How to find help & contact O2: A Guide

[Marjo]

Hi everyone,

People often search and ask here on the Community how to get in touch with O2 about different types of queries.

We've made the below guide and suggestions based on these questions and I hope it's helpful if you're not sure who to contact in what situation.

• General questions & My O2 account: Self Help
• Account-related queries: Customer Service
• Access For All
• Difficult queries and if you get stuck
• Other types of queries

---

GENERAL QUESTIONS & MY O2 ACCOUNT: SELF HELP

---

The Community:

If you have any general queries about O2 products and services that don't require customer service to check your private account details, here's what you can do on the community: check existing forum topics for answers (you can browse all the topic categories here), do a search for related topics, check our how-to guides, or post a new topic with your question. We have many knowledgeable members here on the community who might be able to help you out!

A couple of tips below for posting your question on the community👇

Spoiler

Post in the right forum board

It may sound simple but posting your question in the right board helps you get a quick and helpful answer to your query. We have loads of knowledgeable members waiting to help but they won't be looking in the Off Topic board for a Pay Monthly question. There's a dropdown listing all the available boards when you're posting a new topic, and you can also find the boards at the top of any community page. 

Provide plenty of detail

Your question might be complicated or something the community has not seen before so give as much detail and context as possible in your post. Other members may ask follow-up questions if things are unclear. Remember not to post personal info like phone numbers as the community is public. 

(If you're not a member yet, register here to join the community.)

My O2:

In My O2 you can manage your account, view your tariff and allowances, check your bills, check your usage, add bolt-ons, and check if you're eligible for an upgrade. You can also make payments and change your payment details as well as view your recent orders. If you need to change your contact preferences or unlock your phone, you can do that also via My O2.

We have how-to guides written by the community that should help you further on how to use My O2:

Spoiler

• My O2 app guide (written by pgn)
• My O2 guide for Pay as You Go (written by daddydoink)
• My O2 mini guide - Allowances section (by gmarkj)
• My O2 mini guide - Bills section (by MI5)
• My O2 mini guide - Bolt-ons section (by Fellwalker)
• My O2: Website Guide (by PhoneChanger)
• How do I get to the 'download bill' page? (by gmarkj)

Help articles on the O2 website:

There's a lot of information on the help pages about phones, SIMs and devices, Pay Monthly, Pay as You Go, digital Services, Account and billing, network coverage and international, apps, safety and security. So have a look here in case you can find an answer to your question.

See here the different categories of help articles:

Spoiler

• Phones, sims & devices
• Mobile broadband, tablets & data
• Pay Monthly
• Pay as You Go
• Digital services (such as O2 Insurance, Charge to Mobile, Voicemail)
• Account and billing (e.g. managing your account and understanding your bill)
• Network coverage and international (charges abroad, international calls, network issues)
• Apps (My O2, Priority, in-app purchases)
• Safety and security (e.g. unwanted calls/messages, age restrictions, privacy, NSPCC, Access for all)

If still no luck with your query, or it requires us to check our systems, see information on our different contact methods below.

---

ACCOUNT-RELATED QUERIES: CUSTOMER SERVICE

---

Contacting O2 via Live Chat: 

Our teams on Live chat are there to support you from 7am to 11pm and can help you with most queries inc billing, lost and stolen, network and many more.

There are a few key things that they can’t help with which are:

• Taking a payment (you can do this online, through My O2 or on the IVR)
• Insurance queries (give us a call for this)
• Payment Management queries (you need to give us a call for this)

The best way to contact Live Chat is through the My O2 app. If you are having any issues connecting on the computer, make sure you refresh your browser and if you still have issues then clear your cache. 

Contacting O2 on Social Media:

We are active across all the main Social channels and you can get help from us on each of these:

• X (formerly known as Twitter) - @O2
• X (formerly known as Twitter) – DM
• Facebook – @o2uk
• Messenger – @o2uk
• Instagram – o2uk

We can help with all queries from general support, Priority help to account specific queries about your tariff or bill – nothing is too much trouble for our Social teams who are available from 7am till 10pm.

The team will normally get back to you within the hour and look to help as best they can – they may need to arrange a callback for some queries that they can’t complete online, but will talk this through with you.

We also offer Guru help too – helping you with any technical issue all on the Social channels.

Contacting O2 by telephone:

We are of course available to help over the phone and the team can deal with any query you may have – we also have some options we can help with without having to speak to someone like making a payment.

There are a few different options depending on the type of customer you are take a look here for the best option:

Spoiler

Pay monthly

Customer Service	Number	Charges
From your O2 mobile	202	Free
From a landline	0344 809 0202	Standard UK Rate
From abroad	+44 344 809 0202	Free

Pay as you Go

Customer Service	Number	Charges
From your O2 mobile	4445	Free
From a landline	0344 8090222	Standard UK Rate
From abroad	+44 7860 980 202	International rates

Top-Up service	Number	Charges
From your O2 mobile	4444	Free
From a landline	0345 6062277	Standard UK Rate

Business

Business Customer Service	Number	Charges
From your O2 mobile	8002	Free
From a landline	0800 977 7337	Free
From abroad	+44 808 100 4439	Free

Online Business Customer Service	Number	Charges
From your O2 mobile	8002	Free
From a landline	0800 977 7027	Free
From abroad	+44 808 100 4439	Free

Visiting an O2 Store: 

Our Stores are also there to help and can deal with a number of different service related queries. You can find your nearest store here.

Please note that depending on the query you might be asked for photo ID.

---

ACCESS FOR ALL

---

Our Access For You service is designed to make it easier for you to access O2 services if you would normally struggle due to a disability or personal situation. If you find it difficult to access any of our services due to a disability or personal situation you may find it helpful to register for our Access For You service. Once registered, we can ensure that we tailor our services to you each time you contact us. This means you only have to tell us about your requirements once. There are a number of adjustments we can make to support you depending on your personal circumstances.

To discuss everything related to Accessibility here on the community, check out our Access for all article. In this space, you will be able to find out all about O2’s Accessibility options, get support and share experiences.

---

DIFFICULT QUERIES AND IF YOU GET STUCK

---

If you have an issue that remains unresolved despite contacting Customer Service about it already, you might understandably feel disappointed and "stuck". If this happens, we also have the below methods you can try to resolve the issue:

Community Team:

If you are stuck with an issue and need help, one of our Community Team members can see how we can help you further - you can tag us (@Dave-O2) into the topic and one of us will pick it up.

Online self help:

There are some specific online services that you can check out too:

• Device Help - Guides and Simulations
• Online Repair Tool

Negative customer service experience - providing feedback:

If you've had an experience with customer service and it wasn't so great, we're sorry to hear that. Please do feel free to post your feedback here on the community (see Feedback board) and our Community Managers will make sure to pass this on to the business. They might drop you a Private Message after you've posted to get further details to make sure your feedback gets looked into.

Making an Official Complaint:

If you've tried everything above without success and remain stuck without a resolution, we're really sorry to hear that. 😞 You can make an official complaint by contacting our Complaints team or raising your complaint via Resolver.

All the information you need is here.

When you raise a complaint with us we will acknowledge it within 24hrs and you should have an initial response within 5 working days.

Resolver are a 3rd party service that helps you to raise and track a complaint – find out more here.

---

[phonek]

The chat in the My O2 app is really rubbish, as most of the time no one's ever available. 

Worse, it asks for all your details FIRST (number, name, etc), only then showing auto-message "Sorry, no one is available. Try again later" continually, when you type "agent" or similar to get someone to deal with you. 

Add to that the agents don't respond. The one time it worked recently when I got an agent, then heard nothing back after writing out my issue and typing 'Anyone there?' repeatedly over the next X hours. 

P o i n t l e s s ... back to spending hours waiting on hold phoning them instead. What choices we have! 

[Oxonian]

@phonek 

So it's not the chat in the MyO2 app that is rubbish, it is the lack of personnel to answer queries. And that simply puts it on a par with the other ways of contacting O2, all of which are beset with difficulties.

A cynical customer might think that O2 are deliberately making it difficult for folks to contact them. 🤣    

[phonek]

@Oxonian 

Well you're splitting hairs, but basically, yes: both chat AND phone do not have enough staff. 

And worse, the staff that are available are often dire at getting things done correctly – often taking an age to understand what you need, how they should go about doing it, and then actually getting it done. All of which makes getting things done as a customer even more protracted and fraught with delays than they should be. 

[Oxonian]

@phonek 

Yes, the root problem is either the calibre of Customer Service staff, their training or both. If you have to explain your problem to ten different members of the team before it is deal with, that is a huge waste of staff time from O2's viewpoint. 

[pgn]

@Dave-O2 - bit of editing needed in this useful reference - Sharer Plans, all the kinks on main O2 site for that topic go nowhere...

Just noticed 🤨🧐👍🏼

[Dave-O2]

Edited @pgn 👍

[pgn]

And another edit, right down near the end about Complaints:

It says --> When you raise a complaint with us we will acknowledge it within 24hrs and you should have an initial response within 5 working days.

The Code of Practice for Complaints here:   https://www.o2.co.uk/documents/456036/3782743/Customer+Complaints+Code+12.10.23.pdf/9650ee76-8b85-07... indicates:

says -> Our specialist complaints team will carry
out an impartial review of your complaint and aim to reply within five working days

but also says:

 -> If you’re not happy after we’ve responded to your complaint, or if your complaint isn’t
resolved after eight weeks

further down the document.

As most instances of Complaint now seem to be citing, here on the forum, the 8-week timeframe, does the text in the Guide: How to find help & contact O2 above need to be amended, @Dave-O2?

[SkyePye]

I have been contacting O2 since the end of Feb on a weekly basis and although customer services promise that someone will contact me, no-one has. I have written to complaints but again no reply. I dont know what else to do as my phone has been cut off as there are non payments for several items not ordered or received my myself.

[MI5]

Answered on your other post @SkyePye 

[Oxonian]

---

As most instances of Complaint now seem to be citing, here on the forum, the 8-week timeframe, does the text in the Guide: How to find help & contact O2 above need to be amended, @Dave-O2?

---

I realise that this might be quite a big ask @Dave-O2, but currently we routinely refer customers to :-

Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

More rarely, customers are referred to :-

Guide: Coronavirus Community Help and Support 

Has the time come please for the unique bits of the latter to be added into the former and then for the Covid guide to be withdrawn ? I must say that whilst the latter still contains some very relevant information, referring someone to a guide with Covid in its name makes it automatically feel out of date. 👍