Last month I started a 24-month Refresh contract with O2 to provide an iPhone 6s. It quickly became clear that I hardly had any 4G coverage at home, at work or during my commute, so I cancelled the contract during the cooling-off period. I sent back the phone and the contract was terminated.
I then went on holiday, but on my return I received a letter claiming that I owed O2 £690 for the phone. It later agreed this was a mistake and that I should ignore the letter. A few days later it simply took £690 from me by direct debit.
Since then it has been a struggle to get the money back – I was promised it would be within 10 working days but nothing happened. I also got a threatening letter, a default notice, for £10 which it told me to ignore but which worries me. I am also worried that this incident could have an impact on my credit score. JVC, by email
You are not the first person to use a phone company’s cooling-off period only to find that it hasn’t processed it correctly – and you won’t be the last. We got on to O2 and it did get the issue resolved quickly. A full refund has now been paid, plus an additional £50 to apologise. Of course, when the money was wrongly taken you could have marched into your bank and used the direct debit guarantee to ask for the £690 to be returned.
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