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Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
My boyfriend just got his o2 contract phone cut off mid-month, due to an £850 bill. They didn't even call him up to tell him his bill was looking a big iffy, they just cut it off, and he had to go into town to o2 to find out why. Now, his usual bill is around £40-60, but this month is £850 because of those idiotic text messages where they send you them and charge you to receive them - they get your number through auto-generators, so you have no option other than to open the damn things. They're charging him £1.27 a time, and sent him 650 odd, most of which he didn't even receive to start with :blink: he never even signed up to anything to receive these messages, and they appeared on the screen as no number, no reply, and no "to opt out of this.." message. So he just deleted them when they turned up, on average, one a day or so.

O2 just gave him the two numbers which the messages came from (5 digit ones like 84424) and told him to pay the bill or call the watchdog people for texts, there was nothing that o2 could help with.

Has anybody else had this happen?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Could affect his ability to get credit in the future if they've got a £850 mark against his name but defo complain to whoever is the industry body for text messages

    These pay to receive SMS message are a menace, think I've had one or two from SMS.AC when I joined them many years ago - But I certainly wouldn't pay O2 a penny

    I signed up to some website to send SMS cheaply from the web and sent out an SMS to like 20 people I was meeting for an event - instead the company sent out the same message like 250 times instead of once to 20 people - got charged for it but complained in an email to them and got a refund.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    His own fault, he should have phoned o2 the minute he started getting messages like that through. He should've phoned o2 who could have checked the short code and given him instructions on how to stop them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    He did tell them about them and they said their usual, nothing we can do, line :banghead: he also didn't realise he was being charged to receive them. Never even heard of these kinds of texts before until now. Never knew you could reverse charge a text message. I knew sending messages to them cost about £1.50, but not to bloody receive them. We don't even *have* £850 to pay o2 and sort it out at a later date. What the fuck is it with these bloody idiot companies :'(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Here's the basic information on premium services from Ofcom -

    http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/mobile/company/subscriptions/

    There's also a link on there to complain.

    Essentially people using these services MUST make it clear what is being offered with a service, MUST have you to sign up, MUST make the costs clear when someone signs up, MUST pass on information on how to stop the service.

    So looks like any company signing someone up without permission and not telling you how to stop the service is criminal, and is breaking consumer protection rules. So try to contact Ofcom and probably your local trading standards office about making a legal complaint.

    Ideally o2 should be prepared to sort out an agreement on making repayments realistic whilst you take legal action to recover the money from the criminals responsible.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ah thank you so much :)

    I wish o2 were more helpful.. it's not like it's an odd 50 quid or something. They've basically just done the equivilant of telling us to f'off rather than offering us any decent advice. What a great first set of bill payments for us living on our own!! What Andy has done is cancelled the direct debit to o2, so they don't try and take the money anyway (not that there's that much in the account though) and has told them that he will pay them for the line rental and line rental only until the problem is sorted - which sucks considering his phone has been cut off anyway, so he is renting no line at all, but oh well.. So far haven't heard back from them.

    So if he hasn't signed up for anything, and there is no message telling him he's paying and can unsubscribe, or even reply to the message, it's illegal then?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah, you have to be really upfront about SMS services, and needless to say, you need someone to have actually signed up themselves - least the way I read the law.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There was a legal challenge not so long ago to BT on the basis that they were negligent in allowing fraud to be committed, and they were also profiting from the fraud (which they do). I can't find the case, but I think he won.

    I wouldn't suggest making any offer of payment, and I'd tell o2 to remit the bill as it is fraudulent. If they don't reconnect the phone, go after them for breach of contract.

    They'll all pretend that they can't do nothing when they can, but it's because most of the monkeys in the call centres (no offence to Bri) simply can't be fucking arsed. After all, o2 get a huge slice of the pie, so why should they give a toss?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    last time I checked the figures - if an SMS costs £1.50p to receive then the mobile phone company is getting about 75p per SMS as their slice. So O2 would be doing well out of any Premium SMS messages sent to your phone.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh no! that's so harsh, those bloody sms people are cowboys. I had some of those messages but I'm on pay-asa-you-go so they just drained my credit. I can't believe how o2 have just fobbed you off, definitely don't pay them for it. Waht a whole load of hassle that no-one needs! booooo
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It could be a mistake, although it sounds like you're taking your boyfriend's word for it without questioning first.
    I used to work for O2, and I never heard of anyone recieving £850 worth of texts without doing something to warrant it first.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    He definately didn't sign up for anything though, I've asked him over and over is he definately sure he didn't sign up for anything, and he is certain he never put his number into anything or replied to anything - we have no PC or anything to get online and order things, and we don't have a TV to sign up to late night chat type things, Crazy frog ads, or anything like that :confused: There's also no outgoing premium texts, they're all received rather than sent.. I could understand if he signed up for something, but after going through his bill (with permission, of course) they're all incoming rather than any outgoing. After doing some internet research, apparently one way they get number is some companies use the common prefixes of networks to randomly generate numbers, or that companies sell the numbers on. He's never even downloaded a ringtone before, so we are totally stumped as to how and why they have his number, just out of the blue one day he got a text from it, and it had no return number or "to stop this, text.." type thing, adn we thought maybe it was his friend playing a joke on him, signing him up for some daft porn thing, but then he was getting one pretty much every day, so he asked o2 if they could stop them and their answer was pretty much "can't do it, nothing to do with us, you'll need to contact them" but they had no infortmation for us to actually get back to them!

    Just waiting to hear back from trading standards now :) and apparently there is another company called ICSTIS which can help us too - they're the premius sms regulator company who can fine the companies who send illegal spam texts, so fingers crossed :nervous: I really hope it doesn't get all nasty and messy :/
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ah ICSTIS - I was trying to remember their name.

    With the whole premium sms thing, seems to me there should be something where a confirmation text should be sent other the service has to stop - the amount of times I've suddenly started getting texts I've supposedly signed up for is a joke - and just shows the perils of having to put your mobile number online.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah, I usually put a false one in now, even for things like the other day when I was getting quotes for pet insurance from very well known companies - just getting *quotes* not signing up, and I've been bombarded with them calling me up trying to offer me better deals to sign up with them rather than anybody else, even though I clicked the "don't contact me" box :yeees: keep telling them all to sod off cause I've got pet insurance already. Very annoying when they keep calling me at work. I'd have thought that something like that would be safe to put my number in, obviously not!

    Anyone else get the annoying "Change your contract to us" welsh people calling up a few months before the end of your contract with o2/orange/etc. ? God knows where they got my number and the information from. Think I'm gonna throw all these phones in the bin! :thumb: gonna get me a carrier pidgeon hehehe
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Anyone else get the annoying "Change your contract to us" welsh people calling up a few months before the end of your contract with o2/orange/etc. ?

    No. The only ones I've get about my contract are the ones from Carphone Warehouse telling me that I'm due for an upgrade and to call a number. (which I never do - I just get my parents to take me down there and sort it out that way)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I used to just get my dad to call them when my contract was running out :) he's much better at sorting that kind of stuff out than I am, I just hand the cash over! I started telling the annoying people who called me 3-4 times a day that I was actually on PAYG in the end.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    -kenny- wrote: »
    CAR_PHONE WAREHOUSE??? They quite easily provide the crappest service ever

    I've never ad a problem with them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've never used 'em. Always been with o2 with my contracts, for 7 years or so now.. they give me good deals :D personally, I've never had a problem with them - Only Andy has :/
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whowhere wrote: »
    I used to work for O2, and I never heard of anyone recieving £850 worth of texts without doing something to warrant it first.

    I have come across it several times in my line of work, and its one of the hardest things to challenge because the mobile phone provider count the cash and pass the buck.

    o2 are making money from fraud, you should remind them of that and then do them for breach of contract.

    They have to show that you wilfully purchased a service that they are billing for, it's not up to you to show that you didn't.
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