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O2 end of contract rip off ?

BigAlbert

Regular Member
Just looking for opinions on the below.

To be brief, more or less forced to take out a O2 sim as part of a reduced price virginmedia contract, never used or needed the O2 sim, they recently put up my monthly O2 payment to nearly £20 per month, rang O2 up today to cancel the sim / payment and was told I'd have to pay the remaining months on the O2 sim / contract at 'full price' !!

So now I've paid in advance for a sim I can't even use if I wanted to - I think this is disgusting and a total rip off. I'll never use O2 again that's for sure. I think they should have least given me a 50% discount on the remaining months. Anyhow I've raised a complaint via O2, anyone else had to deal with this type of rip off ?

Perhaps I should have cancelled the direct debit - more fool me ?
 
I may be missing something here.. but why would you expect to not have to pay off the remainder of the contract if you terminate the service early? All networks will expect you to pay off the full amount, minus a few percent.

What do you mean when you say you've paid in advance and can't even use the SIM? Do you mean you've gone ahead and paid the early termination fee?

Cancelling the DD would not have helped - you'd still owe them the money.
 
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You've done a VOLT deal on VM02, you can only cancel the SIM with 14 days of the original contract start date, the one I can say is the fact that those VOLT sims are only 18 month contracts inline with the VM packages
 
I may be missing something here.. but why would you expect to not have to pay off the remainder of the contract if you terminate the service early? All networks will expect you to pay off the full amount, minus a few percent.

What do you mean when you say you've paid in advance and can't even use the SIM? Do you mean you've gone ahead and paid the early termination fee?

Cancelling the DD would not have helped - you'd still owe them the money.

1. Virgin media are partly to blame, I was sold a package when infact it's internet with a sim thrown in. Separate bills and separate entities, meaning either can mess around with your so called package price.

2. The thrown in sim is a pay monthly sim, I'd never opt for that, never have, never will, I've always been pay as you go but the thrown in sim and VM broadband added up roughly to the stated so called package price.

3. I didn't want the sim but was told together it'll be cheaper, I call that very misleading, bit like the ppi scandal.

4. So I had sim that I never used but it was costing roughly 16 pounds per month, O2 then decided to bump that up to nearly 20 pounds.

5.I had 2 months left on the 18 month contract, good will says they need to knock at least something off the bill, as above mis-sold a pay monthy sim that I never used once yet they still insist I have to pay the full 2 months that I won't use or can use. Call it 'contract' or whatever, I say that stinks. Anyhow I've hit the web hard with reviews and many other forum posts and social media, hopefully I've cost O2 at least 1 customer - fair game...
 
1. Virgin media aren’t to blame for you entering into a contract for a package/bundle for cheaper cost. That’s on you.

2. Well you did enter the contract for a sim only pay monthly deal which you chose to ignore the terms and conditions of. That’s also on you.

3. It would’ve been cheaper deal overall, again, that’s on you not them. You knew what you were entering into.

4. On entering the contract with O2 you’d have confirmed that you accept the RPI/CPI annual increase of 3.9% + inflation. That’s on you, you agreed this could happen and agreed you’re happy to pay it.

5. O2 nor Virgin will care for your ignorance, it’s you that signed the contract, agreed the payments and took out the deal. You also had 14 days cooling off period as explained in all correspondence from both parties which you also decided to ignore.

This is on you, not VMO2.
 
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1. Virgin media aren’t to blame for you entering into a contract for a package/bundle for cheaper cost. That’s on you.

2. Well you did enter the contract for a sim only pay monthly deal which you chose to ignore the terms and conditions of. That’s also on you.

3. It would’ve been cheaper deal overall, again, that’s on you not them. You knew what you were entering into.

4. On entering the contract with O2 you’d have confirmed that you accept the RPI/CPI annual increase of 3.9% + inflation. That’s on you, you agreed this could happen and agreed you’re happy to pay it.

5. O2 nor Virgin will care for your ignorance, it’s you that signed the contract, agreed the payments and took out the deal. You also had 14 days cooling off period as explained in all correspondence from both parties which you also decided to ignore.

This is on you, not VMO2.
So based on that BS mis-selling doesn't exist, VM / O2 are angels that can do no wrong, they make all their packages 100% clear to every single customer. Customer service and fair business doesn't exist, you need to screw every penny out of your customers. All they had to do was offer something and I'd have been satisfied, now they've lost my future business and 1 other that shares my view so far. It's not the money it's the principle...

Sure they don't care, that's their attitude, all other phone providers I've walked away satisfied, not this time for the matter of 10 or 20 pounds.
End of the day they've screwed over 200 pounds out of me and I've had nothing in return, they weren't satisfied with that - they wanted every last penny because they created some rules on a piece of paper that's 100% one sided. No problem I'll vote with my future business and money, I might try ofcom, see if they'll look into mis-selling packages that aren't packages and duping people into having a pay monthly phone contract that's only obvious after 4 weeks - after getting your first bill.
 
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So based on that BS mis-selling doesn't exist, VM / O2 are angels that can do no wrong, they make all their packages 100% clear to every single customer. Customer service and fair business doesn't exist, you need to screw every penny out of your customers. All they had to do was offer something and I'd have been satisfied, now they've lost my future business and 1 other that shares my view so far. It's not the money it's the principle...

Sure they don't care, that's their attitude, all other phone providers I've walked away satisfied, not this time for the matter of 10 or 20 pounds.
End of the day they've screwed over 200 pounds out of me and I've had nothing in return, they weren't satisfied with that - they wanted every last penny because they created some rules on a piece of paper that's 100% one sided. No problem I'll vote with my future business and money, I might try ofcom, see if they'll look into mis-selling packages that aren't packages and duping people into having a pay monthly phone contract that's only obvious after 4 weeks - after getting your first bill.
If you paid the cancel fee, as standard, your O2 plan will end having given notice within 30 days. You could’ve gave the sim to a friend or family member in need who could have used it and paid you the fee back if needed.

I don’t believe it’s a miss-sell if you said yes, the facts were given to you, they didn’t not tell you about the sim and it just arrived without permission. You accepted it.
Good luck in your complaint.
 
Just looking for opinions on the below.

To be brief, more or less forced to take out a O2 sim as part of a reduced price virginmedia contract, never used or needed the O2 sim, they recently put up my monthly O2 payment to nearly £20 per month, rang O2 up today to cancel the sim / payment and was told I'd have to pay the remaining months on the O2 sim / contract at 'full price' !!

So now I've paid in advance for a sim I can't even use if I wanted to - I think this is disgusting and a total rip off. I'll never use O2 again that's for sure. I think they should have least given me a 50% discount on the remaining months. Anyhow I've raised a complaint via O2, anyone else had to deal with this type of rip off ?

Perhaps I should have cancelled the direct debit - more fool me ?
I was previously with Virgin Media for over five years and have been with Virgin Mobile for over ten years before being moved to O2 recently.

My opinion is that if you are unhappy with a service company, the best play is to see out the remainder of the contract, never do any further business with them again, and to advise friends and family never to do any business with that service company.

If you aren't willing to take these steps, you are de facto forgiving the bad service company for mistreating you and all customers will continue to suffer. I've recently read of a similar situation with EE where there are online reports of customers being duped into accepting a "free tablet" and being entered into a minimum term contract for mobile SIM services and I'm minded to leave EE over this matter.
 
I would suggest a 'phone call to your local Trading Standards. However, I have a feeling that they will suggest that whilst you might have been a victim of sharp practice, no actual offence has been committed.

I am intrigued by the advice given by others to walk away from O2. But who to ? The customer service at VM02 is atrocious, but is it any worse than Three ? And I've had horrific problems with Vodaphone in the past, whilst I currently have a long-running complaint with BT.

If I never did any further business with a service company that i was unhappy with, I would have run out of options by now.
 
I would suggest a 'phone call to your local Trading Standards. However, I have a feeling that they will suggest that whilst you might have been a victim of sharp practice, no actual offence has been committed.

I am intrigued by the advice given by others to walk away from O2. But who to ? The customer service at VM02 is atrocious, but is it any worse than Three ? And I've had horrific problems with Vodaphone in the past, whilst I currently have a long-running complaint with BT.

If I never did any further business with a service company that i was unhappy with, I would have run out of options by now.
I've received 24 months of mobile broadband for my main house internet access used for professional work from sequentially Three UK and EE and found them both to be fine (total of 48 months)

I currently have additional service from Lebara and TalkHome which seem pretty reasonable from limited usage. Today I've received a Lyca mobile UK SIM which I'll be testing.

Having opened with this regarding O2, I believe this this thread is more about Virgin Media wired Internet access and the O2 contract was a side show. I personally moved from Virgin Media to BT on account of high Virgin Media prices. BT was worse and I was expecting to go back to Virgin Media but ended up on Three UK due to a house move. Have stayed with mobile broadband ever since.

I agree that one can only realistically boycott one service provider at a time as it's not realistic to cut off one's nose to spite one's face.
 
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I hear this all the time from people. I’ve been ‘missold’ a contract. I don’t think Ofcom or trading standards would look into this as you’ve signed your contract agreeing to the sale of the goods (such as the contract at hand). If someone sells you something it’s your responsibility as an individual to understand what’s being sold to you and for you to understand the terms and conditions of the sale. If you agreed to the sale and signed the contract you won’t have grounds to make a complaint unless the sales advisor blatantly lied to you or didn’t disclose information. The likelihood of this happening is incredibly low because your contract would have outlined that you have 14 days to cancel and it would also outline what you’re paying for in writing and what your Ts and Cs are.

In regards to signing a contract, if you sign a contract then you’re making a legal agreement to pay them a fixed term and the break clause is that you pay the early termination charge if you haven’t gone to your full 1/2 year term. If you’re having poor service at home then the other break clause would be that you’re not receiving what you pay for.

If you really feel like you have been ‘missold’ though then speak to their customer care team and resolve it before going to the regulatory bodies. Calls are recorded so if anything dodgy happened it would be picked up on and calls can be listened in on. Ofcom and trading standards are not your nanny, they are there to mediate between you and the company you’re making a complaint about.
 
Perhaps I should have cancelled the direct debit - more fool me ?
I'd always recommend against this even if you're in the right because it can cause you so much more hassle. O2 made an error on my account and billed me for a year's line rental even though I'd cancelled the line, O2 cancelled it and advised me they could do a refund in 14 days or they recommended going to my bank and cancelling/reversing the direct debit as I'd get the money that day.

I followed their instruction and I quickly came to regret as O2 flagged the account as being in debt and sent it to debt collectors. While these people have no legal powers they can be a real pain in the neck when phoning daily demanding payment, it took a long time to finally convince O2 of their error and call off the debt collectors.

Thus I always recommend against cancelling the direct debit as you're potentially going to cause more problems for yourself.
 
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