O2 Recycle

[perpetualyawn]

So I ordered an S21 Ultra 5G on 15th September and was told about the £150 extra offer on O2 Recycle, but was subsequently told there would be a 3 week delay but was assured by the advisor that I could still claim as I had ordered the phone before the end of September. I received the new phone on 4th October and tried to complete the recycle for my old S20+ using my order number as the promo code but it was returned as invalid. I kept trying but with no luck. I have been trying every day since with no luck but have also just found out that you had to complete the recycle by 5th October. So I was only left with a few hours to try and do this before the offer expired??? I have seen from other posts now that you had to be using the new device for a minimum of 48hours before the order number would be accepted anyway so no idea how I could have possibly redeemed this offer.

Tried to call the Recycle team and was told there was a 30 minute wait, but was then on hold for 2 hours. When someone finally answered the phone, I hadn't realised my mic was muted and they gave me 2 seconds to answer before terminating the call. So made me wait over 2 hours but couldn't give me a few extra seconds. Disgusting service.

Am now back in a queue to talk to someone about this but no doubt will be told that nothing can be done. Not a great start to renewing my contract with O2 for another 3 years. Regretting doing so now.

[perpetualyawn]

Also noticed it says on the S21 Ultra page in the O2 Shop that the extra £150 for recycling a Samsung Galaxy device runs until 29 December, so no idea what is going on now. What a farce.

[MI5]

@perpetualyawn 

I'll ask @O2Lisa to see if she can help in the morning.

[O2Lisa]

Morning all, thanks for the tag @MI5.

I am so sorry to hear this is the experience you've had @perpetualyawn.

With it being recycle I am limited to what I can do sorry but I will message you privately and try my best to help.

[perpetualyawn]

Thanks for the replies. I have managed to get through to the Recycle team today (after another long wait). They confirmed that the order number (ms-xxxxxxxxx) that I was trying is valid and still active and that the offer still applies until 29 December. What I have been told to do is complete the recycle without entering the order number as the voucher code and once I have a confirmation email for my recycle, to call them up again and they will manually add my order number to the recycle to redeem the offer.

Hope this helps anyone else in the same boat. Will post another update once I have called them back to apply my order number.

[perpetualyawn]

Update: What I was told yesterday doesn't seem to be quite true. When I phoned up as instructed so that they could manually apply my order number to my recycle order, I was told to reply to the email with my proof of purchase and that they couldn't manually apply the offer until they receive the phone back.

So I just have to hope that they actually do this because I have nothing in writing to confirm this before sending my old device in. I'm somewhat sceptical now as I keep getting conflicting information.

[perpetualyawn]

Update: I decided to call back and confirm this with the Recycle team again, and this time was asked for my original order reference (ms number) and they applied that to my recycle order there and then. It seems to be a bit hit and miss with the information you get given depending on which advisor you speak to. They did say that it wouldn't show up on any of the emails, not even the payment confirmation email after they receive the phone back, so it will be interesting to see whether it does actually get paid or whether I will be back on the phone to them! I did still reply with my original order as proof or purchase as well just in case though.

Interesting that all I could hear in the background was other advisors dealing with what sounded like the same problem with invalid codes. Clearly it doesn't work for the majority of people and is probably the main reason for the long wait times to speak to someone.