Receiving payment demands on account I closed within 2 weeks of setup - Debt Collectors now involved

[Roscoe2]

Hello all,

I have had a very stressful situation with O2 and have spent 3 hours in-store trying to resolve it, but they have been unwilling to fix their mistake so far.

In summary, they are claiming I owe them £173 for an account I cancelled in July within the 2-week 'cooling-off' period and have now dropped my credit score and gotten debt collectors involved.

It began when I opened an O2 account as part of a Virgin Broadband deal in late June. When I was told that I couldn't transfer my old number over I chose to cancel the account and keep my other O2 account instead. Since this was within the 2-week 'cool off' time I was told this was free of charge.

Important to note that when the SIM arrived I didn't use or activate it, as the O2 customer care agent who cancelled my account advised me to bin it upon arrival at my address.

However, in August I had a standing order from O2 take £163.15 from my bank, since this was in addition to my normal (old) contract I disputed it with the bank and the payment was refunded. 

Last week I checked my credit score and noticed it had absolutely tanked suddenly due to a £173 debt to O2. I have called up on numerous occasions about this but have been unable to pass the security questions due to never using the SIM card in the first place. When I explained this to the agent they recommended that I go in-store to verify my identity in person.

Today I spent 3 hours and two separate attempts in the store trying to contact the 'Payments' team to undo the damage to my credit score and cancel the debt collectors. On both occasions an in-store colleague verified my identity so the agent could access my account where they noted a balance of '£0' on the account, but then found a note stating that debt collectors had been contacted. They said this was obviously incorrect and said they'd happily pass me on to the Payment team.

The first time I reached the Payment team, the agent was incredibly rude and refused to help me as I couldn't pass the security questions. She immediately hung up when I passed the phone to the O2 in-store colleague to help explain my situation. On the second attempt (taking another hour and a half...) they immediately hung up on me as soon as I said hello.

So currently I'm at a total standstill with O2 acknowledging a mistake has been made, but unwilling to fix it while my Credit score drops further and debt collectors are now involved.

Could someone please advise me on who I should contact to escalate this or an O2 agent can take responsibility and help me?

P.S. Apologies for the essay but this has been a long, stressful situation and I have jumped through every hoop O2 has asked of me, but I still end up in the same position.

[Bambino]

@Roscoe2 This is a customer community. Sadly, we have recently been denied access to contact O2's online advisors. If you've had no joy with your issue, the only thing you can do is lodge a formal complaint:

How to Complain | Help | O2

[Roscoe2]

That's unfortunate, but thank you for your response. I've now submitted a formal complaint in the hopes it can get escalated and resolved.

I'll post an update here as soon as I get a resolution to this, as it can hopefully help anyone else who runs into this issue.

[Enlli]

@Roscoe2 Sadly your case is not unique

[Oxonian]

@Roscoe2 

You said :-

>> where they noted a balance of '£0' on the account, but then found a note stating that debt collectors had been contacted.

I fear that the £nil balance means that O2 have sold your supposed debt to a debt collection agency and have then cleared your account in the process.

I hope that I am mistaken, but I believe that you should regard that as a possibility. 

[Roscoe2 · Accepted solution]

Hi all I just wanted to post an update/solution here for anyone unfortunate enough to experience a similar situation.

This dispute has thankfully now been resolved with O2 after I escalated it with the Communications Ombudsman. They have now acknowledged an error had been made and have cancelled the debt collectors, submitted a 'credit file amendment' and offered £50 compensation.

As @Bambino suggested, I submitted a formal complaint to O2 through 'Resolver' who helpfully contacted me when it was time to escalate to the communications ombudsman. My main advice when doing this is to provide as much evidence as possible, I supplied emails, dates and correspondence notes.

I'm not 100% sure what the issue was that caused this whole problem, but I suspect that it may be because the first O2 SIM posted to me failed to arrive. I cancelled my SIM contract as soon as the second SIM arrived a few weeks later, which is fine as stated in the contract (see below), but may have appeared incorrect on O2's side.

Contract section on cancellations:

"You’ve the right to cancel within 14 days from when you sign up, the date of your order confirmation or when you get your sim and / or device (whichever one’s later)."

Thanks again for the help/advice provided by everyone on this thread, hopefully this experience can assist someone in the future .

[Oxonian]

@Roscoe2 

I am glad that has been resolved to your satisfaction. 👍