topic Re: Your experience with O2 Stores in Discussions & Feedback

Your experience with O2 Stores

Marjo — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 12:20:51 GMT

Hi everyone,

O2 always welcomes customer feedback on its products and services, as we want to know what aspects are going well and also what you think could be improved and how.

There's a lot of feedback on Customer Service here on the community that we regularly pass on to the business, but in this thread we'd like to concentrate specifically on the O2 Store experience in a bit more detail.

If you've recently visited your local (or any) O2 Store, we'd love to hear your thoughts around:

What was good or could be improved with the layout and 'vibe' of the store space?
How did you feel about our staff? Is there anything you'd improve, or was everything ok?
If you could add or change anything to our store experience that'd make it stand out from any other store out there, what would it be?

Additionally, if you have any experiences from other mobile providers' stores that you feel were nicer in comparison, please do let us know what was it that you feel was done better, so we can learn.

Looking forward to your comments!

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

Cleoriff — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 13:23:06 GMT

I haven't been recently @Marjo

My last visit was about 2 years ago. Our store in Nuneaton has got a pretty good reputation. I have never bought a phone from them but visited on a couple of occasions when I needed a sim change as I had a new phone bought outright. If honest I didn't want the faff of doing it myself, knowing they could do it so much quicker.

They were kind and helpful did the job in a few minutes, even rebooted the phone for me advising 'it may not be instant'.

It was instant. By the time I walked out of the shop my new phone and sim were working.

My grandson swapped from EE to O2 recently. He did the same as me and got a great response from the store staff.

So I can genuinely offer great praise to the O2 store in Nuneaton.

I did hear one poster remark it wasn't the job of the store staff to do this. That may be correct and is probably store dependent.......

Edited to add, both EE and Three are very helpful as well. So this is probably due to our small stores in the area. Nuneaton is lucky I guess

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 15:08:44 GMT

@Marjothat’s O2 Manchester Market St

dtaff over there very professional and friendly.

Mused for click and collect and can’t recommend more. They even offered coffee and water while I was waiting.

Great experience in general

still have the pic

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

Marjo — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:24:25 GMT

Thanks for the comments so far @Cleoriff and @Anonymous, sounds like you had very positive experiences at these 2 stores which is great to hear. And good to see you back on the community @Anonymous! I hope you've been well. Thanks for posting a photo too!

I'm curious also if the store layout (the space itself, available devices etc) was also something that you noticed while you were at the store, and if you have any comments to share around that aspect of your visit?

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

Cleoriff — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 18:21:43 GMT

In Nuneaton it's a very small store @Marjo.

Its on a corner of a building and from the outside looks bigger than it is.

However they have plenty of staff and I have never waited long to be seen.

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

MI5 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 18:52:34 GMT

Never had a bad experience at either Nuneaton or the Ricoh stores.
Always found staff very knowledgeable and have the time to talk to you without being pushy.

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

welshsteve76 — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 09:58:21 GMT

My local store in Leamington Spa used to be really good, with knowledgeable and helpful staff. Now they either act like they don't want to be there, or they lose interest unless you want to buy the "latest and greatest". The store in the precinct in Coventry is even worse on the couple of occassions I have been in. I've now not been in an O2 store for about a year.

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

Cleoriff — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 10:05:53 GMT

@welshsteve76 wrote:
My local store in Leamington Spa used to be really good, with knowledgeable and helpful staff. Now they either act like they don't want to be there, or they lose interest unless you want to buy the "latest and greatest". The store in the precinct in Coventry is even worse on the couple of occassions I have been in. I've now not been in an O2 store for about a year.

If you have tried the one in the precinct in Coventry and not impressed @welshsteve76, then you could try the one at the Ricoh Arena. They are much better.

Having said all that, no-one should have to search for a good O2 store. They should all be the same and giving everyone the same high level of attention.

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

Marjo — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 18:23:32 GMT

Hi @welshsteve76, thanks for your comments as well and sorry to hear that you felt your experience was lacking at your local and the other store you visited. It would be great to hear if you have any additional thoughts on what would have been the thing that would have made it better for you personally about your visits to both of these stores?

If anyone else has visited our stores recently, don't hesitate to drop a comment here as we'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

pgn — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 23:26:12 GMT

I get the choice of 3 stores near me - 2 westwards, one eastwards.

The one to the east was where I got my one and only Symbian phone many years ago, and of the 2 due west of me, one is a franchise and one a true O2 store. I have been in both, but my last experience was almost 12 months ago, in the true O2 store on the 1st floor, right beside the escalators, of a shopping centre. I was trying to get a replacement PAYG phone for #1 daughter, who can go through a phone a year, on average, it seems!

You have to get in there early on a Saturday - the store was fairly empty at 09:30, with about 3 staff, as I remember. O2 were unwilling to shift on the price of the phone we were looking at, even though we were an "O2 Family". We ended up schlepping downstairs to the CPW shop, buying the same handset for about 20quid less, even with the "free" O2 PAYG SIM that had to be topped-up upon purchase (!). Then we nipped back upstairs to get help from the O2 staff to transfer the balance and number off the old O2 SIM onto the new "nano" SIM.

What was good or could be improved with the layout and 'vibe' of the store space?

The shop itself was small, with three desks to the rear for doing the paperwork, and a couple of static wall displays and a small island with various tablets and Apple kit on it. The store now looks like it has been revamped recently, shall have to visit again soon, upgrades-are-a-comin'!

How did you feel about our staff? Is there anything you'd improve, or was everything ok?

O2 staff were courteous, professional and realised that many of the people purchasing that particular make and model of phone were going elsewhere to buy and then returning to them to get the number/balance sorted out. With a wan smile and a shrug of the shoulders, one of the guys in the back of the store asked the person at the counter to call the relevant O2 Support team and arrange it all - amidst reassurances the balance and number would transfer within the hour. It did, and we found the whole job to be quite smooth and trouble-free.

If you could add or change anything to our store experience that'd make it stand out from any other store out there, what would it be?

There used to be a Phones4U store right next door, and I always felt O2 would be better suited to the window space of the now empty Phones4U shop than the rather poky store they currently have. Phones4U did it big - wall to wall phones, cases, accessories - the O2 shop always seemed so much more minimalist, with about a third of its wall and floorspace devoted to phones and such. Then again, I guess they only have O2's selection of phones to display, as opposed to the competing carrier's brands in the now defunct Phones4U store.

Pic of the store mast of the true O2 Store, taken from the shopping centre's website:

The franchise O2 store is a lot more spacious, but is situated on a street-side, not in a shopping centre. It has equally friendly staff, and whilst very busy, does a roaring trade in upgrades, both consumer and business, and PAYG phones - so much so it's impossible to get anyone there to pick up the shop's phone unless you ring very early or on a Saturday before 10am or after 4pm. This store could benefit from having 2 or 3 dedicated customer parking bays closeby, it can be quite a trek from the nearest carpark!

The street-side O2 Franchise store, taken from Jun-2018 Google Streetview:

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

welshsteve76 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 09:27:54 GMT

It's just the lack of enthusiasm and interest shown by the staff that has bothered me the most on the last handful of occassions I have been into a store. The O2 store in Leamington used to be really good with enthusiastic and helpful staff. These days they don't seem interested at all, and have next to no knowledge of phones except for the latest Apple or Samsung. Is it a training thing? Are they told to push customers towards the more expensive handsets? All speculation, but something isn't quite right.

I remember going in and asking for information on using my phone abroad as I was going on holiday and the sales assistant literally couldn't give a damn and fobbed me off. The store was fairly quiet, so it;s not like they were over-busy.

As I said though, I haven't personally been in an O2 store now for over a year, even then it was only to see what phones were around and what they felt like to hold. It's probably at least 2½ years since I went in requiring specific assistance.

I have no doubt there are O2 shop staff out there who are really good at their job and do it with enthusiasm. I've just not experienced that with O2 staff for years now. A lot of it coincided with the introduction of the so-called O2 Gurus.

Re: Your experience with O2 Stores

Marjo — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:11:20 GMT

Cheers for your additional views @welshsteve76, much appreciated.

And thank you @pgn for the thorough description of your local stores! Which area was this?