Poor Customer Service

[Anonymous]

I've been trying for over 2 weeks to renew a contract and upgrade my phome.

Do O2 really think its ok to continually expect customers to wait in excess of 30 minutes to talk to someone?

I've had it - you've lost another long term customer.

Vodaphone and EE actually answer their calls.

[cyrillicguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Or maybe if folk had a better understanding of the UK mobile phone industry. ...........

We have 4 networks in one of the most competitive countries in the world. The networks have committed to invest £5bn over a 4 year period yet profits are a FRACTION of this.

Add to that the fact OFCOM have sharply increased the fees paid by operators for spectrum this week.

Add into the mix that customers want that shiny new handset for free (subsidised) which costs the networks, you can then see the business case for the UK is not great.

Telefonica are looking to get out of the UK by selling o2 to Three.

Deutsche Telekom and Orange are also looking to exit the UK by selling EE to BT.

And talk is that Vodafone are thinking of exiting the UK if they cannot achieve quadplay scale by acquiring either Virgin Media from Liberty Global or Sky.

So as the networks make naff all in the UK compared to the heavy investment costs, perhaps now you can see why there are fewer customer service agents and more automated self help systems in place and believe me when I say it will only get worse UNLESS we are prepared to pay much more for our services (which for the main we don't) to enable them to make a return.

Frustrating - yes. But do I care that networks don't make much money? No. Why? Because it means we get value.

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I'm not sure if I agree. I can't see how 'understanding of mobile industry' is something that I, as a customer, have to show or learn about.

It's dead straightforward to me - tell me what are you offering, tell me what the costs are, be truthful about it. Simples

If providing customer service of acceptable quality costs networks more, then ok, put the prices up. Give people a choice perhaps - cheaper tariffs with no/limited support and more expensive ones with proper support, or whatever other strategy...it's not up to me to educate service providers how to diversificate their offerings.

What my expectancies are is getting what is says on the tin. If you claim to have Customer Support, then do provide a proper one - competent agents, minimum queuing times, effective schemes of problem solving, be flexible to adapt to the busier periods, etc. If you can't provide one - be upfront about what you can provide then, tell me what to expect, don't bullcrap me about how you are 'here to help' when in reality you are not. Be honest, tell me that in order to, say, get a guaranteed maximum queuing time of no more than X min., I'd have to pay an extra £Y/month - I might want that, some other people might as well, some people might not.

It's like if airlines were promising great experiences on board, but then decided to get rid of the seats on their planes forcing passengers just to pile up on the floor. Would someones then tell me that I'd have to 'show better understanding of the air transportation industry', as the fuel prices go up, airport fees go up, etc.? '

I want is a truthful info about what I am geting for my money, including all the factors that form my entire user experience. And, once that is established, I damn right would be expecting for that experience to be consistent.

[Anonymous]

@Cleoriff -am I the angry person you're referring to? If so, I haven't ridiculed or abused you. I also haven't had a rant or rave or resorted to dirty tricks.

I'm blowing off steam.
Cryllicguy gets it.
As customers there's nothing we can do to get back at companies as big as O2.
They just don't care.

I don't want to upgrade through the online service, it's a cop out, it's easy, it's cheap for O2.
I want to talk to a customer service operator and negotiate my own deal, on my terms.
I don't want to pay the advertised price, I don't want to put any more of my hard earned cash in the pocket of O2's CEO than I have to.

Ask yourself why these companies have retention departments.
They're able to give you deals that aren't published.

At the moment I'm able to choose between 3 deals offered to me by 3 operators that will cost me considerably less that anything published.

Is that a dirty trick?

[cyrillicguy]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

I always say it very much depends on personal experience @cyrillicguy. I can only be confident of that. I have never queued for hours on a phone waiting to get through to O2 customer services. My longest wait time has been 9 minutes. Is that lucky? I don't know. It's just a fact from my perspective.

I sympathise with people waiting a long time....and those being messed about not knowing from one day to the next whether their phone will arrive on day of dispatch.

What I don't accept is being ridiculed and abused by angry people who come here to have their say and then don't agree with advice given in good faith.

O2 may have a lot to answer to in terms of customer service. So do people who come here to rant, rave and resort to dirty tactics all aimed at other customers who give their time freely to help. That is all

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Well, some people migh be a bit more emotional than others. We're all different

I personally keep 'as calm as a boa' most of the times, but my eyebrows do occasionally rise when I come across what I can describe as 'company apologists' now and then. (Not having a go at yourself or anyone in particular here, btw ).

To me, it's only natural to be a demanding customer (although yes, there are people who do 'go over the board' with their demands). Some might say that people are not recognizing good services,but are quick to criticize if anything goes wrong. Think of it though - we rarely get an exceptional service, and all the good service we get is... not so much good...it's just normal one, it's what you are within your rights to expect. Surely, you don't hear people saying - "What an exceptional service I got from the bus driver today. He wasn't even drunk, how amazing is that? And he didn't even tell me to hurry up da f... when I was a bit slow when getting off the bus! Brilliant, pass on my good feedback please!". That's because there is a bare minimum service quality we are within our rights expect. Too often though, mobile netwoks don't give that bare minimum of acceptable service quality, and this is why I'd more likely to show some support and understanding to the folks who express their anger about it (not in the best possible way sometimes) rather than to the 'company apogosists'.

[Cleoriff]

@Anonymous I was not referring to you at all. There were others who thankfully have had posts removed.

Everyone is entitled to blow off steam. I do it frequently. However on a public forum no-one is allowed to swear, or verbally abuse others who are simply giving advice.

There is a possibly a time and place for that sort of behaviour...it isn't on here. That was the point I was making.

.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused now.

Am I in the right or wrong?

😜

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure I missed those posts.

[Cleoriff]

@cyrillicguy I do not condone bad service. I am a nurse by background and always, without question, expected the highest standards from all my staff.

I am making no apologies for O2 or any other network who is failing to deliver an acceptable level of customer care. However I don't work for O2... I am a customer. Any advice I give on this forum is based on what I have learnt over 3 years of being a forum member.

If people want to complain about the lack of service they are getting then there is a process for that. Whether it has any effect at all remains to be seen. At the moment that is all we have as customers..... other than packing our bags and moving to another network in the hope that things are better elsewhere.

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I'm confused now.

Am I in the right or wrong?

😜

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Everyone has the absolute right to go wherever they get the best deal and network coverage.

Thankfully we live in a democracy that allows that freedom of choice...

[cyrillicguy]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

@cyrillicguy I do not condone bad service. I am a nurse by background and always, without question, expected the highest standards from all my staff.

I am making no apologies for O2 or any other network who is failing to deliver an acceptable level of customer care. However I don't work for O2... I am a customer. Any advice I give on this forum is based on what I have learnt over 3 years of being a forum member.

If people want to complain about the lack of service they are getting then there is a process for that. Whether it has any effect at all remains to be seen. At the moment that is all we have as customers..... other than packing our bags and moving to another network in the hope that things are better elsewhere.

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@Cleoriff before you start thinking that I was going to criticize you personally, let me assure you please that I was not

I was merely expressing my certain views and certainly had no intention of bringing all that to a personal level.

Peace

[Cleoriff]

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@cyrillicguy wrote:

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@Cleoriff wrote:

@cyrillicguy I do not condone bad service. I am a nurse by background and always, without question, expected the highest standards from all my staff.

I am making no apologies for O2 or any other network who is failing to deliver an acceptable level of customer care. However I don't work for O2... I am a customer. Any advice I give on this forum is based on what I have learnt over 3 years of being a forum member.

If people want to complain about the lack of service they are getting then there is a process for that. Whether it has any effect at all remains to be seen. At the moment that is all we have as customers..... other than packing our bags and moving to another network in the hope that things are better elsewhere.

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@Cleoriff before you start thinking that I was going to criticize you personally, let me assure you please that I was not

I was merely expressing my certain views and certainly had no intention of bringing all that to a personal level.

Peace

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And love @cyrillicguy

I certainly did not think you were aiming anything at me on a personal level