Upgraded phone - still no sim activation and refused an exchange when asked!

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I went into O2 in Preston, Lancashire on Friday 12th October and I upgraded my sim only contract to a contract for a Sony Xperia T. It was all done and dusted by 3pm and I went home, being told my sim would be active in the next two hours. I had a normal sim so they had to transfer my number over to a micro sim. 

It is now 6.25pm on Saturday and my phone is still not working. It just keeps saying 'sim card not provisioned 2'.

I have been back to the store today and to be honest, it was a complete shambles and the service was quite poor in my opinion. I kept my cool despite them winding me up to the point of breaking, but I left the store, two and a half hours later, the way I went in -  with a glorified mini wifi internet tablet.

I am aware of the outage yesterday but to be left with no number for over 26 hours is appaulling. They did not offer any form of compensation and they could not tell me when it would activate. They simply said it should 'hopefully' come on in the next 24 hours and if it doesn't, they'll do antoher sim swap. The problem is, I can't get back there now until Tuesday. Is anyone else having this problem?

I also asked them if I could exchange the handset as I am not sure about the phone as it's quite large (I know that this would not solve the sim issue). However, they refused, stating that I had taken a fast track upgrade and this was excluded from the 7 day exchange policy. She gloated on the fact that it was printed on the receipt so I should have been aware of it.

However, this is what actually happened when I took the contract out on Friday. I looked around the store and narrowed it down to a couple of phones. I wasn't sure if I wanted such an advanced phone, but in the end, I chose the Xperia T. I sat down with the advisor and I asked her, explicitly, that if I decided that I did not want the phone, could I come back and swap it for another. Her reply was "Of course, you can come back within 7 days and swap it or cancel the contract, no problem". So, on that advice, I went ahead. She got all the paperwork sorted, a single sheet of A4. I read through it - no mention of the exclusion or it being a fast track upgrade. I was happy so signed it. She then tapped away again, printed a receipt off, stapled it to the contract, folded it up and put it in the bag with the phone.

Not once did the advisor mention fast track upgrades or an exclusion on the 7 day exchange policy. And she did not show me the receipt beforehand so I had no way to know of this policy until I returned to the store at which time they pointed it out.

The advisor (actually the manager) today tried repeatedly to cancel the contract for me, based on the above, but the till system kept saying refund refused. They have told me that they will have to escalate this to their customer service team on Monday as they are not open until then. They will then call me but they said there is no guarantee that it can be cancelled.

Sorry for the side rant about that but I just wanted to highlight this to other customers as some O2 staff are obviously unaware of this policy and it puts us customers in this awful position when we are mis informed.

I hope to get it all sorted out on Monday but in the meantime, I'd just like my phone to actually be a phone. I'm interested in hearing if anyone has the same problem?

Thanks

Andrew

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

i have a similar problem, i took out a brand new 02 contract on wednesday via carphone warehouse on a iphone 4s. i had trouble with the sim and i had a sim swap on friday and had to take out a new contract, yet when i tried this morning still nothing. i rang 02 and they couldnt find my details and said it looks like the carphone warehouse need to acitivate it. So i rang them up and they said everything looks fine their end, maybe it is due to the recent network issues 02 have been having and that it should be on sometime today. i have reset my networks settings, restarted, removed and re-inserted the sim. I still get no service and "sim not provisioned". Im looking to return to the carphone warehouse tomorrow to see what they can do. I'm at a loss and a little dissapointed chasing up and getting no where. I too, currently just own an expensive ipod. Hopefully our issues will be resolved soon.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. It's amazing to me how O2 seems to think this is all normal and acceptable. 

Ive still got no signal yet and I'm not holding my breath. What I do know is that if they don't sort it out by Tuesday when I can get back to the store, I'll be asking for a full contract cancellation and looking elsewhere I think.

i hope you get yours sorted soon!

[Anonymous]

The same is happening with me.

I upgraded my Iphone 3GS to an IPhone 5, received the SIM and sorted it approx 4/5pm on Friday afternoon. It is now Saturday approx 11.30pm and my old phone sim has been deactivated and my new sim has yet to be activated.

After 20 minutes on hold with o2 from my landline (yes, you owe me this money o2) I spoke on the 'online chat' with someone called Zara at approx 4pm on Sat and apparently my new sim was 'in processing' and 'a few hours away' from being activated. 

O2 YOUR NETWORK IS USELESS

ALL YOUR FEEDBACK FORMS FOCUS ON YOUR STAFF WHO ARE SIMPLY TRYING TO COVER UP YOUR AWFUL NETWORK

I am so fed up with O2! I've lost days of work because of this! I organise voluntary activities at the weekend and it's suffered because of you! Definitely leaving now. USELESS.

[Anonymous]

Having the same problem am in preston lancs too, reassuring that I am not alone, very frustrating got new iphone and can't use it yet

[Anonymous]

It's bloody ridiculous! They don't deserve our money. I've been with o2 for about 7 years - APPALLING customer service!

They will have to offer me something pretty substantial to ensure I stay as a customer. The cooling off period is a blessing in this instance and I will be changing to another network asap. Idiots.

BY THE WAY - all the 'surveys' I'm asked to complete having dealt with o2 customer service are always asking to grade the staff themselves. I have no problem with any staff member I've dealt with (apart from your online ones) - IF I EVER GET THROUGH TO A HUMAN BEING. 

O2 NETWORK AND YOUR SYSTEMS are the problem! SORT IT OUT

Sorry, a bit angry as I've had so much to organise and I cant because of O2.

[Liquid]

This is rubbish:( unless they told you previously it doesn't count. By putting the "information" on the recipt which you only recieve after sale. There is no prior information given so technically your not bound by it my friend.

There was nothing in the T&Cs?

I'm not a lawyer but even I could win that case for you.

were all allowed to be angry when mucked about its only human:) no need to apolagise for it:)

[Anonymous]

I have to admit that my calm is beginning to wear off. I am totally peed off that its now 1am on Sunday morning and my sim is still not activated.

I am also definitely looking to get the contract cancelled now too. I'm not going to let them fob me off when I was not properly informed about the terms and conditions. I was mis-sold it and that is against the law.

its just so upsetting that it should be something enjoyable when you get a new phone and they have turned it into a complete misery. I've just lost all trust in them now.

I bet they don't even look at these forums!

[Liquid]

There's a few staff that are around the forums don't worry:)

You should be allowed to swap the phone if there's no damage and its back in it orginal package no reason to refuse

[jonsie]

The only problem stamett is that you still won't have a working sim so call them tomorrow. You will need the number to be active before you cancel otherwise you can't port the number out to another network.