• Billing Error: Timely Withdrawal (Widerruf) miscategorized by system, need 40€ refund

Remove your customer number here. 

I activated a data line on August 12th.

On which day did you order the data line? 

Where was the contract concluded—in the store, online, or by phone?

online…

How much time elapsed between receiving the "cancellation notice" and the actual cancellation? The clock starts ticking upon receipt of the cancellation notice, not just upon receipt of the SIM card.

The clock for a statutory right of withdrawal (Widerruf under § 355 BGB) starts upon receipt of the contract terms and activation, which was August 12th.

The time elapsed between activation and my first cancellation notice was less than 24 hours (notified via operator on August 13th). My secondary backup notice was sent on August 21st (9 days elapsed).

Both notices were submitted well within the statutory 14-day window (which ended August 26th). Under German law, a timely withdrawal dissolves the contract immediately upon receipt of the notice. The fact that O2's system took until August 24th to issue the official confirmation email is an internal processing delay and does not alter the legality or timeliness of my withdrawal.

Take a look at § 355 Abs. 2 BGB.

(2) Die Widerrufsfrist beträgt 14 Tage. Sie beginnt mit Vertragsschluss, soweit nichts anderes bestimmt ist.

(2) The withdrawal period is 14 days. It begins upon the conclusion of the contract, unless otherwise stipulated.

The question of when the contract was concluded is justified in this case!

Please read § 355 Abs. 1 Satz 5 BGB instead: "Zur Fristwahrung genügt die rechtzeitige Absendung des Widerrufs." (To meet the deadline, the timely sending of the withdrawal is sufficient).

The timeline is indisputable:

• Contract conclusion (§ 355 Abs. 2 BGB): August 12th
• Deadline expires: August 26th
• My withdrawal sent: August 13th (and again August 21st)

Because it was sent before the 26th, the deadline was met perfectly. The date O2 chose to technically process it and send the confirmation email (August 24th) is completely irrelevant to the legal deadline. The contract is null and void from the start.

You will not get a SIM card or eSIM in Germany at the same day you close a contract online!

And you wrote

I activated a data line on August 12th.

Important is not the day of activation, important for withdraw is the day of closing the contract online!

It begins upon the conclusion of the contract

That would by not after the July 29.

And (BGB) § 356

 

(5) Das Widerrufsrecht erlischt bei Verträgen über die Erbringung von Dienstleistungen auch unter folgenden Voraussetzungen: 

 

Read https://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/wissen/vertraege-reklamation/kundenrechte/von-widerruf-bis-umtausch-wenn-sie-mit-der-ware-nicht-zufrieden-sind-5117

If you have entered into a different contract (for example, for a service, the supply of electricity or gas, or a telephone or internet connection), the period begins upon conclusion of the contract.

You don't need to quote sections of the civil code in full. Please understand that the AI you are using is giving you information that needs to be applied to your exact situation. The correct terminology is important. Conclusion and activation are not the same thing.

Nobody is disputing that the relevant date is when you submitted the withdrawal notice and not when the other party processes it but you cannot have activated the SIM on the same day you concluded the contract, so just to be sure: the date o2 sent you the information on your right of withdrawal was 12th August (this is the key date) and you submitted the withdrawal notice on the 13th?

You are completely misinterpreting German consumer law. Please look closely at § 356 Abs. 2 BGB and § 312g BGB.

For distance selling contracts (Fernabsatzverträge) involving consumer goods, hardware, or digital line activations (like a mobile/data SIM card contract sent by post), the statutory 14-day withdrawal period explicitly does NOT start on the day you order online if the customer has not yet received the goods or service instructions.

The legal clock only begins after the consumer receives the goods/activation parameters and the mandatory legal instructions (Widerrufsbelehrung) in text form.

Since the line was not activated and delivered until August 12th, the 14-day window legally expired on August 26th. My cancellations on August 13th and August 21st are 100% legally binding and timely.

I am done discussing this with forum users. I am waiting for an official O2 moderator (o2_) to access my backend account logs and fix this system glitch.

When will you remove your customer number? 

No, you are misinterpreting the law here. You are correct that the order date is not relevant, the relevant date is the date you received the contract confirmation (Auftragsbestätigung) which contains the information on the right of withdrawal.

None if this necessarily means you are not entitled to withdraw from the contract or that o2 hast as you suspect made a mistake, just that your reasoning here is flawed.

Your arrogance is not going to get you anywhere. If you don't want to accept what others here have to say (some of whom actually know the law without relying on AI), then you are more than welcome to contact O2 directly via hotline, chat or contact form. An o2 moderator can of course also take a look at your account. I doubt it is a system glitch as you put it, but if the processing was wrong then yes, it will be fixed, if necessary by the department responsible.

​@evaminguez yes wait for an O2 Mod. they will fix it.

It’s not arrogance. It’s desperation. It’s not pleasant to know that you’ve been stuck in a 40€/month contract for 24 months when you only subscribed for 20€/month, for an extra line an actual operator told me to cancel, and supposedly cancelled herself, which i HAVE the cancellation proof, cause the other one was worth more than the other one. So, no, it’s not arrogance. It’s feeling helpless. 

We are only trying as far as possible to help you, but that is not easy when you contradict everything insisting you are right but based on an incorrect understanding of the law you quoted. I hope you can see why that might come across as arrogant.

The best thing is indeed to wait until a moderator can have a look at your account and see what has happened. On that note: are you logged on with the phone number of the contract concerned? That is the only way a moderator can access your customer account from here.