O2 Pay As You Go WARNING

[Oldjohnw]

Just got out my cheap Nokia with O2 PAYGO and find i must have missed the 6 month deadline.

Do I just top up or do I need to.start again? Can I change provider or will it be locked?

[mercalia]

Just got out my cheap Nokia with O2 PAYGO and find i must have missed the 6 month deadline.

Do I just top up or do I need to.start again? Can I change provider or will it be locked?

is it a Classic 321 sim? ( only been around I was told for a cople of years) There have been various PAYGO sims incl one that only had the use once every 6 months

in my case the phone showed a no connection symbol that alerted me the sim had been disconnected from O2. Do you have much money on it? ( I had £20). You could try going to the O2 top up website and see it it will allow you to top up ( or just say your sim not recognised presumably)

https://www.o2.co.uk/topup

eg webtopup

https://myo2payg.o2.co.uk/webtopup/details?journey=guest&isIELessThan11=false&eckohDepartmentId=1006&eckohProactiveUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fo2chat.o2.co.uk%2Fv03%2Fproviders%2FO2%2FO2%252Ejs#/

There is the additional problem if your phone is locked to O2 as then other sims eg THREE might not work

By the way O2 ended their 321 pay as you go sim , recently leaving I think THREE the only people doing it now, so thats some thing to think about

I had to use their chat online to correct things, claim they had changed the rules (I I think they had ). My mobile is now connected again but the £20 is not back yet


https://www.o2.co.uk/contactus

if your sim has been disconnected and you want it back you need to know the sim code printed on it means taking it out of the phone as they will ask for it not just the mobile number

I will be keeping my O2 321 sim ( grit my teeth) as the phone is more for emergancys and O2 coverage is better that THREEs( it seems)

[Oldjohnw]

Just got out my cheap Nokia with O2 PAYGO and find i must have missed the 6 month deadline.

Do I just top up or do I need to.start again? Can I change provider or will it be locked?

is it a Classic 321 sim? ( only been around I was told for a cople of years) There have been various PAYGO sims incl one that only had the use once every 6 months

in my case the phone showed a no connection symbol that alerted me the sim had been disconnected from O2. Do you have much money on it? ( I had £20). You could try going to the O2 top up website and see it it will allow you to top up ( or just say your sim not recognised presumably)

https://www.o2.co.uk/topup

eg webtopup

https://myo2payg.o2.co.uk/webtopup/details?journey=guest&isIELessThan11=false&eckohDepartmentId=1006&eckohProactiveUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fo2chat.o2.co.uk%2Fv03%2Fproviders%2FO2%2FO2%252Ejs#/

There is the additional problem if your phone is locked to O2 as then other sims eg THREE might not work

By the way O2 ended their 321 pay as you go sim , recently leaving I think THREE the only people doing it now, so thats some thing to think about

I had to use their chat online to correct things, claim they had changed the rules (I I think they had ). My mobile is now connected again but the £20 is not back yet


https://www.o2.co.uk/contactus

if your sim has been disconnected and you want it back you need to know the sim code printed on it means taking it out of the phone as they will ask for it not just the mobile number

My bad - Alcatel One touch.

[mercalia]

My bad - Alcatel One touch.

You need to see if it still finds a signal when turned on? And if you want to keep the phone and what ever money is on it MAYBE topup.

Did you ever make an account with O2 that will tell you eg how much is left on it and also the pay as you go scheme you are on?



https://accounts.o2.co.uk/register


That alerted me also that some thing was wrong as it showed I had zero money on the number

[Oldjohnw]

My bad - Alcatel One touch.

You need to see if it still finds a signal when turned on? And if you want to keep the phone and what ever money is on it MAYBE topup.

Did you ever make an account with O2 that will tell you eg how much is left on it and also the pay as you go scheme you are on?



https://accounts.o2.co.uk/register


That alerted me also that some thing was wrong as it showed I had zero money on the number

No account. My phone fails to register any more. There will be credit because I haven't used it. When I bought it we had our 'proper' phones from O2 but we've since moved.

I will try their chat. Otherwise I'll cut my losses. The phone cost me £7.

[mercalia]

By the way THREE still have a 321 pay as you go sim and their conditions seem to be top up OR use once every 6 months
But you need to check that up in case I got it wrong

[mercalia]

well I got my £20 credit back. Not sure now what to do as do I really want O2 321 sims that I now have to top up £10 every 6 months?

[fausto copy]

The last message I had from them (before Christmas) was that I hadn't made a chargeable call for a while and to do so as soon as possible.
I sent a few texts and all has been fine.
I don't use the phone often, but yesterday I did receive a text from someone, so it all seems well.
Surely, they must have to give you some sort of warning?
Classic 321 I believe.

[mercalia]

The last message I had from them (before Christmas) was that I hadn't made a chargeable call for a while and to do so as soon as possible.
I sent a few texts and all has been fine.
I don't use the phone often, but yesterday I did receive a text from someone, so it all seems well.
Surely, they must have to give you some sort of warning?
Classic 321 I believe.

None. My phone was just cut off and the balance removed. If you have O2 Classic 321 then you need to take heed of the top up every 6 months. When I asked about warnings when I chatted online I was told they dont send warnings. SO why you got one , dont depend on it

I said above there have been many pay as you go options an earlier one didnt include the top up condition. The so called Classic 321 started from 2017 I was told.

For your peace of mind you should verify what account you are on?

in case you missed the conditions url

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-as-you-go/classic-pay-as-you-go

If you don't top up, or add a Bolt On at least once in any six month period, your mobile will be disconnected and you'll lose any credit on your account. If you want to be reconnected you'll be given a new mobile number.

As I said above the Classic 321 is now discontinued, no new users. I wonder if they want to get rid of 321 users?

I also used to think that sending texts kept the line active but that didnt work. Another Classic 321 O2 account was closed "due to inactivty" i was told the only sure way is to do a voice call. By the way the person I chatted to then didnt mention the top-up condition, so I think they added that only last month ( can they change the conditions like that?). The second time, on my second mobile , I chatted just a few days ago the top up was the first thing he mentioned

[fausto copy]

Thanks for your reply Merc.

I've just managed to have a couple of Live Chats with the O2 helpline.
They've confirmed that Classic 321 Pay As You Go is no longer available to new customers.

I queried whether I now had to top up every 6 months and both people confirmed that that is NOT the case.
As long as I make a chargeable call (whether text or voice) my account stays live.

However, they do not give any warning if you've not made a call in that time.
They say there's no facility for that, though there certainly used to be one.

Both stressed though, not to lose the Classic account, as they can not resurrect it.

[mercalia]

Thanks for your reply Merc.

I've just managed to have a couple of Live Chats with the O2 helpline.
They've confirmed that Classic 321 Pay As You Go is no longer available to new customers.

I queried whether I now had to top up every 6 months and both people confirmed that that is NOT the case.
As long as I make a chargeable call (whether text or voice) my account stays live.

However, they do not give any warning if you've not made a call in that time.
They say there's no facility for that, though there certainly used to be one.

Both stressed though, not to lose the Classic account, as they can not resurrect it.

well what you have been told in live chat is WRONG WRONG WRONG?. look at the web page? above.

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-as-you-go/classic-pay-as-you-go

That can be the only reason why I was cut off as I obeyed the make a call every 6 months condition. The person I chatted to referred me to that url or similar

Further more I found out the hard way that making texts dont count - even though I had made a text my first phone was cut off.

you presumably have the live chat summary? I think it best contact O2 and ask for a resolution of this discrepancy as it is very very serious.

I am emailing the CEO of O2 mark.evans@o2.com to get clarification. I suggest you do the same supplying the summary as some thing is clearly wrong, you have the evidence of the inconsistancy?

ah, it seems better to write to Mark.evans@telefonica.com

or CEO's_Office@o2.com

https://www.complaintsdepartment.co.uk/o2/

I am sending emails to all three

[fausto copy]

Well, certainly someone is wrong and we'll try to get to the bottom of it.
I have a transcription of my live chat, so will include that when I email Mark Evans myself.

I haven't topped up in over 17 months as when I first converted to O2 they made such a hash of it that they topped up my £20 with an extra £15.
As I am profoundly deaf and mostly use the phone for texts, I've still got around a tenners with of credit.

I suppose a tenner every six months isn't bad to keep the account open though.

Edit:
I've just emailed the 3 addresses you supplied,
cheers,
fausto.

[mercalia]

Well, certainly someone is wrong and we'll try to get to the bottom of it.
I have a transcription of my live chat, so will include that when I email Mark Evans myself.

I haven't topped up in over 17 months as when I first converted to O2 they made such a hash of it that they topped up my £20 with an extra £15.
As I am profoundly deaf and mostly use the phone for texts, I've still got around a tenners with of credit.

I suppose a tenner every six months isn't bad to keep the account open though.

Edit:
I've just emailed the 3 addresses you supplied,
cheers,
fausto.

well on one of my O2 phones I havent topped up for maybe 10 years. But that sim has been moved from an old Siemens A60 to a Nokia 106 feature phone then to the current smart phone, taking the credit that once was £80 with it now down to £30. But during that time had to do a sim swap/transfer that meant moving from an old O2 pay as you go account to the 321 one about a year ago. I still hadnt topped up during the last year with that phone. That one has never been cut off , just a more recent one with the same type of account.

[mercalia]

Well I had a confirmation reply from CEO's_Office@o2.com said they would look into the matter and reply within 5 days. I expect you will also hear from them.

Thank you for your email to Mark Evans.

We’re sorry about your recent experience and can confirm that we will be conducting a thorough investigation into your concerns. Once we have completed our investigation, we will let you know the outcome. This is usually within 5 working days or sooner, if possible.

If you haven’t provided any account information in your email please reply to let us have this, along with a contact telephone number we can reach you on. This will help avoid any delays.

You can find details of our Complaints Procedure on our website http://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain. Please take time to read this as it explains how we will deal with your complaint.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 08000 901 803, between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

Regards

O2 Executive Relations

[mercalia]

Well I had a phone call frrom the CEOs office and she wasnt aware of the top-up-change, but noted the website seeming to refer to that. so she will escalate it thru the system to see whether my disconnection was due to a top up issue or some thing else as she checked up my other mobiles on O2 321 classic and noted they hadnt been disconnected after 6 months -yet.( even though they were on Classic 321 online standard- see below)

It also seems there isnt just one type of 321 pay as you go. My old & original pay as you go became a 321 by transfering from an old phone thru a new sim, transferring the number, to my smartphone ( the original sim couldnt be cut down as it was that old) and that is now on a uk standard 321 and the sim at issue is a so called online standard 321 Both are 321 rates but it seems only the one at issue maybe at risk of top-up cut off Can you make any sense of this?

The lady will email me when she finds out further what the score is. But she did agree if the terms had changed it was very bad not to notify people.