Hi all,
I've been with o2 for 10+ years. In the last 2 years, I noticed by 4g/5g coverage was awful - it didn't function in most parts of Central London and I had no signal at all in large parts of Essex, Surrey and Sussex. This is across multiple devices.
My contract lapsed and I went to the o2 shop to see what they could do. I took on a new contract and was given a new physical sim on the assurance that this would fix my signal issues. I also wanted to migrate my partner's account from Virgin to o2, so took out a new sim for her, however they were unable to transfer her number in store from VM to o2.
13 days later my signal issues were still continuing and I had found out that the only way to transfer my partner's number from VM to o2 (bare in mind they are the same company) was to take out another sim card from a competitor, port the number to that, and then port the number back to o2. At this point I hit breaking point and after 10 years I called o2 to cancel my contract, confirming I was still in the cooling off period.
The customer service agent confirmed I was still within my cooling off period, the contract had been cancelled, no charges could or would ever be levied and that I would receive my PAC code. I received a text with my PAC code and a message clearly stating I owed £0.
I found a new provider and transferred my number. All good. I was then sent a demand for £437 from o2, presumably being lodged as an early cancellation fee for the contract I cancelled. I rang o2 who confirmed this was a mistake. I then rang again a week later as my account still showed the outstanding charge. They confirmed the charge was still outstanding and that they would freeze it, look into it and get back to me within 5 days.
I never heard back. I have since received a final demand letter from o2 stating that if I do not pay a debt will be registered on my credit file. I have rung them again. Every time I ring, I wait 20+ minutes on hold, only to be told (grumpily, as if its my fault) that I am a 360 customer, I have called the wrong team and that I need to be transferred. I then wait another 20 minutes. Last time I did this I got cut off after 19 minutes.
I rang today again, waited my 40mins, and a friendly agent told me he was going to look into it. After 10 minutes he got back to me and said he will call me back within the hour. Two hours have now passed. I have not heard back from him.
I have now written to The Guardian, who I note have covered several o2 issues before, and if a debt collection letter turns up at my door I will be registering a complaint with OfCom, the financial ombudsmen and the communications ombudsmen. I do not understand how o2 have managed to mess up literally every single aspect of being a telecoms provider, from providing telecoms to billing to customer service to an internal migration of customer details. It's absurd. I would have been an o2 customer for life had these issues not stacked up.
Could someone please contact me ASAP about this. I cannot sit on hold for 40mins again. This is absolutely absurd. o2 are creating enemies out of loyal customers - what sort of business practise is that?
