Unauthorised upgrade when asking for pac code

[Anonymous]

Two days ago I asked O2's web chat staff for a pac code. They kept trying to sell a new contract so the chat took 1.5 hours! I declined all offers and eventually got the code. 

Yesterday I saw on my account that O2 had renewed my contract without permission. I asked web chat staff to remove the upgrade and to log a complaint that this had happened. They said the upgrade would be removed from my account within 24 hours. This has not happened. They also said they would log my complaint but then refused and said I should refer to the O2 complaints webpage - which says that web chat staff can receive complaints. I asked to be transferred to a supervisor, which took 1/2 hour, who also refused to log my complaint. The whole web chat took 2.5 hours and actually did nothing. They did not correct the upgrade nor log my complaint. 

It is apparently very easy for staff to collect commissions on upgrades which are not needed and not agreed. It is apparently very hard to correct this malpractice. I see on reviews of O2 that this problem has remained unresolved for a long time, 

http://www.s21.com/o2.htm Perhaps this type of fraud continues to be tolerated by O2 as they benefit from locking in customers who don't use the pac code in time?

[Anonymous]

Problem solved with thanks to Matthew Sanderson of the O2 complaint review service. The unauthorised upgrade has been removed and my complaint was properly logged and considered. O2's bigger problem, of staff operating an unofficial anti-complaint process, remains to be resolved by them. This was my feedback on the case:

It seems the reason why my complaint was refused by the first 3 members of staff I contacted (on web chat and 202) is that there’s an unofficial policy that diverges a lot from the official process. In the unofficial policy complaints are politely taken by service staff only in the form of feedback, never as a formal complaint. When customers persist in asking to complain, the unofficial policy requires that they are politely told they will be helped but no actual help is to be given. This would be the reason why numerous staff failed to reverse the unauthorised upgrade. I don’t expect my case to shift the unofficial policy of a large company but I hope it helps to highlight this as a big customer service opportunity.

Thanks to the O2 community for much kind support and helpful input!

[MI5]

Glad you got sorted eventually.

[jonsie]

Well done, good you got it sorted but really O2, it shouldn't be this hard to get unauthorised upgrades sorted.

[Toby]

Thanks for the feedback on this @Anonymous. Always helpful! Really happy to hear this was all sorted out in the end for you.

[Anonymous]

Yes thanks @jonsie, people like me with pac codes usually just disappear so good if O2 can be prepared to help them too.

Thanks Toby!

[Cleoriff]

@Anonymous + perseverance wins the day. Though why it had to take so much time and effort is unbelievable. The lack of help when initially making a complaint is major cause for concern as well...:smileysad:

[Anonymous]

Unsolved and re-solved by O2

After all the fuss of doing an unauthorised upgrade and being unable or unwilling to undo it for 2 weeks, O2 unsolved this problem by emailing to say I owe them £223.51. Even though the dodgy upgrade was no longer showing on my account when I switched provider, O2 still charged a termination fee. Matt Sanderson just now kindly removed the faulty fee so the problem is now hopefully re-solved. In myO2 there is no bill information, it just says "DASH_ERR04: The account number in the target address is invalid." But fingers crossed I don't have to worry about this any more!

[MI5]

Let's all hope for the best mate.

[Anonymous]

Definitely unsolved! (Please do not mark this thread as 'solved')

Today my O2 account allowed me to see the 'disconnected bill' that had been hidden. This revealed what has been going on with the unauthorised upgrade that had finally been removed from my account after numerous people agreed it was wrong and should be immediatey removed.  The bill shows a termination fee (which should never have been charged since there was no upgrade applied on my account at the time of the switch of provider). The complaints review service told me they'd removed this fantasy fee but it has now reappeared so O2 are due to take £223.51 from my bank account. Nobody says I owe this but they're due to take it anyhow. 

It's now more than a month since O2 caused this problem for me and after a busload of their staff told me it was being fixed it just gets more and more broken. Is this a record for customer disservice or corporate disarray or something? Is there a single person in the entire O2 staff with the magical superpowers needed to sort this out?   

[MI5]

Welcome to the wonderful world of o2 IT.