What has happened to 02?

[Kate131]

Is it the Virgin Media influence?

In 2019 I bought an 02 Pay Monthly phone through Car Phone Warehouse.

The phone is now long out of contract and I'm trying to speak to someone at 02 about changing it to a PAYG at £10 a month which will give me exactly what I'm paying double for now on the Pay Monthly tariff.

You used to be able to ring 02 and speak to someone in this country on a phone line that didn't fade in and out.

I've tried three times now.  Twice I can't get past the automated menu and the third time I got someone who sounded like they were in the outback in Australia on a 1999 Nokia.  I had to give up in despair and hang up.

Please can anyone tell me how to speak to someone I can actually understand and hear and they can understand and hear me.  I do NOT want my phone being hijacked onto a new contract with vast data I don't need because the person the other end can't make themselves understood, I just want to pay as little as possible and keep it as a back up phone.

I'm pretty much in despair at the moment.  I don't understand how this can be called customer service.  

Edit to add that I don't use social media so recommendations for Instagram, Facebook etc are pointless.  I know it's old fashioned but I just want to talk to a human being in this country, on a decent phone line who speaks the same first language that I do so we can understand each other.

[MI5]

@Kate131 

Order your free PAYG sim from here https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/sim-cards/pay-as-you-go

When you receive it, fill out the keep my number form in the number migration section of this guide Guide: Migration & porting into O2  

[Kate131]

You know, I find it incredibly sad and very scary how people are accepting and encouraging people to never communicate directly with another human being. 

Instead of wanting me to be able to SPEAK to someone you tell me to sort it out myself in two stages totally remotely with no human contact at all.

What an awful place the world has become.  When we're all totally isolated from each other I wonder if we'll lose the ability to speak completely.

[gmarkj]

You can try calling customer services at 8am (when they open), on 202 from your o2 phone @Kate131 .

Alternatively you can call 0344 809 0202 or 0800 032 1402 from another phone at the same time.

The 0800 number you can call for free using Skype - Guide: A Guide to Skype 

The reason that MI5 has given you a way to do it yourself is simply because sometimes that is easier...

[Enlli]

What's happened? 13 plus years of free market capitalism. Find it is similar across many networks and companies where the CEO and Shareholdrs are king and the customers just an inconvenience.

[madasaf1sh]

What has happened is it is cheaper to outsource customer services to South Africa, the Philippine's and India than to have a lot of Call Centres in the UK, where people don't want to work for minimum wage, and get abused and sworn by the great British public.. 
 

[Enlli]

@Kate131 You said you got your original deal through Carphone Warehouse. There is nothing stopping you going to an O2 Store and arranging thing there, face to face.