Dear O2,
When we first moved to Germany the landlord had not finished running the fiber lines supporting the new buildings internet service. We purchased a router and by month O2 subscription to enable internet service in our apartment.
The landlord completed the fiber installation and we have had the new internet service for over (2) months. Once we had confidence in the new system we turned the original hot spot/O2 subscription off. Usage is zero. We have been trying to cancel the subscription for over a month but in that we do not speak German at this time the call service has been a challenge...until yesterday when one of your English speaking representatives provided us some guidance towards SMS communications.
Bottom line: Please accept this as authorization to cancel our subscription (0176/XXXXXX404) effective immediately. While through usage you can see we have not been using the service for some time...we are not seeking any past credit...just no further charges from this date forward.
Know that the system and service performed flawlessly.
If you have any questions please contact me.
Best regards,
Tony R.
XXXXXXXX834
Edit by o2_Tatjana: delete personal data
Edit by o2_Tobias: personal data deleted
Dear O2,
When we first moved to Germany the landlord had not finished running the fiber lines supporting the new buildings internet service. We purchased a router and by month O2 subscription to enable internet service in our apartment.
The landlord completed the fiber installation and we have had the new internet service for over (2) months. Once we had confidence in the new system we turned the original hot spot/O2 subscription off. Usage is zero. We have been trying to cancel the subscription for over a month but in that we do not speak German at this time the call service has been a challenge...until yesterday when one of your English speaking representatives provided us some guidance towards SMS communications.
Bottom line: Please accept this as authorization to cancel our subscription (XXXXXXX) effective immediately. While through usage you can see we have not been using the service for some time...we are not seeking any past credit...just no further charges from this date forward.
Know that the system and service performed flawlessly.
If you have any questions please contact me.
Best regards,
Tony R.
Edit o2 Antje: Rufnummer aus Datenschutzgründen entfernt
Hi @Tonylr,
thanks for your request to cancel your mobile phone contract. As you have sent different messages to us, I just united all messages here. We will therefore not continue our communication in the following thread anymore: https://hilfe.o2online.de/english-o2-community-43/cancellation-of-contract-514920
Unfortunately, it is not possible in our English community to cancel the contract out of data security reasons.
If you like to end your contract, please send this cancellation letter to the address mentioned in the letter: cancellation
Please notice that your contract will end one month after we received your cancelllation letter.
The withdrawal letter that you have sent us is not valid anymore as you already passed over the withdrawal period of 14 days.
I hope I could help you with this information.
Loving greetings,
Tobias
While I appreciate your response...it is unacceptable. As you have sighted, I have sent numerous communications...in addition to numerous hours on calls attempting to cancel this subscription. I fully understand that not understanding the German language has played a part. But now you have full knowledge and understanding of our request. As was stated by us previously and can be confirmed by your company through usage this service has not been use in months. Also as stated we are not seeking any credit...but your comment to 14 days is a bit unprofessional in that it is clear we have been trying to cancel for much longer than that...and again as your company can verify the service has not been used for longer than that period.
Please accept our previous correspondence as request to cancel the service immediately.
If you cannot...please transfer our request to the appropriate department within your company that can. If this cannot be accomplished, please elevate this issue to your company's management for resolution.
Given all it would be odd if we are charged another month service for a service your company knows it is not providing. We subscribed to the month-by-month as we knew the landlord was eventually providing service. We agreed to pay a higher monthly rate to have the flexibility to cancel...no long-term contract. While we understand not having online capability to cancel for customers which have entered long-term contracts...in our opinion there needs to be a more effective method for the month-by-month Customers.
If the next monthly billing (64.99) hits our account and we do not have conformation of cancellation for the following billing cycle, we will share this issue and supporting rationale with our bank and cancel all future payment/transactions.
Your company is a service company…as previously stated the service provided performed flawlessly...please do the right thing now.
Your Customer,
Tony
This is a community discussion forum and although the moderators are o2 employees this is not a platform that can be used for terminating a contract. Also, even if Tobias had been able to accept and forward your termination request you would still have needed to observe the contractually agreed period of notice. Whether or not you use the service is irrelevant.
The quicker you submit a valid termination request the quicker your contract will be terminated. If the situation is unacceptable for you there is nothing stopping you submitting a complaint to customer services where the relevant department will look at your case.
Maybe not as clear to all as it seems to us...but we have been trying for a long long time to cancel this month-to-month service. All call attempts failed solely due to the fact that the representatives could not speak or understand English...the number 1 language in the world. We were clear we are not looking for any credit...even stating the next charge is permissible which makes the 14 day issue moot. Your comment “Whether or not you use the service is irrelevant” misses the relevance of my comment towards your being able to verifying the service is not being used. In all honesty it not like car insurance where you pay and hope not to use the service...right?
After so many unsuccessful attempts on our part we are not willing to call or request again...my statement stands...after this next billing if we do not have conformation of cancellation for the following billing cycle, we will share this issue and supporting rationale with our German bank and cancel all future payment/transactions.
FYI...when we couldn’t cancel online our first calls were to Customer Service. During the most recent call last week and after being transferred to 3 departments where we were finally given instructions to remove the card from the router and install it in cell (did not work using my US cell) so we could get SMS messages in (German). This is how we finally accessed what is titled “English O2 Community” seeking resolution. It’s not arrogance on my part...I was offered foreign language courses back in the 70’s...just didn’t have the foresight to realize after 40 years with the company I would be asked to spend a year in Germany. While this particular issue has been frustrating...spending time in Germany has been a great experience.
Regards,
T
I don't work for o2 so I am giving you my honest opinion as an o2 customer, and am sorry to say that I think your expectations are unrealistic. I can see that the situation is very frustrating and the o2 hotline certainly doesn't seem to be that great when it comes to offering English telephone support, but could you not have asked a German speaker to call on your behalf if you were unable to make progress?
Your comparison with car insurance is somewhat odd as the point is you are paying for a service whether you (need to) use it or not as long as the contract is still running.
Your bank will hardly be interested in your contract with o2 but you can certainly ask it to reject direct debit requests from a particular payee's account. The problem is that however stubborn you want to be here, your contract will not be terminated if you don't send in proper notice to terminate and you logically won't get confirmation. The consequences of non-payment ”on principle" in this case are hardly worth taking a stand for.
It's entirely up to you of course, but in my opinion the easiest, cheapest and most sensible way forward is to send in the termination request immediately (make sure you opt for Einwurfeinschreiben / recorded delivery) and be out of the contract 30 days later. Alternatively do nothing and still be dealing with this matter in 2020.
All the best whatever you choose to do. And please don't forget: a German citizen in a contract relationship in the USA would be expected to follow the procedures stipulated for terminating the agreement.
By the way, if I understood Tobias correctly, the 14 days mentioned appear to relate to a cancellation request you submitted (?). Cancellation (Widerruf) is a statutory right in the EU within 14 days of concluding a contract online or by telephone and is not the same as contract termination.
My expectation is based on far too many O2 representatives and departments knowing what our written objective is and what the primary challenge is...it is not unreasonable to expect that the information would be transferred to the responsible department and executed.
We did ask a German colleague and he was unsuccessful. I also went to the store where the service was originally purchased. The store rep spent over 15 minutes unsuccessfully...mostly on hold...while his queue of waiting Customers grew. His manager came by and mention this is something they do not normally do...so I offered to return during a slower period. On 2 returns they were busy.
The 14 days was mention by O2. Our assumption was that we were inside a monthly period and is why we offered to make the next payment prior to the cancellation becoming effective...allowing well over 30 days to make the change. If I understand you we were not eligible for cancellation as we were past the initial 14 days. As I previously stated and as O2 is fully aware our month-to month relationship is over 240 days. Cancellation vs Termination...really...in that the 14 day period is long past/not relevant...there is no way O2 doesn’t understand our intent. In my experience cancellation is for a subscription or service...termination is for cause/default. Bottomline...hiding behind two words that many use interchangeably is unreasonable.
As for insurance...again in response to an O2 comment that non-usage was irrelevant. The simple comparison was to differentiate the different types of services...one you pay to use but if you don’t there is benefit (coverage)...this one you pay to use but if you don’t there is no benefit. Why would one pay for the latter? Again...the only reason we mentioned usage was to enable O2 to validate the service had not been used/needed for months.
I have been to many countries...language barriers can be a challenge. None equal to this round...but I have experienced a few over the years in Japan, Turkey and Norway...all of which the request didn’t go to the correct department...so I received a nice notice stating the information was in fact forwarded to the correct department and the issue resolved.
BTW...appears I am not alone...reminder we are month-to-month...see actual German excerpt below:
“Signing up for a service is very easy, cancelling it is not. This forum is full of horror stories. For someone who's here for the short term it's better to avoid long-term contracts whenever there are non-contract-based alternatives. Luckily, for the internet there are companies like 1 & 1 that offer service on a month-by-month basis, cancellable any time.”
Not stubborn...just highly frustrated.
T
Hi @Tonylr,
I understand your frustration.
As @bs0 already explained to you, we definitely need a cancellation letter from you.
At the moment, we only have a so called “Widerruf” from you that is not valid as your contract is already active since 4th May 2019. As you ordered the mobile phone contract in one of our shops, you even do not have a withdrawal right of 14 days.
The terms and conditions of your contract is a cancellation-period of one month after receipt of a cancellation letter. Here in Germany we need a written cancellation letter. A cancellation that is just told orally is not acceptable.
Of course, I see that you have given notice of a cancellation here in our English community. But please be aware of the fact that the o2 Community is a public forum. Therefore, your cancellation here in our English community does not include any personal data. A cancellation without any personal data (including your mobile phone number) is not valid and cannot be accepted by our company.
Therefore, I ask you politely for a cancellation letter that you please send to the following address:
Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG, Kundenbetreuung, 90345 Nürnberg
or by fax: 01805/571766
After we received your cancellation letter, we will end your mobile phone contract after one month. An earlier cancellation is not possible.
You have now the possibility to continue your discussion here, but at the end you will not get any solution and definitely no cancellation of your contract. Or you just end the discussion here and send us a cancellation letter.
Thanks a lot for your cooperation.
Loving greetings,
Tobias
Comical…
To your statement “Therefore, your cancellation here in our English community does not include any personal data. A cancellation without any personal data (including your mobile phone number) is not valid and cannot be accepted by our company.”
Presuming you have access to the O2 site...and even if you don’t someone at O2 does...as my personal data (including mobile phone number) is in your system.
While through multiple calls and correspondence I feel we had no alternative but to continue trying…you could have reduced your involvement/time by simply routing our request to the appropriate department, including the required personal data which is in your data base.
Again...I see we are not alone...actual German excerpt below:
“Signing up for a service is very easy, cancelling it is not. This forum is full of horror stories. For someone who's here for the short term it's better to avoid long-term contracts whenever there are non-contract-based alternatives. Luckily, for the internet there are companies like 1 & 1 that offer service on a month-by-month basis, cancellable any time.”
Please know that based on principle alone this issue will be elevated within your company...it is a broken/ineffective process.
Hi @Tonylr,
a termination of your contract is not possible via this community and needs to be prompted in your Mein o2 account or the Mein o2 app and be then confirmed by phone; also, a signed letter, as @o2_Tobias suggested, works fine.
That is why we cannot route any such requests that may be posted to this forum to another department.
As I can see, you have sent us said notification already, so I can confirm that your contract will be cancelled on January 2nd, 2020.
This means after your contract was terminated, you will get your final bill in mid-January 2020.
Best regards,
Jan.
