Switch up order nightmare

[FlyingPanda]

Hi everyone!

Just looking for some advice on my current situation with a switch up order, as it just seems to be one thing after another currently.

I wanted to place an upgrade order to go from a Pixel 7 to a Pixel 8 Pro, due to a good deal that was ending on 3rd July.

I went in store on 2nd July to do the order. I knew there might be a wait as the new phone wasn't in stock. While going through that order in store, the rep in store wasn't really paying attention, due to us having a good chat around other things, and the order for the Pixel 8 Pro was put through as a completely new line, which he only realised after it was put through and I had two numbers on my account, then looked at my receipt and it had the new phone number on there.

He wasn't able to cancel this immediately as it was in processing so he advised me to come back in a few days later. He then tried to put through the upgrade order but the system wasn't letting him correctly identify it as a switch up order and kept asking me to pay the balance of the current phone. He advised to call customer service as they might have more luck.

On 3rd July I called customer service and was able to do the switch up order over the phone successfully. But with a wait of up to two weeks as the phone wasn't in stock.

On 5th July I went back into store to cancel the incorrect new activation order. There was a staff member available but all the workstations were taken with other staff working with customers so was told I should be able to cancel it via the My O2 pp, which I did (after carefully making sure I was cancelling the right one!!).

Skip forward a couple of weeks and my order was still 'processing' so I called Customer services on 16th July to check on the progress as i had noticed the phone was back in stock for new orders. The rep said that they would raise the issue with the back end team and I would receive a call back within 24 hours. Once it got to about 22 hours I had some time so I called again, the rep at that time reaffirmed that I should get a call back by the end of that day (16th).

I didn't hear anything back so called on 17th July to ask when I would expect to get the call back. They said they would raise another ticket with the backend team and that I should hear back in 5 days. Noturally I wasn't happy about the timescales, but I can understand it. I did state that I wanted to raise a complaint primarily around being promised on two separate calls that I would hear back on 16th. It was late in the day though, so I contacted Customer Service on the 18th to raise that complaint.

Fast forward to today (24th July), the order is still in processing, I hadn't heard anything back regarding the order or the complaint so called Customer Services again. The rep went away and said they couldn't find anything that had gone to the backend team so raised another request. The complaint I didn't really discuss but it all feeds in to the pretty shoddy service.

I'm at a loss what to do really. I'm really not happy at the level of service and being told I'd hear back when it's quite clear the timescales they told me were wrong.

Has anyone else had anything similar and found a way to progress a similar issue. I was hoping the switch up process would be nice and easy but I feel like I can't trust the timescales I'm being given.

[madasaf1sh]

@FlyingPanda 

It goes haywire quite a bit, but as you have a complaint in customer services cant touch it, and the current timescales for them is around 8 weeks for a resolution... 

I am going through a lot more pain with SwitchUp, and its all about been patient...

[FlyingPanda]

Thanks @madasaf1sh, that's useful to know.

Complaint resolution being 8 weeks seems a bit crazy, or is that a case of resolving complaints just prior to it being 8 weeks until it's possible to escalate to the ombudsman?

I had been told from a rep that I'd have a response from the complaints team around the 5-7 working days mark which matches the O2 Code of Practice. Of course that's not expecting a resolution, but are O2 struggling to hit their published timescales currently? 

Customer Services being unable to touch the account while there's an open complaint is interesting too. Would that mean that until the complaint is resolved it's unlikely the backend team can resolve the issue and get the order over the line? My complaint isn't around the delay in the upgrade, more the quality of the customer service so it might be better for me to focus on resolving that as opposed to also trying to get the upgrade done.

Apologies for the amount of questions there, but you seem to know more than the staff I've spoken to! 🤣 I'm not in any massive rush to get the upgrade done, I mainly just want to know what's happening and I had thought it was supposed to be a straightforward process!

[Oxonian]

Hello @FlyingPanda ; let's try to address your questions in sequence :-

1. it naturally takes time for any organisation to properly investigate and respond to complaints. We know anecdotally that it is taking up to eight weeks for O2 to deal with many complaints but we can only speculate as to why. 

2. O2 are struggling to hit their published timescales for dealing with complaints, although I have always thought the 5-7 days to respond to a complaint is ridiculously ambitious and raises customer expectations to unattainable levels. 

3. we cannot comment on whether or not the backend team will resolve your issue whilst there is an open complaint. Certainly, an open complaint often leads to other O2 teams refusing to engage with customers, but it is not clear whether this is because they cannot or simply do not want to. 

4. it is meant to be a straightforward process but some customers do face unforeseen difficulties. 

Please keep us updated on developments. 👍