THIS IS AN ACTUAL LETTER THAT I HAVE SENT TO O2 ABOUT THEIR POOR CUSTOMER SERVICES - has anyone experience anything this?
On Thursday 25th November I called O2 to add a 2nd line and new phone onto my existing account – I want an additional phone (Iphone SE 64gb – Red) on a 24 month contract with 3gb of data, unlimited minuets and unlimited texts, for no more than £20 per month and £0 upfront for the phone.
I saw a deal with this specification on Uswitch website, with O2 as the network provider and the company selling the phone was called Affordable Mobiles. I gave this information to the operator and asked if O2 have something similar, as this is the maximum amount I wish to pay for the additional phone and contract.
On this call the operator advised that O2 are unable to match this deal. With that information and O2 unwilling to at least match the offer I had seen on Uswitch, I advised the operator that I would like to cancel the remaining time left on my current contract (I have no problem with paying the remaining amount left to pay on my 3 year contract, I think it was around £98) as I can then take up the deal that I saw on Uswitch.
The operator advised that they would need to put me through to someone else in order to do this and upon transferring the call I got cut off – this is phone call #1
I called back and waited approx. 30 minutes to get through again. I explained all of the above to the operator who advised that she was unable to help and would put me thought to someone else to obtain my PAC code etc so that I could take up the deal I saw on Uswitch – upon transferring my call, I got cut off again – this was phone call #2
Due to getting cut off X2 times, I thought I would just initiate the purchase of the deal I saw on Uswitch – I completed the purchase and received confirmation of this from Affordable Mobiles via email.
As I have now completed the purchase from another company I made call #3 to O2 to obtain my PAC code etc. On this call I explained for the 3rd time why I wanted to leave O2 and the operator advised that she would help me – however I got cut off.
I made call #4 to O2 straight after call #3 and waited another 30 minutes plus to get through again. On this call I explained for the 4th time why I wanted to leave O2 and the operator advised that she would help me but in order to do this she would need to transfer the call. This time the operator had the new agent she was transferring the call to on the line at the same time and she also advised that if the call dropped then she would call me back.
The call didn’t drop and I was transferred to this new agent who based in the UK (I think his name was Paul – but can’t be 100% on that). On this call we spoke for over an hour about what had happened and what I was trying to do. We finally agreed that O2 would sell me an additional phone & line (Iphone SE 64gb – Red) on a 24 month contract with 2gb of data, unlimited minutes and unlimited texts, for £23 per month (I think this was the agree price) and £0 upfront for the phone and then due to the poor customer service I had received also give me a discount of £5 per month on line rental for the existing line for 24 months. He confirmed all of the above was correct and that I was happy with what we agreed – which I was. I agreed for a credit check to place to confirm that you are able to offer the contract to me and provided my bank card details for the check, which he confirmed that I had passed and there were no issues.
He then asked me to confirm the delivery address at which point I had realised that I had not updated my address with you since moving house about 18 months ago. So I provided my new address detail and this was updated in your system. To wrap up the conversation he confirmed that I would receive a text message once the phone had been dispatched and when I received the text message I would need to text back with “LOYALTY 21500” and this would apply the agree discounts to my account.
Later on that evening I received an email from Affordable Mobiles – their email advised that “they have cancelled my order as the request had been declined by the network”, I don’t know if this has anything to do with the above, but it isn’t an issue as I had now placed an order directly with O2.
6 days later on 1st December, I called O2 (this is call #5) to understand when I was likely to receive the new phone and start paying for the contract etc. It took around 30 minutes to get through to someone and we then had lengthy call to explain ALL of the above and the operator said “there is no order”.
I then requested the operator to check if my address detail had been updated recently, to which she confirmed that it had been updated. I went on to explain that whoever updated my address detail is the person that agreed the deal for the additional line and discount on my current contract, to which the operator said “she was unable to see who that was”. At this point I requested to speak to the agent I had agreed the deal with and the operator advised that she was unable to do this. So I requested to speak to someone in the UK. She transferred my call someone in the UK and we exchanged pleasantries and he put the phone down on me.
I called back (call #6) and waited for another 30 minutes to get through. I explained all of the above to the operator again and she advised that if I got cut off she would call me back, however she was able to transfer my call without any problem. The agent she transferred me to was called Tina – she went on to try and explain that there was no order, my account and contract has not changed and I will not receive anything. I tried to explain that All of this was agreed in a phone call 1 week ago and all I now wanted was some acknowledgment that this took place – we know it took place because the person who updated my address details was the person who I agreed all of this with. Tina continued to advise there was nothing she could do about this, so I asked to speak to her manager.
I then spoke to Vicky – she was not very nice at all. It seems that Tina didn’t do a very good job of explaining why I wasn’t happy and ALL the previous problems I had experienced. Vicky said that she was unable to do anything more that what Tina had done – again she was missing the point. Finally she advised that if I wanted to raise a complaint I would have to send an email and someone would call me back. This is the point at which I completely lost my rag – so much so I asked to speak to someone else because I could no longer speak to Vicky.
My call was transferred to Katrina – I asked her to explain back to me what she understood about my situation. Whilst she was very attentive and understood that I had been through quite a lot to get to this point, she also advised that there was nothing she could do there was no order. The best she could offer me 1 month discounted line rental. She also explained that what Vicky had said wasn’t strictly true – she would fill in a form to send to another team who “might” look into this if they deem it is an issue. However equally, if they don’t deem that this is an issue there is nothing to deal with because there is no order. She said that they have 5 working days to reply. At this point I advised that I would send an email, write a letter and also try and contact you via social media in order to feed this back to you.
Now that I have explained ALL of that –
- I have made more than 5 phone calls to O2
- I have spent more than 5 hours on phone (including hold times to get through to someone)
- I have been told that I did not place an order, when I clearly did place an order
- It seems that that you don’t take your customers seriously
- You have no accountability of what your agents do or agree with your existing customers
- Your agents lack empathy
- Your complaints procedure makes no sense – I am trying to complain to you about poor service (I am already a customer and have been a customer since 2016), however in this instance your saying I don’t have a complaint because an order wasn’t placed
- On the conversations I had with agents on 1st December no one is willing to take an ownership and investigate what has happened
- I requested the PAC details so that I could leave and purchase a phone from elsewhere – but you have ignored this request
- Trying to contact anyone at O2 is really difficult – your automated systems have regularly directed me back to your website or chat facilities, but the detail on the website (and forums and FAQ’s) have not answered my queries and there the chat facility never has any agents available
With all of the above in mind, not to mention the sheer frustration of dealing with multiple operators, across several different countries and the fact I have to write a 2000 word essay on my customer experience with O2 makes me feel that you really don’t care about your customers (existing and/ or new).
If you did I wouldn’t have to write this and you wouldn’t have said that I didn’t place an order – you would have just investigated what happened last week and sent the new phone to me along with an apology and I would have been more than happy.
However you chose not to do any of that and I’m now asking you why your operators let this happen and what are you going to do about this to change my perception of O2?
