Mobile Direct new contract prohlems

[Jes1969w]

Hi,

I bought a phone and o2 contract deal from mobile direct 2 weeks ago. They haven’t been able to set up my O2 account and claim that an IT system change at O2 is the cause of the problem. They say it’s a blanket issue between the, and O2 and can’t tell n it will be fixed.

i work in IT and taking two weeks to fix an issue like this sounds odd. Surely there are alternative ways to onboard new customers into O2.

Does this stack up ? Any ideas as to what is going on ? If this is true then it doesn’t reflect well on the O2 brand.

Best regards,

Jes

[MI5]

@Jes1969w 

It takes O2 2 years to fix IT issues so 2 weeks is nothing.

Everyone is being moved to a new billing system currently and things are not going very well.

[Enlli]

Quite possible. O2 are changing their systems for some time. I moved over 18 months ago and it's still not complete.

I.T. problems on O2 drag on for months. 

These community pages still have a bug that was first registered two years ago and a fix promised.

[madasaf1sh]

@Jes1969w 

To be fair, it could also be Mobile Phones Direct not completing something correctly, usually AO.com and its subsidaries are quick at blaming other partners... 

But you need to speak to the reseller, and get them to fix it, along with o2...

[MI5]

Yeah, no issues whatsoever with O2

[Nash1971]

This is a worry Mobile Phones Direct said the same to me today (02.04.24)

[pgn]

Mobile Phones Direct are possibly running into some of the porting issues O2 have been having lately (search the forum here to see), or even the migration of VMO2 customers from legacy to new billing system at the back-end, which has been giving everyone headaches, @Nash1971 - search the forum to see for yourself.

[MI5]

@Nash1971 

Third party resellers don't have access to the new 360 system yet to perform upgrades.

All they can do is sell new contracts.

[Rosmum]

Was this resolved? I’ve just been advised the same thing by this company, happy to wait a couple of weeks but not a couple of months. I have been offered the option of cancelling my order and getting a refund - wondering whether I should do this and pick another network - shame as I’ve been an o2 customer for over 15 years but these third party companies offer a shorter contract term for much less money so not ordering directly through o2 and not waiting months for a new phone 

[pgn]

Precisely why I use third-party resellers, @Rosmum.

I think O2's approach to resellers (excluding so-called "trusted partners"!!!) is apocryphal, tbh.  There is no way buying direct from O2 offers value any more, given the disgraceful state of O2's Customer Support offerings, both in-store and phone support.

Is this a way of O2 "penalising" 3rd party resellers? No, I imagine not, as the customer's whole bundle gets counted for RPI April price increase, catching a few more £££ppp for O2.

So why are O2 cutting off their nose to spite their face? I don't know - as many have said here, your guess is as good as anyone else's guess. My next renewal due this November, hopefully it is just a case of swapping the SIM from old phone to new, otherwise, well.... 

That said, I used AffordableMobiles (AM) the last twice, O2 before that, MobilphonesDirect before that - let's see how things shake out - but you could try an approach to another reseller, @Rosmum - if MPD are offering you the chance to cancel at no cost.