O2 UK Hit Customer with £1,000 Bill After Losing their Mobile Number

Most people who call up their mobile operator’s retentions team to negotiate a better deal don’t expect to walk away from that with an unexpected £1,000 bill and to later be told that “sorry … we’ve lost your [mobile] number [and] … there isn’t anything we can do about it“. Nevertheless, that’s what recently happened to one of O2’s (Virgin Media) customers.

Like many of O2’s customers, Sam was recently notified that he was going to be hit by an unexpected cost increase due to a change in their mid-contract pricing policy (here). His response was to do what any savvy consumer would do in such a situation and contact the operator in an attempt to agree a new (cheaper) price plan. Sam had both an airtime plan and associated device plan, the latter of which still had 26 months left to run out of 3 years.

The call went well and Sam agreed to a new price plan of £18 per month, which marked a big improvement on what he was paying before (£36 + the 20% reduction that O2 give you for multiple lines / family members). Sam was also informed that this process would entail disconnecting his old number and moving it to the new plan. So far, so good. But it wasn’t to last.

Sam explained:

“[The support agent] proceeded to disconnect my number, but I kind of made it clear I wasn’t happy that it had to be processed that way and let her do her thing. She then decided to setup the new number, but at no point in advance did she tell me it was a 24 month SIMO replacement. I only found out while I was on the MyO2 [account page] and was looking at the account, as it now showed my line had been “Cancelled”.

She then ran up against the 1st part which was the balance of the airtime on the other agreement which had just become overdue in the last day. I grumbled and told O2 that I do not pay until I get a final bill. She put me on hold and told me no exceptions shortly after. I begrudgingly paid via a Credit Card I’d just paid off.

I told her this and she then proceeded. I had to go through an “Eligibility check” which then failed, but she didn’t tell me. She had me on hold again and then came back telling me some “flags” were preventing the “Activation” of the new ESIM.”

Somehow, during this back-and-forth process, O2 also managed to lose the customer’s mobile number, with their support team initially informing Sam that they wouldn’t be able to either restore his service nor move him to the new plan. Hardly ideal since Sam, like most of us, is heavily dependent upon his mobile number for one-time banking passwords / other security measures, WhatsApp and family contacts etc.

Sam ended up having to spend several more hours on the phone to O2 in an attempt to get his number recovered, which resulted in an Emergency Restore Request (ERR) being placed. Another day passed with no progress, except this time Sam noticed that his device plan had now also disappeared from the MyO2 account pages.

A quick call to customer support confirmed that, due to an “agent error“, his device plan had indeed been cancelled and O2 said he’d shortly be billed £1,000 for the remaining balance. Ouch! At this point, ISPreview became involved and attempted to help Sam get the problem resolved. Another day and more calls passed, but progress was then made.

An O2 spokesperson told ISPreview:

“We’ve spoken with [Sam] directly to apologise for the experience he’s had, which was due to agent error. We have now restored his phone number, agreed a new SIM only plan, and provided a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience caused. [Sam] is happy the matter is resolved.”

Except at the time O2’s response was received, the full matter had not been resolved and Sam – who had accepted a £50 goodwill gesture for the airtime side of his plan – remained far from happy. “The issue is the device plan cannot be reinstated to its original state, and now I have to setup an arrangement with them to pay them in full due to ‘Agent Error’ and have AP markers on my credit file,” said Sam.

The goal was to try and agree a longer repayment plan than just 12 months and to find a solution that doesn’t involve Sam being left with damage done to his credit file, which might have otherwise prevented him from upgrading or taking out any new services in the future, all through no fault of his own. Thankfully, O2 has since agreed to waive the outstanding amount owed, so there’ll be no negative impact to Sam’s credit file.

The above now serves as a cautionary tale, albeit one with a happy ending after several long days of stressful turmoil and many hours spent on the phone. We would always recommend, when attempting to renegotiate a new plan, that consumers list down the key points of what they expect that plan to include and run through them on the call once an agreement is proposed, just to confirm that everything is satisfactory, before giving consent.

Many of us often make the mistake of assuming that customer support teams will automatically be competent and know to retain key features of existing bundles/plans in such a situation, but that isn’t always the case. Ofcom is separately understood to have recently warned O2 not to tell customers – those in a similar situation to Sam’s – that they have to pay off the handset in full and should instead allow them to “keep paying off your handset in instalments“.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: “We’re concerned about people being confused by the information O2 has given about device plans. We’ve told O2 to change this so it’s clearer.“