o2/carphone warehouse disconnection query

[csc2ya]

Just a quick query on whether the following sounds like a suspension/disconnection.

I've currently got several unpaid bills with o2/carphone warehouse on my phone contract.

I've phoned them and explained that i'm having financial difficulties.

On trying to make a call today, I got a message along the lines of: calls to this number are not allowed from this handset. Please wait while we connect you to customer services.

Now when I try and make a call to any number other than voicemail, which still works, I get an engaged beep, and my phone displays 'number busy' on the screen.

I have also tried sending text messages, and they are failing as well.

Does anyone know whether these are a symptom of having the phone suspended/disconnected?

[fredbassett]

Sounds like they have suspended the account for non-payment and are routing any calls you attempt to make to their customer service department so that you can make a payment on the account.

[csc2ya]

Just as I thought....i've got a spare pay&go sim, so I might have to use that in this phone until I can get my finances sorted out.

Thanks for the quick reply

[csc2ya]

I've now sent carphone warehouse an e-mail explaining that I am unable to pay the full amount in one go due to financial difficulties, but that I do wish to sort this out amicably for both me and them. I haven't offered a reduced payment or anything yet. I'll see what they come back with.

[buzby]

Out of interest, are incoming calls still OK?

[csc2ya]

No idea. I haven't recieved any calls since the suspension though, although the only ones I was getting were from carphone warehouse anyway.

[buzby]

Sorry, what I meant was; What do you get when you dial your own mobile number.... connected (ringing) or number unobtainable?

[csc2ya]

It's ok, I knew what you meant, but haven't had a chance to check yet. I'll try it from my home phone when I get a chance and let you know.

[wishiwasrich]

Just a note to say good luck. I've just won against 02 in a dispute - they tried to take me to Small Claims court and the judge dismissed it without a hearing.

I used to own a small business and had problems with both 02 and Carphone Warehouse that were entirely of both companies own creation. Their billing systems are atrocious so keep battling with them to get a decent response.

In CW's case we moved an 02 phone to Vodaphone. They gave us the PUK code! 3 months later they were still taking the DD so we cancelled it by which time they owed us about £90. They then threatened to take us to court for about 6 missing direct debits - it took 6 MONTHS to get them to give us our money back and admit they were wrong.

In 02's case we cancelled all our contracts with them in June last year when all the staff were made redundant. They tried to claim we had RENEWED them all (someone in-house must have been on commission). When the last legitimate DD for a contract expired in Nov 07 I cancelled the DD. My staff all swore affadvits that even my accountant verified to them that we were closing down. No joy - they just lost. Keep going and good luck

[csc2ya]

I've just tried calling my own number from a landline, and that came through with no problems, so it looks like they haven't suspended it. They've just rerouted all outgoing calls.

[buzby]

Ta for the update. The removal of incoming calls would have been a travesty, as the phone just becomes a brick (or camra or MP3) without warning. They can argue revenue protection for blocking outbound calls when there's a dispute, but at least it's only one way!

[csc2ya]

An update to this. My dad lent me the money to pay all my bills. The bar was lifted on my o2 sim last saturday. I phoned up yesterday to lower my tarrif.

Noticed my phone kept beeping when I was on the bus this morning. Message on the screen was 'SIM card registration failed' and it didn't have a connection to the network at all.

Immediately thought 'uh oh.....this can't be good'. Checked my account online later on....yep.....they'd disconnected the phone completely.

I went in to the carphone warehouse store again at lunchtime, who phoned up to find out what was going on. They ended up speaking to a manager in customer services who admitted that they had made a mistake in disconnecting it.

Apparantly, they have now put a reconnection request in and it should be reconnected within 24 hours apparantly.

When I looked on google earlier I did notice that this seems to happen a lot wth CPW and o2 (people phoning up to change their tarrif, then finding their phones disconnected by 'mistake' the next day.

Edit: Just to add to this, I like the fact that they can disconnect a sim immediately, but that it seems to take up to 24 hours for it to be reconnected.

[csc2ya]

I've just phoned o2/cpw again as it's still not been reconnected. I was told that they could see a note on the account that it had been sent for reconnection, but the manager who sorted it out wasn't there at weekends so they weren't able to check.

Apparantly, the person I spoke to just now has contacted o2 and been told that it will be reconnected.

However, this will likely happen on monday or tuesday now apparantly, meaning i've effectively got no phone until after the weekend.

I have got a PAYG sim that I can put in the phone, but of course all my friends and relatives have the number of the contract sim. There are also various jobs i've applied for where they won't be able to get hold of me on that number until it's reconnected as well.

[csc2ya]

The phone was finally reconnected on monday afternoon, but carphone warehouse hadn't updated their system yet. This was finally done on tuesday, and everything now seems to be working properly apart from mobile internet (which i'm not bothered about)

Strangely, my pin for customer services was reset, meaning it was rejected when I phoned up to check I was on the right priceplan.

It's all been sorted out now anyway.