O2 phone barring - what sort of notice should you get?

I had an incident recently where O2 barred my phone without warning.
Apparently a problem with their billing system had prevented them from
taking the money from my credit card as normal, so my phone was barred due
to an unpaid bill.

I can forgive the occasional problem with computers/billing/whatever, but
what concerns me is I wasn't told what was going on. No attempt was made to
contact me, and the first I knew about it was when I found I was no longer
able to make outgoing calls.

Has anyone had any similar experience with O2 billing problems leading to
phone barrings? Do they normally warn you of this by letter, phone or text?
Do they normally give you the chance to sort it out before rendering your
phone unusable? I've had several conflicting answers to this question from
O2 themselves, so I'm a bit confused.

I don't want this to sound like a complaint as I've been a customer of
theirs for years and prior to this haven't had a single problem. I'd like
to think it was just a one-off mistake However, I'm now worried that if
this happens again I could find myself in the same situation.

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Ant wrote:
> I had an incident recently where O2 barred my phone without warning.
> Apparently a problem with their billing system had prevented them from
> taking the money from my credit card as normal, so my phone was barred due
> to an unpaid bill.
>
> I can forgive the occasional problem with computers/billing/whatever, but
> what concerns me is I wasn't told what was going on. No attempt was made to
> contact me, and the first I knew about it was when I found I was no longer
> able to make outgoing calls.
>
> Has anyone had any similar experience with O2 billing problems leading to
> phone barrings? Do they normally warn you of this by letter, phone or text?
> Do they normally give you the chance to sort it out before rendering your
> phone unusable? I've had several conflicting answers to this question from
> O2 themselves, so I'm a bit confused.
>
> I don't want this to sound like a complaint as I've been a customer of
> theirs for years and prior to this haven't had a single problem. I'd like
> to think it was just a one-off mistake However, I'm now worried that if
> this happens again I could find myself in the same situation.
>
>
Yep normal O2 practice, they did this to me last year when my credit
card expired.

They told me it was my responsibilty to know that the card was going to
expire and make alternative arrangements. They also said they did not
have the time or systems to check and inform customers !

I told them that in this day and age that was unacceptable and to stuff
their contract where the sun don't shine - and told them to give me my
PAC code......

So yes that O2 for you

hth

DeeBee

On Sat, 7 Jan 2006 18:26:52 -0000, Ant wrote:

> I had an incident recently where O2 barred my phone without warning.
> Apparently a problem with their billing system had prevented them from
> taking the money from my credit card as normal, so my phone was barred due
> to an unpaid bill.

> I can forgive the occasional problem with computers/billing/whatever, but
> what concerns me is I wasn't told what was going on. No attempt was made to
> contact me, and the first I knew about it was when I found I was no longer
> able to make outgoing calls.

> Has anyone had any similar experience with O2 billing problems leading to
> phone barrings? Do they normally warn you of this by letter, phone or text?
> Do they normally give you the chance to sort it out before rendering your
> phone unusable? I've had several conflicting answers to this question from
> O2 themselves, so I'm a bit confused.

> I don't want this to sound like a complaint as I've been a customer of
> theirs for years and prior to this haven't had a single problem. I'd like
> to think it was just a one-off mistake However, I'm now worried that if
> this happens again I could find myself in the same situation.

Precisely the same thing happened to me about 6 months ago: no warning, no
contact, no information; nothing which would lead you to suspect anything
untoward.

I was pretty happy with their service until that point; all it did was to
make me give them one more chance. If it happens again, I'm off.

rgds, Chris

"Ant" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
>I had an incident recently where O2 barred my phone without warning.
>Apparently a problem with their billing system had prevented them from
>taking the money from my credit card as normal, so my phone was barred due
>to an unpaid bill.
>
> I can forgive the occasional problem with computers/billing/whatever, but
> what concerns me is I wasn't told what was going on. No attempt was made
> to contact me, and the first I knew about it was when I found I was no
> longer able to make outgoing calls.
>
> Has anyone had any similar experience with O2 billing problems leading to
> phone barrings? Do they normally warn you of this by letter, phone or
> text? Do they normally give you the chance to sort it out before rendering
> your phone unusable? I've had several conflicting answers to this
> question from O2 themselves, so I'm a bit confused.
>
> I don't want this to sound like a complaint as I've been a customer of
> theirs for years and prior to this haven't had a single problem. I'd like
> to think it was just a one-off mistake However, I'm now worried that if
> this happens again I could find myself in the same situation.
>

Welcome to the standards of customer service on O2!

Yep thats standard for 02, never mind there billing system has so many bugs
in it you could drive a tank through them, as far as 02 concired its always
your fault even when there billing system calculates a bill thats out by a
factor of 10
"Ant" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> I had an incident recently where O2 barred my phone without warning.
> Apparently a problem with their billing system had prevented them from
> taking the money from my credit card as normal, so my phone was barred due
> to an unpaid bill.
>
> I can forgive the occasional problem with computers/billing/whatever, but
> what concerns me is I wasn't told what was going on. No attempt was made
to
> contact me, and the first I knew about it was when I found I was no longer
> able to make outgoing calls.
>
> Has anyone had any similar experience with O2 billing problems leading to
> phone barrings? Do they normally warn you of this by letter, phone or
text?
> Do they normally give you the chance to sort it out before rendering your
> phone unusable? I've had several conflicting answers to this question
from
> O2 themselves, so I'm a bit confused.
>
> I don't want this to sound like a complaint as I've been a customer of
> theirs for years and prior to this haven't had a single problem. I'd like
> to think it was just a one-off mistake However, I'm now worried that if
> this happens again I could find myself in the same situation.
>
>