topic Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19 in Welcome & News

More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Chris_K — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 15:18:03 GMT

O2 announces zero rating for support websites during COVID-19

More than 20 websites zero-rated on O2 in addition to NHS websites
From today, O2 customers won’t use any of their network data when they browse a range of financial, health and emotional support and advice sites on their O2-enabled devices
Additional zero-rated sites include Citizens Advice, Money Advice Service and Mind

O2 has today announced a zero rating on more than 20 additional support and advice websites to help its customers access the support they need, worry free, during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Customers who are on O2 won’t use any of their allocated monthly data allowance when browsing a whole host of support, advice and charity sites on their mobile.

As well as the NHS, which O2 announced it was zero-rating last week, O2 customers can also browse 22 additional support and advice networks, including Citizens Advice and Mind.

Mark Evans, CEO, O2 (Telefonica UK)

Our customers are the most important thing to us, and we want to ensure that they have the support they need throughout this difficult time. That’s why, further to our announcement last week zero-rating NHS websites, we’re ensuring that additional websites providing financial, health and emotional advice and support can also be accessed by our customers without using any data allowance for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.

The full list of zero-rated sites include:

Citizens Advice:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

Financial Advice:

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en

https://www.stepchange.org/

Mental Health / Emotional Support:

https://www.samaritans.org/

https://www.mind.org.uk/

https://www.rethink.org/

https://www.anxiety.org/

https://youngminds.org.uk/

https://www.mindout.org.uk/

Support for Older People:

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/

https://www.thesilverline.org.uk/

Support for Young People:

https://www.themix.org.uk/

https://www.childline.co.uk/

Health Support:

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/

https://www.asthma.org.uk/

https://www.bhf.org.uk/

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/

Disability Support:

https://www.scope.org.uk/

https://www.rnib.org.uk/

https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/

Bereavement Support:

https://www.cruse.org.uk/

For more information visit https://www.o2.co.uk/

UPDATE

We have this week expanded our zero-rated websites to include those that offer support and advice for victims of crime, sexual abuse and domestic violence situations and provide support for vulnerable children – and can now be browsed without using a customer’s data allowance. More details here on our press release.

The websites are:

Victim Support – www.victimsupport.org.uk
Rape Crisis – www.rapecrisis.org.uk
The Survivors Trust – www.thesurvivorstrust.org
Male Survivors Partnership – www.malesurvivor.co.uk
Refuge and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline – www.refuge.org.uk
Women’s Aid and Welsh Women’s Aid – www.womensaid.org.uk and www.welshwomensaid.org.uk
NSPCC – www.nspcc.org.uk

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Cleoriff — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 12:42:51 GMT

That's excellent news @Chris_K

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

pgn — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:42:22 GMT

Superb effort. Nice to see O2 stepping up to the mark, @Chris_K.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Mi-Amigo — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:51:22 GMT

Good to hear @Chris_K

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

jonsie — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:51:24 GMT

Excellent news but the real issue facing customers is help with their bills.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Cleoriff — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:55:48 GMT

@jonsie wrote:
Excellent news but the real issue facing customers is help with their bills.

Indeed and as that advice was changed without warning we have been giving people more hope than we should have!

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Cleoriff — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 08:35:05 GMT

@Chris_K

I know you don't make decisions though must have some input.

That's why I am asking this very important question.

WHY AREN'T O2 ALLOWING PAYMENT BREAKS DURING THE COVID 19 CRISIS?

If you had spent the last week or so on here, you would have seen the tremendous amount of people in dire straits and distress, who have been cut off for various reasons. Some of these are frontline staff, others have lost their jobs and have no income, others are alone, elderly and vulnerable with no way of paying a bill or topping up.

I find it disgraceful that other major companies are allowing payment breaks with no penalty. Banks and Building societies with mortgages as just one example.

Every other system with O2 has slowed down, porting numbers, upgrading, lost and stolen, CS enquiries, international help, to name but a few.

The one thing which hasn't changed is the system which switches peoples phones off when they are late or struggling to pay a bill.

It's bloody heartbreaking to read some of these cries for help when O2 could do more to assist.

They are doing nothing, absolutely nothing and I find that disgraceful.

I would be grateful if you could feed this back to senior managerial staff and ask them to be more caring toward their customers during this time of unprecedented crisis.

In your post above and quoting Mark Evans, it states 'our customers are our most important asset' then gives a list of helplines. It does NOT give help at all to those who are struggling to pay their bills. Rather than show any compassion, you are simply cutting off their lifeline.

Terrible business practice.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Mi-Amigo — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 08:43:25 GMT

100% agree @Cleoriff

It is worth noting @Chris_K that @Martin-O2 said on Additional Support on O2 Community thread

With the lockdown measures that have been put in place customer services are operating at a reduced capacity. This has driven a lot more traffic to the community and we’re all feeling the impact of this. Due to reduced staff numbers along with the impracticalities of providing account query help on the community platform, this is not something that we will be introducing.

Support on the community will continue to be limited to non-account queries as before. For those with an account query, they will have to contact customer services. We fully appreciate that the lines are much busier than usual but this is an unprecedented situation and we’re adapting as best we can.

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Welcome-News/Additional-support-on-O2-Community/m-p/1313741/highlight/true#M33490

So you can see that the customers referred to by @Cleoriff - who are concerned and worried over bills and who come onto the forum - cannot get any help here either, which must add to their stress.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

MI5 — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 08:56:03 GMT

This is also a good opportunity to revisit what can be done by the customer in MyO2.
Cancel Insurance.
Adjust spend caps.
Add / Remove Bolt ons.
Age verification.
Instigate a return etc.
I could go on with a whole raft of things that I can do on my Vodafone online or in my control panel with giffgaff which are not possible without calling O2.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Cleoriff — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 08:57:48 GMT

@MI5

Do you mean CAN'T be done in My O2?

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

MI5 — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 08:58:40 GMT

either way works in this context....

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Chris_K — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:02:27 GMT

We continue to explore all we can do to help support our customers, employees, network, business & government. We know times are uncertain right now, and for any of our customers experiencing issues paying their bills we welcome you to contact our customer service teams.

We know it's taking longer to get through and we're doing all we can to add resource and free up our agents to take calls like these, so we do ask that you keep trying. Via the Community, Martin is right - in many cases a customer may need to speak to our dedicated Payment Management Team, and it's not possible for any of our new support agents to assist with such discussions, or feasible to bring that support here to the Community.

All of our latest updates and support messages can be found here, which will be updated as and when we announce any further changes or support.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Cleoriff — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:25:04 GMT

@Chris_K wrote:
We continue to explore all we can do to help support our customers, employees, network, business & government. We know times are uncertain right now, and for any of our customers experiencing issues paying their bills we welcome you to contact our customer service teams.

We know it's taking longer to get through and we're doing all we can to add resource and free up our agents to take calls like these, so we do ask that you keep trying. Via the Community, Martin is right - in many cases a customer may need to speak to our dedicated Payment Management Team, and it's not possible for any of our new support agents to assist with such discussions, or feasible to bring that support here to the Community.

All of our latest updates and support messages can be found here, which will be updated as and when we announce any further changes or support.

@Chris_K

With due respect, you haven't answered my question.

We are on the frontline of customer queries right now and are fielding questions from customers who have been cut off or will be cut off as they have no money to pay their bills.

At least four of those were frontline NHS staff who have been so busy saving peoples lives they have overlooked their bill.

We can NOT go on advising people to contact CS when they are only talking emergency calls!

Some people are stating they have phoned constantly and are cut off. The payment management team cuts off as soon as the number is dialled.

Saying you are getting more staff in, isn't helping those who already have been cut off or will be.

So I ask again, why can't O2 offer a payment break instead of clicking the off button as soon as a customer fails to pay a bill on time?

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

MI5 — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:30:42 GMT

Within 2 days the DVSLA have managed to automatically extend everyone's MOT by 6 months to ensure keyworkers can continue to operate normally.
It shouldn't be difficult for O2 to implement something similar on their billing system.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Cleoriff — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:35:41 GMT

@MI5 wrote:
Within 2 days the DVSLA have managed to automatically extend everyone's MOT by 6 months to ensure keyworkers can continue to operate normally.
It shouldn't be difficult for O2 to implement something similar on their billing system.

Indeed. It's ridiculous advising people to go to CAB or get in touch with a range of other sites when they are closed, or also running a limited service!

O2 aren't going to come out of this debacle with a bloody halo showing, I know that for sure!

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

MI5 — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:41:48 GMT

It's about time O2 took their head out of the sand and woke up to the reality of this terrible situation.
I'm actually embarrassed to be associated with them right now.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Chris_K — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 10:51:54 GMT

I recognise the concerns you all have, and while our customer service team are dealing with essential calls only, issues with being unable to pay your bill or being disconnected absolutely fall into that category and are one of the call types our teams are prioritising.

Unfortunately we're unable to help such customers from here on the Community as we don't have access to customer accounts, as frustrating as that is for you all right now, so we do require that these customers get in touch with us so we can discuss their situation further and get it resolved. I know call queues are longer than they usually are and I know it's a frustrating experience, but during this unprecedented time we are operating with a reduced capacity and we're doing all we can to bring those numbers up again, in order to handle more calls, more quickly.

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

Cleoriff — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 11:18:09 GMT

@Chris_K

However you do have a list of customers. Not just those posting on the forum.

Just ask those in power to STOP pushing the button to cut people off. Call it a Payment furlough or whatever, just stop cutting peoples phones off.

Those on the frontline of all services do not have time to hold on for hours whilst they are saving lives.

Those who have been cut off have absolutely NO way of contacting customer services to beg for their phone to be put on.

I find it ironic that O2 are sending millions of ridiculous texts this and last week, to people about 'topping up in a shop'. Those who are posting here say they haven't topped up via that route ever.

Causing more stress and concern to people who are living through this hell.

NB just ONE of the many 100's of posts on here https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/Overdue-bill-disconnected-during-covid19-pandemic/m-p/1314982/highlight/true#M182027

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

gmarkj — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 11:02:03 GMT

Thanks for the update @Chris_K.
I think some of the issues about customer self service are valid - why for instance can Vodafone customer change a spend cap or remove some bolt-ons themselves but o2 customer need to call in?
If the function to do some of these were enabled (either on the website or in the app) then surely it would mean a reduced need for customer service agents and calls to them?

Re: More support websites zero rated during COVID-19

jonsie — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 11:21:33 GMT

Brilliant posts here by members trying to help in impossible situations when O2 could do so much more. I find it deplorable that O2 are quite happily taking customers money and then building an impenetrable shield when these customers need help.

It's quite distressing and depressing telling people they have no choice but to keep trying to call when we know they themselves are feeling the same as we are.

We help out but as things are, we feel abandoned despite Gurus helping out. They are telling people the exact same thing about keep attempting the impossible by calling the payment management team.

This 'payment management team' are not helping by telling front line customers they won't get cut off when in fact the system automatically takes action against anyone late in paying their bill.

I know there are no magic buttons to help in these unprecedented times but it's now time for O2 to step up and take more positive action. Otherwise you may as well close this community to new members because we can't help them. It's just the same questions time and again.

How about a Q&A's topic pinned to the top of the community welcome page with what we can help with and what we can't as things are impossible at the moment.