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Terrible customer service outsourced to Capita

NFH
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My girlfriend had a bad experience with O2 customer services last week, and as a consequence, she will port her number away as soon as the 12-month minimum contract term finishes in early October, despite having been an O2 customer for almost 10 years.

She pays £5 per month for 500 minutes and 500MB on a 12-month contract. She hardly makes any calls. She resets her iPhone's data counter at the beginning of each billing month and keeps a close eye on her usage. O2 frequently alleges that she has used her entire 500MB data allowance when her iPhone says that she has not, and then they cut off her mobile data with an invitation to pay 3 times her usual price per megabyte for a 100MB bundle of data. For example, in the last billing month, her iPhone said her usage was for "Current Period" 455MB and for "Current Period Roaming" 70.7MB, at which point O2 cut off her mobile data.

When she complained to O2, she spoke to someone at Capita in South Africa, whose name I shall abbreviate to Farouk D, which should be enough for O2, but not the general public, to identify him. She sent him a screenshot of the data counter by e-mail.

 

  1. First he claimed incorrectly that the iPhone data counter's "Current Period" figure is domestic usage only which does not include the "Current Period Roaming" figure and that the two figures need to be added together. My girlfriend explained that this was untrue because if the data counter is reset while roaming, both figures increase together and show the same value.
  2. Then he claimed incorrectly that the iPhone data counter, and all other smartphones' data counters, count the data used in a calendar month, as opposed to since the date that the counter was last reset. I took over the call at this point and explained how iPhone data counters work.
  3. Then he pointed out correctly that iPhones constantly use data in the background, but incorrectly claimed that background data is not counted by the data counter. I also corrected him on this point.
  4. Then he suggested that my girlfriend had reset the data counter after she started had using data in her current billing cycle. Although this is a plausible suggestion, it was irrelevant. She was using a Lithuanian SIM card (€1.49 for 1.5GB at 100Mbps) at the beginning of the billing month and later inserted her O2 SIM card when entering Latvia, and reset the data counter before her iPhone connected to a network.
  5. Then he suggested that the screenshot of the data counter was taken from another device. My girlfriend had taken the call back at this point, and couldn't believe the absurdity of his allegation.


His approach seemed to be that the customer is always wrong, no matter what evidence they have to support their complaint. He was argumentative, kept interrupting and eventually hung up when my girlfriend asked to speak to his manager. Why should O2 customers have to put up with customer services fabricating such false information? Why can't customer services instead behave truthfully, knowledgeably and professionally?

Why doesn't O2 charge a simple per-megabyte price after a monthly allowance is consumed at a pro-rated amount of the allowance price? For example, if it's £5 for 500MB, then charge the same price of 1p/MB after the first 500MB. Charging £3 for an extra 10MB or 20MB (because the minimum bundle is 100MB) is absurdly expensive. Why does it have to be so complicated?

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MI5
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You are the second person to report what was an old o2/iPhone issue this last week.
I suspect we will get more in the ensuing weeks.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

Currently using:
Pixel 7a (O2 & Lyca), One Plus 6 (Sfr), iPhone 12 Pro Max (Vodafone)
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jonsie
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An old problem rearing it's ugly head again and outsourced customer service making it up. 

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NFH
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@MI5 wrote:
You are the second person to report what was an old o2/iPhone issue this last week.
I suspect we will get more in the ensuing weeks.

@MI5  - Please can you point me at some previous threads if this problem has been reported previously?

 

Although my post was about the poor customer service, rather than the technical problem itself.

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MI5
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This thread here https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/Sudden-data-usage/m-p/1067301#M134211
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

Currently using:
Pixel 7a (O2 & Lyca), One Plus 6 (Sfr), iPhone 12 Pro Max (Vodafone)
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NFH
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@MI5 wrote:
This thread here https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/Sudden-data-usage/m-p/1067301#M134211

Thanks, @MI5. The other thing I should mention is that my girlfriend never experienced this problem until she switched from her previous (much more expensive) 500MB/month tariff to her current 500MB/month SIM-only tariff.

 

The other thing that started happening at the same time was that she was suddenly without data at random times. Once it happened for so long that she visited an O2 shop, who swapped the SIM card, which cured the problem for several weeks. However, they also very stupidly reset her network settings, which deleted dozens of her wifi passwords, despite assuring her that it would not do so.

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MI5
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I suggest you keep records of all data used on a daily basis and build up your evidence file.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

Currently using:
Pixel 7a (O2 & Lyca), One Plus 6 (Sfr), iPhone 12 Pro Max (Vodafone)
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Martin-O2
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Hey @NFH I've sent you a private message about this so please take a look and get back to be when you can. wink

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