Warning - Did you attempt to pay O2 over your phone at the weekend

dub45

Over the weekend I attempted to pay my O2 bill automatically through 1909. Twice I keyed in my laser card number only to be told that the transaction had been rejected and I was referred to a CSR. On both occasions I hung up after waiting for about 10 mins.

Lo and behold when I checked my account today I discovered that o2 had deducted the amounts twice from my account. In total the amount deducted came to about 450 euros as I was paying two bills.

I consider this theft. A bank account should be like your house if someone enters it without your permission thats breaking and entering.

Eventually I got through to 1909 and told a csr what had happened waited endlessly until she came back to me and I was told that there had been a systems fault at the weekend and that a refund would be made IN A WEEK!

I pointed out to her that I considered that O2's actions were equivalent to theft and if I did not get a refund today I would report the matter to the police.

Anyways to cut a long story short after much toing and froing its supposed to be getting returned to my account tomorrow.(o2 clamied it was impossible to make a refund today even though my bank tell it is very easy to do so) O2 showed absolutely no sense of customer awareness in this or sensitivity I really had to fight to get some attention from them and I dread to think how long a refund might have taken if I had not checked my account.

Imagine if a person made four or five attempts at payment over the weekend.

Anyways apart from confirming yet again the appalling behaviour of big companies towards their customers if you attempted to pay O2 over the weekend by laser or credit card and found the transaction declined check your account immediately.

Can you imagine how O2 would react if somebody hacked their way into one its accounts and took out 450 euros?

seamus

Originally posted by dub45
Can you imagine how O2 would react if somebody hacked their way into one its accounts and took out 450 euros?

I wouldn't consider it hacking into your account or theft tbh.
A system error occurred such that when you entered your details, it charged your laser card, but then b0rked and didn't deduct it from your bill and gave you an error. When you tried it again, your account still registered as being in arrears, and once again, charged your card for the amount and then crashed.
It may also have been an error on the bank's side. The bank's computer could have told O2's machine that the transaction has been declined, O2 hen say fine, and refer back to you. However, the bank b0rks and deducts said amount from your account, in O2's name. O2 are not culpable in any way in this case.
**** happens. Such is the nature of computers and online systems. You have to allow for the odd 'clerical error'.

Does seem a little ridiculous that their standard policy is to wait a week to refund you though. What, as you say, is someone to do if they made a few attempts at it, and emptied their bank account? Live on a beans for a week?

As a matter of interest, are you with Bank of Ireland? They've been having a lot of technical problems over the last week, as regards atms, online services, and other such things which rely on accurate access to account details.

PhoenixRising

A similar thing happened to me with Vodafone. I had paid my Vodafone bill using Banking 365 and at the end of the billing period Vodafone still took a direct debit from my bank account for the same amount. I was waiting for over 2 weeks for a refund, and they sent me out a cheque instead of just reversing the direct debit.

dub45

I wouldn't consider it hacking into your account or theft tbh.

I dont consider what O2 did as hacking into my account. I was just drawing an analogy or a what if!

If someone takes money from my account without my permission as far as I am concerned that's theft. I dont have the use of my money for the period in question!

Now if that 'taking' was a mistake and they made an effort to correct it quickly I could be quite conciliatory and understanding. In this case it took the threat of reporting it to the police to get any realisitic action from them. The CSR told me that O2 had problems with theirs systems at the weekend and that 'several' people were affected. So it was nothing got to do with my own bank in this case.

Also O2 claimed that a refund could not be made immediately but this is not true.
My bank confirmed to me that there is no problem in making an immediate refund and O2 later admitted that too but said the person who normally did that had gone home!

I think any Company that has access to customers' accounts should behave very responsibly when unauthorised deductions are made especially as they are totally in the wrong in doing so. I think most people would expect speedy notifcation of the error, a prompt apology and a very quick refund as being the basis of any policy.

In this case to simply say it will be done in a week shows a total disregard for the customer. For a lot of people 450 euros gone out of their account even for a few days would be a disaster. (Most times it would be a disaster for me anyways!)

By the way the supervisor that I eventually got on to did give me some call credit for my trouble!!!!