O2 fined £10.5m by watchdog after it overcharged 140,000 customers

O2 has been fined £10.5million by Ofcom after overcharging customers who left the network between 2011 and 2019.

Around 140,000 customers were affected due to billing errors by the company. 

In 2019, Ofcom opened an investigation into potential problem with the way O2 was billing customers who were leaving the provider.

This is because the watchdog’s rules require telecoms companies to provide customers with accurate bills and charges. 

O2 has been fined £10.5million by Ofcom after overcharging customers leaving the network

When a customer leaves a mobile provider, the company provides a final bill setting out any remaining fees and charges they have to pay before their account is closed.

Between at least 2011 and 2019, an error in the way O2’s systems calculated the final bills for pay monthly mobile customers meant many people were billed for some charges twice.

These customers were not provided with an accurate final termination bill detailing that their accounts were in credit, or would be in credit, taking into account further scheduled direct debit payments for amounts already billed.

In total, more than 250,000 customers were billed for these incorrect charges, amounting to £40.7million.

Around 140,000 customers actually paid the extra charges, paying a total of £2.4million.

The fine includes a 30 per cent reduction from the £15million financial penalty Ofcom would have imposed, which reflects O2 accepting the findings of the investigation and agreeing to settle the case. 

O2 had initially identified issues with its billing processes in 2011, but efforts to address these problems were not successful and customers continued to be overcharged.

Ofcom found that O2 breached its rules and fined the company £10.5million.

Error: Thousands of customers leaving the O2 network were billed for some charges twice

O2 has accepted the findings of the investigation and refunded the customers affected in full for the extra charges they paid, plus an additional 4 per cent.

An O2 spokesperson said: ‘As the operator proactively driving over £168million value back to our customers in the last year alone, we are disappointed by this technical error and sincerely apologise to customers impacted.

‘As Ofcom have stated today, the vast majority of funds reported were not overpaid. Only 6 per cent – £2.4million – relates to money that was overpaid by customers.

‘We identified the issue ourselves and notified our industry billing auditor. We have also taken proactive steps to refund all impacted customers for the extra charges they paid, plus an additional 4 per cent.’

For those customers that O2 has not been able to reach, the company has committed to make a donation to charity for the equivalent amount of money those customers were overcharged.

It has also changed its billing processes to prevent this issue arising again.

Any customers with evidence they were affected by these billing errors but have not yet been refunded, are advised to contact O2 directly.

Gaucho Rasmussen, Ofcom’s enforcement director, said: ‘Mobile customers trust their provider to bill them correctly and fix any errors as quickly as possible.

‘But these billing issues continued for a number of years without sufficient action from O2, and thousands of customers were overcharged as a result. 

‘This a serious breach of our rules and this fine is a reminder that we will step in if we see companies failing to protect their customers.

‘O2 has refunded the customers who were affected, and we are satisfied the company has taken action to prevent this happening again.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk