27-02-2018 15:26
Just warning other potential victims. I have been a loyal O2 customer for years and used their International Favourites until they decided to terminate that deal. I was then transferred to a trial International Bolt on which, for Eastern Europe, should have meant 1ppm landlines and 4ppm mobiles.
I made phone calls in December, I was billed correctly. I made phone calls in January and was hit with a 42£ bill for international calls only. Doing the math I realised that I was being charged roughly 8p per minute instead of the advertised 1p.
I called O2, their rep agreed that it was a mistake, sent a request to review / recalculate the charges, I was supposed to get an answer within 2 days.
I waited for a week, called again. Apparently my bill was reviewed and it was correct. This new rep looked at the figures again, again agreed that I was charged 8 times more, spent some time on the phone, got back to me.
He promised that I will be refunded the 42£ but on the following bill because the current one could not be amended, and asked me to wait for 24 hours before calling my family again to allow the system to register the correct fee.
Today I received the new bill and not only there are no refunds on it but I am still charged 8p a minute for my calls abroad (always the same landline number in EU).
So I called again the billing department and a dizzy lady tried to convince me that there are 10p in a pound and I am charged correctly. I asked her to talk to someone who can do basic math or get a calculator. After a few minutes on hold she got back to me, appologised for the confusion, I was right. It should be 1ppm, I am charged almost 10ppm.
She is going to contact the International department to find out what is happening, another email, it is going to take 48 hours, she would get back to me.
At this point I was quite angry so I called again O2 and this time requested to be put through to the Complaints department. Another lady who listened carefully, checked, confirmed, asked me to bear with her, she would get to the bottom of it and call me back.
She called me back in less than half an hour. The intertrial International bolt on expired on twenty something December. The "new" tarrif since the end of December is 5p per minute for landlines and this is what I have been charged, correctly.
Of course, because nobody warned me about it, I am going to be refunded the surplus international charges to date (except I paid VAT for those 42£ and for the 10£ this month and O2 is not going to refund any of that) but I still have to pay the current bill in full and the adjustment will come on my next bill.
As all this started to sound familar I asked her to put me through to the cancellation department and 5 minutes later I was free of contract (although they still have the cheek to charge me a termination fee for one month on a SIM only contract).
So many things are wrong in the above story that I wouldn't even know where to begin.
First of all there has been and there is no communication whatsoever about a "new" International Bolt on tarrif or cancellation of the old one, in writing, by means of message, email or on their website. Moreover, their own staff has no idea about a change of tarrif.
This sounds very much like O2 pulling a fast one on their customers, by imposing arbitrary tarrifs and giving no explanations whatsoever. "We charge you 5p per minute because we can and we started this new service when we decided to start it. No, we didn't tell you about the change but you used the service and you are good to pay as much as we say you are good to pay because we say so." And this is pretty much it.
The 5p per minute story itself is just a story because my charges amount to roughly 8ppm which, even after adding VAT, are well over this new made up tarrif.
The story ends with O2 losing another customer.
Solved! Go to Solution.
28-02-2018 15:37
28-02-2018 15:37
Hi all, I have checked this and can confirm that the international trial service is still live and active, and it will be so until the official version is launched. Sorry to hear that you've been misinformed about this @Gurux. 😞
I'm going to drop you a PM (private message here on the forum) to discuss further to see if we can help sort this out for you!
27-02-2018 15:40
27-02-2018 16:06
27-02-2018 17:59
27-02-2018 17:59
I wasn't aware the Intertrial had ended either. @Martin-O2 @Marjo did you know this?
Seems appalling that a trial ends suddenly with no warning to the customer!
Veritas Numquam Perit
27-02-2018 18:03
27-02-2018 18:03
27-02-2018 18:18
27-02-2018 18:18
27-02-2018 18:22
27-02-2018 18:22
27-02-2018 19:03
27-02-2018 19:03
I would indeed appreciate a clarification because nobody seems to know what is the deal with this trial bolt on - none of their reps, there is no information on their website other than this, I see in my account that I have the free "trial" international bolt on but no info is available, no links to check the rates - it is all very confusing and it seems O2 is quietly capitalising on this confusion by overcharging their loyal customers.
I have a 99 minute call made on 27/12/17. According to the link above I should have been charged 99p. Instead my bill for that call amounted to 8.28£ before tax. One of many phone calls charged at more than 8 times the advertised tarrif. Again, this is before tax. So even the 5ppm story given today is inaccurate. In reality last month, after tax, I was charged at 10ppm.
Now to err is human but to persist in this very profitable error, to continue to grossly overcharge me after reporting this three times, over a two month period, to lie about refunds and adjustments of tarrifs, to continue to take my money and eventually, after 5 phone calls, to be served a made up story based on thin air because there hasn't been a single statement from the company pertaining to any change of the Intertrial agreement terms since its inception - I call this an illegality, a violation of my contract and I am considering taking this further, not for the 50£, I can live without that, but because no company should be allowed to get away with this sort of Wild West behaviour.
And they are still going to charge me, after all this, an early termination fee of 1£ something (my contract is due to expire on 31st on March). So very correct when it comes to their due but not so much when it comes to my rights and my money.
27-02-2018 19:28
27-02-2018 19:28
One last thing. I have been an O2 Pay As You Go customer since 2008 and switched to a contract in 2010 so I have paid my O2 bills for over 7 years, by Direct Debit, every month, until today. During this time I have only contacted them maybe 5 times to unlatch my iPhones.
Really sad and a very disappointing end to a long journey together.
27-02-2018 20:00
27-02-2018 20:00