How difficult can it be to top up a new PAYG -SIM? Very difficult it seems with O2...

[JeanMichelJarre]

Worst experience ever.

Ordered a new PAYG SIM last week so I could still use my old phone that I recently upgraded as a spare.  Was hoping it would arrive on Monday as I would be away from home until Friday, but it didn't show until Wednesday as it happened.  Not a biggie as I can just get it going on Friday (today) now I'm back.

But, got got cold-called by someone from O2 on Tue evening under the guise of 'helping me understand my new PAYG SIM' but it was in fact just an attempt to upsell me to a contract as it slowly transpired over the course of the call.  Once I realised it was just a sales pitch, told them I wasn't interested.  Pretty annoying as it wasn't a great time to be called (just after I got back from work) and it was just a fake sales call disguised as a 'help service'.

Well, tried setting up my new SIM today.  Put it in the old spare phone and installed the o2 app.  Multiple attempts to load the SIM from my app failed and the app implied I should chase it up with my credit card provider.  Weird, as I was getting requests on my banking app to authorise the transaction so the card was surely fine?  Anyway,  I duly wasted half an hour with the CC to establish that there was absolutely no problem/block on my card and that they could see O2 requesting the payment, me authorising it on my banking app, and them not taking it for some reason.

OK, managed to get a helpline number via a bit of internet searching and called them on the old phone via the new PAYG SIM (it was a free call on the o2 SIM, otherwise would have been pricey).  They started off by asking me a series of seemingly pointless questions which tuned out to be ANOTHER attempt to upsell me to a contract.  Told them no, I just wanted to get my PAYG SIM loaded.  Then they said they'd have to check - the line went absolutely dead quiet for over 20mins but I was on a bluetooth headset and it was of course a free call so stayed on.   Eventually, the rep got back and said that the SIM had needed to be activated (nothing about that in the instructions .. Just put the sim in, call 4444 or use the my02 app) and they'd now done that.  Advised me to use the dial-on 4444 service to top up next.  Strange, would have thought that the app would be fine but whatever....

Dialed in to 4444 .. went through the most tortuous voice-menu system ever as each step was trying to sell me something .. and finally put in my CC number to be told that the card couldn't be loaded!!!!!!!!!

OK, maybe power cycle the phone and try again with 4444 ... nope.

Try the app again - still a fail.  Try another CC I have .. still a fail.  Try my debit card ... still a fail.

Literally hours of my time wasted, the new SIM still not usable for me (though clearly it works as I get txts from o2 on it and I could use it to call the helpline) and absolutely ZERO desire to waste any more of my time or buy an o2 service ever again.

Still, it was cathartic to type this rant so thanks for providing this forum, I guess.

[JeanMichelJarre]

It's not like I'm 'leaving' anything ... I thought I'd buy a PAYG SIM to get use out of my old phone after I bought a new handset and transferred my existing SIM (not O2) to that.

I will be pleased to see if any other provider can match the level of 'service' that I had experienced with this supposedly easy task.  All I wanted to do was drop a PAYG SIM into an older phone.

It started with going to the local O2 store to get a SIM after I saw the PAYG offer online but they said they only had a limited variety of offerings which didn't include those offers.  I would have thought that all they needed was to provide an O2 SIM and I could be put on whatever offering but apparently not ...

Never mind, ordered the SIM which arrived after I was away for a few days on work.  In the meantime recieved a cold call from O2 purporting to be about 'explaining PAYG' but which was just about trying to get me to upgrade to a yearly contract.  Although the guy selling it kept insisting it was all about helping me with the SIM.  That went on for almost quarter of an hour.  An utterly surreal experience and not what I wanted after a day at work.

Then when I got the SIM and followed the accompanying instructions only to have my card payment repeatedly declined and having the app direct me to my credit card company where I wasted half an hour establishing that my card was fine.

Then a bizarre call to 'Customer Support' which began with them again trying to upsell me to a contract rather then address my issue.  Followed by over 20 mins of silence .. then being told that they had 'activated' the SIM and directed to use 4444 to top up instead of the app  (which proved equally futile).  I suspect that they hoped I would hang up when they went silent and when I was still on over 20 mins later,  then had to tell me something to get me to free up the line ... 🤔

And to top it all, now O2 are texting to the old phone with the SIM in it, urging me to top up to use my PAYG SIM.  LOL, you couldn't make it up.

If I do manage to get a worse experience with another provider than what I have experienced here, I will happily post it for information.

The thing is, I used to have an O2 phone contract many years back and was actually happy with it.  I also used an O2 PAYG data tariff for a couple of years with a 3G dongle and was also very happy with the service.  This current service experience has been shockingly awful.

[MI5]

@JeanMichelJarre 

You can get a voucher from your corner shop, no need to go to an O2 store.