Horrible Customer Services!!!

[Anonymous]

I've been with O2 now for over 12 years (back when it was called BT Cellnet). I've never had a problem with any services until today, when I attempted to contact the Live 'Help' desk.

I only wanted an answer to two simple questions:

1. Are there any new phones that have both a QWERTY Keyboard, and full-size touch screen?
2. Why is the iPhone 5 cheaper than the iPhone 4 when looking to upgrade?

Now, I clicked the Live 'Help' button to try and start a chat. I had to wait 16 minutes before the chat agent connected. Upon connecting, I was still waiting a further 3 minutes after saying 'Hi' to at least initiate a conversation. After a fairly obviously scripted greeting from the agent, I proceeded to state I am aware of my Upgrade date being in a few months time, but I want to know the answer to question 1.

A few minutes pass with no response...

I question the agents presence to which the agent states "Please provide the 3rd and 4th characters of your security answer."

Considering nearly every site you register to these days requests you answer a numerous amount of security questions, the 3rd and 4th characters could quite simply be any character just about going... So I take a stab at assuming it's two digits, and proceed on stating I'm aware my Upgrade date is in May, and I'm just looking in to the phones now to see what may be on offer when I come to upgrade...
A long pause occurs again.
"Please provide the 3rd and 4th characters of your security answer."
Again, I'm now left puzzled as to what the question is, so ask "What is the security question?"
Another 3-4 minutes pass of no response...
"Hello?"
"Sorry for the delay..."
What exactly is the agent doing in this time frame? I've now been awaiting Live 'Help' for about 40 minutes and I've received absolutely no help what-so-ever.
I wait again for the security question but instead receive. "What is your full name and date of birth?"
I provide the answer promptly, but have to wait further...

Finally a response comes back saying "Perfect."... thanks for the confidence boost. I was really unsure on whether I could get my own name and date of birth correct. However, shortly after that, I did finally get the security question and again provided the answer promptly to which a reply was "Please wait while I access your account."

To make a point, I was extremely puzzled as to why my account even needed opening; had the agent read my opening question at the start, they'd have full-well known there wasn't a need to check my account for anything.

However, another 5 or so minutes pass and eventually I get the return statement:

"You're not due an upgrade until 22nd May 2013, please contact us again closer to the time of your upgrade."

I'm sorry, but after spending nearly 50 minutes waiting around for a response like that, it's absolutely appauling. I full well knew my own upgrade date, I'd stated it straight to the agent right at the beginning of the conversation. It was a simple question I asked to people around my office while at work and they didn't **bleep** about for 50 minutes before telling me absolutely nothing to do with my question, and they're not 'professionals' for a mobile phone network company.

Finally when the agent decides to actually read what I have to say (or so I thought), I asked the first question of whether there are any phones O2 provides for contract upgrade with a Touch Screen and QWERTY Keyboard, he simply has the audacity to say "What phone are you looking at in particular?" - If I had bloody known what phone I should be looking at, I wouldn't have spent the best part of an hour sat waiting for responses off possibly the worst customer services agent I've ever known!!!

I've worked on a helpdesk before for quite a while, and I've never once been that robotic to stick to scripted responses. If the customer asked me a question, I provided them with the best possible answer to their question, or if I didn't know, I'd find out. I find it absolutely mind-numbing that the agent couldn't just spend 10 seconds and read my question, provide me with any answer other than the automated responses he threw at me, and then he could have gone back to whatever the hell it was that was clearly keeping his attention more than his customer. It should have been a 3 minute conversation in total. I wouldn't have minded waiting 16 minutes to even get into the chat had I come away with the answer, but I actually got so ticked off I closed the chat nearly an hour into the entirely painful scenario.

If that's what you call Customer Services, I'll gladly be looking elsewhere for an upgrade if it can't be improved. I hope I never actually receive a problem with any network services because I'd have to probably take a day off work just to get a response from O2's CS department.

Absolutely disgusted.

[Anonymous]

The last smartphone I can remember with a full keyboard was the Nokia N900. I think T-moible  did one called My touch but the keyboard is no bigger than the BB. 

Maybe a mini bluetooth keyboard (rolls up fits into the inside jacket pocket might be an option.

[Anonymous]

http://www.gizmag.com/one2touch-nfc-keyboard/21705/

Sure poster Liquid will love this as NFC is his pet project.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Steersy

I am still confused as to why you would spend an afternoon on Google or to that matter need to speak to anybody to answer your questions.

All the answers you need are on the website. All you have to do is go into the shop section and look at the phones.

 __________

I don't know anything about the new smart phones... considering there wasn't a single phone (I didn't look at Blackberrys, they're simple too small ergonomically to consider them as keyboard phones) that listed a feature having a full QWERTY Keyboard so I wanted to verify that there were indeed no phones that had both a full size touch screen, and a flip out QWERTY keyboard.

=================

Stuart1983

probably just looking to rant feels like its other peoples jobs to find him a handset

 ____________

Well to be fair actually, I work as a server support engineer for a government account. When the government phones me up with a server issue, they expect me to fix the issue, or provide a reasonable explanation as to why the fault has occurred.

I'm on a mobile network service owner's website, talking to their customer service sales department with a query about the phones they're selling...
Forgive me if I completely missed the point there, but shouldn't they know about their products they're selling?

And to be honest, that isn't even the point... I wouldn't have had a rant if they didn't know the answer. It's the fact it took like 45 minutes of my time up, to receive no answer at all other than scripted responses.

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thats all you get from live chat is scripted responses, they have very little actual knowledge. they are ok for basic enquiries but for accounts & upgrades best to call 202

[Bambino]

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@Anonymous wrote:
 

I'm on a mobile network service owner's website, talking to their customer service sales department with a query about the phones they're selling...
Forgive me if I completely missed the point there, but shouldn't they know about their products they're selling?

And to be honest, that isn't even the point... I wouldn't have had a rant if they didn't know the answer. It's the fact it took like 45 minutes of my time up, to receive no answer at all other than scripted responses.

---

No one is disputing the point you're making. We all agree that the O2 web chat department is not up to scratch. As you've been with O2 for as long as you have, you should really know that you need to call 202 and speak to Customer Services if you want to get an answer within a reasonable amount of time.

[Anonymous]

Well I definitely get that now, Bambino...

I've never actually had a single problem with O2 since I first joined them back in late 1999 😕

(And I've never had to query phones... it was always simple getting a new phone back then. You sent text messages, played Snake, and called people!)

Steersy, yeah the Nokia N900 is a little old, but it's the right kind of thing I'm looking for.

Your link also helped a little as I found this as a related article, which I don't know if it's available but, it could hopefully help convert any smart phone into the thing I want... as long as it remains portable to use the keyboard!
http://www.gizmag.com/touch-screen-smartphone-with-flip-qwerty-keyboard/14181/

[Liquid]

There's the Motorola flipout phone. It's a bit wierd but seems to score quite highly in reviews.

Mix of touch screen with a qwerty keyboard.

Few others I've found;

Nokia E7
Sony Ericsson xperia mini pro.

It's a shame physical keyboards are a thing of the past for mobiles:(

There's a new tech around the corner of a touch screen that can manipulate itself into a tactile keyboard.

[Anonymous]

WOAH WOAH WOAH! There's the BlackBerry Q10 coming out mid 2013!

[Liquid]

Looks bigger than the old BB keyboards:) those things were impossible to use:(

[Liquid]

Can't believe I forgot the motorolla milestone 3!! I've had a play with one and their amazing:)

A bit on the chunky side but that's what you get with full keyboards.

[Anonymous]

The keyboard on the Q10 is very similar (if not, exactly the same) as the Bold 9900's keyboard apart from the bold 9900's keyboard was slightly arched and the Q10's is very linear.

Still, the 9900 is a very good phone at the moment! And if you look on ebay, you'll find a huge influx of auctions (including mine) from people selling because they've upgraded to the Z10