Complaint: Unlatch a device

[Richie2]

Complaint Ref: CCT-D367451

I have been attempting to get a second-hand iPhone unlocked to use on another network. I have spoken to at least 6 agents now (two of which failed to call back as arranged) totalling over 4 hours in call duration and raised a complaint however I’ve been given no timescale for this complaint (or any confirmation emails acknowledging a complaint has been raised) other than the 72 hours it takes to unlock/unlatch a device from your network and then I must continuously call back and say yeah it didn’t work the 5th time you tried either.

Putting my own phone number into the unlock a device page online gives an error message (I assume as no device is registered, but the message is useless). Putting the original phone number the device was registered to (number no longer active with o2) returns message :  “We can't find a PUK code for this mobile number. We can only give PUK codes to O2 customers. If you are an O2 customer, check your number and try again.”

The time taken to resolve this issue is beyond ridiculous and the fact I must keep calling back waiting on hold and then once I finally get through I’m placed on hold again so they can submit the exact same form over and over which is clearly not working. I’ve seen several posts like this and the usual reply is submit information in the manual form however I don’t know the original details to submit, this is a 7 year old phone second (third really) hand phone!

Please unlock/unlatch this device from your network or provide information regarding the steps you are taking to resolve my complaint. If there are no more steps to take please advise accordingly so the complaint can be closed and submitted to the ombudsman.

[MI5]

@Richie2 

Process here Guide: Unlocking an O2 phone to use a different SIM card 

[Oxonian]

Unfortunately @Richie2, this is a customer to customer community so we cannot access your account or offer other direct help.

Your post above will not be seen by any O2 staff and not by the complaints' team. If you want to pursue the complain and possibly refer it to the Ombudsman, you will need to contact the O2 complaints' team direct.

At the moment, we are led to believe that it is taking O2 up to eight weeks to investigate and respond to complaints.  .

[Richie2]

The manual form cannot be filled out as I don’t know the information pertaining to the original customer that purchased this phone, it’s a seven year old phone that has been sold on.

[Richie2]

Ah I was not aware. Back to the phone lines to speak to yet another agent rinse and repeat!

Is it normal practice for O2 to leave complaints sitting open and make no effort to contact the customer and resolve the situation? Having worked briefly in complaints resolution at a large telecoms company I find this baffling!

[Enlli]

@Richie2 Complaints taking about 8 weeks at present. Communication from O2 at the end of that time will be minimal 

[Oxonian]

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@Richie2 wrote:

Ah I was not aware. Back to the phone lines to speak to yet another agent rinse and repeat!

Is it normal practice for O2 to leave complaints sitting open and make no effort to contact the customer and resolve the situation? Having worked briefly in complaints resolution at a large telecoms company I find this baffling!

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We don't have insider information on that @Richie2, but O2 seem to have so many problems at the moment that it reasonable to think that the complaints' team are overwhelmed with work.

I am sure that O2 would like to resolve all complaints timeously but that simply won't happen if the team's resources have not been increased in line with the increase in complaints. 👍      

[MI5]

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@Richie2 wrote:

The manual form cannot be filled out as I don’t know the information pertaining to the original customer that purchased this phone, it’s a seven year old phone that has been sold on.

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You don't need those details @Richie2 

Follow the guide re getting an O2 PAYG sim to latch the phone to the network.

O2 will then have the details to request from Apple.

Note, unlocking is down to Apple, not O2 so they just need to see the phone on the network to activate the request.