Let me share publicly how O2 treats their loyal payasyougo customers.
I have ordered online a product on 17/06/18 and I am being denied the refund for a product & services I never received. The O2 complaint department has not been responding to my communications since the 21st of June. My only option has been to contact ActionFraud and engage a dispute with my bank !!! And yet O2 still has no interest in responding. This company is organized theft.
I had been on O2 pay&go for 2 years but my Lumia battery suddenly stopped working with additional sim card error and constant spam messages. I decided to change my phone + sim/number for work rather than an upgrade I was not even offered in the first place.
On the 17th of June I ordered a Sony Xperia L1 payasyougo online with the click&collect option at a local store as it was more convenient for me ( so I thought...).
The £95 were debited immediately from my bank account, I received no email confirmation, no receipt, no 4 digit pickup code as allegedly one would have received. The only proof of order & purchase was on my online O2 account. I could see the delivery status as completed 2 days later, so I made a trip to the local store thinking it would be easy to collect.
I was very poorly greeted by staff, who had cowboy manners including swear words and street language.
I was laughed at for not having brought the 4 digit code. I had brought my ID and evidence of the online order status and reference from the O2 account.
The staff checked my details, took the parcel order from the back room in front of me, but refused to hand it in as I could not provide the 4 digit code. They checked on their system and claimed they could not verify the order. They also made up the story they had to call O2 customer service to 'activate the phone line'.
It was 5 minutes to store closing time. They attempted to call O2 CS but started laughing telling me I quote: ' we are screwed'. I asked them to clarify in proper english what they meant by this as I was not used to this level of customer care and how to be addressed. They responded that the services were down at the moment (how convenient) and that I would have to come back another day. They suggested I call O2 customer service, to which I asked how could I since I no longer have a phone and I have just been told the services are down. The staff then tried to lure me to purchase the phone from their stock in store so I could later claim a refund. I replied that it didn't make any sense to be scammed twice & I would find it difficult to cancel the first order for a refund if I did. I walked away without product or services.
I purchased a phone to a competitor store as I urgently needed one.
Then a masquerade of calls to O2 customer service to feedback on my experience, none of them being addressed or logged, being first told there was no track of my order, later told that the phone was live and active and literally being called a liar. Escalated over the phone to a manager, claiming he would have to call the store to initiate a return and I would only receive a refund 5 days after it is confirmed it has been received. Asked the manager to send me an email to confirm in writing, never received. Escalated my complaint to the O2 complaint service. Within 24 hours I received an acknowledgment of my complaint, disregarding the store staff behaviour as suspicious of fraud or theft, giving me the collection code I had no interest in getting, offering me a £30 compensation should I provide a postal address by phoning an unreachable phone number and likely imaginary agent. I was very clear from day one on the order cancellation/ change of mind policy and full refund to my card, not to mention the multiple breach of consumer rights and shocking behaviour, complete disregard of my complaint.
Since the 21st of June, I have been left in limbos, the agent in charge of my case does not take calls, I am told I would receive a call back, which never happens. My emails are ignored. No acknowledgement or response.
This is organized theft and evident fraud.
O2 has ripped me off £95 for a product the store staff refused to deliver. O2 refuses to take responsibility for their lack of customer service and unlawful staff behaviour. O2 denies my right of refund and change of mind policy. O2 denies any consumer rights and think they are above the law. My opinion is that the cowboy staff I encountered takes the customer click and collect orders, mark them as delivered, the customer is then unable to request a return or refund as the phone is active, and it takes months to sort out due to the company ruthless and careless behaviour. A nice little fraud ring you have developed !
I was a fraud investigator for 2 years, so rest assure this is going public and I am not going to give up.
ActionFraud has been contacted and I had no choice but to initiate a dispute with my bank since you haven't honoured an online transaction and it's over 15 days.
You should be ashamed of such unlawful practice.
Please, don't purchase anything with O2. You'll end up empty handed, with extra expenses and a headache for weeks.
