o2 customer service

pwd

is sh!t

Signed up for mobile broadband. Worked well in my office but not at all in my flat, so I cancelled it well within their 30 day trial period (july 22).
A little while later I received a bill for the two months. I tried ringing them but their customer care numbers only work from o2 phones. I emailed them and received no response at all.
Then again today I received another bill for another period which indicated they had taken money for the full two months from my bank account via direct debit.
Went down to the shop where I returned it where they had record of my return. They emailed o2 about it and gave me copy of email, and said that o2's emails are backed up so I could expect a delayed response.

barnicles

Try this 1850601740

dub45

pwd wrote: »

is sh!t

Signed up for mobile broadband. Worked well in my office but not at all in my flat, so I cancelled it well within their 30 day trial period (july 22).
A little while later I received a bill for the two months. I tried ringing them but their customer care numbers only work from o2 phones. I emailed them and received no response at all.
Then again today I received another bill for another period which indicated they had taken money for the full two months from my bank account via direct debit.
Went down to the shop where I returned it where they had record of my return. They emailed o2 about it and gave me copy of email, and said that o2's emails are backed up so I could expect a delayed response.

Surely you are getting bills in advance of the direct debit being taken? Did you cancel the direct debit with your bank?

There are loads of contact numbers for 02 here: http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Help+and+Support/Contact+Us/

surely you could ring one of those and get a number to contact the appropriate section?

lmimmfn

dub45 wrote: »

Did you cancel the direct debit with your bank?

i always do that before even canceling a service, common sense really, no use in complaining if you give a company free for all access to your bank account

smellslikeshoes

lmimmfn wrote: »

i always do that before even canceling a service, common sense really, no use in complaining if you give a company free for all access to your bank account

Eh no, there is plenty of reason to be complaining, companies shouldn't be doing things like this. Yes its prudent to cancel a direct debit with you're bank but it shouldn't be necessary.

If they have taken money out of your account without permission and you don't have any luck ringing them you might have some luck talking to your bank and explaining the situation. Your bank will usually be dead on with stuff like this.

dub45

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Eh no, there is plenty of reason to be complaining, companies shouldn't be doing things like this. Yes its prudent to cancel a direct debit with you're bank but it shouldn't be necessary.

If they have taken money out of your account without permission and you don't have any luck ringing them you might have some luck talking to your bank and explaining the situation. Your bank will usually be dead on with stuff like this.

As someone who has criticised the direct debit system as much as anyone on boards I have little if any sympathy for the poster on this occassion. It is ludicrous to say that o2 customer service cannot be connected over the phone and to leave it at that. There are loads of numbers available to contact o2 (just look in the golden pages and 1909 works off an ordinary line) and there is nothing to stop the poster visiting the shop where he arranged the bb contract in the first place and asking can he use their phone to contact o2 or getting a number from them.

Presumably the poster recieved bills advising that his account would be debited and did nothing about trying to stop the amounts being debited beyond the email which he sent?

Its not just prudent to cancel a direct debit its absolutely essential. When you set up a direct debit you give a company permission to access your account until such time as you cancel the direct debit. For the bank to get involved you would have to have proof that you had engaged with the company involved and told them not to debit you. I would imagine that the first thing the bank would ask you if you attempt to involve them is why didnt you cancel your direct debit and show us the correspondence between you and the company.

From the direct debit scheme guide:

Cancelling and amending a direct debit instruction.
o The payer can cancel or amend the Direct Debit instruction at any time by informing their Bank in writing. They should also inform the Originator. All correspondence should be retained.
o The payer’s Bank will then inform the Originator of the cancellation or amendment.
o If the instruction is cancelled no further collections are permitted.
o If it is established that an unauthorised Direct Debit was charged to a Payer’s account the Payer is guaranteed a prompt refund by their Bank.

There is far too much vagueness in the dd scheme for my liking and the phrase 'If it is established' is a good example but even so it shows that bank will look for proof that the dd was 'unauthorised'. I would be asking if I was the bank rep if you did not want to authorise debits why leave the dd in situ.

Incidentally I am not defending o2 here at all. But you have to get up off you a**** in these matters and make sure you look after your interests.

IsThatSo?

I worked in a bank for a good number of years and would never have asked someone for proof that the direct debit should not have been presented. It used to be common practice to take the customers word for it. Unless this has changed recently then the OP should have no problem claiming a refund of the DD under the DD Indemnity Scheme.

By all means bring the copy of that email that the shop gave you along to the bank and it may prevent a query later on.

Many people confuse DD's with standing orders. The majority of people are not aware that signing a DD is, in effect, giving a company authorisation to debit their bank account with any amount, anytime, the company wants. I personally would never recommend a DD, I always advise to avoid them if possible. If its not possible then I would advise people to watch their bank accounts closely i.e. check bill amount is amount debited, that kind of thing.

dub45

IsThatSo? wrote: »

I worked in a bank for a good number of years and would never have asked someone for proof that the direct debit should not have been presented. It used to be common practice to take the customers word for it. Unless this has changed recently then the OP should have no problem claiming a refund of the DD under the DD Indemnity Scheme.

By all means bring the copy of that email that the shop gave you along to the bank and it may prevent a query later on.

Many people confuse DD's with standing orders. The majority of people are not aware that signing a DD is, in effect, giving a company authorisation to debit their bank account with any amount, anytime, the company wants. I personally would never recommend a DD, I always advise to avoid them if possible. If its not possible then I would advise people to watch their bank accounts closely i.e. check bill amount is amount debited, that kind of thing.

Firstly I agree with your last paragraph totally.

Now one of the many problems with the direct debit system is the variability with which the user is presented. The behaviour you describe in your first paragraph is admirable but that is just one branch and how they interpreted it. There are reports on boards of bank branches behaving entirely differently and even refusing to cancel direct debits.

pwd

I did go to the shop before about it and eventually was given a number that turned out to be only reachable from o2 phones.
I also talked to an o2 salesperson elsewhere who wasn't able to help me much either.
Thanks for suggesting I get up off my arse. I've plenty of far more important things than this to sort out tbh - but it is irritating so I posted here.

jor el

IsThatSo? wrote: »

I worked in a bank for a good number of years and would never have asked someone for proof that the direct debit should not have been presented. It used to be common practice to take the customers word for it. Unless this has changed recently then the OP should have no problem claiming a refund of the DD under the DD Indemnity Scheme.

There is a huge variation in the knowledge of how the Direct Debit scheme works between banks, branches, and the staff in any particular branch. My sister was told, in no uncertain terms, that she had no right to cancel a direct debit, on her own account. She was told that only the payee could cancel it, and even then you couldn't force them to do it, they had to choose to cancel it. Utter BS, and completely against the Direct Debit rules. You get this from various bank employees, and in pretty much any bank.

pwd wrote: »

I've plenty of far more important things than this to sort out tbh - but it is irritating so I posted here.

Although it may not be the most important thing, stopping a company from taking money out of my account would be fairly high up my list. When you get a chance, pop a letter in the post to your bank telling them to stop the O2 Direct Debit. That will at least put an end to that part, then you can deal with O2 at your own pace.

IsThatSo?

dub45 wrote: »

Firstly I agree with your last paragraph totally.

Now one of the many problems with the direct debit system is the variability with which the user is presented. The behaviour you describe in your first paragraph is admirable but that is just one branch and how they interpreted it. There are reports on boards of bank branches behaving entirely differently and even refusing to cancel direct debits.

It could be down to each bank and then even the individual branches after that. It shouldn't be, but that could be the case. Also, its been a couple of years since I worked and things may have changed.

I personally don't see that anyone would be bothered going through the hassle of claiming through the DD Indemnity scheme unless it was genuine. As far as I can recall the company have to refund under the scheme but are then free to take other action against the customer, if they choose to. Why would anyone draw that upon themselves unless they had good reason to? and the proof to back it up!!

Thats just my opinion. Things are different nowadays, there are a lot of inexperienced bank staff who don't make decisions or take responsibility, either because they can't or don't want to. This kind of behaviour/attitude was part of the reason I left

Sorry OP, didn't mean to hijack your thread

Go claim through the bank, you have an email and the backing of the shop who have a record of you returning the package. Even if O2 do take this further you should be well placed to prove your case (and their imcompetence).

Good luck with it

IsThatSo?

jor el wrote: »

My sister was told, in no uncertain terms, that she had no right to cancel a direct debit, on her own account. She was told that only the payee could cancel it, and even then you couldn't force them to do it, they had to choose to cancel it. Utter BS, and completely against the Direct Debit rules. You get this from various bank employees, and in pretty much any bank.

Complete rubbish, of course a person is entitled to stop a company from taking their money. I really dislike incompetence :mad: That would be like a red rag to a bull for me, I hope she kicked up a huge stink.

smellslikeshoes

dub45 wrote: »

As someone who has criticised the direct debit system as much as anyone on boards I have little if any sympathy for the poster on this occassion. It is ludicrous to say that o2 customer service cannot be connected over the phone and to leave it at that. There are loads of numbers available to contact o2 (just look in the golden pages and 1909 works off an ordinary line) and there is nothing to stop the poster visiting the shop where he arranged the bb contract in the first place and asking can he use their phone to contact o2 or getting a number from them.

Presumably the poster recieved bills advising that his account would be debited and did nothing about trying to stop the amounts being debited beyond the email which he sent?

Its not just prudent to cancel a direct debit its absolutely essential. When you set up a direct debit you give a company permission to access your account until such time as you cancel the direct debit. For the bank to get involved you would have to have proof that you had engaged with the company involved and told them not to debit you. I would imagine that the first thing the bank would ask you if you attempt to involve them is why didnt you cancel your direct debit and show us the correspondence between you and the company.

From the direct debit scheme guide:



There is far too much vagueness in the dd scheme for my liking and the phrase 'If it is established' is a good example but even so it shows that bank will look for proof that the dd was 'unauthorised'. I would be asking if I was the bank rep if you did not want to authorise debits why leave the dd in situ.

Incidentally I am not defending o2 here at all. But you have to get up off you a**** in these matters and make sure you look after your interests.

If you will read my post I didn't defend him for sitting on his hole. If you get a bill that you shouldn't you need to do something about it, but the fault here still lies on O2 for making the billing **** up in the first place.

dub45

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

If you will read my post I didn't defend him for sitting on his hole. If you get a bill that you shouldn't you need to do something about it, but the fault here still lies on O2 for making the billing **** up in the first place.

I didn't intend to infer that you were defending him. If someone can't be arsed to look after their own interests they don't deserve any defense whatsover:rolleyes:

And I am certainly not defending o2 - in fact I cancelled my direct debit with o2 a while ago because they would not comply with the obligation in the direct debit scheme to give 14 days notice. They apparently like others are now debiting an account 14 days after the date of the bill which is not in compliance with the scheme and of course ipso do not give two hoots about such non compliance - the only ones ever penalised for non compliance with the scheme are the bill payers. Companies can and do whatever they like without any fear of sanction.

Random

pwd wrote: »

I did go to the shop before about it and eventually was given a number that turned out to be only reachable from o2 phones.
I also talked to an o2 salesperson elsewhere who wasn't able to help me much either.
Thanks for suggesting I get up off my arse. I've plenty of far more important things than this to sort out tbh - but it is irritating so I posted here.

Nonsense. 1909 works from any landline ! It also works from a Meteor phone. I can't be bothered to put my Vodafone and 3 SIMs in a phone to check those.

foggy_lad

three used to debit my account for broadband and i noticed the "frequency" of the debits was listed as irregular so popped off a quick email to my bank asking why a monthly direct debit was irregular and next payment was down as monthly and a few others were tidied up a bit. sometimes the bank employees can do things too quickly and put wrong details in for handiness but if you let them know this is easily sorted out.

Random

foggy_lad wrote: »

three used to debit my account for broadband and i noticed the "frequency" of the debits was listed as irregular so popped off a quick email to my bank asking why a monthly direct debit was irregular and next payment was down as monthly and a few others were tidied up a bit. sometimes the bank employees can do things too quickly and put wrong details in for handiness but if you let them know this is easily sorted out.

Which bank are you with that take account instructions by email?

dub45

foggy_lad wrote: »

three used to debit my account for broadband and i noticed the "frequency" of the debits was listed as irregular so popped off a quick email to my bank asking why a monthly direct debit was irregular and next payment was down as monthly and a few others were tidied up a bit. sometimes the bank employees can do things too quickly and put wrong details in for handiness but if you let them know this is easily sorted out.

The actual timing of direct debits has absolutely nothing to do with the bank.

foggy_lad

to clarify i was checking using online banking and all my DD's were listed so i checked them and some were listed as being monthly or bi-monthly while a few including the three one were listed incorrectly as irregular when they should have been monthly or bi-monthly so i sent an email to the online banking section asking that my accounts direct debits be checked for the accuracy of the information contained and a few days later all was put right. and correct it had nothing to do with the actual date of the month the money was taken rather the frequency of the debits.

dub45

foggy_lad wrote: »

to clarify i was checking using online banking and all my DD's were listed so i checked them and some were listed as being monthly or bi-monthly while a few including the three one were listed incorrectly as irregular when they should have been monthly or bi-monthly so i sent an email to the online banking section asking that my accounts direct debits be checked for the accuracy of the information contained and a few days later all was put right. and correct it had nothing to do with the actual date of the month the money was taken rather the frequency of the debits.

That was simply a piece of administration tidying up. The real control of the dd is with the company. And we are all dependent on them to comply with the scheme which many of them don't of course.

pwd

Random wrote: »

Nonsense. 1909 works from any landline ! It also works from a Meteor phone. I can't be bothered to put my Vodafone and 3 SIMs in a phone to check those.

when i tried it it did work alright - I got through to *meteor* customer care!