Don't Go near O2 Leases

[Anonymous]

O2 leases are a rip off. Do not go near them. I was told that after 12 months, they send you the newest latest phone. After 18 months with my phone, I had not seen another and so I called them up. They said they would send a new one, although the new lease would start again, which was fine. Nothing happened. Four month later, I called up to cancel my lease and get a PAC code. After two weeks of holding for useless call centre operatives, I eventually got my PAC code. Moving to EE was a breeze and I have never spent more than 5 minutes holding. My average with O2 is around 45 minutes. 

After 2 weeks, I got a threatening letter from O2 for not returning my old phone, despite being told O2 would sent return shipping materials. A few days later I got the materials from them (after another 1 hour call):whistler:. This is a pre addressed envelope. I packed everything up but because I don't trust O2, I paid extra to get the package tracked. I am glad I did, because two weeks later I get a letter saying I am being billed £290+vat for not returning the phone. Fortunately I had a tracking number and therefore proof that they are either incompetant or just lieing theiving morons.

I then had to make another long holding call to customer services to prove that they are useless. Once I gave them my tracking number and could prove it was their fault, they backed down.

Anyway, I hope the O2 saga is closed and I never have to deal with them again. I now pay less money a month to EE and I get:

10Gb, rather than 1Gb data

Unlimited calls and texts

4G+ data which has have speed tested at 41Mbps, as opposed to O2 3G at 500-700k.

No having to sit in hold queues for hours at a time. Hooray! 

[MI5]

A sorry tale, but even worse, not an uncommon one 😞

[viridis]

Ok I jumped on this thread direct to mi5's post and by going by title and mi5's response I'm gonna have a mystical guess.
1. The phone was returned damaged even though it was perfect when packed. Or..
2. On returning a leased phone they never received it. Or....
3. They completely messed up the lease but keep insisting they will sort it, and it's been over a month........

[viridis]

Number 2 with a hint of 3

[Anonymous]

Hi

Yes we've seen similar posts in the past 😄

If you feel strongly enough about your experience then perhaps make your issue more official here http://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain/complain

[Cleoriff]

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@viridis wrote:
Number 2 with a hint of 3

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And I will jump in as well...and say probably all of them....

However, on a positive note (apart from you now being lease free) Your use of emoticons exceed mine...and that is very hard to achieve....