O2 customers call out firm over third-party cold calls

CUSTOMERS of O2 have claimed they have been mislead about renewal deals after being cold called by a third party.

Users of the mobile network claim to have faced bills of hundreds of pounds after their contract was changed from one with O2 to one with a company called Plan.com.

Ofcom, the industry regulator, has said it could consider investigating.

In a phone call recorded by BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours a call handler acting on behalf of Plan.com told potential customers they were the “official partner of O2” and were “helping you to renew your contract with O2 itself ”.

Asked by a reporter if she would still be a customer of the telecoms giant, the operator replied: “You will be an O2 customer only, your number remains the same, your network remains the same... We are just offering you a better deal.”

Other customers told the programme their phones were cut off after they were not given codes to transfer their number to the new provider. Plan.com is one of a number of “wholesale partners” that work with O2.

Plan.com told the BBC that “the referral of prospective customers to Plan. com is carried out by a third party company”. It added: “Unfortunately, we do not have the knowledge or liberty to speculate how they get the phone numbers or how they conduct their business operations. In our agreement with them, they are prohibited to identify themselves as an employee, representative or agency of a direct network provider or Plan.com. We take non compliance very seriously and we’re committed to investigate and address how this may have happened.”