Eltham Store O2 Eleanor flagged a genuine customer as an imposter

[krazzywind]

Hi,

The night of 20th April my phone was stolen from a pub.

I couldn't reach any one at 9pm and waited until 8am next day to report stolen phone. The O2 customer service advised that I should go to the store to get a new sim sooner with my id to help with the verification process.

I go to Eltham store at 10 am and I meet this lady Eleanor . She asks for iD proof. I give it to her and she scans it. She then asks me memorable word characters and I pass that. She asks me the bank from which I pay. I give her a wrong card details as I didn't remember which bank account my money goes from. Please note that i had no access to my bank accounts due to lost phone. She says that my driving license address doesn't match my address on driving licence and I should bring it to get the sim.I go home to get the address proof but by now I already got vibes from her about she not doing this right.

In the afternoon 1pm I had some evidence of that address and hence go to the Woolwich store and I pass all the security checks. But the person (Daud) isn't able to give me the sim. Now he advises me to call customer service and Shahid  (from customer service)tells me  that the lady from Eltham store had reported me as an imposter /fraud.

Just because I failed security questions, does it make me fraud. Do you think I anticipated theft and I was going to revise my security questions all my life until then.

You know what Shahid (customer service) told me that it will take 30days to get this fixed.

My day job depends on my phone as I can't authenticate myself with that at work. Who will  be responsible for it.

Please fix this thing as soon as possible.

I would like to escalate this to the highest authority and will message customer protection about this trouble.

My bank accounts are locked, my emails are locked as they all require 2 factor authentication. 

I am distressed and want immediate resolution. Also I need immediate action against Eltham store  personnel for making my life miserable. 

[Enlli · Accepted solution]

Sadly, as this is a Customer to Customer Community with nobody from O2 who will read your post all we can do is refer you back to O2 in the hope you get someone who can help 

Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

[Bambino]

@krazzywind I'm not sure what you expected the employee at the Eltham store to do? You gave her incorrect security information, your address didn't match, and you didn't have your license with you. Was she supposed to just shrug that off and issue you with a new sim? I don't see why any action should be taken against her for doing her job.

[krazzywind]

Looks like you didnt read it properly. I gave her my driving license and she verified it. How can she still flag me as an imposter.  She asked me to also bring an address proof and I went home to get it. How can she flag me for the fraud whilst I was doing that.

[Bambino]

@krazzywind You wrote in your initial post: "She asks me the bank from which I pay. I give her a wrong card details as I didn't remember which bank account my money goes from. Please note that i had no access to my bank accounts due to lost phone. She says that my driving license address doesn't match my address on driving licence and I should bring it to get the sim."

Why would you go to a store to report a stolen phone without identification with you? You then went to a different store instead of going back to Eltham. I don't know why you think anyone is to blame for this but yourself.

[madasaf1sh]

@Bambino 

100% agree and this would set red flags off on any fraud system, as the op has failed to provide the information required failed on 2 of the verification options, and I would say if I was to show this to our customer risk and fraud team, they would say the same... 

The staff in store in my opinion have done the right thing...