Problem with O2 contract phone

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BIGEYE - 27 May 2004 16:49 GMT

My son has been having continuous problems with O2 and his contract phone,
as have many others.
When he entered into the contract he set up a direct debit to pay his bill
on a monthly basis.
O2 have not taken anything from his account in the last three months. All of
a sudden they have hit him with a three month bill which he cant afford.
Can not taking the monthly bill out of his bank account on a regular monthly
basis as set up in the direct debit, be interpreted as a breach of contract
by O2.
Therfore he can terminate the contract without penalty on these grounds.
Appreciate any advice.
TIA

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Gordon Brown - 27 May 2004 17:05 GMT

> My son has been having continuous problems with O2 and his contract phone,
> as have many others.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> basis as set up in the direct debit, be interpreted as a breach of contract
> by O2.

I don't think so because their T&Cs does not explictly state how they will
take payment, only that they may resort to debt collection if the monthly
fee is not paid on time. Since O2 is not pursuing your son for late payment,
they have not actually breached their T&Cs.

> Therfore he can terminate the contract without penalty on these grounds.
> Appreciate any advice.

I would normally consider late collection of any debt to be in my favour as
an interest free loan.

To terminate the contract prematurely without penalty would require O2 to
breach one of the said clauses under their T&Cs.

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Demetrius Zeluff - 27 May 2004 18:39 GMT

> My son has been having continuous problems with O2 and his contract
> phone, as have many others.
> When he entered into the contract he set up a direct debit to pay his
> bill on a monthly basis.

Did he actually set it up for monthly DD, or did he set it for quaterly
payments?

> O2 have not taken anything from his account in the last three months.

When he noticed they were not taking payment and contected them, what was
their reply?

> All of a sudden they have hit him with a three month bill which he
> cant afford.

Why not? Surely he was keeping the money that they were not taking?

> Can not taking the monthly bill out of his bank account
> on a regular monthly basis as set up in the direct debit, be
> interpreted as a breach of contract by O2.
> Therfore he can terminate the contract without penalty on these
> grounds. Appreciate any advice.

Why does he want to terminate the contract? He'll stil have to pay the
three month debt. Perhaps he could contact them and lie, saying he has
lost his job, and make an arrangement to pay his debt and perhaps they'll
let him off the contract.

It might fux0r his credit rating.

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Gareth :-) voom - 27 May 2004 19:08 GMT

"BIGEYE" <Securitypatch@µsoft.is.invalid> wrote in message

>All of a sudden they have hit him with a three month bill which he cant

afford. Can not taking the monthly bill out of his bank account on a regular
monthly basis as set up in the direct debit, be interpreted as a breach of
contract by O2.<

What has he done with the money that should have gone by direct debit? Too
many ice creams.

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JP - 29 May 2004 01:57 GMT

> My son has been having continuous problems with O2 and his contract phone,
> as have many others.
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> Appreciate any advice.
> TIA

This is not a breach of the T&C, have you actually read them?

Paying by DD is not required, therefore how can it be breach of contract?
It would be nice for you to tell us whether a DD has successfully been taken
from the specified bank account for the same o2 contract in the past, and if
so, was a payment recently declined for whatever reason. If a DD declines,
o2 systems cancel the DD because they need informing by yourself that it is
OK to retry take money out of your account. Otherwise if O2 kept trying to
take funds from an account and it keeps declining, maybe your bank would
start to charge you fees for failed DD's

Just have a think about it and give us more information
JP

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Jeff Taylor - 31 May 2004 23:14 GMT

>My son has been having continuous problems with O2 and his contract phone,
>as have many others.
>When he entered into the contract he set up a direct debit to pay his bill
>on a monthly basis.
>O2 have not taken anything from his account in the last three months. All of
>a sudden they have hit him with a three month bill which he cant afford.

So, he thought that they wouldn't realise this at some point and
proceeded to spend the money?

Personally, I wouldn't allow him to have a phone if he's that stupid!

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Jeff Taylor

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