O2 ... Breach of contract or general incompetence

[theuprightman]

My bill payment for august is in dispute as they claim i have been a naughty boy and i am currently in the process of chasing my own tail to sort out the dispute with various bodies.

 

I was assured that until i had a response from the various 3rd parties and the matter was concluded the DD for august wouldnt be taken from my account. I have taken it on good faith that the payment/bill was held in dispute and also as a precautionary measure transffered out of my account to another account to hold it until the matter was resolved.

 

Anyway, I checked my online banking the day before the normal bill date for my DD, everything was hunky dorey. Plenty of funds to allow me to carry on my day to day life get to work ETc.

 

I get up the next day go to get money out for my bus fare etc. My card gets spat out sayin ginsufficent fundage. Which confused me. It lead to me having to use my CC to withdraw cash as i have very little in the way of help at 5.30am.

 

At the earliest oppourtunity i contact o2 and inform them of the situation. Very sorry Sir the account wasnt held properly sir you'll need to do an indenmnity at your bank sir. I stated the fact I had now gone into the red on ym account and would be occuring charges from both my bank and from my CC as their incompetence has caused my (almost) normally good financial standing to crash down around my ears.

 

The nice lady then agreed verbally that 02 would stand all my charges and when i had been to the bank givem them a call and tell them.

 

I gave them a call only to be informed that i now have to fax this information accross which is going to be a ball ache a si dont have access to a fax machine.

 

As it stands excluding the DD they took out O2 have cost me around £200.00 in charges. I have spent around three/four hours trying to sort this mess and i am no where near getting it resolved.

 

My questions are:- How much would it be courteous to bill them for my time sorting this mess out?

Can i bill them for the costs of having to find a fax machine paper travel etc and what would be the going rate for this?

Should i lodge a claim for compensation for the stress and hassle

Are o2 in breech by taking an unauthorised payment cos if this doesnt get sorted out I am not giving them another penny.

Who can i escalate this matter to? who is the body in charge of looking after this incompetent shower of tom tit.

[Human Writes]

My questions are:- How much would it be courteous to bill them for my time sorting this mess out?

Can i bill them for the costs of having to find a fax machine paper travel etc and what would be the going rate for this?

Should i lodge a claim for compensation for the stress and hassle

Are o2 in breech by taking an unauthorised payment cos if this doesnt get sorted out I am not giving them another penny.

Who can i escalate this matter to? who is the body in charge of looking after this incompetent shower of tom tit.

 

It would be courteous to ASK them to pay you a reasonable amount which in my view would be say £10-15 per hour, as it sounds like its their fault and it has cost you some time. I wouldn't send them a bill at this stage, you need to bear in mind you are their customer not their employee, an argument along the lines of I'm a stockbroker, surgeon, etc and my wages are £250.00 per hour, therefore, you need to pay me for my time as if I'm employed by you is likely to get nowhere with Customer Services. Yes you could ask that they cover your direct expenses, the going rate for this would be what it actually cost you.It's an oversight/error which is in the process of being corrected, it doesn't appear to be a fundamental breach of contract. Only you can decide whether you should pursue a claim against them. The telecoms industry is regulated by Ofcom, I believe Ed Richards is their CEO, however, Ofcom only track complaint trends for the most part, they do not usually take a view on or assist with individual consumer complaints. All communications providers have to be a member of an alternative dispute resolution scheme, 02 are a member of an ombudsman scheme - http://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html - you should be aware that there are rules on making complaints to this sort of scheme - you should follow the guidance on making a complaint in 02's Code of Practice - they have to publish a copy of this on their website.