To set some context, I have been an O2 customer for a number of years (I'm guessing about 10?) and until recently I used to think the customer service offering was pretty good. It's an indictment of the level of service and more importantly lack of response through any other channel that I resort to posting here in an open and public forum which is going to have some damage on O2's already tarnished reputation.
I have recently had the worst experience ever in trying to get an iPhone 4 unlocked requiring several hours (I estimate around five) using the Online chat and encountering the most unresponsive, script driven experience where allegedly the agents are allowed to type away without any supervisors and without any contact to the outside world through telephony (quite odd for a telephony company don't you think?).
I was finally escalated (somehow) to the complaints team (apparently I am not allowed to name the agent concerned according to the T&C's but he is the name of a football team that isn't Liverpool) who early on grasped my complaint and helped to resolve the issue. However, he promised me a call back at 4pm last Thursday documented in an e-mail - I am still waiting for this call back. The e-mail he sent states at the bottom;
"Getting your query right the first time you email us is very important
to us. If your query has not been resolved this time, please reply to
this email with the words 'Need More Help' in the subject field."
If you should try to do this you will then receive a reply;
"Hello O2 Customer Thanks for your email. We can tell that you've not sent this email to us using the form on our website. Because we need some of your personal information to be able to answer your query, can you please click on the link below and webchat with us right now. http://www.o2.co.uk/chatnow If you'd still rather email us, please go to http://www.o2.co.uk/contactus We're doing this so that we can answer your query straight away. If we don't have the right personal information in your email, we'd have to email you back asking for it. This is because we need to make sure we're talking to the right person before we can answer any questions about someone's phone or account. Please be aware that we won't be replying to the email you've just sent us and please don't reply to this email as it's been automatically generated. Thanks again for emailing and we hope to hear from you soon. O2 Telefónica O2 UK Limited, Registered in England No 1743099. Registered Office: 260 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire SL1 4DX"
Clearly O2 just don't want to talk to me! I then follow the advice and go back onto Online chat where I am told they send notes to the complaints team and they will "surely contact you either today or tomorrow" - No they surely won't.
If neither e-mail nor online chat work, I then resort to Twitter (@O2) which was previously an excellent way of contacting customer support and getting something done, but obviously O2 have also off-shored this channel as well now with the responses becoming bland, asking how they can help to which you reply and then don't receive a response. Obviously this needs escalation so I find the Twitter account of the CEO Ronan Dunne (@ronandunneO2) and contact him but even he ignores me!
And so now, here we are in the forums, lets see if anyone from O2 can be bothered reading this. If they can then perhaps they can have the courtesy to return the call they promised and we can start talking about the mess I have described above.
