appalling and damaging customer service

Anonymous · ‎09-12-2009

This is a message I've just sent. Will follow up with what happens.
It is unconceivable that paying customers are treated so badly.

O2's Customer Service's mistakes have already uselessly costed me
a lot of time and will likely cost me more time and more money. I
am likely going to lose all my contacts, extremely important phone
calls I'm due to receive in these coming days, and to pay a month's
contract for a SIM card I won't be able to use.
All of this for their utter incompetence.

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On 3rd Dec I called to close (not renew) my monthly contract, due to expire on 13th Jan.
I asked to be left with this number, as I wanted to continue using it with Pay as you go.
I asked and I was confirmed that the switch to the PAYG SIM would happen on 31st Dec.

On 7th Dec I received a text from you saying the switch will happen on 10th Dec.
I don't want this, I'm not ready yet, I want this on 31st Dec as agreed in my call with you.
I don't want to pay for both PAYG and for a contract SIM I won't be able to use anymore.
I haven't received the new SIM card yet: how can you give such a short notice anyway?
You switch my contract SIM three weeks too early, and only give me three days' notice!
I haven't saved my contacts, and your stupid Bluebook doesn't even work with the iPhone!
Today I have received yet another text from you saying the switch will happen tomorrow.

Yesterday and today I spent about 2 hours with you without sorting out anything at all.
You haven't even been able to tell me if, once you switch me over to the PAYG SIM card before the contract's expiry date, I will still have to pay for the contract until its end!

If you indeed switch my contract SIM off tomorrow, as soon as I receive the PAYG SIM card, I will just chuck it in a toilet, and never use it.

The customer service you provided me so far is abysmal, appalling, and laughable.

Name Surname

Anonymous · ‎09-12-2009

Surely they just convert your account to PAYG, you don't need a new SIM. That's certainly what happened last year.

As for contacts etc, these shouldn't be on your SIM. If you've got an iPhone iTunes will have synced them with your PC. (As would a Nokia/SonyEricsson etc).

I agree that it was inconvenient that the switch happened too early, but I think a properly worded letter/email of complaint would be far more effective than a rant which descends to insults. I think its always a good idea to let your understandable frustration subside before complaining, lest you say something you regret.

Anonymous · ‎10-12-2009

Ten minutes after I wrote the post yesterday, I received a phone call from a O2 customer service representative.

She asked on what day I would like the switch of my number from contract to PAYG to happen. We agreed on making this on the 10th January (since my contract is due to expire on 13th January).

I soon received three automated emails from O2 letting me know that my new order was in their system (which apparently is only down when it comes to give support, but not for new orders) and that my new SIM card will arrive to me as soon as possible. They even designed the parcel to fit through a standard mail letterbox, to ensure there's no delay in receiving it!

I was hoping this was a replacement PAYG SIM card, due to be activated on 10th January, and that they'd cancelled the previous PAYG SIM card. More importantly, as the CS person clearly told me, that they had cancelled the deactivation of my contract SIM card.

--

However this morning, my contract SIM card has been disconnected.
And I still don't know if O2 intends to bill me for the contract until its end or not.

Now I have a useless SIM card (my iPhone has no service), and I don't have the new PAYG SIM cards yet. It seems I will soon have two O2 SIM cards to throw away without using them.

--

This is worse that appalling.

O2's customer is exclusively aimed at retain or acquire new customers, not at helping them.
They made sure to send me another SIM card as soon as possible, but have done absolutely nothing to solve the trouble they caused me in the first place through their mistakes.

--

I still keep hope, and will switch off and on the iPhone today a few times, just in case they kindly re-activate my SIM card. Needless to say, I've so far always paid my bills in time.

Anonymous · ‎10-12-2009

Thank you for your attempt to help, and also for your pearls of wisdom.

O2 has said they sent me no less than two PAYG SIM cards, contrary to what you write.
I know they can be found in iTunes (though not as easily as with Nokia's software),
but that's not the point, anyway. I should not need doing this in the first place.

Did you read properly what happened? What letter should I write with 3 (three) days' notice?
O2's CS has made a very obvious mistake, which is damaging for me, and are unable or unwilling
to solve it. They're only keen in sending me a new SIM card. This is not what I need or want.
Why should I be inconvenienced in not only wasting hours on 202, but also in writing letters?
What did you find insulting in my letter? And what's the slightly threatening tone you used?

Are you a O2 employee? (I'm not interested anyway). What's truly insulting here is only the hours I have already had to waste on an issue which is none of my fault, and all of theirs!

Too many utility customers (not just of O2) seem happy to put up with crappy service.
Is expecting good value for good money (or do you find O2's tariffs cheap?) asking too much?

The truth is, we should never ever make 12- or 18-months contracts with companies who show no respect or willingness to help their customer, once they're hooked and bound in a contract.

(The above are all rhetoric questions, answers are not expected nor desired).

Anonymous · ‎10-12-2009

I will keep a positive attitude, and of course post here any positive, hoped-for outcome.

My initial message, or the following messages, was not meant to be an idle rant (writing takes time, dear prking, and I've got better things to do), but just as a last resort in constructively trying to solve my problem. It might perhaps be useful to other people, too.

Of course I've always been kind and patient on my phone calls with O2's CS, patiently waiting up to 30+ minutes each time, patiently being passed over between departments and patiently repeating all the same informations again and again to each representative I talked to.

Trouble is, now they can't even call me, nor can I call them. They'll need using email.

I still hope my contract SIM will be reactivated soon, for which I will thank O2's CS.

Anonymous · ‎10-12-2009

Thanks for your comments, very useful and appreciated,
and for the correction to my English (I've made other
spelling mistakes as well), always in need of improvement.

While I don't agree with you that my post or attitude was hostile
or that the questions were disguised, I take on board the general
idea of your message: you're certainly pretty much right.

--

One thing that certainly wasn't clear in my message: I didn't write
here to ask other users for advice, but only to communicate in another
way with O2's CS, which are obviously reading this forum. This has worked.

Also, when people read a post like mine, they can't know the full story
behind, which would always be too long and inconvenient to quote in full.

What I'm saying is, it's way too easy to judge someone else's
words as "rant" without knowing the full story.

--

Marco

Anonymous · ‎10-12-2009

I've just switched my iPhone back on, and surprise surprise: the signal is back!

I was told twice, during my conversations with O2's CS, that it would be impossible to
cancel the contract SIM card deactivation, once the process was started, and also to
reactivate the contract SIM card once it was deactivated.

Things can be done, one just need to have the skills, knowledge and willingness to do them.
And, I kind of think this wouldn't have happened, hadn't I written in this forum. Thanks.

--

To tell the truth, O2's CS representatives, despite sometimes not knowing things they should know, or giving contradictory answers between them, have always been extremely kind.

Also, in the past I have been twice swiftly offered refunds for wrong charges, without having to insist too much. Spot on, although it'd have been even better if they didn't charge me wrongly in the first place, causing me to spend time phoning their customer support.
In this instance I've been offered a 10£ refund for these troubles: looking forward to it.

--

Thanks very much to O2's CS for finally solving the problem.

Anonymous · ‎10-12-2009

The point is, if your complaint is a poorly written diatribe then it is difficult for people to even understand your post. If you stick to facts and don't embellish, you will get much further.

This is a customer forum, you are not speaking to O2 representatives. If you think about the registration process, it would not even be possible to identify your account.

Your SIM being inactive and then coming back to life is a classic example of an account being migrated (eg contract to pay as you go).

Anonymous · ‎25-01-2010

So on 10th December my contract SIM was disconnected in the morning,
and later reconnected at about noon the same day.

Meanwhile I had finally received the PAYG SIM, due to become active on 10th January.
(BTW, upon transferring my old number on the new SIM, which for about a day had the
old number, they "forgotten" to transfer the bolt-on I had purchased; my credit went
to 0 (on a iPhone) rapidly, it took me hours on the phone and in the shop to get this
credit back, and I could only get the bolt-ons by topping up again £15.00).

On 04/01/2010 I have received (online) this bill:

Description.....................................Amount
My tariffs.......................................79.40
My monthly extras.................................0.00
What I've used
......Calls.......................................2.75
......Messages....................................1.53
......Mobile internet browsing and downloads......0.19
Other charges & credits..........................-5.00

Total before VAT.................................78.87
VAT..............................................15.15

Total new charges................................94.02
Total amount due................................£94.02

This is the detail of the relevant part, the "My Tariffs" section:
O2 35 on iPhone.........11 Dec 09 - 03 Jan 10...-23.06
O2 35 on iPhone.........10 Dec 09 - 29 Jan 10....48.65
O2 35 on iPhone.........10 Dec 09 - 03 Jan 10....24.02
O2 35 on iPhone.........04 Jan 10 - 03 Feb 10....29.79

Total tariff....................................£79.40

I can't even begin to understand how their system could charge twice for the same item over the same period.
Yes, there's a £23.06 credit, but it's compensated by a £24.02 debit, and there's a "duplicated" charge overlapping the same period of £48.65, so 10/12/09-03/01/10 is effectively charged twice.
And what worried me even more, the charge for the period 04/01/2010-03/02/2010 seemed to imply the contract was to be extended beyond 29/01/2010.

During various lengthy phone calls, I was assured the bill was wrong, and several times advised to cancel my direct debit, and wait for the correct "true" bill to be issued. I asked many times by phone and email O2 to cancel the direct debit on their end, as it doesn't seem appropriate to me for a customer to cancel a direct debit unilaterally, or at least to tell me to cancel it in writing, via an email. O2 CS staff declined to do either, while insisting that I cancel my DD to avoid the wrong charges, which I did. I was many times assured the amended bill would be issued soon, and I said I would pay it straight away.

Today 25th January I've received this "amended" bill:
Description.......................................Amount
My tariffs.........................................-4.80
My monthly extras...................................0.00
What I've used
......Calls.........................................0.29
......Messages......................................0.00
......Mobile internet browsing and downloads........0.00

Total before VAT...................................-4.51
VAT................................................-0.79

Total new charges..................................-5.30
Balance brought forward............................94.02

Total amount due..................................£88.72

This is the detail of the relevant part, the "My Tariffs" section:
O2 35 on iPhone.......12 Jan 10 - 03 Feb 10.......-22.10
O2 35 on iPhone.......11 Jan 10 - 29 Jan 10........17.30

Total tariff......................................-£4.80

This bill is still wrong, and I'm not going to pay it.
I have already requested O2 CS to look into this and issue the "correct" bill,
writing to the two email addresses they normally used to communicate with me.
As everybody can also see below, my "tariff" was regularly
paid until the 03 Jan 2010. Given that my contract expired
on 31st January, on the last "true" "amended" bill the net
tariff should be (03rd Jan to 31st Jan) less than £29.79,
not 79.40 (bill of 04/01), not 79.40-4.80 (bill of 25/01).

For comparison, this is the last "normal" bill I had received,
on 4th Dec 2009; all my previous bills are similar to this, in
particular the "tariff" was always 29.79 per month. Of course,
all my bill were duly paid up until this one below:

My tariffs
......O2 35 on iPhone.......04 Dec 09 - 03 Jan 10.....29.79
What I've used
......Calls.............................................4.61
......Messages..........................................5.00
......Mobile internet browsing and downloads............0.03
Total before VAT.......................................39.43
VAT.....................................................5.91

Total new charges......................................45.34
Total amount due......................................£45.34

I have lost count of how many hours on the phone this has cost me.
I am speechless. I am waiting for the amended bill, hoping that
O2 will not give me more troubles, esp. with the credit score.

Anonymous · ‎25-01-2010

mail sent to mycare ,
O2 Select Service

In the last bill of 25/01/2010 you amended my "tariff" by discounting
£4.80 from the original (WRONG) £79.40 on the bill of 04/01/2010.

My monthly net tariff of 29.79, was regularly paid until 03/01/2010.

For the period 04/01/2010 - 31/01/2010 (or 03/02/2010) the tariff
charge should be as usual, that is maximum £29.79 net.

Please amend this bill properly.
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