Disgusted o2 customer

[Anonymous]

I would just like to say that I am absolutly disgusted with o2 since they have apparantly become THE ONLY finacially secure mobile phone company due to the i phone!

I have been an o2 customer for 7 years and I have obvioulsy renewed my contract with them for every year for the past 7 years mainly because they have always offered me a good deal to stay with a decent handset to boot.

When I rang them this year to upgrade I was shocked that they told me that it would not be possibble to have a handset on the current contract that I was on because they are now finacially secure enough not to have to offer better deals for older customers!

My monthly payments with o2 are a bargain but due to working abroad for half the year i am refusing to pay for a higher contract since for 5 months out of the year they get at least a £200 a month phone bill out of me anyway! Well guess what not anymore!

have any other older customers of o2's that are not willing to pay £45 as month so they can have an i phone experienced similar problems?

[Anonymous]

o2 have been financially secure for many years so this isn't true for starters. There are other networks who are financially stable also, I think there are only Voda and 3 who aren't doing as well as the rest.

o2 don't offer discounts on the Iphone because they're not allowed to, simple as and there isn't anything they can do about it.

The thing is, if you want a premium handset then you need to expect to pay a premium price, you wouldn't expect to buy a Ford Mustang for the price of a Ford Fiesta.

[Anonymous]

I didn't actually want an i phone though just a new handset.

Its not the lure of a free phone its the fact that they are going to change my existing package anyway when I've been with them for 7 years!

[Anonymous]

It doesn't matter how long you've been with a company, its how much you spend. Each customer has a budget generated on how much o2 can spend giving them a discount, if you don't spend much then its not in o2s best interest to give you a cheap deal because they wont make any money from you.

[Anonymous]

I Think the main point of this post has been missed (if im right..)

Its not about wanting to get an `out of this world deal` .. and its not about wanting the best phone for nothing - its about getting a good deal that 7 years of loyalty should bring, especially when other networks are offering much better.

I too have been with o2 for 7 years and due for upgrade, o2 are refusing any kind of retention deal. Ive looked around other networks and tmobile are offering a tariff for £25 a month which is exactly the same as a tariff o2 want £35 a month for... Surely any decent company would want to match one of their closest competitors and in turn keep a long standing and loyal customer? I'm not asking for anything stupid, just to price match what someone else is offering. Its business, and as well as o2 being their to make money, they should also want to keep the customers that bring in that money - and also realise that as consumers, we want the best deals. If i do leave o2, my wife and my 3 business phones will also eventually be leaving too. Doesn't make good business sense to me.

I think the real problem here is o2 have the iphone. Thus the reason their selection of phones (especially xda`s) is so poor. However many people leave, there will always be people siging up because of iphone. I cant wait for the day that it is available on other networks, then o2 will be crying out for people to stay.

[Anonymous]

It only makes business sense for o2 to try to retain their highest paying customers (Gold & Platinum, for example).

Loyalty is irrelevant, it's all about money. o2 can probably make more in a year from one high spender than they make from you or me in 5 years.

You pay for a service, o2 provide. There's no loyalty in that. Loyalty is just a word bandied about by people who want something for nothing. Not that I blame these people. But neither do I blame o2 for no longer giving retention deals.

It makes poor business sense to retain low spending customers by making their spend even lower, especially when you're the market leader and have the iPhone and Palm Pre as exclusives.

Even though you might be taking 4 accounts with you if you leave o2, it's a drop in the ocean compared to a couple of iPhone 3GS 32GB phones on a 24 month contract.

SV

[Anonymous]

i am a priority gold customer..and they wouldnt try to retain me!

and again the point is being missed.. im not asking for a stupidly good deal and to be given something for nothing - just to price match...

any large company, whether its DFS , PC World, or B&Q - all offer a `find the same item elsewhere and we`ll refund the diffarence` policy. Price matching, its what competition is about -i just would have thought that o2 would want to keep as many people as possible.Obviously they make more from some then others, but every penny counts. By them not matching another network, not only are they losing the 5 contracts i hold with them.. but bad news spreads fast, and ive told quite a few people about this - from 1 person, they can lose another 10. At the same time if i move to tmobile and tell people how good they are , that could be another few people o2 lose. It just seems to make bad business sense.

i agree with what you said about the iphone.. and ive seen businesses rely on one product before, it works for a while but they soon fall flat on their faces...

[Anonymous]

i am a priority gold customer..and they wouldnt try to retain me!
and again the point is being missed.. im not asking for a stupidly good deal and to be given something for nothing - just to price match...
any large company, whether its DFS , PC World, or B&Q - all offer a `find the same item elsewhere and we`ll refund the diffarence` policy. Price matching, its what competition is about -i just would have thought that o2 would want to keep as many people as possible.Obviously they make more from some then others, but every penny counts. By them not matching another network, not only are they losing the 5 contracts i hold with them.. but bad news spreads fast, and ive told quite a few people about this - from 1 person, they can lose another 10. At the same time if i move to tmobile and tell people how good they are , that could be another few people o2 lose. It just seems to make bad business sense.
i agree with what you said about the iphone.. and ive seen businesses rely on one product before, it works for a while but they soon fall flat on their faces...

Totally agree with you m8, i've gone to simplicity for the time being while i find which network has the best coverage in the areas i go to alot then it's bye bye o2.

All i wanted was a decent phone to replace the one i got 18 months ago, but they want me to pay for it, even though the phone i wanted is the same price as the the one i got 18 months a go, checked the websites.

O2 must think all it's noniphone customers are thick!!

[Anonymous]

What everybody needs to remember is that o2 and the other networks have got to draw a line somewhere as to what they are classing as customers that are going to make them a good profit for the next 18 months while taking up space on the network and what customers could almost be described as clutter...those who are after a free phone and a big discount on their line rental or a price match that isn't worth their while.

At the moment o2 has the iphone which is selling at fixed prices and bringing in a good return and loads of new customers. Can you blame them for reducing the amount of retentions deals? At the end of the day many customers will leave because they can get a cheaper deal somewhere else but remember that this will all have been planned out by o2, these people who are wanting to pay next to nothing will be replaced with higher paying iphone customers. If you think about it, o2 don't have endless space on the network for customers, so will do their best to fill it with those paying the most.

In the future, if they find new connections aren't compensating for the amount of people leaving, they'll sweeten up the retentions deals to stem the flow and keep the 'churn' stable.

With this in mind comparing a o2 to a retailer doesn't really work at the moment, yes Comet will match the price of Currys but that offer would soon disappear if Comet knew they didn't need to price match because another customer will come along straight away and buy at full price.

So...at the end of the day with o2 AND all the other networks...churn, churn, churn it's all about the churn and if you don't like what a network is offering based on its current churn then yes, you may want to leave. But that's how these businesses work, they aren't charities.

[Anonymous]

again the point is being missed...

we arent asking for stupid deals and for them to give us loads of minutes for nothing..and for them to be a charity for us... just to respect our long term custom by matching what every other network is offering.