Buying should not be this difficult

[Anonymous]

3 months ago after a fall out with local o2 shop I switched providers to three - worst mistake I could have made with service down for 7 weeks. Decided really my problem was with o2 shop and not o2 themselves and decided to come back so for speed I bought a 30 day simplicity contract. Great phone back up and working so looked online to upgrade phone ( which was my initial idea 3 months ago ) picked new phone and went through process only to be told I cant upgrade simplicity contract to contract phone for 3 months - someone want to explain that little nugget of logic to me?
So now after discussions it seems I can though buy a new contract phone and cancel the simplicity in line with the terms - seems a vastly convoluted way of doing things but anyhow got in touch and went through the process with Elliot on chat, got deal done with an £18 refund in second month of contract gets all the way through to bank payment page and the system froze me out completely and crashed the chat window so no way back, tried picking up the shopping cart link again and got to same stage and froze again ( Firefox browser )

Decided that maybe upgrading phone was not gonna happen so left it until I was called today from upgrades wanting to know if I wanted to upgrade - now remember what I said in first paragraph and once explained to him he agreed he could not do it so gave me number of sales.

Called sales and after going through the process again (twice as call was handled by 2 people) I finally managed to place an order for a new handset albeit with a new contract BUT here is the kick I could not use my existing account with o2 so had to provide a new email to have a new account created, head getting a bit sore banging it on desk at this point but clicked the link to log into new account and did so - yeah that works just hope not to many people retain the temporary password ( that is scandelous security btw ) Now asks me to enter a mobile number for text info and I do so only to be told it is in use by another account - Wow! No Sh** Batman!! I have given up at this point and will just wait on new handset arriving transfer the number and disappear back into my burrow - but wait a min its a 2 year contract and I will go through the same process again - can hope by then someone from o2 has looked at processes and identified some of the mess it's in.

Seriously buying/upgrading should not be this painful it was part of the reason I left in the first place, golden rule of thumb in a business is the best customers you have are the ones already buying from you - I even lost out on the £18 rebate

[Anonymous]

Firstly welcome back to O2.

In this day and age apart from security checks etc that protect a person the actual deal / joining should be a simple process.

Live Chat is not an avenue we here would advocate for opening up a contract or upgrading and suggest instead ringing O2 or visiting a O2 local HighStreet store if convenient.

It may be worth still ringing the o2 Customer Services -> Link http://www.o2.co.uk/contactus to see about the rebate.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous

Don't think the OP is gonna like your suggestions here big fella.

Won't go to o2 store cos that was where the problem was before.

Rang o2 sales and still had problems.

The only bit he did do which is perhaps not advised was to use Live Chat.

I really don't see why he couldn't use his existing account. Why are o2 making things so bloody difficult these days?

Another o2 failure. The list gets longer

[Anonymous]

I too 'fell' out with my local City centre O2 Store due to the difficulties a store employee put in place to stop selling me an iPhone on Payg. Ludicrous.

Fortunately I have 3 outlets in my City Centre. Perhaps the Op could look at the same avenue and go to an alternative outlet.

[Anonymous]

Or go to a network that values him cos o2 are struggling to value anything right now

[anticpated]

Stores only want you to lock into you a contract at the end of the day. Which is fine because they are paid to do it, although there's a trade off in what you can do aftersales when you do.

My next handset will be SIM-free as I don't want the same problems I had last yeat.

[Cleoriff]

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@anticpated wrote:

My next handset will be SIM-free as I don't want the same problems I had last yeat.

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Just what I did. Yes it cost me the handset price....but I am saving £10 a month from what I paid previously for my old tariff. With more data and 4G ....(when I find 4G)

[Anonymous]

Only one "shop" and even thats a 100 mile round trip, more interested in playing games than dealing with customers - fell out with them when they wanted £100 for an upgrade that was advertised on o2 site as free and later confirmed by customer support that it should be free so wonder how many other people they are fleecing.

I had been an o2 customer for about 14 years

Chat was an option available to me and to be honest although long winded it was relatively painless until the site decided to keep crashing as I was trying to pay.

For the love of me I cant get figure out why they would turn away a client that already has a 30 day contract and wants to upgrade to a bigger 2 year contract - in the fact the suggestion of taking new contract and cancelling simplity was on a suggestion from me as to whether that would be possible ( just thankful I did the 30 day and not the 12 month or I would have been royally screwed )

I now have or will have 2 phones, 1 phone number, 2 sims, 2 o2 accounts 2 different logins and all I wanted to do was upgrade to a phone contract.
Hey ho wonder how this will all pan out when I try to cancel simplicity contract and get back to having on o2 account - kinda guessing this will not go according to plan.