Terrible Service! No clarity on switch to o2

[DavidDxn]

I have now received a second letter demanding payment of £24 from o2.

I used to have a sim card included as a part of my Virgin Media package - the sim was free, the bills were emailed to me for the mobile account every month and were zero each time.

When I received the o2 Sim card I never plugged it in to anything as I never used it before anyway. Of the communications I saw relating to the switch to o2 it was never indicated that I would now have to pay o2 for this "included" sim - I have never received a letter, email or text from either Virgin or o2 stating that there would be a monthly charge and that I would need to set up payment for it, what it did say was there would be no interruption of service - so of course I assume the rest of the arrangement would stay the same.

This is not the case.

I spent an hour talking to o2 asking them to cancel the sim card and clear the £24 owing. They cancelled it as far as I am aware but I haven't received any sort of confirmation of this, but they said they wouldn't remove the charges because they had provided the service and it was my choice if I didn't use it. They said I should speak to Virgin Media about it. The guy I spoke to at Virgin said the amount I am being chraged by o2 would be deducted from my Virgin Media bill each month so it would balance out. This is not the case - whilst there is a reduction or around £8.50/£9 it is not the £24 o2 are demanding and threatening action for. He also said that as I had cancelled the sim card with o2 I would need to speak to a specialist team to make sure that it didn't have any detrimental affects to my Virgin Media package. He transferred me to them and then the line cut out!

Why is it that the first I hear of how to switch was being handled is from a guy I happen to speak to when calling to try and get it fixed?!

I do not believe I should be charged this amount by o2 - I didn't ask for this change and nor was I informed of any changes to the payment agreements.

I am raising this with the communications ombudsman, as it seems this is the only way I will get any sort of acceptable resolution.

[Steven_L]

Hey DavidDxn,

Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums.
I’m sorry to hear of the issues that you’re having with your service after your sim card was migrated to O2, you should have been contacted on the phone number attached to the sim card that it would be changing to O2 as all of the Virgin Mobile customers are being migrated onto the O2 network, the exact amount that you're paying to O2 should be deducted from your Virgin Media bill. I would be happy to take a further look into this for you but first I would need to confirm a few details via private message, please look out for my message and we can get started.
Kind Regards,
Steven_L

[jaberwok]

"you should have been contacted on the phone number attached to the sim card"

Doesn't work if you choose not to use the O2 sim. I never unpacked my O2 sim but still received several bills - each for a different amount !