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New O2 customer service experience - Goodbye O2

NotSoHappyM33
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For anyone transferring more than 2 sims from a competitor - forget it - it's a nightmare!

 

Tried to move 3 sims from vodafone to O2 6 days ago. Thus far, all I've managed is 2 - the 3rd one gets rejected and I've been unable to get a definitive answer as to why after speaking to over 10 sales/ customer service reps over 5 hours of calls on 2 separate days 😞

 

First person I spoke to said O2 had a policy restricting the number of sims that could be ordered in a day (2), and told me to phone back the next day to order the 3rd. Did that and the next person told me the restriction was based on bill payment i.e., had to pay the first bill before anymore sims could be ordered.

 

Once the first 2 sims arrived and were ported from vodafone, I logged into my account and made an instant payment to clear the bill - waited a day then tried to add the 3rd sim. Still rejected. This time, told it is 'probably' (not definitive) because the account needs to go through a complete bill cycle - so would need to wait a couple of more weeks i.e., outside my cooling off period. Given I've already made a payment, the first 'cycle' may not get recognised as there is nothing to collect - so it 'could' be 6 weeks or so before I can move the final number over - no one can confirm.

 

The most annoying part of this experience is being passed from one person to another without anyone taking ownership of the issue … and when you do speak to a ‘manager’ the call mysteriously gets ‘dropped’ and no-one calls you back.

 

Sales just go through the motions (which takes 30 mins to process a new sim) only to find the request is declined. They can’t tell me whether it’s an O2 policy that is declining the app or the credit score search - but it always fails at the credit check phase - even tough I passed the test for the first 2 sims. Double checked my credit score with Experian after this issue and it came back with 960 out of max 999 - so assuming the issue is with O2 policy or a badly programmed system.

 

Whatever is going on here, sales pass the issue over to customer service … who then say they have to check with sales. Instead of checking/ investigating, my experience thus far has been they simply pass you to the regular sales number and you go back to the regular call waiting queue and have to repeat everything from scratch - 30 mins on hold, then another 30 mins to try and process the application again … which results in another decline and passing you over to customer service so that you can repeat everything again after you guessed it, another 30 mins on hold.

 

I’m a virgin media customer and thought I’d bring everything under the same umbrella, take advantage of the volt benefits and leverage O2’s policy for free EU roaming and discounted international minutes with their bolt on. The cost saving vs vodafone was minor and only made sense if you spend time in the EU or make lots of international calls - which we do.

 

On reflection, it’s not worth the hassle. I phoned customer service once more and asked them for PAC numbers so that I could return the numbers back to Vodafone within the 14 day cooling off period with no penalty. That call took another 30 mins and I didn’t even get the PAC numbers - I was told they would be emailed or texted to me and there’d be no penalties or fees to be paid and would get a refund for the payments made thus far. That was almost 2 hours ago now and still no PAC numbers received.

 

If you are facing similar issues, or simply searching the web to see what such an experience could look like - my advice would be to stay away.

 

If someone from O2 is reading this, I’d be happy to provide more information and help you figure out how to improve your systems/ policies - I can’t be the first person that has gone through this nightmare, so guessing you are loosing both customers and reputation.

 

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Enlli
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Likely to do with credit searches. O2 do a hard search for SIM cards. That will be two hard searches you have had. The computer may well reject a third in such a short period of time.

This is not O2 and we are all customers here similar to yourself and cannot answer account type queries.
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Cleoriff
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@NotSoHappyM33 

Sadly this is simply a forum for members like yourself.

There's nothing we can advise other than making a complaint. https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain 

Best of luck and hope you get sorted soon.

Veritas Numquam Perit

Girl in a jacket
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NotSoHappyM33
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Thanks @Enlli  ... sounds highly likely.  Frustratingly, no one at O2 is confirming this or advising exactly how long I need to wait. If this is the experience of welcoming a new customer that wants to bring the whole family from a competitor, I dread to think how I'd go on once locked into a 2 year contract.

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NotSoHappyM33
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@Cleoriff  ... understood.  I checked that out earlier 😉 It basically says you should ask to speak with a manager - but everytime I've tried that, the call gets mysteriously dropped. 

 

The next level up is to issue a formal complaint and have someone review the details.  I'm in the cooling off period and shouldn't have to go through so many loops. 

 

I've already wasted 5+ hours on this, so my intent here is to warn others - they can then decide whether it's worth it to them to put up with the hassle, or switch back within the cooling off period.

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Cleoriff
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Understood @NotSoHappyM33

Hope things go smoothly from now on.

Veritas Numquam Perit

Girl in a jacket
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pgn
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Would it be fair to deduce you have all three (or 2 at the moment) tied to the same MyO2 account, @NotSoHappyM33

I can't see how the O2 side can stand by what you report, as 3 independent people could not then get set up without one having to wait. 

Or, in the case where 1 person was bringing in a phone, a data-only SIM in a tablet, and a watch (for example) as all 3 devices are registered to the same name at the same address...

I'd be inclined to push on with the poet's into O2, regardless if the bluster being shown by the O2 folk on the other end of the phone (or on Social Media - a bit like the erstwhile PM of the UK, the story changes upon the whim if the person you are talking to, with no basis in reality).

Nil Illegitimi Carborundum - don't let the bustards (!) grind you down!

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NotSoHappyM33
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@pgnall 3 sims on the same account/ name, registered to same address.  2 transfered and activated ok - 3rd one is the problem.  Have spoken to 12 people at O2 now to get this resolved with no luck or confirmation why.  I think @Enlli probably has the best explanation - O2 are requesting too many credit checks (1 for each sim) in too short of a time period - causing a red flag for suspious activity ... thus the decline.  In comparison, Vodafone do a credit check on the first sim then add the others without further checks.  Enough is enough - I asked for PAC numbers yesterday so that I could go back to Vodafone within the 14 day cooling off period, but they wouldn't give me them over the phone saying they would be emailed or texted to me - still not received them.  By law, they have to provide them on request.  Vodafone gave me them verbally and sent via text within 2 mins.  If O2 keep this up, I'll be filing a formal comlaint to the regulator.

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pgn
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Sounds like a flaw in the O2 work flow, @NotSoHappyM33 - good to know, and good luck moving back to Voda, especially if they also need to do a check on your credit status 😖

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NotSoHappyM33
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@pgnall complete with Vodafone.  Explained the situation and they said they do a 'soft" credit review, not 'hard' credit check - and only do it once.  If the result comes back positive, they are given a number of additional lines they could add to the account without having to issue another search.  In my case, the magic number was 3.  All done without fuss, the porting is now scheduled for next Tuesday (within my 14 day O2 cooling off period). I'd spent another 3 hours trying to resolve the issue with O2 this morning to no avail. I finally got them to give me the PAC numbers, but couldn't get them to resolve moving the 3rd sim over.  They simply said I should email them with a formal complaint and ask for further help - so with that kind of welcome, I've activated the switch back to vodafone. Spread the word - anyone wanting to move >2 sims at a time with O2 will probably have to stagger the move over a couple of months ... if they are prepared to wait that long and risk being tied into a 2 year contract with penalties for leaving.

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