HELP - O2 Charging £6481 for data usage on a voice only sim card

[danielleiss]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]49574[/ATTACH]Sorry if this is a bit of a jumble, I have tried to rush and write it. Our phones are on tonight’s bar list, unless we pay the bill, so I have until tonight to make a decision on this...

 

We have a business contract with o2, and have had since 2010. At the moment we have 22 lines.

 

In April/ May last year we received two huge bills, of over £3000 each, our normal bills are around £700.

Looking into these we could found that the large charges were for “data” and had been incurred by only one number on our business contract.

£3048.10 on the first bill and £2353.19 on the second. (These amounts are excluding VAT)

The £3048 + vat was collected by direct debit before we realised, and to date we have not paid the May bill. We have managed to have the bill in query this whole time and it wasn’t until recently that they started to peruse us for it.

We had been paying all our other bills since then on time and in full.

Anyway, the line that incurred the charges was a voice only Sim card and as far as we were aware, shouldn’t have even been able to access the internet. We only provide our staff with basic phones that cannot even access the internet, just be able to make calls and texts. We had an initial investigation by o2 carried out and it turned out that our employee had apparently put the sim into an accessible phone, a Samsung, and managed to access the internet, and incur these charges.

Following this we had an offer of credit for half the charges by a Customer Relations Executive. But, we refused the offer and asked for the complaint to be escalated. Apparently there is no further escalation.

Through desperation our latest attempt was to contact Neil Harvey, Head of Business Services. It took them nearly two weeks to get back to us, but we had an email from lady on his behalf, who’s job title is Executive Relations. She has informed us that unfortunate the charges stand.

Now our phones are on tomorrow’s bar list, unless we pay the bill.

 

We would like to know the following:

• Why are the charges so high, despite that fact that we pay just £5 on our current contract for an internet add on.

• Why was we not informed of the high rising charges, despit it being so out of line with our current bills.

• Why was the sim even able to incur these charges when we have it stated as a “voice only” line in the contract, and the rest stated as “voice and data”.

 

What do you think our chances of going to court will be like?

 

i have attached a copy of our contract, minus the first page with details.

[king12345]

There should be a block on data which would prevent anyone from using the internet.

They clearly took that block off and now want to polish your wallet.

Stand your ground.

Send their head office a recorded delivery letter claiming what is owed to you (or to cancel the crazy bills if the credit is in your favour).

They will refuse to do so and tell you to complain to a something which is supposed to be an "impartial adjudication service".

Don't waste your time with them because they are paid by the communication companies.

Take them to county court and after you win send the details to the local press.

Of course you will be asking for loss of earnings because tomorrow they will cut your line.

[king12345]

j) A maximum of 10 additional elements including Extra Minutes, Extra Messages or Bolt Ons can be added to the O2 Airtime Tariffs detailed above. ThetariffsshownaboveincorporateBusinessDataSensefreeofanyadditionalLineRentalCharge.BusinessDataSenseallowsyoutosendupto½Megabyte(MB)or512KBof data usage free each month, thereafter usage is priced at £1.80 (ex VAT) per MB or you may opt to add a Data Service

 

This is the paragraph that conned you.

Looks like you have to negotiate a reduction or repayment plan, so probably best to disregard my previous post.

Others might find a way out though