O2 customers ‘misled about renewal deals by third party’

Users claim they face huge exit fees and had phones cut off after they switched contracts from the network

Customers of O2 have claimed they have been misled about renewal deals after being cold-called by a third party.
Users of the mobile network claim to have faced bills of hundreds of pounds after their contract was changed from one with O2 to one with a company called plan.com.
Ofcom, the industry regulator, has said it could consider investigating after customers were allegedly told they would remain with O2, only to be later told they had left the network at potentially huge costs.
In a phone call recorded by BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme, a call handler acting on behalf of plan.com told potential customers they were the “official partner of O2” and they were “helping you to renew your contract with O2 itself”.
Asked by a reporter if she would still be a customer of the telecoms giant, the operator replied: “You will be an O2 customer only, your number remains the same, your network remains the same…We are just offering you a better deal.”
Other customers told the programme their phones were cut off after they were not given codes to transfer their number to the new provider. In one case a customer was told they would need to pay hundreds of pounds to exit the new contract with plan.com, despite believing they had never left O2. Plan.com later cancelled the exit fee.
Plan.com is one of a number of “wholesale partners” that work with O2 and are primarily focused on providing solutions to businesses rather than everyday consumers.
Customers can be liable for the rest of their contract if they leave early and according to You and Yours, some have faced huge bills.
O2 has more than 23 million customers of its own but it provides more than 34.1 million connections through other providers such as giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile and Lycamobile which use its network.
Plan.com was founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs Dan Craddock and Keith Curran and says that it aims to transform the business telecoms market. It states on its website how its vision has seen “our market share and revenue growth skyrocket” and that “growth has been explosive”.
On the Isle of Man-based company’s website, Mr Craddock says that “never before has a single platform had the power to give partners and customers so much control”.
Plan.com did not respond to requests for comment by the Telegraph, but the BBC reported a spokesman for the firm as saying that “the referral of prospective customers to plan.com is carried out by a third party company”.
“Unfortunately, we do not have the knowledge or liberty to speculate how they get the phone numbers or how they conduct their business operations.
“In our agreement with them, they are prohibited to identify themselves as an employee, representative or agency of a direct network provider. We take non-compliance very seriously and we’re committed to investigate and address how this may have happened.”
O2 said that plan.com was a wholesale partner which sold contracts that used the network but they were owned and managed by plan.com.
A spokeswoman for Ofcom said: “We’re aware of complaints regarding plan.com. While we cannot resolve individual consumer complaints, we will consider whether it’s appropriate to take action if we see evidence of widespread harm. When we open investigations, we announce these on our Enforcement Bulletin.”