Incorrect cancellation charges for cancelled O2 Sim added as part of broadband deal

[RoG3]

Hi all,

On June 25th last year I signed up for a new 'Big Volt bundle' broadband deal with Virgin, including an O2 sim card.

Unfortunately, there were some issues delivering this SIM card and a second one had to be sent out on the 14th of July. This arrived on the 20th of July and was immediately cancelled over the phone when I found out I couldn't transfer my old number from a Virgin SIM to my new O2 account.

As a result, I asked the Virgin Media agent if I could just cancel the SIM as I wanted to keep my number. They said this was fine and wouldn't cost me any cancellation fees as it was still within the acceptable 'cooling-off' period. They then passed me over to O2 and the SIM was cancelled without any hassle.

However, in August £163 came out of my account from an O2 direct debit (presumably cancellation fees). Since I had been told this wouldn't happen, I disputed this with my bank and retrieved my money back.

I had no correspondence from O2 or Virgin following this, but in November I noticed my credit rating had dropped due to charges to O2. O2 refused to resolve this as I can't pass any security questions due to never actually using the new SIM. They have told me this has now gone to debt collectors, but are unwilling to resolve this or even look into the situation.

Was I wrongly advised that there would be no charges? Or is this an error from Virgin or O2?

Reviewing my contract, this 'cooling-off' period doesn't commence until you use the SIM so I should be within my right to cancel it.

I'm very dissatisfied with O2's lack of any help after spending hours calling them and in-store, I hope Virgin Media will be able to provide some assistance in this matter.

[Paul_DN]

Hi RoG3,

Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome, really sorry to hear you were charged early disconnection fees for your O2 Sim, a Sim would start being charged once active, if unused it will start working once it becomes active, this will happen automatically even if not used, apologies if this was not something you were aware of.

Regards

Paul.

[RoG3]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your prompt response. Although I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say the SIM card will activate automatically even if not used. I was instructed upon cancelling the SIM to destroy it and put it into the bin since it was no longer needed.

Would this mean that even though I had cancelled the contract and destroyed it, the SIM would still activate and charge me for cancelling?

[Paul_DN]

When you say you cancelled, was this done Via O2 within your 14 days right to cancel period?

Regards

Paul.

[RoG3]

Hi Paul,

It's a bit complicated since I signed up for the SIM (alongside the rest of my Virgin package) on June 25th and cancelled it on July 20th. However, I was told this was fine by both agents (Virgin + O2) I spoke to at the time, as I had only just received the SIM card on July 20th due to an error they made when posting the first SIM that got lost in transit.

I'm concerned that I may have been told incorrect information from the agents, leading to these early cancellation fees. The annoying part was that I haven't been told about the debt from O2 in any correspondence, I only noticed last month when my credit score dropped.

[Paul_DN]

Although we will always try to help best we can, we have no access to any information in regards to the Sim, it will need to be O2 you speak to regarding this.

Regards

Paul.