it's own thread as it will be easier to track your specific answers....

[Anonymous]

Hello @lano and Welcome to the Community Forum,

I assume you have your own reasons for choosing not to pay via a direct debit , which would resolve your issues.

However it's your decision to pay as you deem fit although I would then suggest paying a little more than the bill amount to help build up a just incase scenario amount.

If you speak to Cs again on 202 they may waver the re connection charge.

Let us know how you get on.

[Anonymous]

It was not luck. I acted in accordance with what appeared to be accepted process and on the last instance the chap happily took my money and I was misled

[Anonymous]

Hi @lano

Possibly the CallCentre Advisors you've dealt with before have waived any such fee ?

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It was not luck. I acted in accordance with what appeared to be accepted process and on the last instance the chap happily took my money and I was misled

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Hi @Anonymous  I think you have said it yourself above i.e... 'with what appeared to be accepted process'

If you have been allowed, in the past, to constantly pay your bill late... I have to agree with @MI5  and say this time your luck ran out...

Paying on time or by direct debit is the only safe way I am afraid

[aldaweb]

Hi @Anonymous 

If you don't want to set up a direct debit, you could set up a continuous card authority instead. It has less protection than dd but may help avoid late payment/ reconnection charges in future. 

Otherwise you could ask for your payment date to be changed. This may result in a larger bill for the first month following the change but may help in the future.

[jonsie · Accepted solution]

A reconnection fee for repeat late payments seems fair to me and is well published in the terms and conditions. I am surprised that O2 have not insisted that you now set up a direct debit.

From the T&Cs

• 7.2 You may have to pay an unbarring charge and, if relevant, a reconnection charge if the Service is temporarily barred and/or your SIM Card is disconnected from the Network for the reasons stated above. As a condition of unbarring or reconnecting your Service we may require that you set up a direct debit authority for the payment of any future Charges.
• 7.3 If we bar your Service because you break this Agreement, the Agreement will still continue. You must pay all Charges until the Agreement is correctly ended under paragraph 8.

[Anonymous]

@jonsie Having tried unsuccessfully to search the O2 site for the relevant Terms & Conditions covering this particular issue I wonder if you could please give us a link.  I found one page but it is dated 2008 and relates to iPhones.  The wording of the para 7,2 you quote is slightly different insofar as it says "You must pay an unbarring charge and, if applicable, a re-connection charge if the Service is temporarily barred and/or your SIM Card is disconnected from the Network for the reasons stated in paragraph 8.1"  rather than "You may have to pay..." as in the conditions you quoted.   "May" seems to give O2 discretion, "must" sounds a tad mandatory to me.

I well understand the OP's frustration trying to make sense of all this.

Gerry

PS link to the T&C -  http://bit.ly/TJ6GUa

[MI5]

T&C link at bottom left of every website page.....