Switching to new O2 tariff made my bill soar to £700
I WAS paying mobile phone network provider O2 £19 a month for a contract, which included unlimited minutes.
I was told I could reduce the cost to £17 a month for 1,000 minutes, which, it estimated, would be adequate for our use. But we ended up with huge bills.
O2 offered me another agreement with unlimited minutes for £ 20 per month.
However, it failed to implement the new agreement. This has led to me being billed for £700.
When I disputed this, the company made a goodwill payment into my bank account, but has requested that I pay the balance. D. W., Kent. O2 has conducted a thorough examination of your account.
as you say, you swapped to the 1,000 minutes contract in February 2016. This was not enough for you, so you wrote to O2 in July 2016.
O2 offered two alternative tariffs with unlimited minutes.
You have supplied a copy of a letter in which you ask to be moved onto one of these tariffs, but O2 does not have a record of receiving this.
When you made contact again in January 2017, you were moved onto a more suitable tariff.
O2 has now decided to refund the call charges that would have fallen into the unlimited tariff from July 2016 to January 2017. This totals £618.05.
You have already received a credit of £354.50, so you will also be receiving £263.55. Plus, a £50 goodwill gesture will be applied to your next bill.
however, your letter raised another point. You frequently call 0871 numbers. These made up £ 127.69 of your chargeable calls during this period.
O2’s terms clearly set out that these are chargeable, as are numbers starting 05, 070, 07744, 07755, 0870, and 09. This is standard for mobile operators and for home phones.
In the case of O2, the 0871 numbers cost 55p per minute plus the service charge of the company running the number.
sometimes, these calls are unavoidable, but it is worth checking the website saynoto0870.com, to see if there is an alternative.
O2 was unable to get hold of you by phone, so has written to apologise and to confirm the actions taken. I INSURED my dog, Maggi, with Pets At Home in 2011. Sadly, she was put to sleep last year because of suspected cancer.
Unfortunately, over the period of her illness, Pets At Home changed underwriters, so my claim fell across two groups.
As things stand, I am still waiting for payment of a bill that was more than £500. L. A., Chard, Somerset. PeTs at home confirms that it changed its insurance provider in November 2016.
Your dog’s treatment occurred at a time when your policy was being renewed, which, as you suspected, led to your claim falling between two underwriters, with one paying its share, but the other not paying promptly enough.
Pets at home agrees that this resulted in ‘an unacceptable delay in settling the claim at what we know will have been a very difficult time’.
It has now paid you the money and has added £50 as a goodwill gesture, along with sincere apologies for the delay. I BELIEVE I have an old Isa account with Nationwide.
I have three books with Nationwide, all of which are stamped cancelled and closed, with the front corners cut off.
This account was opened in May 2009 with a balance of £5,546 and does not have either of these signs of closure.
The last record I have was in August 2009, when the balance was £546. Interest of £22 was then added in April 2010.
My local branch insists that the money was transferred into another Isa. D. W., Surrey. I RECEIVE a large number of letters from people who come across old building society passbooks. Frequently, these appear to have some money in them but, all too often, the news is disappointing.
The fact is that these accounts could be closed without having the passbook, particularly when the money was transferred to another account. It may also be that the building society closed that type of account and moved the money into a newer version.
In either case, the passbook will not have been stamped closed, nor will the edge of the pages have been cut.
In this case, your Isa was transferred to Nationwide from-Portman as part of a merger.
In November 2010, Nationwide received an Isa transfer form from-chelten ham & Gloucester signed by you. The closing balance of £569.35 was transferred across.
These days, Nationwide texts customers confirming that it has released Isa funds.
But in 2010, no confirmation was issued, as the onus was on the new provider to keep the customer informed.
Nationwide has now written to you, enclosing proof of the transfer.