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O2 announces zero rating for support websites during COVID-19
- More than 20 websites zero-rated on O2 in addition to NHS websites
- From today, O2 customers won’t use any of their network data when they browse a range of financial, health and emotional support and advice sites on their O2-enabled devices
- Additional zero-rated sites include Citizens Advice, Money Advice Service and Mind
O2 has today announced a zero rating on more than 20 additional support and advice websites to help its customers access the support they need, worry free, during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Customers who are on O2 won’t use any of their allocated monthly data allowance when browsing a whole host of support, advice and charity sites on their mobile.
As well as the NHS, which O2 announced it was zero-rating last week, O2 customers can also browse 22 additional support and advice networks, including Citizens Advice and Mind.
Mark Evans, CEO, O2 (Telefonica UK)
Our customers are the most important thing to us, and we want to ensure that they have the support they need throughout this difficult time. That’s why, further to our announcement last week zero-rating NHS websites, we’re ensuring that additional websites providing financial, health and emotional advice and support can also be accessed by our customers without using any data allowance for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.
The full list of zero-rated sites include:
Citizens Advice:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
Financial Advice:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en
Mental Health / Emotional Support:
Support for Older People:
https://www.thesilverline.org.uk/
Support for Young People:
Health Support:
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
Disability Support:
https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/
Bereavement Support:
https://www.cruse.org.uk/
For more information visit https://www.o2.co.uk/
UPDATE
We have this week expanded our zero-rated websites to include those that offer support and advice for victims of crime, sexual abuse and domestic violence situations and provide support for vulnerable children – and can now be browsed without using a customer’s data allowance. More details here on our press release.
The websites are:
- Victim Support – www.victimsupport.org.uk
- Rape Crisis – www.rapecrisis.org.uk
- The Survivors Trust – www.thesurvivorstrust.org
- Male Survivors Partnership – www.malesurvivor.co.uk
- Refuge and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline – www.refuge.org.uk
- Women’s Aid and Welsh Women’s Aid – www.womensaid.org.uk and www.welshwomensaid.org.uk
- NSPCC – www.nspcc.org.uk
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Superb effort. Nice to see O2 stepping up to the mark, @Chris_K.
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Excellent news but the real issue facing customers is help with their bills.
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@jonsie wrote:Excellent news but the real issue facing customers is help with their bills.
Indeed and as that advice was changed without warning we have been giving people more hope than we should have!
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I know you don't make decisions though must have some input.
That's why I am asking this very important question.
WHY AREN'T O2 ALLOWING PAYMENT BREAKS DURING THE COVID 19 CRISIS?
If you had spent the last week or so on here, you would have seen the tremendous amount of people in dire straits and distress, who have been cut off for various reasons. Some of these are frontline staff, others have lost their jobs and have no income, others are alone, elderly and vulnerable with no way of paying a bill or topping up.
I find it disgraceful that other major companies are allowing payment breaks with no penalty. Banks and Building societies with mortgages as just one example.
Every other system with O2 has slowed down, porting numbers, upgrading, lost and stolen, CS enquiries, international help, to name but a few.
The one thing which hasn't changed is the system which switches peoples phones off when they are late or struggling to pay a bill.
It's bloody heartbreaking to read some of these cries for help when O2 could do more to assist.
They are doing nothing, absolutely nothing and I find that disgraceful.
I would be grateful if you could feed this back to senior managerial staff and ask them to be more caring toward their customers during this time of unprecedented crisis.
In your post above and quoting Mark Evans, it states 'our customers are our most important asset' then gives a list of helplines. It does NOT give help at all to those who are struggling to pay their bills. Rather than show any compassion, you are simply cutting off their lifeline.
Terrible business practice.
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100% agree @Cleoriff
It is worth noting @Chris_K that @Martin-O2 said on Additional Support on O2 Community thread
With the lockdown measures that have been put in place customer services are operating at a reduced capacity. This has driven a lot more traffic to the community and we’re all feeling the impact of this. Due to reduced staff numbers along with the impracticalities of providing account query help on the community platform, this is not something that we will be introducing.
Support on the community will continue to be limited to non-account queries as before. For those with an account query, they will have to contact customer services. We fully appreciate that the lines are much busier than usual but this is an unprecedented situation and we’re adapting as best we can.
So you can see that the customers referred to by @Cleoriff - who are concerned and worried over bills and who come onto the forum - cannot get any help here either, which must add to their stress.
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