Billing Issue with aerial direct

[Monroe]

I have had no service for the past 5 days because of an apparent “billing” issue on my account. 

In February I had a call from Aerial Direct, claiming they could reduce my phone bill from £70 a month to £23 - Seemed like a legit thing as they had all of my information and when googled the number it came up fine.

Since that conversation, nothing ever came of it, I carried on paying O2 £70 a month and I just thought it never went through - didn’t bother chasing it up as my contract with o2 is due to be up soon anyway. 

On thursday all of my cell service went down, no internet can’t make calls or send texts. Contacted AD first as I assumed they must have something to do with it. They inform me that O2 have put a block on my account as apparently I have not paid my last 3 bills and have an amount of £91.46 outstanding. Checked my bank account and payments have been coming out consistently to O2 - the last payment being in April for the amount of 66.98 

AD put me through to the billing department of O2, after being on hold for 40 minutes my call gets picked up and the connection is garbage so the recepient hangs up - great.

Ring back to be on hold for ANOTHER 40 minutes, my call is answered and apparently I fail the security check.. not sure why as I’ve had the same information since forever and what she was asking for I was reading straight off of my phone. I asked her if we could try the check again and she informs me “no” i have to ring back to have another attempt. Fine.

I ring back AD and inform them of what happened and the person on the other end apologises and gives me all the information she thinks I will need to pass the check and asks me if I can send her bills proving that I’ve paid what I said I have.. to which I say I can only show bank statements as since switching over to AD i can’t access myO2 app and therefore my bills.

I get transferred to the billing department again, another 40 minute wait, call gets answered and again the person is cutting out constantly and the line is awful.

So my question is what do I do now? AD refer me to O2 and O2 refer me to AD. I have paid my bills but I cannot get through to anyone to switch my services back on. I am a disabled person so it is important that I am connected to the outside world via phone due to health issues. I had to go out and buy a landline to attempt calls as my iPhone now resembles an overpriced brick with no service.  

[MI5]

@Monroe 

Guide: How to find help & contact O2 social media might be a good starting point for you.

Also https://www.o2.co.uk/access-for-all/business/accessibility-vulnerable-customers-policy

[Bambino]

@Monroe Your first mistake was taking a cold call from Aerial Direct and agreeing to a contract with them. If you search the community you will see nothing but negative comments about a company that is supposedly one of O2's so-called 'trusted partners'.

This is a customer community, so there's nothing anyone here can do to help. You'll have to persevere with both O2 and Aerial Direct to try to get this sorted out. You might want to think about contacting your local Citizen's Advice Bureau for assistance.

[Monroe]

Very unhelpful comment there Bambino, victim blaming doesn’t solve issues 👍🏻

[Oxonian]

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@Monroe wrote:

Very unhelpful comment there Bambino, victim blaming doesn’t solve issues 👍🏻

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That is not victim-blaming @Monroe, it is simply stating fact. Please bear in mind that @Bambino is a customer of O2, as am I, and we and others give our time to try to help everyone. And this is a customer to customer forum, so we can only guide and advise ; we do not have the power to access accounts or to help directly. 

You do need to persevere with O2 and with AD to try to resolve your predicament. You have a suggestion from @MI5 that you try O2's social media team. They are UK-based and have as strong reputation for problem-solving. Please give them a try and let us know how it progresses. 👍    

[Monroe]

The first line was completely unnecessary and the same point could have been made from the second line onward without sounding patronising.

I have been back and forth to O2 and AD all day to no avail. O2 will not deal with my billing issue as I cannot verify my identity to them, they also refuse to escalate my issue with anyone as it is impossible for me to verify who I am so I am stuck in a never ending loop where no one can actually help me.

I was advised that I can have my bills emailed to myself and that may help with verifying my identity, but according to both my MyO2 and my business account I don’t have an O2 account *at all*

I also cannot speak to anyone via the webchat as this requires the app, which does not work as apparently I do not have an account! 

No one can provide me with an email, either. I will assume that going into a retail store will not help me as they are just there to sell contracts and not actually help people, surely?

[gmarkj]

Agreeing a deal with Aerial means you are now a "business" customer, so need to speak to that part of o2 @Monroe .

Their number is in the guide that @MI5 posted and which is below.

usiness Customer Service	Number	Charges
From your O2 mobile	8002	Free
From a landline	0800 977 7337	Free

Your security information may have changed when the new contract was agreed with Aerial.

o2 stores normally only deal with personal customers, and have very limited ability to deal with customer queries so I don't think you will have much success there.

Did you never get any communication from Aerial about your contract/account? That would be the first route of solving this.