Customer loyalty

[Anonymous]

Does anyone else feel that o2 do not take customer loyalty/service seriously?

I have been a customer of o2's (and all those that were before) for 20 years. Currently I have 4 x phone contracts with them and 1 x iPad contract. I rang them prior to the iPhone 5 coming out (I currently have an iPhone 4) to see what deals could be done to upgrade. I was quoted a price of circa £299 for the phone on a 24 month contract at £41pm. I felt this was a bit steep and checked to see what others were offering. Orange were offering exactly the same phone, same minutes, same data allowance for £90 less.

Now I will admit that I am a creature of habit and had/have no great desire to leave o2. I therefore rang their customer services and asked if there was anything they were able to do regarding pricing to stop me moving to Orange. To cut a long story short the answer was no. I was simply told that these were their current offers and that there was nothing they could do and to ring back after the phone was launched.

I work within a retail operation where frequently we have to negotiate with our customers/clients to maintain a healthy relationship and to recognise their loyalty to us. Clearly o2 have now got to such a size that loyalty counts for nothing. In fact the "Upgrade" offers were exactly the same on o2 as if you were a new customer walking in for the first time.

Within those 20 years I have been with them, I have never questioned a bill or not paid a bill. The question I have for you o2 is do you want my business, and what are you prepared to do to keep it? Assuming I will get the same lack of response I did on the phone, could you also please advise me what I need to do to move my phone number to Orange?

I haven't rung you today to discuss this matter as I don't want to be put on hold for a long time to receive the same disappointing reply.

Let's hope you do care, can do something and we have a positive result. Here's hoping.

[Anonymous]

Lol. Customer loyalty is a long way off mate. You won't get it from O2. They have a very shoddy after sales service. Once they have your money, they don't care about the future.

[Anonymous]

I guess when a company gets to a certain size it's hard to please all your customers, but I was just jaw dropped by their complete lack of flexibiity.

I think what was more disappointing was the fact that I had rung the number to tell them I was thinking of leaving them. I genuinely thought I would get a positive response, and I did, just it was the wrong one.

[jonsie]

Normal advice, go to the network with the best coverage and best tariff/price to suit your needs. Customer loyalty is a thing of the past with O2 and most other big companies.

....this includes the other network operators.

[perksie]

I'm fairly sure O2 have never offered a discount on a new iPhone, the supply is kept so short by Apple on a new launch they don't need to.

[Anonymous]

You're quite possibly right, but why can Orange sell the same phone on the same tariff at £100 less? To qualify for that I don't even have to have shown any loyalty to Orange. o2 being greedy me thinks.

My contracts costs me more than £100 a month with o2. Losing my business will certainly cost them more than it would to keep my business. It also, in business, costs you less money to keep your existing customers than it does to attract new ones.

As I said earlier, when you clearly have an over supply of customers' you can treat them poorly.

[perksie]

I agree, and if I felt Orange had the coverage and support I would be off there.

I'll remain a bit sceptical until EE is established and we see how their charges and network coverage and customer support look then.

A hundred pounds off sounds good but it's only a pound a week on a two year contract.

[Anonymous]

It may only be a pound a week, but it's a pound a week in my pocket not their's. A £100 to them is a lot less than it is to me.

I agreee about EE. Orange coverage is not too bad, I have several friends/colleagues who use them and in fairness they have coverage in places where my phone doesn't work.