topic Re: Atrocious service in Discussions & Feedback

Atrocious service

Niculae — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:07:21 GMT

So here goes.. I phoned up Tuesday morning and completed an upgrade on my account. Everything checked out and phone was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday.. Got a message weds morning saying the phone is out of stock.. Phoned o2 immediately to sort it out and and was told I had to cancel the whole upgrade just to change to a colour they had in stock. So cancelled it and was told to phone back in an hour and it would be sorted. Yea that was a lie. Then was told to phone back in 24 hours and it would be sorted.. Guess what had happened? That's right. Sod all.. The next person(that's putting it politely) I spoke to told me to go in store to create a duplicate account and that would get it sorted. I should have seen it coming.. After a 30min trip into the city centre I find out it can't be done on a sim only contract. Doubleyou tee eff?!. So phoned back and was told it would be sorted in another 24 hours.. So thought OK stop stressing let them sort it. Phoned back this morning to find out it going to be another 5 working days.. What the ******?!? Why was I lied to? Why did I have to repeatedly phone up and then make an unnecessary journey only to find out what was happening? Why couldn't they have just told me this days ago? This customer service experience will not be forgotten.

Re: Atrocious service

Cleoriff — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:13:07 GMT

@NiculaeSorry to hear about this. The best thing you can do is make a complaint

https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain

Re: Atrocious service

MI5 — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:28:30 GMT

This is sadly standard for the pathetic excuse known as o2 customer service since it was outsourced.
Mind you, none of the other networks are any better these days.
Sorry you had so much grief and a complaint is about all you can do which is unlikely to help in reality but will at least make you feel better

Re: Atrocious service

jonsie — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:36:25 GMT

The online ordering and cancellation policy is absolutely awful these days. Much better to go instore or to one of the independents.

Re: Atrocious service

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 14:12:51 GMT

You’d think they’d get a better online system with all the complaints they get but alas doesn’t seem to have happened

Re: Atrocious service

Niculae — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 17:59:13 GMT

I've been complaining all day but whether it be an English or Indian accent.. I'm sorry there is nothing we can do.. Tbh I want nothing more to do with o2 but I'm stuck with the lying ****** for another 6 months

Re: Atrocious service

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 20:51:57 GMT

@MI5 wrote:
This is sadly standard for the pathetic excuse known as o2 customer service since it was outsourced.
Mind you, none of the other networks are any better these days.

On balance O2 are far from being the worst. That award goes to Voda (Lost my number, connection, service and customer service records on one of their major database changes, only historic billing data remained...daily calls for two weeks to 'CEO's Office' ( Customer Relations in Leicester, via reception in Newbury) and 6 weeks to sort...

Or possibly BT who insisted the fact that their systems showed no fault on a dead landline meant they

weren't:

a) coming out to fix it, unless I agreed to indemnify to the tune of £150, despite there having been no incoming nor outgoing calls, or any other itemisable activity for the three months nor

b) compensating me for this. and...

c) still charging line rental and service charges during the time it was dead. Tho...

d) the call with retentions when i grew of this madness was pretty straightforward... why are you leaving BT?.....😏

I'm told Talk Talk are appalling too.

All these pale into insignificance compared with Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Ebay/Paypal where you are scrapping the underneath of the barrel if you ever have the misfortune of having to interact with their Customer Service.

O2 customer service staff in Johannasburg get paid c £400 a month.

Re: Atrocious service

Cleoriff — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 21:21:20 GMT

I can't comment on much of your post @Anonymous

I can, however, stand in defence of Amazon's customer service.

I have been a customer for years and have had no complaints with the way they have dealt with me when I have contacted them

For one thing, in their contact us section they give you the option to speak by phone.If you select 'Call Me Now' they ring you immediately (at no cost to you).

I have never hung about in a queue with vile 'muzak' playing. I don't have to go through a multitude of options ie if you want this press 1, the other press 2, etc etc etc.

If I have a complaint about an order, it is dealt with immediately.

An added bonus (as a Prime Customer) they often add an extra months Prime free of charge to compensate for any inconvenience.

So I for one, can't fault their service and I have been a customer for more years than I care to remember

Re: Atrocious service

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 00:06:32 GMT

@Cleoriff wrote:

Amazon's customer service.

I think in general customer service improves depending on your direct impact on the profitability of the organisation, and/or how many c.s. interactions it expects (the lower the number the better the service).And/or the ease of resolving the issue at hand. This is speculation as I've had no personal experience but I expect that McLaren or Ferrari Supercar customers get pretty good service when they call.

Amazon is highly system driven and knows before you ask them to call what the issue is likely to be, lost or damaged delivery, not what you expected or whatever. Almost all the time they won't be taking the hit, in any case.

Amazon doesn't employ most of the people who work for it, doesn't own most of the buildings it uses, nor the systems equipment and infrastructure, telecoms or utilities. It doesnt own or lease any of the transportation or logistics resources it uses. So customer service staff who also aren't employed by Amazon will deal with the issue and then the systems in place pass on the cost of resolving it to the product supplier, the warehousing supplier, or the outsourced logistics and delivery supplier, by means of product replacement, cash fines and so on. Ultimately if the problem is slighly harder you can even email Jeff Bezos himself and get a quicker resolution but one based on this practice.

Go outside of their teflon like ability to not take the hit and things start to get much more murky - I had a lengthy set of interactions with Amazon and Jeff's office and got nowhere...

Here was the issue. Back in the day when Royal Mail delivered their Super Saver 3 - 4 day delivery items these were free delivery for Amazon supplied or fulfilled. AND It actually took them 3-4 days to get the items out of the few Amazon warehouse's here, over to the RM regional depot, out to the sorting offices and out for last mile delivery. Faster Courier delivery had to be paid for as it was far more expensive, as it went straight from depot to courier to customer.

Then they came up with Prime, and Amazon Logistics, opened a lot more Depots and effectively have aquired their own outsourced distribution and logistics network, geared around getting most peoples stuff to them next day. This means that they now build in an artificial wait of up to five days to fulfill free delivery non-prime customer orders by sitting on them for no good reason and just sending them into the now standard next day distribution stream 3 or 4 days after being placed.!!!! 😏

I call that poor customer service in the extreme and was very disappointed and frustrated in their unwillingness/inability/ outright refusal to engage about it.

Re: Atrocious service

Cleoriff — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 00:14:16 GMT

@Anonymous

I can only speak of my own personal experience, not yours.

I shop online for everything and I mean everything.

The only bad experience I had with Amazon was in relation to a mobile phone I bought for my son from a marketplace seller. It was brand new and developed a fault after 6 months. Unfortunately the seller had stopped trading with Amazon. I was unable to contact him as he was based in France. After receiving an official report re the phone fault Amazon refunded my money in full. £495. I call that good customer service. They didn't even want the phone back.

So, as someone who shops online for everything, I am willing to pay for Prime subscription as I can extend that benefit to 3 other family members. As said, this is my personal experience with Amazon and I can't fault them.

Re: Atrocious service

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 09:01:33 GMT

Nice to see that Ofcom agree with me.

It's interesting to compare Virgin, Talk Talk and Sky. Virgin probably has as many if not more per head outages and network issues as Talk Talk just deals with them efficiently and compensates automatically. Sky on the other hand have a much more robust network or at least had... Satellite broadcasting is slowly dying.

Re: Atrocious service

Glory1 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 19:34:47 GMT

@Cleoriff wrote:
@Anonymous
I can only speak of my own personal experience, not yours.
I shop online for everything and I mean everything.
The only bad experience I had with Amazon was in relation to a mobile phone I bought for my son from a marketplace seller. It was brand new and developed a fault after 6 months. Unfortunately the seller had stopped trading with Amazon. I was unable to contact him as he was based in France. After receiving an official report re the phone fault Amazon refunded my money in full. £495. I call that good customer service. They didn't even want the phone back.
So, as someone who shops online for everything, I am willing to pay for Prime subscription as I can extend that benefit to 3 other family members. As said, this is my personal experience with Amazon and I can't fault them.

I'm with you @Cleoriff. I'm also an Amazon Prime customer and have had occasion to deal with customer services. Like you I've never had a problem. I've had an additional month added on to my subscription on numerous occasions to apologise for the inconvenience. And I am hapoy to pay the annual subscription of £79 for next day delivery, release date delivery of new films and being able to stream a good selection of films and TV shows.

I do think how long you've been a customer and how much you purchase from them is factored in to their dealings with you. I've only been with Amazon since 2012 and a Prime member since 2013 but I have rarely had a problem and I buy a lot from them not just films, TV boxsets, and e-books. The majority of what I purchase on line is through Amazon.

Re: Atrocious service

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 13:58:23 GMT

ooh I forgot to mention Facebook... As millionaire consumer champion Martin Lewis is finding, as he launches his defamation case; getting Facebook to take down content or do anything else much, other than selling people's data; or flogging dodgy ad space, is like wading through quicksand.

Facebook and PayPal reside in the pile of dung, underneath the bad customer service barrel where Google, eBay, Microsoft and Amazon live, well below the bottom where Talk Talk, Vodafone and BT are.

( eBay and PayPal are just as bad as each other but being as eBay just enable people to interact in terms of buying and selling ; PayPal actually manage your money and have access to bank accounts , credit cards and so on all without regulation, adequate security or being a bank.)

Re: Atrocious service

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 17:39:51 GMT

Here for your reading pleasure is an example of below the bottom of the barrel CS

Hi I am not getting any emails.
Welcome to Live Help, my name is ....I would be happy to help you today. Please stay connected while I review your query
Hi
Hello Ian
Hi there

Just to confirm, are you referring to the notifications email ?
Well I have most notifications switched off except things like notification on winning or buying an item - and admin ones and so on but I am not getting any at all. The only emails I get are from paypal (relating to purchases ect)

I see! Thank you for sharing the details. I am checking your communication preferences from my end and will assist you ahead for the same. I’m extremely sorry for the inconvenience it has caused to you. This is a confirmed technical issue and I have coordinated with our Technical Team and they have informed us that they are currently resolving this in high priority. However, your report will really help us as we have heard about similar issues recently from other members and we are sending as many samples as possible at the earliest for our technical team’s review to get to the root cause of the issue. Rest assured, the technical team is already working on this on priority. We are eager to see that this issue is resolved as soon as possible for you. As soon as I would get the update from them, I will get back to you via email.

I have never had any since I changed email address - is this cos email address is same as login ? How can you contact me by email if my email doesn't work...? Do you mean message me?

I will get back to you via email, you will be receiving the email on your registered email address. We will be sending the email manually, so you will surely receive the email from our end.

I will try to change an email address and see if that works too - thank you - by by

Sure. You're most welcome, Ian. I appreciate your understanding here. Please do let me know if you want to assist you with anything else at this moment.

No thats fine
Please always feel free to get back to us for any further assistance.
🙋

Thnk you for contacting live help. Have a great time ahead. Bye and take care.

Later

Hi I resolved my email problem please can you send previous chat transcript again.

Welcome to Live Help, my name is . I would be happy to help you today. Please stay connected while I review your query.
Okay
Hello again Ian,
Hi

I can see that you have changed your registered email address, the email issue is already forwarded to our technical team, it may take few days to get the issue resolved As soon as we would get the update from our relevant team, we will get back to you via email.I would appreciate your patience here.

Yes but the emails are coming through now ' I just wanted a copy of the previous chat SR# 1-156767768 sent again.

I see! The previous chat transcript are been sent to your previous email address. Will that be okay, if I copy the chat transcript and share it with in this conversation.
Perfect 😁

Great! Here we go with the previous chat transcript:

Transcripr (as above)

This chat transcript will be sent to your new email address, wherein you will have these both conversation.
Thank you very much .

So, the email issue is resolved now, right?
Yes I think it was the fact that my email address was the same as my user name which is not allowed.

I see! That could be the possible reason. Thank you for updating us, as I was working on this with our technical team. I appreciate your efforts and understanding so far.Please do let know if you want to assist you with anything else at this moment.
No that's fine - thank you for the help - have a great day 🙋

You're most welcome, Ian. Please always feel free to get back to us for any further assistance. We are glad to serve you to your satisfaction. Thank you for contacting live help. Have a great time ahead. Bye and take care.

All done via live chat - an excercise in pointless futility.