Thanks for the replies
Today I am a little calmer I am glad to say so I may be able to actually speak with someone without the risk of me blowing up on them!
all the problems stem round a faulty phone that I had brand new at the end of may (o2 xda orbit 2). There are 2 niggles with the phone that cant be fixed and I can live with those but about 2 weeks ago the alarm stopped working properly and instead of going off every hour as I set it (I washaving to wake to bottle feed a fading kittenm as I breed siamese!) it was going off at random times and also despite re setting the touch screen several times it was never centred correctly and was not very sensetive and also a rubber ring fell off the navigation wheel! CS advised me to put the handset in for repair which to be honest I was not happy with due to the unit being so new but I did and then 2 days ago I get a call to say the phone is fixed! I go back to the shop to collect my handset and return the loan phone and when I get home I set up my handset again only to find that i am having trouble getting a signal and when I do get one it is for seconds at a time and then I loose it again. I manage to get a signal (albeit bad for about 15 mins) and call 402 to see if O2 are having problems as I normally get an excellent service in my area with the highspeed internet connection too. I am told of a few local (5 miles from me) black spots but apart from that everything is fine with the O2 end. I am told to wipe the contacts on the sim and battery which I do and there is no improvement. I pop the battery on charge overnight and take it off charge at 5.30am when I go to work, by the time I finish duty my battery is virtually dead flat and I havnt been able to use the phone as I have had no signal for the best part of 24 hours by this point and I have not had anything running on the handset either. To say I was a little anoyed woul;d be an understaement as the phone did not have these faults when I sent it in and as i am oncall this weekend I need to go back to the store to get a loan phone so I am contactable.
I get to the store and there are 3 people in front of me who are all not happy for one reason or another it also turns out that they have no loan phones either. The staff are not really trying to help me but are keen to put me on the phone to CS as they say that CS have more authority to allow things. I will admit by this point I am starting to get quite irate! I am a psychy nurse and this weekend my team are on call as I work on an intensive care unit and when I get a call I have to go into work as a patient is trying to kick the crap out of someone and I cant impress enough that I have to be contactable. I have explained this by this point several times and I am also wanting a new handset as to be honest I am not really trusting that the repaired handset will return repaired due to what has previously happened and the store do tell me they have them in stock if CS can authorise their release.
The CS I speak to does not seem to understand what I am telling him that I need a phone now, he does tell me he can get me a recon unit to me in 3-5 days, I do tell him that that is not really good enough as I need the phone now, am on call and cant be contacted and am also going to be charged on my tariff for the 3-5 days that I actually cant use the service! he then tells me that they will charge me for the service as if I had a handset I would be able to use, I then explain several more times as he keeps repeating himself that that would be fine but I do not have a working handset so cannot use the service that O2 are providing! After I have repeated myself about 5 times he seems to get the message and says that I will be refunded for the days I have not been able to use. He also suggests that I can use an old handset or borrow one from family or friends and again I have to repeat myself several times that if I was able to do this I would not be on the phone to him but I was not able to do that either! In the end the call is left at the point where I am waiting for this recon unit (a nokia) being couriered to my home and I am still without a phone that actually works.
I come home and call CS again as I am a little calmer and speak to a different person who explains the situation and a few things about the refurbed units that they keep offering me and to be honest I actually call a few times to see if stories are consistent, they are not but the other CS are much more polite and helpfull and call a few more local stores to see if any have loan phones that I can have. In the end I have to drive a 50 mile round trip via 2 other stores to get a loan phone to tide me over and I now have to wait maybe 14 days to get my own handset back and I hope it is repaired.
While I was out I have visited other service providers stores to get comparisons on services and handsets and am at this point not worried about paying the £600 contract cancellation fees that O2 are demanding if they cannot pull something out of the bag to keep me as a customer. I will also add that the CS's I spoke to are all aware that this is my intention and it is purley down the the service I have recieved over the last 24 hours.
One thing that one of the stores (the first I visited) did suggest was that if I claimed off my insurance i would get a brand new handset! I was actually appauled by this suggestion as the unit was not actually accidently damaged and why should I pay £20 for a manufacturing defect! The store told me that would be the best way of getting a new phone! I was not impressed and at this point I walked out of that store.
Then after getting my loan phone I returned home (by this point it was 9 pm, I visited the first store at 3pm!) I get in to check my emails to find several emails telling me that my order is being processed, pack and finally dispached! What order? i didnt order anything and am hoping that the phone they are sending out is not intended as a replacment for my orbit.
Any light anyone can shed on this would be really appreciated and I am also really sorry if I have hijacked this topic.
I look forward to your replies,
Pete