Fresh Plastic

O2 Refresh refund: Everyone hates waiting

Currently O2, the UK offshoot of Spanish telco Telefonica, are running a TV spot about how everyone hates waiting. I agree. Waiting sucks. Since the 8th of April (21 days ago) I've been waiting for a refund from said company. That's when they took £246.76 from my bank account in error, leaving me overdrawn to the tune of £59.97.

That's the reality of their O2 Refresh plan even when you follow their rules, to the letter, in ending a contract early, supposedly penalty free (as long as you've paid off the handset costs - which I did).

 

Unfortunately my bank, Halifax, were less than helpful, so I gave up trying to get an 'immediate' refund - or a refund at all - through the Direct Debit Guarantee. Confusion over the amount wrongfully taken has also complicated matters.

I'm at a stage now where I'm wondering if standing outside my local O2 store, telling prospective customers about my experiences, will speed matters up. At this point I really have nothing more to lose.

Today I upset a phone-y caller. So much he phoned back three times to tell me!

Scam caller (caller ID: 02837754159, probably spoofed) calls up pretending to be from BT. Although it's incredibly hard to decipher anything else through his thick Indian accent.

He says something about how important the call is, that he is calling to help fix the broadband - or whatnot. And then the ol' 'please turn on your computer' is uttered. Probably. Like I said, his patter is incredibly hard to comprehend.

Hanging up, he calls back seconds later from "03910" (almost certainly spoofed) and makes it incredibly clear, as a man with a near incomprehsible accent can, that he is a tad peeved to be hung up on.

So we hang up again.

He calls up again.

This time he's 'Private Caller'. This time he's even more angry. Or just more passionate about his job. Who knows? After a stern telling off (again) for once again hanging up on him, he orders us to turn on the computer while he waits.

Oops, we've just hung up again.

No worries, he's got our number - and he's not afraid to use it. Which he duly does, seconds later. This time he's back to using "03910" and the brief passage of time has left him no less angry. I mutter a few muted 'okays'* and, getting a bit bored of whatever it is he's saying this time, I hang up once more.

Now, after about 20 minutes, he hasn't called back - and I'm beginning to worry about him. Maybe he's spilled boiling hot coffee on himself, had to dart to the loo with IBS or been attacked by escaped zoo animals.

It really is a mystery.

My tip to avoid such nuisance calls?

Get rid of that landline and replace it with something like Three's 'The One Plan'. That offers 2000 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited way-faster-than-ADSL-in-my-area internet for £20 p/m. In my locale, speeds are 10 times (yes TEN times) faster than BT or Sky, and cable isn't an option. It's also cheaper than BT and Sky. I now never get sales calls and/or scammers ringing up when I'm at home. It's bliss.

*I can't say much more than 'okay' at the moment as I have a throaty/coughy thingy that disapproves of me flexing my vocal chords. Which probably further infuriated the gentleman.

Edit: More about the scam can be found here

Hacking Netflix whilst legally avoiding paying a penny to TV Licensing: A year in review

Happy New Year, and all that jazz. Welcome to my first post of 2014 - and a very belated Year in Review.

In 2013 the two most popular pages on this here blog of mine were Open up a whole new world of TV and film with this little Netflix 'hack' and How to legally avoid paying the TV licence whilst still watching lots of TV.

Almost all of those who ended up here did so after searching for Netflix hacks and ways to avoid paying the ridiculous TV licence the UK has. So expect more posts on both in the future.

After TV Licensing and Netflix, my posts on the pros and cons of Sky's Now TV service - which included how to watch Sky Movies on the cheap and how The Simpsons were missing from it - proved the next most popular. Again, expect more upcoming posts on that.

Breaking away from moneysaving film and television tips, the next most searched for, and read, post was about the awful mess that was made to my Dell Latitude 10 tablet after I updated it to Windows 8.1. Dell themselves dropped by and, not long after, the problem was fixed for all of us poor souls affected by it (which was pretty much everyone who upgraded). Don't expect any more posts on that!

And finally...

What's been missing is a bit of banter, some dialogue. Feel free to comment, I publish all I receive unless they're from bots or human spammers. Heck, I even published this rather patronising, condescending nonsense from a company that ripped off my sister's mobile phone.

Ditch that landline for quicker, cheaper internet!

So, it appears UK mobile network Three is slashing the price of their 'One Plan' - which includes truly unlimited internet and tethering - to £15 per month (from £25). And it's just a 12 month contract (not the 24 I'm signed up to!)

And this means what exactly?

Well, landline rental on its own is around £10 to £15 from the likes of BT, TalkTalk and Sky. Then you have to pay extra for the actual broadband. To add insult to injury, if you have slow ADSL those companies will charge you even more for that super fast fibre. And that's if it's available in your area.

With Three you may well be able to get significantly faster speeds than you do now (I know I do) and, like I said, it's cheaper! So what's not to like?

Here's what!

Mobile broadband speeds fluctuate more than 'home' broadband. Three have had two outages that have affected me in the 6 months I've been back with them - both lasting 12 hours. And their customer service is infamously dire, to put it kindly (that's why I left them before).

If you don't want to risk 12 months with them, they do the same plan on a 30-day rolling contract - which comands a premium of £3.

Now look at these speeds, and how much I downloaded in just over a day!

Cellfish acquire ToneMedia thanks, in part, to my sister

I'm pleased to inform you that yesterday Cellfish Media acquired premium ad platform ToneMedia.

"Cellfish has built its reputation on publishing innovative mobile and social apps," Fabrice Sergent, Cellfish CEO. A quick google will show that their rather shitty reputation has been built on a foundation of business practices many would describe as unethical, at best. "Our revenues have primarily been generated from selling content," he added - forgetting to mention this is content many consumers don't want, haven't asked for and are being billed for it regardless.

The funding of this takeover, in part, came from the unwitting victims of Cellfish's European subsidiary KKO Mobile/MyDoo . Victims such as my sister and all these people...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3388114

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-monthly-services/KKO-Mobile-Payforit-charges-Stolen-from-my-account/td-p/1338376

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/06/mystery-bills-from-mydoo.html

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/KKO-mobile-scam-help/td-p/8231044

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=172981

http://babyandbump.momtastic.com/general-chatter/1009277-mobile-apps-scam-warning.html

http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-Feedback/Unauthorised-money-removed-from-account/td-p/387062

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08458341119

http://www.volkshub.com/thehub/showthread.php?2497-KKO-Mobile-Shameful-(and-seemingly-legal)-Theft

http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/threads/i-got-scammed.142890/

http://www.scambook.com/report/view/137425/KKO-Mobile-Complaint-137425-for-$60.00

http://www.myveryownblog.co.uk/kko-mobile-how-refund/

Cellfish Media try to silence me. And other crazy conspiracy theories...

Read my last post here first - if you haven't already - as then this post will then make more sense! Don't forget to read the comments too. Especially the one from KKO Mobile/Cellfish Europe's Inès.

Google 'KKO Mobile' or other terms such as 'Cellfish scam' and you'll see a whole lot of angry mobile phone users on various forums all around the world, and some rather unflattering news articles. Some dating back to the noughties.

Long story short, this is a company that has made a small fortune scamming unsuspected people - for years. And pretty much getting away with it.

However, like any such company (especially one that is now partnering pop stars and the likes of Marvel Comics with official apps on iTunes and Google Play) they're keen to hide the less kosher side of their businesses. One way to do that is to have a subsidary do the dirty work. So, if you're Cellfish, you'll make sure your shitty ringtone/wallpaper company is called KKO Mobile/MyDoo, not 'Cellfish'. Then, when people complain loudly online, your legit business doesn't get tarnished.

Sadly, sometimes people such as myself, know how to use Google. First to find out who you really are; and second, to find out who else you've scammed. That's where shutting up people such as myself becomes rather handy. And that appears to be what Cellfish is doing.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

That's from this Express.co.uk article. Exhibit A is what's cached by Google. When Google did the caching my comment was still there. Exhibit B shows you what the comments to the article look like now.

A similar thing happened on The Register. My original comment was approved. A few hours later it had disappeared. Following that I made pretty much the same comment but omitted any mention of 'Cellfish' or 'KKO Mobile'. That comment was okayed and is still there.

Now, back to my last post...

Cellfish were swimming around my post about them Friday not long after I published it. I got not one, but nine visits from them, (hi guys, and thanks!) It looks like they also read my Twitter account (hi guys, I'll do you a #FF next week!) So, I wouldn't be surprised if my blog disappears soon. But I hope the guys at Typepad won't fold as fast!

How's that for conspiracy theories?