Hi,
I'm Sila and have been using O2 since I moved to London in 2003. Unfortunatelly, after 10 reasonably happy years, I'm now having serious trouble with them and don't know what to do... So any help/advice will be much, much appreciated.
It all started when I called them back in May to ask about their rates in Europe, as I had planned to do a 12-week walk down France and across Spain over the Summer. They told me about a bonus I could add to my contract to make calls cheaper, I agreed to getting it and they set it up. Yet, somehow, I got charged almost £100 in July and almost £200 in August. When I looked at my bills the charges made no sense to me at all but I decided to let it go because, as luck would have it, I happened to have other things way more urgent to deal with - long story short, I now live in Spain.
As my contract with O2 was due to run out this December I thought I'd switch to pay as you go at the end of it and keep using my UK number whenever I visited. I contacted customer service online about a month ago and was told I had to mail them my sim card just before the contract run out. I thought that was a bit strange in the online era, but hey, ok.
So just now I've been trying to sort that out. Here's what happened over the last almost two hours of chatting with 6 different people, including 2 managers:
* As my UK bank account doesn't have any money at the moment, the last bill bounced - obviously, I have to pay it before they can switch anything. Fine.
* I try to pay it online - the "make a payment" link on the website doesn't work. Fine, these things happen.
* I tell the girl I'm chatting to and ask her what to do. She disappears "due to a technical problem". Fine, these things also happen.
* Someone else takes over and decides to change my password without even telling me, let alone asking me if I'm ok with it. When I question what he's done he too has a technical problem and disappears. Hmmm, not fine anymore.
* A third person takes over, I ask to be transferred to a manager as I am upset about the password-change&disappear stunt. Manager takes over, we go through the whole thing again, he tells me I can call them free of charge on 00448448090202 and pay the bill. I thank him, say bye and call the number. It doesn't work. I check it and call again. Nope, it definitely doesn't work. Definitely not fine.
* Open chat window again, fifth person of the day. I ask to be transferred to previous person (manager) if possible. After waiting a few minutes it turns out it's not possible. Fiiine...
* Girl asks if she can help, I tell her the whole story. She again asks me to try different browsers. She also almost changes my password, luckily I saw her coming this time and was able to stop her. She tells me to call that number from a landline (really, O2?, I need a landline to talk to one of the biggest mobile network providers in Europe??). I tell her I don't have a landline, which is true - because I don't need it for anything else!!!
* Fed up to the bone, I ask her how to cancel my account with them completely. She tells me I have to give them 30 days notice. At this point I want to cry really badly. Instead, I ask her to transfer me to yet another manager, mainly to save the poor thing the massive rant I was about to have. The manager takes ages to respond, when he does I'm in the middle of doing something else. I explain, apologise and tell him I'll be a minute, when I go back to the chat he's gone.
* The end!
Please help...
Thanks
Sila
