topic Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device in Discussions & Feedback

Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Blacklisted1 — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:16:14 GMT

A handset I bought from o2 was imei barred and blacklisted in January 2023 by o2.

This was not something I requested but may have been done by mistake. I have paid for the handset and have p.o.p from ee.

I have spoken to 5 advisers in customer service.

The first gave me lots of reassurances and promises and hung up.

The second sounded as though she knew what to do and processed 2 forms/requests to have it unbarred within 24 hours.

The third had no idea what to do and kept giving false information and then said I would receive a call from resolutions within a week.

The fourth simply hung up.

The fifth said as no advisers has access to ABS system anymore after migration to 360 I had to come online like this and make the request here.

As someone who worked in CS on the legacy system I can see why no one knows as it is a poorly trained subject in my experience.

I have lodged 2 complaints and have still not heard from the resolutions team.

Most of the advisers stated that o2 can't bar a device that was bought elsewhere which I know to be untrue and they ALL after more prompting confirmed this was true.

An IMEI bar is not a suitable restriction for a lost sim card and no where in ant knowledge base process does it advise this to be done.

Can someone who understands the systems please get back to me and remove this bar.

I need the phone for work as I am without a working phone.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Bambino — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:25:15 GMT

@Blacklisted1 This is a customer community. No one here can access the information you need. If you don't have a working phone, download Skype:

You then need to persevere with O2 to lift the IMEI bar.

Using Skype, call O2 for free on 0800 032 1402
When it comes to the reason you are calling, stay silent for 15 seconds and you will be taken to the keypad options.
Press 2 for Everything Else
Press 5 for More Options
Press 7 for Anything Else which will put you though to someone.
Say 'Upgrade', 'Lost/Stolen', or 'Fraud' if the suggestion above doesn't get you through.
Best time to call is 8 am.
You can also reach O2 via social media:
Facebook (https://o2uk.co/O2CFB), Twitter (now X) (https://o2uk.co/O2CTW), or Instagram (https://o2uk.co/O2CIG)

How to find help & contact O2: A Guide - O2 Community

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Oxonian — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 19:44:53 GMT

We understand @Blacklisted1 that it is currently taking O2 up to eight weeks to investigate and respond to complaints.

You say that you have lodged two complaints. Whilst it is acceptable to remind O2 that you have submitted a complaint and await a reply, we have been told that if a second substantive complaint is submitted, O2 will treat that as superseding the original complaint. This effectively restarts the clock at zero and is to be avoided.

Hence, your eight week period before you can escalate to the Ombudsman probably begins from when you submitted your second complaint.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Blacklisted1 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 21:36:58 GMT

I understand the complaints process(I have worked for o2 recently and left due to their lack of training and poor customer service practices.) The real issue is that no one I speak to understands the issue (due to poor training and management, yet they have the ability to easily impose an imei bar in carex.)

All I need is someone who can remove my imei bar. Usually this would be done by sending a process wizard or knowledgebase form to back office and the imei would be removed from the blacklist.(within 24hrs) it has been 14 days.

Ironically the only reason I ever opened the sim only was because I was told it was free as an employee in legacy customer services. Wrong again or at least no one is trained to apply that discount as I was not. I am frustrated as a device I bought from someone else for hundreds of pounds that I now need as a matter of urgency is a brick and I am losing money due to not being able to use it for work. My current phone is on its last legs and I see no reason why this can't be a front line cjstomer service solve.

Although as an employee I was advised never to arrange callbacks updates or any other form of communication to "difficult customer who were simply trying to solve an issue with incompetent staff.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

jonsie — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:57:28 GMT

Customer service has changed so much from when I worked for O2 at the Bury call centre

Yes it was always about the numbers ie. calls per hour

But we were well trained and customer focused

You had a monthly meeting with your Line Manager and you had to listen to three random calls with the manager

Hence no customers were fobbed off as they are today

You took ownership of any problem and followed it through to resolution

You sat together as a team and the line manager was there overseeing things and would speak to a customer if necessary

If you promised a call back then you called the customer back and left full notes on the account

Then they started outsourcing calls and things started going down the pan as far as customer service was concerned

The number of times I took a call and agency staff had left no notes and didn't even try to resolve issues.

Customers shouldn't have to go through their issues repeatedly especially when initial calls have been handled by temps in South Africa or The Phillipines or god knows where

You can't train these staff because they probably won't show up for work again so what is the point?

EE customer service is far better and that is why my main number is now with them. That and the fact that their coverage is far superior to O2 in the North of England

I could go on and write a book about O2 and the multitude of fraud cases

Libel law stops me doing that....

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

pgn — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 05:46:15 GMT

The thankless task of Customer Support agencies...

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

gmarkj — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 11:06:08 GMT

Out of interest @Blacklisted1 have you gone back to the person/company you brought the phone from to find out why it is blacklisted/barred?

Just curious as you say you brought it from o2 but then say you have proof of purchase from EE.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Blacklisted1 — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 12:27:35 GMT

Sorry yeah that was a typo I couldn't edit it was bought from ee they told me o2 have barred it on 20/01/2023 for lost stolen/fraud.

I had used an o2 sim in it at the time

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

madasaf1sh — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 13:02:26 GMT

@Blacklisted1

I will ignore the abuse you seemed to level against me, and ask you a question…

Does an EE, Voda or Three sim work in the phone still, just as on off chance the bar has been passed through to all UK MNO’s

What you have said now makes a lot more sense and context, in that case Proof of Purchase shouldn’t be required it should be simple remove bar..

It might be worth if you haven’t going down the Twitter route and speaking to the UK based team, as lots of people including me have found them to more responsive than the OffShore call centres..

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Blacklisted1 — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 13:49:29 GMT

I just came here for assistance and advice not to be talked to like trash and belittled. Fair enough I lost my temper as I'm sure every o2 customer has but my frustration is caused by not being able to have simple basic actions completed when I have been in the position to carry them out myself in the past and understand how simple the are.

We all have our bad moments so I apologise if my irritation affected you, but I thought a community was to assist not be smug and condescending to someone who is just looking for any advice. I'm a grown up tho and shouldn't be taking my frustration out on the wrong people.

I've learned from my mistake, I won't be a customer o2 will see ever again and can't see any reason why anyone would defend their willfull lack of care for customers. I was actively told to hang up on customers if it was taking too long and never did because its against what I believe in so I left as its not the way I operate. I was the guy constantly asked why I was making outbound calls. And you can bet I had an excellent satisfaction rating.

I appreciate you ignoring my rants.

It is block listed, no other sim works at all it says not registered on network with all sims I've attached the various checker pics for more info.

I'm on with Facebook now as a last ditch effort. I need the phone for work so this adds to my rage.

P.s they're not all offshore. I'm Scottish and was remote for capita.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Blacklisted1 — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:07:58 GMT

I can definitely see this side of things. I was a remote outsourced worker for crapita and have no idea how they have kept the contract.

The difference I think is that with companies like ee the csas have way more power and ability to action account changes. With o2 almost every single thing even basic sim swaps are sent to back office who take forever and nitpick tiny little details you type one wrong thing and the issue gets booted by them until the customer calls back and starts again. The back office staff and unreachable and sometimes you have to wait 3 days for responses instead of being able to communicate freely with them.

It's impossible to advocate for your customer so you have to settle for panning them off or using the phrase " unfortunately we're going round in circles so I will have to end the call" which then creates angry customers who someone else picks up and goes through the same process. It's really damaging the business and it seems to staff and customers that upper management don't seem to know or care. It is never addressed which I find very strange.

Everyone knows all customers want is staff to understand the issue and resolve it as quick as possible. Not pass it about for it to be lost in a black hole with no return contact or updates.

I think the legacy systems were a big problem on this front as they were so convoluted and separate from each other needing at least 20 systems open on your screen for most calls. Even the notes are on a completely different system that was very unfriendly and unforgiving. One wrong click and your call time is through the roof and your after call work target is ruined. No wonder the staff just hand up or don't log notes as they're manager is constantly telling you your ACW is way too high and not asking why. The managers of teams targets are all about numbers nothing to do with satisfaction levels.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

madasaf1sh — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:14:42 GMT

@Blacklisted1

I appreciate that but we can only go on the information give us, and people don’t give us context so we like all humans we assume, and sometimes assumptions makes an ass of us.

I apologise if it came across as such, it wasn’t intended that way, and trust me we are all allowed to rant

I have spoken to the UK team a few times, and its a shame they are nearly all gone, and my deepest sympathies working for Crapita, they work on you are a cost centre to them, and I know people who worked for them in on the other accounts and it went down hill, to a point whole teams left..

Trust me I feel sorry for the store staff, as they take some poo off people, and I have lost my patience with the call centre a few times, hence going up the chain, as there is only so many lies you can here…

But that’s bygones…

It sounds more and more like someone has gone OTT and applied the full bar, and it’s replicated, I have confidence that the Social Media team will fix it. So fingers crossed for you..

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

MI5 — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:18:14 GMT

Interesting to read your insights regarding how O2 run their customer service @Blacklisted1

It certainly explains a lot of the issues we see here on a regular basis.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Blacklisted1 — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:22:37 GMT

Yeah the guy did go one step overboard when he should have done a bothway or class 9 bar. As the sim card fell into my vans abyss. I wish they had an extra level of security before imei barring to make sure it is correct as it literally is a pile of boxes to tick and sometimes people get carried away. The process is there but again lost and stolen phone and lost sim card are right next to each other. I feel for the staff it's a stressful job they always get high satisfaction ratings with huge rants about training from me lol.

I feel for those shop staff too. We were always told to send people in for stuff they can't do.

I am hoping that them having it on paper with screenshot and clear language will help as they can understand what I am saying I will keep this thread updated as it seems to be a common issue.

I am determined to be the one that finds the easiest way to fix this lmao 🤣

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

gmarkj — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 16:25:34 GMT

That makes more sense @Blacklisted1 - phone purchased from EE, and an o2 sim being reported lost but they barred both sim and phone it was in.

Frustrating to hear that the two are so close together on the form - perhaps they need a Khoros pop up asking "are you sure about that" before allowing a save/confirm!

We often get asked to direct people to the social media teams, and generally once they step in things seem to start moving.

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Blacklisted1 — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 22:58:34 GMT

Resolution!

I'm writing this post on my old trusty s20FE that was a brick for the last year and a half.

First of all...

Thank you to all the members of this thread who tried to help and suggested going to the o2 social media staff. As a crapita CSA I was told in the past they had no power or access to systems and could not do anything to help customers. THEY CAN AND WILL!

Secondly, apologies for fornmy very bipolar behaviour @madasaf1sh. I have no excuses. Sorry.

I am here WITH MY ISSUE RESOLVED after -

6 calls

2 hang ups

3 forms sent to back office

3 instances of misinformation about imei bars

2 unanswered complaints

1 disagreement with another community member @madasaf1sh.

1 manic episode

2 failed resolution team callbacks.

And then 1 very simple easy conversation with a member of staff at o2 on Facebook.

Now...a note to any poor frustrated customers who come here with a blacklisted handset/imei bar they need removed and have had no luck.

1. If you have been told by CSAs in customer services that o2 cannot bar/blacklist a handset that was not purchased from o2, THIS IS NOT TRUE, DO NOT ACCEPT THIS AS THE TRUTH. Several of them said this to me and I knew it was not the case. (it seems to be a common misconception among call centre staff. Who are undertrained and unequipped to deal with this issue. (try to be kind and patient with them even when they are clearly panning you off and trying to get you off the phone, they are under extremely strict call time targets and are constantly reminded of and penalised for these.) Try asking them to type in remove imei bar to "knowledgebase" their in-house process portal.

2. If you have been told by staff there is no bar showing they may be only looking on carex(legacy) or 360(new) systems.

Ask if they have access to the ABS legacy system (o2 360 staff will not have access to this). If they have no access to ABS they can not help you.

They may then send 1 or 2 process forms to back office and will advise it will take 24 hrs to complete. THIS IS TRUE BUT OFTEN THESE ACTIONS ARE NEVER TAKEN UP BY BACK OFFICE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

3. If, after 24 hrs the bar is still on. (check the checker) give up on call centre assistance and move to social media. Facebook, twitter etc. (i used facebook and was resolved within 5 hours)

Start a new message on messenger with o2 customer services

2. Get evidence of the blacklist/bar this link helped me, put you imei in and it will tell you the network that placed the bar and when

https://iunlocker.com/en/gsma_blacklist_check.php

3. Screenshot the result of the check with will say Blacklist in red text.

4. Go through security of the account. Advise the situation and send screenshot of imei checker results and proof of purchase if you have it.

These are the steps I took and they worked like a charm.

If you are an ongoing o2 customer (I wouldn't currently recommend being one) then I would become more involved with this community as in my experience they are hardened customers who have been through all the customer services challenges you will meet Nd they can point you to the quickest and least stressful ways to resolve your dramas.

Note to o2 upper management, for the love of all that is good in customer services, allow your call centre staff (including outsourced "crapita" csa's the ability to assist your customers without sending everything to "back office black hole", stop making these poor people go round in circles and log in to resolver. Hold your staff accountable and focus on customer care rather than this incessant focus on call times and after call work!

Your main competitor (everyone knows who) are doing a far better job of managing their people's accounts and providing a positive experience. I would know!

To any one having to speak to customer services, its not always their fault. They are constantly drille to keep their calls to less than 5 min or their performance reviews are negative. This doesn't help you as a customer clearly. When Giving a satisfaction survey please do notice if someone wanted to help bit had to pass it to back office. Give them 5 stars and then let rip in the " why did you give these comments section. They would do better if allowed I swear, I worked there.

No callbacks, emails, text confirmations, or manager callbacks allowed.

Good luck every one!!!

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

pgn — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 05:57:55 GMT

Congratulations @Blacklisted1 - a voyage of discovery there, with a good outcome. I am not sure if your comment to O2 management will get anywhere, but worth tagging the Forum manager @Kei-M_O2 to see if he can pass your feedback up the line within O2. He may contact you here via Private Message next week. He'll likely appreciate your praise of the Social Media Team in O2 👍🏼

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Cleoriff — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 08:29:58 GMT

@Blacklisted1

I've read this thread with great interest. Didn't get involved though, as far as I could see you had done more than enough to have this bar removed. Also the advice given was helpful and sympathetic

Well done to the social media team who took ownership and resolved the issue.

It's reads like a chapter of War and Peace. 😂

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

madasaf1sh — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 09:20:44 GMT

Glad to here it is all sorted at last @Blacklisted1 and the venerable Social Media team sorted it out for you, they seem to be the best of o2...

And we all have the need for ranting at times... and I appreciate the apology, and its all water under the bridge, enjoy your weekend.. and having your phone back working..

Re: Imei bar/ blacklisted device

Oxonian — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 19:49:22 GMT

@MI5 wrote:
Interesting to read your insights regarding how O2 run their customer service @Blacklisted1
It certainly explains a lot of the issues we see here on a regular basis.

I will second that @MI5 ; the reports by @jonsie and @Blacklisted1 do put customer woes into context and are really informative reading. 👍