Forum Discussion

MikeCB's avatar
MikeCB
Joining in
2 years ago

WARNING: Volt - O2 charges for "free" account

So, pleasant surprise! (/sarcasm), I just received a outstanding payment demand of £24.98 from O2 for my volt bundle. For a SIM that went straight into the bin when it was received.

I was an Oomph customer and have been migrated to Volt. For some reason O2 decided to start charging me. After an hour on the phone with O2 customer support, apparently this is the new monthly tariff. They could see that there was zero usage since the account was opened at the beginning this month. This was not made clear to me that the migration would start incurring a monthly charge when Virgin migrated me. Where you made aware of this?

Keep an eye on your bills from O2!

 

  • Reece_MH's avatar
    Reece_MH
    Forum Team (Retired)

    Hi MikeCB 👋

    Thanks for posting, and welcome to the Community Forums.

    I'm sorry to hear about the confusion regarding your migration. If you are/were on a legacy Ultimate Oomph bundle, then your SIM Card would have been previously included in your overall package cost. As we have now merged, but operate under two separate trading names, your billing is now split between Virgin Media and O2 services.

    Any amount that is charged by O2 for the SIM Card (excluding usage charges, etc.) is credited directly to your Virgin Media bill to balance out the pricing. There are no additional charges to the amount you pay.

    Thanks,

    • MikeCB's avatar
      MikeCB
      Joining in

      @Reece_MH - thanks for your response, but unfortunately, this information is not correct. I never used the O2 SIM, never even put it in a phone. I started to receive payment demands from O2 following the switch over. 

      If, as you state, that the bill is split between the two providers, then it is reasonable to expect that my Virgin Bill would reduce by the £24.98. This did not happen, this was an additional cost.

      As you would expect, this took well over 2 hours on the phone to resolve with O2.

    • Leslt67's avatar
      Leslt67
      Joining in

      Hello Reece i have an 18 month contract with virgin media the ooomph bundle which included a unlimited everhthing sim card. My contract ends march and i have only just noticed i am paying my normal 85.00 a month to virgin and the last 6 months i have also been paying between 29.00 and 31.00 a month to 02. I have contacted both of them and they blaming each other. You are saying what i pay to 02 comes off my virgin but this has not happened. 

      • Kath_P's avatar
        Kath_P
        Forum Team

        Hi Leslt67, 

        Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums.

        We're sorry to hear you've been having an issue trying to sort out your billing and O2. 

        Taking a look at this end, I can see you've spoken to the team and they have been able to come to a resolution with you. If you have any further issues, pop back and let us know. 

        Thanks, 

    • Reece_MH's avatar
      Reece_MH
      Forum Team (Retired)

      Hi MikeCB 👋

      The information advised is correct, and is the current process we have in place for Virgin Mobile SIMs migrating to O2. Regardless of whether the SIM was placed into a phone, if it was a part of the package you had with us, then this would be automatically migrated over to O2 and the charge should have been reduced.

      I'm going to send you a private message to look into the Virgin Media side of the bill and the charges you've incurred since the migration. You'll find it in the top-right, white envelope or by tapping your profile picture and then "Messages".

      Thanks, 

      • wendle671's avatar
        wendle671
        On our wavelength

        Same thing happened to me, only had a bill for £80. Phoned virgin media and was told it would show as a discount on my virgin media bill. Just received an email from o2 thanking me for my payment. Nothing showing on my media bill. I also cancelled the sim card. So will keep an eye on this, as I will not be paying a penny more for something I didn't ask for. I'm absolutely disgusted by this

    • RDF's avatar
      RDF
      Superfast

      Did you get a chance to check the email containing "Virgin Media Order Documents"?

       

  •  

    Not sure it's any help, but I moved from Oomph to VoLT.
    As part of that move I was told O2 would bill for the mobile element £25 (used to be Virgin Mobile £0 per month) and VM would bill for the rest of the services, minus £25.

    I agreed on the total price with the agent for the VoLT package.

    There was the usual confusion with the first bill, where they refunded the outstanding month ahead Oomph and charged the new VoLT - which turned out negative.

    But after that I've been billed VM+O2 at the agreed price.

    You should have revieved an email containing "Virgin Media Order Documents" as part of the new deal, mine were a little confusing as the first four pages are all VM services, but page 5 onwards is O2.
    I did try contacting VM to question the contract at first, until bored waiting for them to answer the phone I scrolled to the O2 pages and they matched what was agreed.

    The email has pre-contract written on it, to allow the cooling off period etc.

     

  • Hi - I'm having the same issue to MikeSB here; never used the 'free sim' and now having O2 chase me for payment even after i moved from my Ooomph deal to Volt. Having 02 chase me for £80, contacting credit agencies and threatening debt collectors.

    I would have expected the contract to have been cancelled when I cancelled my Oomph deal. Additionally was never notified at time of transfer from Oomph to Volt that this would happen. I never wanted/used the sim so this is all very annoying (asked at the time of signing up if this could be removed as well!).

    Can Virgin fix this and set the record straight - i don't see why i should have the pay or have my credit history impacted for something i have never wanted, used or notified about when closing my oomph account.

    Thanks

    • RDF's avatar
      RDF
      Superfast

      When I had Oomph, the unlimited SIM was part of the deal price.

      When I moved to Volt the unlimited SIM was part of the deal, but billed by O2.

      The paperwork I received confirmed that the Volt package was made up of two parts VM broadband, TV, and landline plus O2 SIM.

      The same thing I already had, but billed differently, and in total, cheaper.

      When you checked the PDF confirmation of the new contract did it include the O2 part on the last page ?

       

      EDIT to add ...

       

      As per my previous comment -

      You should have recieved an email containing "Virgin Media Order Documents" as part of the new deal, mine were a little confusing as the first four pages are all VM services, but page 5 onwards is O2.
      I did try contacting VM to question the contract at first, until bored waiting for them to answer the phone I scrolled to the O2 pages and they matched what was agreed.

      • r4hul175's avatar
        r4hul175
        Joining in

        No, on volt, I am still seeing one payment leave my bank account (split between virgin and o2 in the bill) - that is fine. 

        Issue is the old oomph account which came with a free sim ..(I have never used). That sim wasn’t cancelled when I moved off Oomph onto Volt.

        I was never informed this was happening or told I needed to contact O2 so now being chased by O2 for payment on a sim I have never used. 

        Can someone from Virgin pick this up and resolve. I shouldn’t have to cover costs to O2, when I cancelled/upgraded the bundled package and the same point of purchase. 

  • I have the same ongoing problems

    I had ultimate oomph package Jan 2022 for £116 and on 19th month £144.00 

    every month from Jan 23 till Aug 23! My media package price increased and totals to £153.00 extra 

    Virgin mobile bills charged from jan 23-July 23 totals £115.00

    O2 bills for sept and oct 23 totals £53.21

    i renewed contract in Aug 23 and removed sim from new deal? I was not informed I also had to cancel the sim with O2?

    this was a service part of my package! This service was removed on 5th September! 
    so that to me is a cancellation! I have only ever been a virgin media customer and I have never purchased anything as a virgin mobile customer!

    I also have an outstanding nov33 bill from O2 for £954.68 that has been passed to a dept collection agency 

    and I am still trying to resolve this!!!!

    I have received a refund of £153.00 from media team on 12th feb 24 for the package overcharging 

    but as the mobile has been past to dept collection!! On one in O2 or VM is able to help me or view the bills 

    I have raised a complaint regarding this matter and just waiting for the response so I can take action against this issue and contact also Ofcom