Notice of disconnection

[DawesWood]

Received a letter through the mail from O2 demanding payment of £55.96. I'll copy & paste the letter below.

"

We've disconnected your device 

We've called and written to you about the money you owe on your account, but you still haven't paid your bill. So we've disconnected your device. 

We'll send you a final bill in the next six weeks. This will cover the money you owe us, and might also include the line rental for the remainder of your contract with us. 

What you need to do 

Call our Debt Assistance team on 0800 588 4213 straight away. Once you've paid the money you owe, we might be able to reconnect you. But we'll have to charge you for it. 

If you don't settle your bill, we will have to: 

•  

Inform the Credit Reference Agencies about the overdue amount. This may affect your credit rating 

Pass your account to a Debt Collection Agency and/or a Debt Purchaser. They will contact you about the money you owe, which will also include a fee, and might mean court proceedings 

Having problems? We can help 

If you can't clear your bill at the moment, it's important you get in touch. It's really not too late to sort this out please call us on the number above and we'll talk about your options. We want to try and help you. 

If you've paid the money in the past few days, just ignore this letter. 

Regards 

02 Payment Management."

[goslow]

Is there a question or query you want help with regarding the above?

[DawesWood]

Hi Goslow thank you for replying, i wanted to now whether i was obliged to pay this? i don't have an O2 device so i was disconnected from something i was never connected to, my Virgin contract included a free mobile sim that was never used, i was wondering if this was the charge and would it be payable by me.

[goslow]

I don't follow VM/O2's mobile business activities on the forums but I'm aware VM Mobile customers are being moved over to O2

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/mobile/your-move-to-o2

and this might be a possible explanation.

Have you made enquiries with O2 to find out how the alleged debt has come about?

Usual advice on here would be to follow it up and deal with it. VM has a very efficient debt collection operation and I imagine O2 has the same. The end result of VM's debt collection processes, if they are ignored, can be a damaged credit history and contact from debt collectors.

[jpeg1]

You'll need to check your original contract to see if the "free SIM" came with a monthly payment. 

[ILuvNips]

The free SIM when moved over to O2 incurs a £6 monthly charge. For me Virgin then gave me a £6 credit each month.

The migration of this free is flawed as they transfer it over but then don’t setup a direct debit for it hence the letters.

I too got something similar and called them up and set up a direct debit payment to get them off my back but I can’t access the account as it has been setup with an o2.co.uk email which I don’t know or have access to. 

[stereill]

I also have no contact or devices on O2 and I received the same letter with a threatening demand for £80. I had never opened the free Virgin Media SIM and received a £0.00 bill every month. I contacted the number on the O2 letter and I am now expecting a "final bill" from them, which I am told I should pay then receive credit on my next Virgin Media bill. We'll see.

[Robert_P]

Hello stereill,

Sorry to hear of the confusion caused by the recent correspondence received in regards to an O2 service, we appreciate you letting us know via the forums.

With previous packages we have offered, a free Virgin Mobile SIM was included, these were Oomph packages. They were recently changed to Volt which includes an O2 SIM with the cost of the SIM taken from the Virgin Media package cost.

Recently we have migrated all of our Virgin Mobile customers over to a O2 tariff, this has taken place over the last 10 months and all customers were informed via text, email and letter prior to this change. As the SIM isn't free via O2 this may be where the charges come from. Let us know the outcome of your post and following Virgin Media bills.

Rob