No cap on my son's number??

[ziouka]

I just got a £120 bill on my son's number because he sent 800 text over his 500 allowance! His bill should be £12... Needless to say I'm absolutely appalled that I was not made aware that he was spending 10 times over his bill nor was there any cap on his spending. How is it even possible? After speaking to O2 they said that they don't cap customer spending and customers should check how much they spend themselves. 

Is it even legal not to warn the customer when they overspend? Am I supposed to go online every day to see what my son spent?

So disappointed in O2, have been their customer since 1994 and lately they have been getting so much wrong that I wonder whether it's time to change.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

I'm afraid yes, you are supposed to monitor their use as it is the responsibility of the customer to ensure they stay within their allowances.
You can easily track usage in the MyO2 app or web page http://www.o2.co.uk/myo2

[Cleoriff]

@zioukaIf your son is going over his allowances, you might find he is better with a PAYG phone.

He wont be able to run up a bill of £120 if he is on PAYG....or you would be better able to manage his usage.

Just a suggestion

[madasaf1sh]

Im sorry to say but you are responsible for ensuring that your son overspend on YOUR account. How do they know that these werent legitimate texts,

It could be that your son was sent a text message and he has deleted it? If you want a capped contract for your son look at Tesco Mobile, as they are one of the only networks to offer capped contracts or put your son on PAYG. 

At the end of the day you signed the contract, and read the T&C's..

[ziouka]

Thank you for your responses.

My son has had a monthly contract number for 3 years and never went over his allowance before. Certainly pay as you go seems a better option now based on this recent experience.

It is irrelevant whether it was my son or myself going over a limit. There should be a way of notifying the customer or capping the account, it's very simple to put a process like this in place. It's ridiculous that companies like O2 cash in on these situations and from what I read so far we are all accepting it as norm?

[Anonymous]

They do have a way of checking allowances it’s called myo2 either by a pc or the app on the phone. The customer should be aware of their allowances & know not to exceed them. You get a warning text with data when it gets to 80% & when you have run out of data but not for texts or minutes. It’s the customer who has to check, not O2. O2 have never capped contracts. He would be better on payg

[MI5]

It is the norm because it’s clearly stated in the T&C’s

[jonsie]

The My O2 app is so easy to use and open. Surely you have time to open the app once a day maybe in the evening. If you want to see or read his texts then download Mightytext.net to your pc and you can see just why he has sent 800 texts. It seems strange that this has happened for the only time in three years. Maybe  a new friend ....?

[ziouka]

Indeed, there is a new friend.

Everyone seems to be going on about T&Cs. I'm not complaining about the O2 app. I'm appalled that there's no functionality to cap or notify. What about statutory rights and reasonable expectations? You don't expect your bank to let you go into unlimited overdraft yet it's ok to run unlimited bill on your phone.

[jonsie]

Well there is only a data cap unfortunately as data just stops when the allowance is reached. It may be better to change to Tesco mobile which runs on the o2 network or is your son of an age where he is responsible enough to check his own usage on the app? You can have the app on any number of phones or devices.