Carphone Warehouse O2 billing

[maximus0983]

A couple of years ago i had an account with CPW o2 and went abroad. With my price plan i had their ITS bundle which gave me cheaper calls that i used. However to my surprise when i got back my bill was over £1000 for calls even though my credit limit with the company was set to £250.

 

I had opted for their online billing - a BIG BIG mistake - and quite often had to complain that their service was down - and also found out that if you are over your credit limit they stop your access to their online services so you cannot check whats left of your account. They threatened to take me to court and call in the bailiffs to get their money so i had no option but to pay by installments. However I have still not received any of my bills to proove these charges - what can i do? they breached my credit limit and are threatening me legal action if i dont pay? please some can you help cos im stuck...

[davethorp]

An SAR should get you the information you want. Unfortunately its more than likely you'll be liable for the full charges.

 

Credit limits on mobile phones are tricky things, don't always kick in when they should and this is even more true when roaming as it can be some weeks or months before your UK provider is given the details of calls you've made.

 

If you think they may have made a mistake get an SAR and go through it. However unfortunately you will be more than likely liable for these calls.

[maximus0983]

hmm...so when they say they have set a limit on my calls it dont mean anything...damn...how would i go about an SAR?

[davethorp]

There's template in the bank charge library for submitting an SAR though you may need to amend it to suit. You also need to enclose a cheque/PO for £10. You should receive all data they hold on you which will include call charges applied against your account and might be quite a lot of pages if they include every call you have ever made.

 

You should be able to confirm if any charges applied are correct however if they are correct you are liable for the full balance.

 

The problem is like I said the credit limit is not a definite limit as such. It can take a while for an account to flag up when its over limit and even then they may not impose a call bar. When your abroad it is very difficult for your home network to keep track of calls as sometimes they normally only receive the data on them weeks or months after they take place. You were right to activate the ITS service as this would have reduced your roaming charges but even then they are still pretty expensive.

 

Some networks offer some pretty good deals for roaming. Vodafone offer their passport service which, though only works in certain countries and on certain networks, is a fantastic service to reduce your roaming costs. You pay a flat cost of 75p for each call incoming and outgoing. Outgoing calls are then charged at your normal home rate and will use inclusive minutes. Other networks also offer ways to save money abroad. It can also be worth considering using a PAYG sim so you know what you are spending when abroad or buying a sim for a network in the country you are visiting to reduce costs.

[maximus0983]

thanks man...

[Ferru]

I used to work at the Carphone Warehouse, and would often receive calls from parents whose children had run up big bills, and were not automatically prevented from going over a spend limit. AFAIK, there is a delay between you making calls and those calls being registered by the computer which stops you going over your limit. I think this is due to the fact that you are not connecting with O2 directly, but through the Carphone Warehouse, and the O2 computer does not communicate in real time with the Carphone Warehouse computer.

 

Jeff

 

An S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) should get you the information you want. Unfortunately its more than likely you'll be liable for the full charges.

 

Credit limits on mobile phones are tricky things, don't always kick in when they should and this is even more true when roaming as it can be some weeks or months before your UK provider is given the details of calls you've made.

 

If you think they may have made a mistake get an SAR and go through it. However unfortunately you will be more than likely liable for these calls.

[snu]

I used to work at the Carphone Warehouse, and would often receive calls from parents whose children had run up big bills, and were not automatically prevented from going over a spend limit. AFAIK, there is a delay between you making calls and those calls being registered by the computer which stops you going over your limit. I think this is due to the fact that you are not connecting with O2 directly, but through the Carphone Warehouse, and the O2 computer does not communicate in real time with the Carphone Warehouse computer.

 

Nothing to do with that really. All networks have delays in billing reconciliation. Which is ridiculous really - they're perfectly able to update your pay-as-you-go balance in real-time, because otherwise that would lose them money.

[davethorp]

As snu says it is a bit silly. PAYG while abroad also updates in real time otherwise you could overdraw your credit. Why contract doesn't work the same way is beyond me

[snu]

It's obvious isn't it? It would cost them money to fix it, and by leaving it as it is they can hit up customers for larger bills than they were expecting and wash their hands saying "hey look, we told you not to rely on it, it's your fault!".

[maximus0983]

it takes the p*ss that what it is...these companies allowed to get away with anything they want and we have to pay for it. but ive just read the old contract and terms and conditions on it say the credit limit in place is "just a guide line"...then why the hell do they put it there??????