TERRIBLE SERVICE.

[Anonymous]

I have an iphone 3gs and have been on o2 for over a year. occasionally, especially during bad weather, i lose signal altogether. usually lasting overnight every 3 months on average.
however, since about Friday 17th June 2011, in the po9 area, there has been absolute no service. my phone displays "o2-uk" with four flat bars of signal, making it impossible to send or receive texts or calls.
i called o2 on Tuesday, after 3 days of no network, and was told that they have been made aware of the problem, and had sent engineers out to fix the fault (o2 have more than 200 engineers remember.)
i was told normal service would be back on by the late afternoon, evening time at the very latest. The person i spoke to also informed me that pay and go customers are not entitled to any reimbursed credit as, and i quote; "because you're on pay and go and they're on contract.." a real in depth explanation, thankyou, and im glad that you perceive pay and go customers as being inferior to contract customers. given i probably spend more per month than a contract customer!
It is now Thursday 23 june 2011, service is still down so i called o2 again. and what was i told? that they were not aware of a fault until now and would send engineers out to fix it!!
This is absolutely disgraceful. not only have i been lied to by a customer service agent, the fault remains unfixed and i still have no way of using my phone. not to mention the fact im unable to use the credit i have already paid for.
This is appalling service and completely unacceptable. yet what will o2 do about this? probably the same thing they did with the fault, forgot about it. thanks o2.

[Anonymous]

Two points.
You don't need to phone O2, you can see whether there are any reported faults yourself using their online status checker. It also shows you the expected outcome and how to report a fault which isn't on there.
On the subject of reimbursement, you haven't spent anything (as you are Pay and Go) so there is nothing to reimburse. If you are after compensation, for example you feel you have had additional expenditure because of the outage, then when the problem is fixed you can make a request. The best way would be to itemize what you have spent and send it to them.

[Anonymous]

whilst i appreciate your advice, it's pretty obvious that using the status checker before i call o2 would be a good idea. Prior to calling o2, i had already checked it. it said nothing was wrong with the network coverage in my area. therefore i called customer service for more information. i was told that there was a fault with a signal point near my area and engineers would be out to fix it. so which is wrong? the status checker on the o2 website or the agent i spoke to on the phone?
Regarding reimbursement, being on pay and go doesn't mean you haven't already paid at all. o2 operate using bolt ons, paid for before you get to use it. i have a web and wifi bolt on, due to expire tomorrow. therefore, i have paid for a bolt on that i am unable to use. both my data allowance and text messaging units are unavailable, meaning, and im sure you'll be able to work this out yourself too, that i have paid for something that i have not been able to use for nearly a whole week. a quarter of my pre-paid, monthly allowance.
now tell me how that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

If you don't mention something then how is anyone to know that you have done it? If you want to be argumentative with other posters I don't think it will help you solve your problem. But I'm willing to have a go, the first person was talking about an issue near your postcode (which caused your neighbouring cell to be overloaded as people went in search of a signal ) the second was talking about no reported issues at your post code (because they weren't apparent until the first problem is fixed). Or anyone of many other reasons which don't entail people pointlessly lying - why would they?
You also didn't mention bolt-ons in your OP, but as I said If you feel you should be compensated then make a claim for the partial cost of the bolt-on you didn't use. cost * allowance / (number of days outage * average days use).
As is often said on here, if you approach things in a level headed, non - confrontational way, sticking to the facts, you'll get things sorted much more quickly and with less stress.

[Anonymous]

I didnt mention it because it's kind of like stating the obvious. i also didnt mention that i restarted the phone, checked the sim and tried using the sim in another phone. why? because it's common sense.
This doesn't mean that i am trying to argue with other posters or be confrontational, perhaps your defensive instincts kick in a little too quick, depending on how you interpret the context of what you are reading. I'm sure you will appreciate how annoying it is for someone to offer advice that is slightly, without being rude, useless. for example, if the television isn't working, "have you turned it on" probably isn't great advice is it? i don't doubt that there are alot of dumb people in the world, but please dont tar us all with the same brush.
Secondly, and as a more senior o2 representative agrees, it was inappropriate for the advisor in the first place to tell me that engineers had been sent to fix an apparent fault AND that the status checker on the net isn't always 100% reliable.
The bolt-on i have currently, which is soon due to expire, has been reimbursed by the advisor i spoke to a few minutes ago. therefore, how can the original advisor tell me that i am not entitled to any compensation?
I know it may seem hard to hear a bad word said against your beloved network, but sometimes it just is the companies fault. again, as the agent i have just spoken to will concur with.
If you are willing to claim that o2 are 110% consistantly reliable and incessantly flawless then fair enough. But don't say i didn't tell you so when this happens again.

[Anonymous]

As we are all O2 customers on here and not O2 employees or contractors we offer help where we can.
Perhaps you didn't understand that when you signed up to the forum.

[Anonymous]

I fully recognize that you are a customer and not an employee, hence the reason i am struggling to comprehend why you are so offended by my post regarding poor customer service from o2.
The original post is not asking for advice, yet simply stating that the service i have encountered has been bad.
but perhaps you didn't understand that when you read it.
Maybe take a little more time in future to read through, properly, what you intend to have an opinion on.

[Anonymous]

The original post is not asking for advice

Agreed...we'll ignore it.

[Anonymous]

Probably for the best..i apologize if you feel i have been confrontational. my intention was only to make people aware of a poor and ineffective service, not to make anyone feel uncomfortable.
The network is still down, frustration comes easily at the moment..

[Anonymous]

To be fair whilst checking the coverage and problem checkers is common sense and you did it, lots, maybe the majority of posters here don't bother or don't know they exists so its worth the mention. In general better info in = better info out, and more chance of people being happy. As said, keep a note of lost bolt on allowance and you will get it credited back.