Hi all just wonder if anyone have notice this. I was with O2 on a 24 month contract, when it was up I decided to leave and went to another network. So I phone O2 and cancel my 24 month contract at the beginning of April and they took my final payment in middle of April. Last night I notice they took the normal monthy direct debit out, I thought that was strange as I was literally about 2-3 days in the new month. I phone O2 this morning asking if I got any credit left on my account, she said yes £26.77 and my usual monthly DD is £32. I said don't O2 automatically refund the credit, she said no. So basically if you don't phone and check they will keep your credit.
O2 keeping your credit.
- Thread starter kiwifruit
- Start date
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pawl
Legendary Member
- Location
- Desford Leicestershire
Whenever I cancell anything I pay by DD I an cancell the bank DD.
I do check that my payments are up to date
Moodyman
Legendary Member
Yes. Mobile phone providers charge line rental in advance and the airtime use in arrears. So, if you cancel your agreement, there will usually be a credit balance on a 'final bill'. You would be expected to call and request a refund of this.
In O2's case, the argument was/is they did not know your preferred method of refund so relied on you calling and prompting them.
The real reason was that they had an archaic billing system that did not auto-refund and from which they could not identify who was owed a refund. They were to looking to make a change to their billing sysyem to allow them to identify those customers with a credit balance and to manually refund them. However, I suspect they looked at the cost of making the system enhancememt and concluded it was cheaper to put up with a few disgruntled ex-customers.
Hi @pawl and @classic33 is not about the DD. It's O2, instead taken £5.23 out of my bank they took the full monthly of £32. So i got £26.77 in credit that they got. So if you don't check, O2 will keep that money as they won' t refund the £26.77 automatically back to your bank account unless you call them.
Electric_Andy
Heavy Metal Fan
- Location
- Plymouth
This sounds usual. This is why I boycott Vodaphone. Cancelled a contract that was already expired, then had to chase to stop them taking out a direct debit. Then as a final "up yours" they debited £5 out of my account 2 weeks after it was all "resolved".
classic33
Leg End Member
EE are the same.
Only mentioned the DD because they should, if you've proof of when you cancelled the contract, the Direct Debit Mandate covers it.
oldwheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Isle of Mull
Had loads of trouble with O2 following a bereavement. The bank account was frozen and the phone was not used but they just kept sending bills and ratcheting up the charges with massive ( hundreds of pounds) final demands and ignoring all communication. In the end a lawyer dealing with the estate had to tell them to back off and they eventually wrote off all the charges.
NorthernDave
Never used Über Member
- Location
- The real Northern Powerhouse
Unfortunately this type of shenanigans it's pretty common among the big companies - like the utilities who get you to pay £x per month for your gas or electric, and find that after a year you're £200 in credit but have to ask them for it back or they just "keep it safe for you", while writing to increase your monthly payments...
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