Last year I discovered that my mother, who has Alzheimer’s, had been paying £21 a month for a mobile contract she hasn’t used since her diagnosis in 2020. That’s more than £1,000 for a phone she hasn’t used.
When my sister first tried to cancel it in February 2024 we were told we couldn’t. It had to be done from her phone even though we have power of attorney to manage her finances.
She was moving to a care home at the time so it was a stressful period and we couldn’t find the phone. I emailed O2 in July and followed up in September but didn’t hear back. In the end I cancelled the direct debit.
In November, I finally received a response to my email stating that because I was not the account holder I needed to contact another department. This arrived a fortnight after my mother received a notice of disconnection letter that threatened to pass her account to a debt collection agency because she now owed £21.
I eventually managed to cancel the contract but am disgusted by O2’s treatment of vulnerable customers. Did they not spot the years of inactivity?
I think my mum should be entitled to a refund given the large amount spent on nothing but O2 says not. Is there is any chance of getting her money back?
CW, London
When the phone operator – now part of Virgin Media O2 – finally got back to you it spelled out that its policy “does not cover providing any refund for an active account, even if is not being used”. It is the customer’s responsibility to cancel a contract, it added, offering a measly £20 as a goodwill gesture for the “overall experience”. Instead of accepting this you complained to the Communications Ombudsman which I would always recommend in cases like this.
Unfortunately it confirmed that O2 is within its rights to continue billing for a service as long as it remains open, regardless of whether it is being used, and there was no evidence of you contacting it until July 2024. However, it said the failure to respond over the summer was a shortfall in service that “caused additional distress and had a financial impact”. It told O2 to credit you £100 and apologise. I could not persuade the company to dig deeper.
O2 said: “In line with the ruling, we have provided CW with £100 compensation. While we apologise for this delay, once his email was picked up by our dedicated specialist team that provides support when a customer unfortunately becomes ill or passes away, the disconnection was swiftly processed and all debt has now been waived.”
