O2 chat once again. Gotta laugh...or cry :)

[cyrillicguy]

Hi there

So I've damaged my O2 Pay&Go sim, ordered a new one, and once it has arrived went to the O2 chat in order to get my number transferred to a new sim.

Posting a transcript here, as to me it tells a thing or two about the O2 customer service as well as puts a kinda sad smile on my face.

info: Welcome to O2. Someone will be with you soon.
info: You're through to 'O2'
O2: Hi I'm *****. How can I help?
Eric: Hi
Eric: As I damaged my PayGo sim, I asked for a new one to be sent out to me
Eric: Now it has arrived, so I'd like to transfer my PayGo number, tariff, credit and alowances onto that new sim
Eric: could you help me with that?
O2: I'll help you in transferring your number.
O2: Can you help me with your old number and its SIM Serial number?
Eric: which one is the "old" number?

(I know it sounds like a stupid question to ask, but I did just in case )

O2: The one which is damaged.
Eric: it's 07*********
Eric: i don't know the serial number of that sim though
O2: Can you help me with the 2 numbers you frequently call or send text?
Eric: just a sec
Eric: *********** and ***********
O2: Thank you.
O2: Just give me a minute.
O2: Thanks for waiting.
O2: I'm sorry to say that this is a special number and we won't be able to take the request for this number.

("SPECIAL" NUMBER? :[ ] Any ideas what that could mean? )

O2: I'll help you with the link to send the request for the number transfer.
Eric: what do you mean by the "special number"
Eric: ?

O2: Click here (THE LINK LEADS TO http://swapmysim.o2.co.uk/)
O2: Special number is a specific series of numbers and we've specialized team on call which handles theie query.
O2: their*
Eric: so you gave me that link
O2: Click here to send the request for number transfer
Eric: Are you aware of the very first step your website asks me to do once I click that link?

A PAUSE....

Eric: hello?
O2: Yes, I'm with you.
Eric: Are you aware of the very first step your website asks me to do once I click that link?
O2: It ask you to enter the number.
Eric: it asks me to enter the number, so it can send me a verification text
Eric: how am I supposed to receive that text if my sim is damaged?
O2: Therefore I requested you to call our team. (NO, YOU NEVER )
O2: From your O2 mobile 4445 25p per call
O2: From a landline 0344 8090222 Standard UK Rate
O2: From abroad +44 7860 980 202 International rates

WELL, NOW YOU HAVE REQUESTED TO CALL THE TEAM

Eric: why you gave me the link then if it's clearly unusable
Eric: ?
O2: Opening times
O2: Monday - Friday 08:00 - 21:00
O2: Saturday 08:00 - 20:00
O2: Sunday 09:00 - 18:00
O2: We provide this link to call the customers for self serve.
O2: I'm sorry, if this would've been possible from my end, I'd have already helped you

Have a nice evening, folks

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous that was a fabulous interpretation of how someone else may see the conversation and I think what you say is fair about these people following a route to try and help.

But we are customers and we pay good money for our services. O2 are generally considered the most expensive of the networks. We have a right to great customer service and whether the OP was confused or not he/she did NOT get what they consider great customer service. They are still non the wiser as to what to do. They will now have to try again to sort it.

So Live Chat has failed.

That's my opinion.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous that was a fabulous interpretation of how someone else may see the conversation and I think what you say is fair about these people following a route to try and help.

Thanks!

But we are customers and we pay good money for our services. O2 are generally considered the most expensive of the networks. We have a right to great customer service and whether the OP was confused or not he/she did NOT get what they consider great customer service. They are still non the wiser as to what to do. They will now have to try again to sort it.

So Live Chat has failed.

That's my opinion.

---

Yes, you are correct, it has failed.  That is my point - we need to analyse the chat log to see how and why it failed.

But to be honest, if O2 brought this call centre to the UK, to reduce language and culture differences, you would be paying even more.

Lets try to improve the situation.  If we can, and give some feedback that makes live chat a lot better, it would be a BIG community achievement, that we could all be proud of.

Plus we'll make some friends in Delhi!  

[anticpated]

Indian meal next week. so better be careful what I say.

[Bambino]

In a word, no.

[cyrillicguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would like to put a different point of view, and explain where I think the problems lie:

info: Welcome to O2. Someone will be with you soon.
info: You're through to 'O2'
O2: Hi I'm Ariel. How can I help?
Eric: Hi
Eric: As I damaged my PayGo sim, I asked for a new one to be sent out to me
Eric: Now it has arrived, so I'd like to transfer my PayGo number, tariff, credit and alowances onto that new sim
Eric: could you help me with that?

OK, you explained clearly what you wanted.  Excellent.

O2: I'll help you in transferring your number.
O2: Can you help me with your old number and its SIM Serial number?

Reasonable information to request.

Eric: which one is the "old" number?

(I know it sounds like a stupid question to ask, but I did just in case )

O2: The one which is damaged.

All sensible conversation up to here.

Eric: it's 07*********
Eric: i don't know the serial number of that sim though

OK, not a big issue, but try to have this info to hand.

O2: Can you help me with the 2 numbers you frequently call or send text?
Eric: just a sec
Eric: *********** and ***********
O2: Thank you.
O2: Just give me a minute.
O2: Thanks for waiting.

So up until now the operator is polite and helpful.

O2: I'm sorry to say that this is a special number and we won't be able to take the request for this number.

("SPECIAL" NUMBER? :[ ] Any ideas what that could mean? )

Yes - a number allocated from a number range which is reserved for temporary allocations, data only sims, or which has been ported outside of O2.

I believe that your number was NOT such a number, but his system obviously told him it was.  Not the fault of the operator.

O2: I'll help you with the link to send the request for the number transfer.
Eric: what do you mean by the "special number"
Eric: ?

O2: Click here (THE LINK LEADS TO http://swapmysim.o2.co.uk/)
O2: Special number is a specific series of numbers and we've specialized team on call which handles theie query.
O2: their*
Eric: so you gave me that link

So here is the confusion.  O2 explains that there is a special team for this, but provides the standard website link.  Why?  This is the information the system gives him.  Requests to port the special numbers, (including reverse ported incorrectly ported numbers), WOULD be handled by a different department.  Eric thinks he is being fobbed off, because the link is just the normal one, but in some cases, it would be adequate.

O2: Click here to send the request for number transfer
Eric: Are you aware of the very first step your website asks me to do once I click that link?

A PAUSE....

Eric: hello?
O2: Yes, I'm with you.
Eric: Are you aware of the very first step your website asks me to do once I click that link?
O2: It ask you to enter the number.
Eric: it asks me to enter the number, so it can send me a verification text
Eric: how am I supposed to receive that text if my sim is damaged?

Realise that O2 doesn't know the type or extent of the damage.  Maybe it is just working unreliably.  They send out new sims to cure every problem these days.

O2: Therefore I requested you to call our team. (NO, YOU NEVER )

O2 clearly means "request", it is a common english grammatical error, (try speaking Hindi or any foreign language 100% correctly, and you'll see how hard it is).  He is not claiming that he previously told you this.  You think he is being rude/sarcastic/lying, whilst he is unaware of the confusion his small mistake has caused.

O2: From your O2 mobile 4445 25p per call
O2: From a landline 0344 8090222 Standard UK Rate
O2: From abroad +44 7860 980 202 International rates

WELL, NOW YOU HAVE REQUESTED TO CALL THE TEAM

And he provided all the info, including call charges.  Great.

Eric: why you gave me the link then if it's clearly unusable

See, you made a gramatical error in your own language.  It happens.

Eric: ?
O2: Opening times
O2: Monday - Friday 08:00 - 21:00
O2: Saturday 08:00 - 20:00
O2: Sunday 09:00 - 18:00
O2: We provide this link to call the customers for self serve.

Exactly, he had no idea that you would be unable to use it.

O2: I'm sorry, if this would've been possible from my end, I'd have already helped you

Polite and honest.

Reading through it and analysing what went wrong is actually much more fun than just taking the rise out of the call centre.

Try working in a job where you have to speak a foreign language and deal with people of a different culture.  It's not as easy as you think.

---

---

My apologies in case it sounded that I was trying to be particularly hard on that O2 chat agent who clearly could only work with the tools she had. However the fact that her ways of helping me were so badly limited by the O2's 'system'  does not really change my opinion of O2 chat as being useless (well,  in this particular instance anyway). By saying 'useless'  I don't mean that this particular advisor failed me,  it was,  once again,  the O2's 'system'  which failed me by presenting the O2 chat as the way of getting help when in my case I couldn't really get any. 

It was a trivial matter of porting my O2 number from one sim to another,  and I couldn't get it done.  Sounds like a failure to me.  

As for your "Try working in a job where you have to speak a foreign language and deal with people of a different culture.  It's not as easy as you think." line -  I could only take it as a compliment,  as it (probably)  means that people don't notice that English is not my first language  

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[Cleoriff]

I dont think you were being hard. You were telling us of your personal experience which didn't meet your needs and was a waste of your time. When we contact people for assistance, I think it is fair to expect they will have a certain level of knowledge and skill to meet the needs of the job they are being paid to do.

We only recommend live chat for low level, non account based queries. I think yours fell into that category.They didnt meet your needs...so they failed at even that level....

As for English not being your first language @cyrillicguy ...Congratulations then...who the hell would know? You had me fooled 

[cyrillicguy]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

I dont think you were being hard. You were telling us of your personal experience which didn't meet your needs and was a waste of your time. When we contact people for assistance, I think it is fair to expect they will have a certain level of knowledge and skill to meet the needs of the job they are being paid to do.

We only recommend live chat for low level, non account based queries. I think yours fell into that category.They didnt meet your needs...so they failed at even that level....

As for English not being your first language @cyrillicguy ...Congratulations then...who the hell would know? You had me fooled 

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[Bambino]

---

cyrillicguy wrote: 

---

My apologies in case it sounded that I was trying to be particularly hard on that O2 chat agent who clearly could only work with the tools she had. However the fact that her ways of helping me were so badly limited by the O2's 'system'  does not really change my opinion of O2 chat as being useless (well,  in this particular instance anyway). By saying 'useless'  I don't mean that this particular advisor failed me,  it was,  once again,  the O2's 'system'  which failed me by presenting the O2 chat as the way of getting help when in my case I couldn't really get any. 

It was a trivial matter of porting my O2 number from one sim to another,  and I couldn't get it done.  Sounds like a failure to me.  

As for your "Try working in a job where you have to speak a foreign language and deal with people of a different culture.  It's not as easy as you think." line -  I could only take it as a compliment,  as it (probably)  means that people don't notice that English is not my first language  

---

---

You have absolutely nothing to apologise for. Live Chat is useless, even for minor enquiries. If your English, both spelling and grammar, is as good as that, why can't theirs be? It's not up to the people who use this forum to educate the people working in Live Chat. O2 employs them. O2 should be educating them. They have supposedly been undergoing 'retraining' for the past year or so. If the transcript of your conversation is anything to go by, that 'retraining' has failed miserably.

As far as I'm concerened, I will continue to advise anyone posting on the forum to speak to Customer Services rather than use Live Chat. For most using it, it's a fruitless exercise, which is why they eventually come here for help.

[jonsie]

Sometimes  you have to experience it yourself to know just how bad it is. People c clicking on the contact link are sometimes led straight to chat but the number of times they get things wrong is unacceptable. 

[Anonymous]

I think it's amasing to see people who are normally very open minded having such a narrow minded vision when it comes to this issue.

It's easy to criticise and much more difficult to present a solution.

Nobody it seems is satisfied with the live chat, but what do you actually want from it?  Do you want to get rid of it altogether?  Better not, because CS will be loaded down with more calls and the service there will detreriorate.

If you think that O2 should have a team of fully trained telephone technical specialists in a UK based call centre, be realistic.  The cost would simply be too high.  That is why these services are outsourced abroad - to make them a financially viable option.  British people simply wouldn't do the job here.

As for the issues that they should be able to speak English well enough to resolve the problem, and the system shouldn't let them down, these are both valid points.  However, in the majority of examples I have seen here of chat logs, I don't see this as the source of the problem.  Most of the time, at the first mistake, the customer starts trying to pick holes in the service or 'score' over the advisor by pointing out the mistake in a sarcastic manner.

I have never worked in a call centre, but I have lived abroad for some time and I know that some people get real pleasure out of deliberately trying to pick holes in your mistakes.  Gets old really quickly and I just tend to loose the desire to converse with such people.  I imagine that the chat advisors do the same.

For example, in the lastest chat log, after Aerial gives the link out, I don't see the point in asking whether she knows what the website is going to ask, as a sarcastic way of saying that it won't work.  Almost certainly, the sarcasm bit would have gone completely over her head, because she wasn't expecting it.  Much better to have said, "thanks, but that link won't work, because I'll be unable to receive the text it sends back".

Maybe it is easier for me, because I program computers professionally, am multi-lingual and have lived abroad in a different culture for some time.  As such, I am used to making myself clear.

Garbage or sarcasm in, garbabe out, and really I'm yet to see a chat log where the customer explained clearly and politely what they wanted and it still ended in confusion.