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?

[Anonymous]

I am wondering why as well ... I think the top management is committed like any other big corporation but its not working through at the bottom and the Quality of Service is just absolutely poor.. The people on chat need more and more training they should read the notes before they talk to customers .. I was literally sick of keep explaining my problem but the end result is still zero ... If you noticed the waiting time to get through to a customer services representative is not high but the QoS and their competency is certainly have a big question mark ..

I am so annoyed the way the have dealt with my problem that I will leave o2 at my earliest.

And I will also email the CEO and other top management so they they should know what their lieutenant are Upto.

[Toby]

Hi guys,

Thank you very much for these posts, they are incredibly informative and I can pass ion these views.
I'm glad you have had the chance to be able to post your views here.

@jo5ephedward55: let me know how you get on next time you speak to Customer service.

Cheers, Toby

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Your experience was rather long, had to read the post twice. Don't worry, I also joined the community to voice my concerns over the incompetance of O2.

Online - On Phone - In Store: They all have sepparate systems but can log into certain parts of each others database. I discovered this some time ago when I had a problem. Similarly the prices are also different, sales guys are always wanting to make a 'raise' and are in fact competing with alternate purchase avenues.

You have to be smart when negotiating a deal, against phone sales people you could potentially lose every time due to the deals for iPhone's being the same across most networks/resellers.

19/09/2012 - You should have raised a complaint there and then and ignored everything the fella you spoke to was claiming, have your upgrade call listened in to. Proved O2 wrong instantly. I despise lying sales people. Maybe the culture encouraged by O2 is comission based jobs where "top sales" people are actually liars tricking people into verbal agreements on recorded calls.

@ O2 endorsing Carphone Warehouse as the place to buy iPhone and asking you to que up outside a store? Ha, my instant response would be to ask how much I was getting paid to do O2's job in getting an iphone 5 for me.

11/10/2012 - I didn't know you could upgrade contracts with O2 through resellers? You do realise you were asking a whole different business (CPWH) to upgrade a O2 contract... If O2's systems are not internally connected properly, they can't possibly allocate system over rides to a third party company.

@O2 work address issue - It's funny how O2 does not trust their own employees judgement when selecting addresses, must be some fraud prevention tactic. Even with the help of this fool proof CRM system, the stupid advisor still manages to select your work address regardless of the agreement you made at point of purchase to have items delivered to home. He must have a) completed the purchase on the system without you having agreed to where you want it delivered. b) delivered to an adress he knew was not accurate to mess up your order.

13/10/2012 - Can't blame courier for this, atleast we have faith in someone who does not release packages to the wrong adress / people right?

22/10/2012 - The O2 store might have been encouraging staff to sell iPhone 4s in the background.

Idiots.

Your complaint will probably be dealt with. update us on the reply you get, they will probably offer to call you or claim they tried to call you on their first reply. Before any further upgrade talk, you need to resolve what actually happened during your chain of events.

Get the calls listened in to, for O2 to find evidence of their failings - deceitful sales people and endorsement of third parties, making you run around trying to get an upgrade and intentionally sending items to the wrong address. That is quite a disgusting attitude towards sales and delivery, accurate data capture and verbal agreements.

In my opinion, O2 community coordinator's  should pick up this matter and ensure things are being dealt with correctly from here onwards. Ensure your complaint and concerns are raised and dealt with ASAP because the staff you spoke to are still "on the floor" selling and processing delivery requests. I am no mystic meg but some years from now it's situations like this that will change O2 into the network that used to be the best.

Toby you have every opportunity to be internally copied into this complaint. Send this unfortunate user a free iPhone5 with standard discount off all bills for the remainder of your contract or something shockingly good to cover for what seems to be a shockingly bad experience.

[Liquid]

I'm really sad to hear about this:( makes a refreshing change to see well written constructive complaints:)

I sincerely hope O2 will get their act back together 😞 I was always fairly impressed with CS but there's been a rather steep decline in standards over the past 4-5 months.

My last phone call to CS didn't end in a great way. I can understand everyone's stressed about money and so on but to be CS you really should leave home and work separate and not transfer your anger to customers.

[Anonymous]

I think the best course of action would be to email the top management. I have had similar sort of problem with sky and I think they were even worst and I had to email all the top dogs .... Result I was sorted like I am a VIP ... got free broadband for 6 months and vouchers and to date when ever I ring sky I am treated like some one very special .... In a competitive market like today's o2 do not need any competitors or enemy their own very people are enough to do the damage..I hope sense will prevail .........

[Anonymous]

Update.

Today whilst I was in a meeting I received 4 missed calls from ‘unknown’ – no VM left.

Just got home and found this in my inbox [I've not called him back]:

Hi Joseph

Thanks for your email.

I’m replying via email. I’ve tried calling you today, my calls keep ringing out to your voicemail service.

I’m sorry to learn it seems like you’ve experienced a catalogue of errors recently. All you’ve wanted to do was move onto a SIM only deal and then look at a new iPhone 5 deal. I can appreciate your frustration, especially when the order was completed, we got delivery address wrong.

The order is showing as a return on 12 October, The Carphone Warehouse (CPW) are arranging to refund you the cost of the phone. They’re sending you a cheque for £299.99.

Rather than addressing each individual point, I’ve sent a copy of your complaint to an operations manager who works in customer service. I’ve asked them to review the service we’ve offered you. I hope we can take some learning from your experience, if anything to stop other customers following a similar path. This does include the Web chat, delivery address etc. They’ll deal with this directly, thanks for letting me know.

When we launched the iPhone 5, depending on how you ordered the iPhone 5 would govern where the stock came from. In certain circumstances, we’ve become an agent of CPW. This is to make sure that as many of our customer can get an iPhone 5 if they need one.

The delivery address should’ve been checked back with your before we did the order. This would’ve prevented the issues with our courier and then us wasting your time. I’m sorry we let you down with this.

A similar attention to detail on the Web Chat could’ve shown the advisor understood your needs, knew which tariff you were on etc.

At present, you’re on the 30 day SIM only contract.

In reviewing your experience, I can offer the deal you want including the iPhone 5 32 GB in black. The cost of the phone should be £299.99, I can reduce this cost down to £150 meeting you half way.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Please ring me on 0845 330 0684 if you’ve got any more questions. I’m available Monday to Friday, between 8.30am and 4.30pm.

Kind regards

Martin Nicholson | Telefónica UK Limited

[macblank]

glad to see finally escalations have contacted you and are sorting it out for you.

save that email address for future use. I have a similar email addy that I keep for problems I know CS can't deal with or wouldn't deal with.

[Anonymous]

Sadly it’s just sent from a generic e-mail address but I'll be calling him on Monday - may as well accept this as its a £150 however I dress it up...I'll be interested to see if they can get it to the correct address this time - when it’s in my hand I'll be sure to mark this as answered...I think I'll leave it open until that point

I notice the o2 re-cycle prices are pretty good on the iPhone 4 at the moment too so it looks like my upgrade will work out as good as free.

Thansk for the support guys.

[macblank]

if your local O2 shop is convenient why not kill 2 birds etc!!!

I know the email is generic, but it does work if u should ever need help above CS level. hopefully u won't!

if when reading in here (generally speaking) u feel someone may need that email. send them a PM as I know they won't want u sharing it to everyone

[Zombie_Fried]

The CEO is on twitter ask him, he might answer but doubt it.

deleted the direct link to his twitter dont want to get in trouble for putting a full name on. but a quick search on twitter will find him..