Why has it become so hard to get a straight answer?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been getting inconsistent, incorrect and sometimes downright lies for in excess of 2 months whilst trying to change tariffs, upgrade a phone, and get a refund from an un-received order!

After exhausting all avenues, i.e; 202, online chat, o2 store, CPWH, and twitter I had no choice but to write an official letter of complaint – I sent this via the complaints email address on the o2 site and received the automated replay that says ‘we’re sorry you’ve had to complain.  We will get back to you within 10 days to discuss your complaint’ – that was 12 days ago, no word – I called 202 there no option for the complaints team so I hit some options to get through to a person who [after 28 mins on hold] put me through to the complaints department. 

They said they can’t ‘look’ for my complaint as they don’t have a search facility – they said it’s likely to take more than 10 days despite the email saying it would be dealt with within this period [no maybe or ‘we aim too’] – then he said ‘you should email them again and ask them how long it will take to reply’ – I said ‘…and wait ten days+ for them to respond and say they do or don’t know where my original email is? He basically said yes.

I just go round and round in circles and I’ve been doing this for 2 months – I just want an actual human, with some authority to make decisions and not a robot that can’t understand basic English to take my letter, read it, fix the problem and then I can get back to normal. – at the moment I’m in a ‘limbo’ contract with a phone on its last legs o2 have £299 of my money and I’m seriously hacked off with it all.

The worst of it is the complaint actually needs to be extended now following further problems I’ve had since writing the letter!

When did o2 become so hard to deal with?  I’ve been with them for 4 years because their customer service always makes me feel welcome but I feel so undervalued I don’t know why I continue to pay over the odd for substandard treatment?

Does anyone know what / who I can speak to rectify this?

[adamtemp64]

the complaints review service email addres that says 10 days means 10 working days or 14 calander days.

If your complaint is a complicated on then it may be longer.

You can always send another email chasing the previous one.

The times I have had to use the crs they have been helpfull and resolve the issue.

[Anonymous]

...if its 10 working days then they should really state this - 'we will get back to you within 10 days' is  a very different thing.

I'm not normally this bitter but its been really shocking - all that ever happens when I get hold of anyone is they deflect the situation as follows:

Chat - we can't do anything about this sir, I see you are interested in the iPhone, may i suggest the Samsung Ace. [seriously I have been offerd this 3 times now o2 will not be happy until they give me one!]

202 - we can't do anything right now - we'll call you back [no call follows] and we suggest you visit our o2 stores for an upgrade in the meantime as CPWH deal with all our phone sales.

store - I'm sorry we can't answer on behalf of o2 and we have no real power so you'll need to call 202.  We can't upgrade your contract here unless you are willing to buy a different phone or pay more than the online prices - maybe try CPWH

CPHW – sorry sir o2 have a lock on your account to say only they can upgrade you...call 202

call 202 and start again...every other day for 2 months.

[adamtemp64]

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=Companion,question=ref(User):str(Mobile),C... actually states 14 working days just yet more website / email response inconsistencies

[Anonymous]

Don't bank on getting a reply at all I had to chase them up by ringing head office when I made a complaint

[Zombie_Fried]

Can I ask why you mention CPWH? Are you an O2 customer with O2 or a CPWH customer with O2? Where did you upgrade from? The o2 website. 

 I'm going to go on as if your an o2 customer. So your old contract was up for renewal 2 months ago, you upgraded via the o2 upgrades website, picked a new tariff and bought a new phone for £299. Have you been paying every month the new tariff price's and the phone has never turned up? Did you not get an email with a tracking number from o2? as a new phone is sent needing to be signed for. So i would think it should be easy for o2 to know if the phone was sent. Hope you get this sorted out, by the time this new phone arrives it'll be out of date. 😛

[Anonymous]

once it leaves O2 it's out of their hands & it's up to the courier, not o2

[macblank]

o2 can check the fone to see whAt SIM card is being used on the handset.

I am surprised at ur lack of support from CS or exec team.

if ur on CPW O2 then the complaint is with CPW.

on the auto reply u got there is a number to call. call that number. if the operator answers u explain. that u sent an email, they will check this against the list of received emails and then put u through.

[Anonymous]

Half the time they 'lose' the email or transcript so they don't do anything

[Anonymous]

Hi guys, thanks for all the replies!

I’m going to past my whole story here – I don’t expect you to read it all but I’m now and a loss.

We’re now at 15days and no reply form the ‘official’ complaint – the extract below is from the letter of complaint I’ve sent and is as brief as I could make it.

To answer a few points above – I’ve called the number on the email and they say they don’t have a search facility so they can’t see if/when my complaint will be answered.  The attempted upgrade was done via 202 with o2 but they said all their iPhone5 sales go via CPWH as o2 can’t keep up with demand.

As for tariffs – I was on a 12 month Simplicity, attempted to upgrade to £26 iPhone 5 contract – this was never received [I was charged from the second they dispatched it until they received it back which was approx. 5 days] I then called back and I switched back to a 30day Simplicty whilst this get sorted out – we’re about 2 months into this saga now.

You might want to put the kettle on if you’re going to read this.

05/08/2012 online chat with Matt, an o2 ‘upgrade adviser’ I discussed the possibility of upgrading to a Simplicity tariff and wanted to confirm that if I signed up for a 12 month plan, that I would be able to upgrade to a standard contract at any time (should a handset that I wanted be released).  Matt assured me that I could do this with all of the Simplicity Tariffs and that he could even do the upgrade there and then.  I selected a £20 a month Simplicity tariff to then be told by Matt, that that particular tariff wasn’t actually eligible for early upgrade - but any of the others would be.  I settled for a £15.50 tariff despite it not really meeting my data requirements [and also selling o2 short as I was willing to pay £20!].  despite not getting quite what I wanted overall this was a good experience.

19/09/2012 I contacted o2 by calling 202 and enquired about pre-ordering the iPhone5.  The operator I contacted told me that unfortunately as an existing customer I had no right to the pre-order sales as they were reserved for new customers.  Disgruntled by o2s decision to use new products as bait for new customers I enquired what my options were.  The operator said that o2 shops would have no stock and that my ‘best bet’ would be to queue up at a Carphone Warehouse on release day as they were dealing with all o2s sales.  This is appalling advice as I’m sure you are aware that this would have involved me queuing outside overnight and hoping I was lucky at CPWH.  I chose to wait a week or so until the rush died down. 

A week or so later I contacted o2 by 202 and enquired if they had any stock of the iPhone 5 and was told that I could only do this in store as the online sales had sold out – I mentioned that the o2 shops charge a considerably higher price for the phone and that I didn’t see why I should have to pay the premium as an existing customer looking to stay loyal to o2.  The operator assured me that the shops were actually ‘cheaper’ than the online prices which is an outright lie!  The ending to this conversation was that I could still upgrade at a Carphone Warehouse which is cheaper than o2. 

11/10/2012 I visited my nearest Carphone Warehouse and attempted to upgrade – the sales advisor in CPWH got to the first stage of the upgrade and was met with a screen that stated I was still locked into a 12 month Simplicity tariff and unfortunately he had no power to override this – he said that I could ask o2 to update my file which would give him the ability to override the Simplicity tariff and upgrade me to the iPhone 5.  He gave me use of the shop landline and I contacted o2 customer services.  Upon explaining to o2 that I was in CPWH and attempting to upgrade I was told that o2 couldn’t override it for CPWH to do the upgrade but they were happy to carry out the upgrade there and then themselves.  This was obviously an embarrassing situation as I’m in a ‘rival’ store using their facilities to make a call which resulted in them losing a sale.

I ended the call and redialled off my handset after explaining what was going on to guys in CPWH. 
Once I got back through to o2 I was told that I could upgrade but the phone would take around 3 weeks to arrive – I accepted this and asked if it was possible to have my order shipped to store – this was not an option but I was informed that I could chose a work address if I liked.  I provided my work details but was told that my work address didn’t come up and that there was no option to overwrite the details.  Frustrated with this I agreed to have it delivered to my home address ven though this would mean a 30mile trip to my local courier depot to collect it.

The very next day I received a text message telling me my delivery was on its way and would be with me between 17.06 – 18.06 that day (24 hours not 3 weeks!) – I did note that delivery address was an incorrect version of my work address.  I called DPD [the courier for the package] and was told that I couldn’t alter the delivery address only o2 could, I called o2 and they said they couldn’t. 

My allocated time slot came and went and despite the building being occupied the given address doesn’t exist so the package was returned to the DPD depot – I logged onto the DPD website and rescheduled my package to be collected from their depot the next day at 14.00.

13/10/2012 I went to the DPD depot [a 40 minute walk away] armed with my passport, driving license and 2 utility bills as this is the minimum they would accept as an Identity check.  They checked my I.D. and noted that it didn’t match my delivery address [as it was a non-existing address that o2 put in].  The said if I called o2 and o2 faxed them a letter to confirm my home address they would release the package to me.

I called o2 and was on hold for ages - when I got through I was put on hold for even longer whilst the operator called the DPD depot to find out more.  I have no idea what conversation took place between o2 and DPD but the result was that the best they could do was to redeliver it to the same address the next day…the address that doesn’t exist!

The call was ended and I walked the 40minutes back to my office soaked from rain and thoroughly upset with o2.  I called back and cancelled my order as there was little point in redelivery to nowhere. [this was 4 weeks ago and I’ve still not received a refund on the handset that I paid for upfront] *update from the letter, I’ve since called 202 and said what’s happening and they put me through to CPWH who didn’t know the phone had been returned and are sending me a cheque in the next 14 days – add clearance time to that and o2/CPWH will have had £299 of mine for the best part of 7 weeks!]

16/10/2012 I called o2 to switch my contract to a 30day Simplicity tariff as I no longer wanted the restriction of a long-term contract. [The guy I spoke to was the first person to ask me if everything was OK – he was polite but obviously his role did not extend to anything that could fix my situation].

19/10/2012 I called and requested a PAC code as I was considering moving, this was met with no resistance and left me with no inkling that I was a valued customer.  I briefly explained the problems I had encountered but felt that the operator had no power to do anything to right this despite being part of the ‘retention’ team.  I received my PAC code within minutes. [I was told it would take a min of 3 days so it’s good that its faster but bad that these little inconstancies keep stacking up]

I reflected on the situation over the weekend and I convinced myself that this must have been a run of bad luck and I was willing to give o2 one more chance to put this right – which brings me to:

22/10/2012 I attempted to contact o2 via 202 and was greeted with the hold music for 10 minutes followed by a message that said the team I need to speak to were out of office hours and I should seek resolution online.  I logged onto o2.com and fired up the live chat.  I selected the relevant options suggesting that I wanted to upgrade and I was interested in the iPhone 5 – after 5 or so minutes I finally got through to ‘Vic’.

I quickly explained the situation and Vics response was ‘I have got a suggestion for you, if you want you can go for SIM only deal, here I'll give you the anytime upgrade option, so that you can go for any phone contract or any contract anytime you wish to go. To be very honest you'll be able to save a lot on this. It will make you very convenient’ I have no idea how this will make me convenient and this was in no way an answer to my question - he was offering me the deal I was already on!

When I explained this to Vic he came out with another gem; ‘How about going with the smart phone Galaxy ace, we have got some great deals with this phone’.  Obviously I had explained my interest in the iPhone 5 and this was disregarded – he’s suggested a tariff that I was already on and then a phone that’s a lesser spec than the one I already have – all this based on nothing but a guess work – he’d asked me no questions about what I do and don’t like, my user habits or preference on operating system – all key things when choosing a ‘smart’ phone.

Noting I was getting nowhere Vic suggested ‘You please visit there [the o2 shop] once, this time everything will be fine. Please do not worry for this’.  He signed off with a professional ‘smilie’ face 🙂
 
I knew that there was little point in visiting a store but I did as requested.  The lady initially tried to sell me an iPhone 4S despite me stating I specifically wanted an iPhone 5 – she said they only had a 64gb model in stock and that it was £450 on the £26 plan which I wanted.  I said that was more expensive that online and although I was only after the 32gb version I was more than happy to pay for the 64gb version if they could match the internet price.  She said there was no way of doing that despite the trouble I’d had and then spend some time trying to convince me that I should opt for a £63 contract which would lower the cost of the 64gb handset – I explained that over 18months this would cost me much more than the 2 year deal on the £26 contract but she didn’t understand my point and continued to push for the £63 contact despite it being much more than I needed to spend. 

I left the store and called 202 again to speak to the retention team one last time – I calmly explained everything and I was told that the model I wanted was out of stock on line and that I couldn’t order it in advance – basically I am left with no upgrade.

I’ve spend hours on the phone, online chat, in store, in CPWH and in delivery Depots.  No one has sincerely apologised, no one has the solution and I’m currently left with a 30 day rolling contract that is over and above what I want to be paying as I’m reluctant to commit to any longer without having the confidence that o2 want me as a service user.
I feel very undervalued as a customer and it appears that o2 don’t care about my situation on an individual basis.

I’m an extremely patient person, I didn’t complain when it took 4 attempts to unlock my phone when the original contract expired.  I didn’t complain when the network went down for 3 days in the summer and everyone got 10% compensation except me [as the system said I wasn’t affected despite having no signal for extended periods of time]. 

My point is I do not complain for the sake of it but I feel like this chain of events has given me no alternative options – I want somebody to take charge of this situation, make me feel valued and arrange for my upgrade as the way things are currently going I’ll be forced to move to a different network and this is the last thing I wish to do.

Put simply to make this right I would like:
•    A 32gb iPhone 5 in black, delivered to the correct address.
•    I would like it on the £26 24 month tariff
•    And I would really like an offer/something from o2 that says sorry for all the things

listed in this letter.
This brings me back to my first post where I’ve now been chasing a response from o2 who say they don’t know when they will respond to me and they have no search facility to find my complain in the system and let me know where it is in the ‘queue’.

If anyone’s still listening … well you’ll be the first people that have, thanks.