Leave O2 - Only way to make them take notice.

[Anonymous]

Like many large companies: Client Service is a term with no meaning. The total lack of any clear information about this outage is disgraceful. "We are sorry for any inconvenience" - that mean they don't give a toss!

[Anonymous]

... and you gain... NOTHING. You'll join another network that will eventually have the same issue.

Please see here: http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-Feedback/PLEASE-READ-BEFORE-POSTING-NEW-NO-SERVICE-MESSAGES...

[Anonymous]

I fully agree. Any company can experience a major technical failure, but O2 seem to have no emergency plan for such contingencies. People were queueing up in the O2 store in Holborn, thinking there was something wrong with their phone. When I bellowed over the crowd "do you know approx when the network will be up again?", there was a look of surprise among the customers. The Sales Assistant said I should get in touch with customer service (as if I want to hear a voice saying "all our operators are busy"...), and I responded that Customer Service should be getting in touch with me! When I walked out, 8 other people walked out with me, having wasted their time in that queue whilst the staff were busy selling phones and O2 upgrades to other people! No sign of any disruption announced on the O2 website either. I checked for disruption in my post-code area and the website said everything was OK (at 9:45 PM last night!). Wanted to use O2 wifi whilst in town, but registration requires the use of a code which is transmitted ... by SMS ! So could not do that either. Would it not have been simpler to send an email to O2 customers (they do that with "special offers" - why not when there's a problem?) to inform them of the problem, and put up notices in the O2 shops. This morning, I had an O2 signal but could not make calls. Only after hearing from the business correspondent on BBC Breakfast News that turning off 3G could help, was I able to use my phone again this morning. Why did O2 not suggest that on their website? Surely their engineers would know that in this situation 2G services would be restored before 3G ? A total mess. Such a lack of contingency planning and communication with customers reveals a total contempt for customers and absence of the basics of good business practice.

[Anonymous]

Correct. It's working on 2G. Shame O2 shame.

[Anonymous]

I have been with most other network providers and o2 are without a doubt, the best! I understand that this network problem is a pain in the arse but I would much rather put up with that than go back to my old provider...3!!!

[Anonymous]

While I agree that O2 have not covered themselves in glory and I have no phone access to my customers I agree they are the best of the majors. I have been with Orange, Three, vodafone and T-mobile and their customer service was much, much worse. I'll stick with O2 for now, but if the outage continues beyond the next 24hrs we'll see!

[Anonymous]

I like how some people on here are now starting to talk a bit more sense and face the reality - yes there was a fault, no network is perfect! I heard similar thing happened to another network (not naming names!) and took nearly a week to resolve...at least this incident took less than 24 hours to get sorted

[Anonymous]

In spite of the serious inconvenience this incident has caused (in today's world we rely very much on our smartphones and technical failures such as this recent one can seriously dent the productivity of a working day), no provider will ever guarantee a failure-free service. But this is not the issue here. My problem lies with the lack of communication and total absence of a contingency plan to keep customers informed and help them alleviate some of the issues resulting from the interruption of service. This could include : - ability from O2 website “My O2” to divert calls to another number (during the breakdown, there was no voicemail, so we have no way of knowing who tried to call us during that time) - info on website on how to circumvent some of the problems re calls, internet access etc… - system to inform all O2 shop staff (maybe put poster in shop ?) - emails to customers (many of them working at computer, not all “out and about”) - generic code to use Wifi in O2 hotspots (to avoid the need for new users to register and not receive their code by SMS when the 3G system is down !) It just strikes me that O2 are prompt to send emails to their customers to promote offers etc. Why not do the same just to let people know they are experiencing a problem, so that hundreds of thousands of users don't worry about their phone being broken ??? I feel sorry for O2's staff who were evidently given no information nor instructions on how to deal with the matter, leaving them confronted with a bunch of angry customers with no means to help them. The little list above would have made such a difference ! Any company that does not have an emergency contingency plan is miles away from best practice. I am more concerned about O2's lack of professionalism in dealing with this matter than the technical failure itself, which could have affected any other operator. They need to get their act together from a managerial point of view, and let us know when they think there back-up plans are ready for the next time something goes wrong. Because one day, something similar will happen again, that's normal. It's only a question of time.

[jonsie]

Some good points in there Paul, well thought out and without the ranting and demands for compensation. As a very minimum the O2 homepage should have had information on there as soon as the seriousness of the situation became known and information on the customer service line while people were on hold trying to get more information.

[Anonymous]

Paul - To retrieve your Voicemail from your Landline please see here: http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-Feedback/Voice-mail/td-p/254639

I'll have a look around for some other stuff and see if I can find anything that might be helpful to throw together in case of an emergency.

You'd be surprised what is already on offer.