I'll email you with the details of my case late on today. Thats not a problem. Are you also planning to sent this to the chairman of 02 or even CEO? The aim is to be persistent...and keep on fighting.

Hi Claire,

I have just got back from holiday and seen all the latest posts. I was planning to write to the chairman however please include me in any group letters etc and press articles. Let me know what details you need from me.

Thanks Laura

Hi,

Hello everyone. I haven't really tracked this forum for a long time since after my issue was resolved and also the Press Release was done by the Guardian. I am trying to see if I can find contact details for Miles Brignall who did the article in the first place as it would be worth following this up with so many people suffering the same fate at the hands of O2. Being as I had the same issue as many here and actually had the Default revoked after a 2 week battle then I feel I am in a good position to offer advice to others having this issue.

I will track these posts over the coming days to see what I can do to help.

Cheers

Joe Burns

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Joe Burns

Hi Joe,

That would be great if you could get into contact with Miles Brignall. My issue is now also resolved-finally-after battling for nearly two years to get my default removed-but I was so angered by the way I was treated by o2 that I would very much like to publicise this a bit more so that something can be done to change things. Please keep us posted on the forum and let us know what we can do to get involved with perhaps getting this in the paper again.

Ruth

Hi

I am still trying to get to the bottom of what supervision and what standards a company needs to conform to in order to update credit organisations, e.g. equifax, experian, with credit reference files.

From the little information I have to date, when a customer signs upto a company such as O2, they agree and allow O2 to share their credit information with the various credit reference organisations.

I am trying to find more out, but clearly the customer giving permission is hardly a safeguard as the only way to get a mobile phone contract with any phone company is to sign such an agreement!

I will post when I get more updates, but clearly from what we are seeing, I firmly believe that there should be a regulatory organisation that actively monitors and allows customer's complaints to be independently looked into in areas such as information shared with credit reference agencies that can clearly have a devastating effect on people's lives.

I have now got further information from Experian, albeit after asking the same question 3 times and getting various only slightly connected standard answers.

Experian say that their clients are obligated under Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure that they comply with the relevent legislation. Only companies that are regulated by a regulator such as OTELO (for O2), will be able to become account supplying clients of Experian.

Having quickly reviewed the Act (DPA 1998), it would appear that Credit Reference agencies are not liable for any action under the Act provided they take reasonable steps to ensure the data is correctly supplied by the third party and that they note against their records any dispute by the 'Data Subject' [see Schedule 2 of the Act where it provides guidance on interpretation of 'Data Protection Principles', principle 4.

The Act states 2 pertinent principles [see Schedule 1]: Principle 1 - Data shall be processed fairly and lawfully; Principle 4 - Personal data shall be accurate, and where necessary, kept up to date.

Section 42 states: "A request may be made to the Commissioner by or on behalf of any person who is, or believes himself to be, directly affected by any processing of personal data for an assessment as to whether it is likely or unlikely that the processing has been or is being carried out in compliance with the provisions of this Act."

Section 60 states: "No proceedings for an offence under this Act shall be instituted in England or Wales, except by the Commissioner or by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions [in Northern Ireland, except by the Commissioner or by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland] AND A person guilty of an offence under any provision of this Act other than paragraph 12 of Schedule 9 is liable; on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or on conviction on indictment, to a fine'"

Looking at all the above together, if you have suffered as a result of incorrect information being held by an organisation such as O2, and passed onto credit reference agencies, the best solution may be:

- try and resolve with O2

- if that fails, try and resolve giving notice that unless they correct their information you will apply to the Data Protection Commissioner - state Principle 4 (see above or Schedule 1 of the Act). Give a reasonable time scale that you expect a resolution within.

- if no resolution has been made, make representations to the Commissioner. State what attempts you have made to resolve that matter with 'O2'; and also state what effect the incorrect information has had on you indicating, where possible, the money effect [such as inability to get a cheaper mortgage rate due to the incorrect information]. Time spent may also be useful.

As this is relating to the information being held, I believe you may be able to bypass organisations such as Otelo. The Commissioner may request, however, that you try and resolve with industry organisations such as Otelo before going to him/her. Overall, I personally believe if you do have trouble with incorrect information being passed onto credit reference organisation, and you have the information showing if is incorrect, you should go down the DPA route.

For the record, the fully reply from Experian to my question - third attempt! was:

"Thank you for your email, which we received on 11 July 2008.

Businesses with access to our information are all aware of their responsibilities under the terms and conditions of their contract. These companies are all vetted prior to us allowing them to use our systems and it is made clear that any search conducted can only be done so for legitimate business purposes.

As a licensed client of Experian, each company is obligated under the Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure that they are complying with the relevant legislation. Companies are aware that if they do not comply with the relevant legislation this could threaten their licence to trade so it is not in their best interests to supply data to us that is inaccurate.

Only companies that are regulated by a regulator such as OTELO (for O2), will be able to become account supplying clients of Experian.

The quality of the data provided to us by every client is rigorously tested prior to being loaded to our records. We run over 200 generic checks in place to check the overall consistency of the data that we receive from each of the companies supplying us with account information."

Businesses with access to our information are all aware of their responsibilities under the terms and conditions of their contract. These companies are all vetted prior to us allowing them to use our systems and it is made clear that any search conducted can only be done so for legitimate business purposes.

As a licensed client of Experian, each company is obligated under the Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure that they are complying with the relevant legislation. Companies are aware that if they do not comply with the relevant legislation this could threaten their licence to trade so it is not in their best interests to supply data to us that is inaccurate.

Only companies that are regulated by a regulator such as OTELO (for O2), will be able to become account supplying clients of Experian.

The quality of the data provided to us by every client is rigorously tested prior to being loaded to our records. We run over 200 generic checks in place to check the overall consistency of the data that we receive from each of the companies supplying us with account information."

I had a similar problem with O2 entering incorrect information on my credit report. It resulted in my remortgage being delayed and incurring interest at a high SVR.

Back in 2005 I finished my contract with O2 and was given incorrect information on my termination date. They gave me £30 as goodwill. The £30 goodwill credit mysteriously became an unpaid bill. For 3 years O2 were informing credit agencies of my “default” without sending me an invoice, statement or default notice.

It took approximately a month to remove O2 default notice from credit report at Experian. I must have made 20 phone calls and 10 letters / emails. CreditFileReferrals AT o2.com insights AT o2.com I generally received a response within in less than 5 working days.

I put two separate complaints into O2 one to receive money for my Experian subscription and more importantly for the additional mortgage interest that I incurred. The complaints department at O2 tried to fob me off by saying financial loss isn’t recoverable under O2 contract T&C’s and incredibly that because O2 has x million customers it couldn’t possibly keep proper paperwork for all of them. He also said that they didn’t have copies of documents (i.e. invoices and default notices) going back 3 years (even though for VAT purposes they must keep for longer). I stated it was a requirement of consumer law that O2 must provide me with a signed as certified true copy of the original default notice. He said I was incorrect. I requested to speak to his supervisor who apparently was busy at the time. 10mins later he called me back to say he would be crediting my account with the amount I requested for additional interest. I have had no apology or explanation why this happened though I did receive the money into my account within 5 working days! I will have to keep an eye on my credit report to see how this gesture of goodwill has been treated…

" ... The complaints department at O2 tried to fob me off by saying financial loss isn’t recoverable under O2 contract T&C’s ... "

But we should all remember that they still owe a duty of care to all customers. Should they fail to offer that duty of care by acting negligently, then those terms do not apply! All terms and conditions have to be reasonable and trying to stop actions for negligent actions is clearly not a reasonable term! Customers must be aware, however, that 'acting negligently' has to be greater than normal 'expected' errors that may occur in normal account dealings. In this case I believe you were quite correct in getting your increased interest charges back as O2's actions appear to be completely unreasonable.

Well done!

Hi there,

Is anyone still having problems contacting O2 regarding this problem? If you are and you would like us to try and help, please email me on the address below with your name, address, mobile no/customer ref no and I'll be happy to contact O2 on your behalf. I can't promise anything, but I'm happy to help out if at all possible.

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Cheers,
Graeme Delap, Community Editor,
graeme.delap@moneysupermarket.com

Vote for your Community Star: Community Stars 2009

Hi everyone, have just sat and read this whole thread with a sense of gloom. I had trouble with o2 years ago and ended up throwing in the towel with them owing me a couple of hundred pounds. Now, however, I have just subscribed to experian and equifax, to find that they have two default notices on my record. Here we go again. One is shown as satisfied, and I do recall having some trouble with them and ending up just paying, but the other one is interesting, in that the account is marked as satisfied (which I understood to mean finished and paid up) in May 05, but then as a default in Jan 06,11 following 6 months of U 's. Phoned equifax and they tell me I must contact o2, but the operator did agree that this is very strange. I'm now trying to summon up the emotional energy required to get in touch with them; I'm sure everyone on here will agree that this is a particularly soul destroying exercise.... A huge thank you to all the contributors to this thread; it's appalling to think that there are so many of us being treated so badly, but comforting to know that there is support out there.

Cheers

Molly

Hi again, just an update.... I rang o2 and spoke to a helpful young man, who confirmed that my number was ported to another company in the may, and agreed that the account seemed to have been closed. He advised that I ring collections, which I did the next day (they were closed by then). Collections told me that they can't deal and that I need to email the creditreferrals address given above. I've done that, as follows:

Please see below an extract from my Equifax credit report, detailing a default registered against me by yourselves. The full account number is ********30028994596. In May 2005 this number was ported to another provider and, as can be seen from the record, the account was satisfied. In December 2005, the account is shown as defaulting, in the sum of £9 As the account was satisfied, and as I have had no notification from you since May 2005 that there was any sum outstanding, I would be grateful if you would remove this default from my record. The automated response said they would respond within 5 days. I will post an update......CheersMolly

Hi Molly

That's a good start! You should keep an absolute record of your contacts with O2 together with their replies [including whether they actually do reply etc. within the time span they say they will].

If you do not get satisfaction at this stage, then I feel that just sending 'please sort out my account' type letters will probably not work. You should consider sending a more legalistic letter detailing why you believe you do not owe them any money, and detailing any issues their lack of 'exercising their duty of care to you', and ideally costs of those issues. (Those issues may be future credit applications etc.) Tell them that if this is not sorted out within the next 35 days, then you will start legal action. You may also wish to request the original amounts they owe you back!

It seems extreme, but what usually happens is that they will pass you from pillar to post and you end up getting no where. If you feel that you owe them nothing, let the courts sort it out. But the courts will need to be satisified that you have given O2 every opportunity of sorting it amicably - hence the 35 days to sort it out. Given that you will no know when you need a clean credit report, don't mess about - get is sorted!

Good luck

Hi again everyone and thanks bertie for your kind and supportive message.

Hope you're all sitting down. Further to my email to o2 5 days ago asking them to remove the erroneous default record, I emailed again today, reminding them that the 5 days are up (They undertake to reply within 5 days) Have just got home to find the following in my inbox:

Good afternoon Barbara

Account ****994596

I’ll arrange to have the above account cleared to a zero balance and remove the under £10 adverse and default, please leave 24 hours before checking your credit file to allow the changes to download.

O2 are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Many thanks

I'm utterly delighted and extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone on this thread; you all gave me the incentive to take up the cudgels and I was prepared for the long haul. To those still battling, take heart - there obviously IS strength in numbers and o2 have had to take notice. If i can be of any help to any of you, please don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers

Molly