2000TLondon

Anybody have any issues with O2? Can anybody recommend one of the other top three companies as I am cancelling my contract with O2 after eight years today.

A constant battle to get anything done with them.......

TonyFlow

Had exactly the same!

Service is good - customer service is $hite
They sent me out the wrong phone, to which I refused to take delivery on (as advised by their customer "service") money would be credited to my account in 7 working days.
2 months later they were still taking money for a contract with a phone I didnt ever take delivery of - I told them to check with the courier, and they confirmed that I had refused delivery - then the cheeky ******* told me I had to wait until they got the phone back - and then the redund would take upto 28 days.

I am afraid to say I couldnt take that and went a bit potty - in a sarky way - and eventually got them to issue a refund there and then (and some money of the phone contract they sent out correctly). I asked them how they can take money same day - but can't repay it for a month, and I told them that they will have to wait a further 28 days for any payment of my contract - they didnt like it!

All the emails I sent asking questions came back with the same preconfigured answers - they really did not have the decency to answer or spend time attempting to answer any of my questions.

I still have an 02 XDA (great piece of kit) on an 02 contract - but I hope I never have to deal with the turds in customer disservice again!

Iwan

Yeah, watch your back with them. I cancelled whilst under contract due to their appalling customer service, I owed them something like £89.00 which they said they'd send me a bill for.

No bill arrived so I phoned up about a week later, "don't worry sir we'll send it again today". No bill ever arrived so I forgot about it until about 8 months later when I got a nasty letter from a bailiffs firm threatening court action.

As the debt was now owned by the bailiff company i gave them a call, the woman on the phone was very helpful and let me pay what I owed over the phone on my debit card (something O2 wouldn't/couldn't let me do). I explained what had happened and got the distinct impression form her that lots of other people were in the same boat.

The good thing was, all I had to pay was the original amount (which I was more than happy to do) and O2 had to pay the fees of the bailiff company for chasing it up- so it's costing O2 extra money to sort out their own customer service ****-ups!

I'd never use O2 again now, shower of monkeys IMO.

jd

I've been with Vodafone for about 10 years now and never had 'any' issues with them at all. I always try to steer clear of anything that's had BT's stamp on it!

RB170

I had exactly the same this is my letter of complaint

Dear Mr Alexander

Firstly let me express my displeasure at having to resort to writing a letter of complaint but I am left with no other course of action given the poor customer service that I have received.

I am writing to complain about an order that I placed on the O2 website for a Samsung D500 handset, talk 200 plan on 07 March 2005, order number gm-XXXXX. I was given the option of a next day delivery for the cost of £3.99 which I opted for.

I received an email on 08 March 2005 confirming delivery on that day between 08:00 and 17:00 (included). My wife had made arrangements to stay at home as she had also placed an order with O2 for a next day delivery which arrived as expected, the order I placed however did not turn up. I contacted O2 online customer services on 0870 600 3009 at 17:30 and spoke to Katie who informed me that the order was with DHL and was awaiting despatch she also confirmed that my order would be delivered the following day 09 March 2005, I was obviously not impressed and asked the procedure for cancelling the order, I was told to refuse delivery. (I need to receive a delivery before I can refuse it)

I then received another email confirming delivery for 08 March 2005 (included) so I contacted customer services again on 09 March 2005 at 09:40 and spoke to Tammy. Tammy informed me that the item was picked up by DHL office in Leeds on 08 March at 18:21 and that she has no further update, I explained that my wife has been forced to spend another day at home and wait for this delivery and that I would like to discuss this with a manager. I was eventually passed through to Pat who informed me that he would chase DHL every hour for an update and that he would update me at the same time, the time was then 10:20. At 12:30 I had not received any updates so I called customer services again and spoke to Derrick who gave me the same information that Tammy had given me 3 hours earlier. I asked to speak to Pat and was informed that he was at lunch but he should return in the next 30 minutes so I asked that Pat call me back on the contact number provided, in the meantime my wife was still at home waiting for a delivery.

At 15:40 I had not received any updates and there had been no delivery at my home so I contacted customer services again and spoke to James. I explained to James the situation and expressed my displeasure at not being contacted and not being given the service that I expected. I asked to speak to Pat again or any other manager/supervisor, James informed me that Pat worked for a different call centre but also that EVERY manager within the O2 Customer Services department was in a meeting and had been for the past 2 hours. As you can imagine at this point I was pretty close the end of my tether. I asked again for a manager to call me back but if not then I would be calling back again at 16:30. At 16:30 as expected I made yet another call to customer services as I had not received a call back, this time I spoke to Andrea and after explaining the situation yet again I was informed that my order would not be delivered until the following day 10 March 2005 so I once again asked to speak to a manager/supervisor and once again I was informed that EVERY single manager was in a meeting and that the only thing that she could do was call DHL and then contact me with a delivery time for 10th. As expected I did not receive any contact from anyone at O2 Customer Services so this morning I made yet another call and after explaining the situation to yet another representative Becky, I was finally put through to Karrie McKenzie, you may notice that Karrie is the first person to supply a surname when requested. I explained the situation again to Karrie, who said that she would contact DHL after 9am and get someone to contact me with an update. Imagine my surprise when at 08:40 Becky called me to explain that the suspicion is that my order has been lost and that if that is the case then another order will be placed for a next day delivery before 10am, I won’t be holding my breath for obvious reasons. I was once again surprised when at 09:25 Becky called me again to confirm that the order had been lost and a new order, gm-xxxxxxx, had been placed for delivery before 10am 11 March 2005.

My previous mobile provider was Orange I had been with them for 10 years, the reason why I left Orange was purely because their customer services was pathetic to be quite blunt so you can imagine my disappointment when I discover that O2 customer services are just as bad if not worse. I have been made promise after promise and the only person who seems willing to take ownership of this problem is Karrie McKenzie but even then I’m unable to get any kind of reassurance that this is a one off incident. If O2 really cared about the disgustingly poor customer service they have provided then instead of just placing an order for next day delivery they would bite the bullet and get my order on a courier for same day delivery. I work in a frontline support roll for a merchant bank and I’m fully aware of the demands that customers place on support staff but all I’ve asked for is O2 to do what they said they would do, nothing more, nothing less, so all that was needed was for my handset to be delivered, for people to call me back when they said they would, to be given truthful and honest information even if that information was not exactly what I wanted to hear but what I received were lies, incompetence’s and vagueness.

I have spent approximately 3 hours on the phone in all, my wife has spent two days sitting at home waiting for a delivery that was never going to turn up and to top it all off I’ve just been sent another email informing me that the amount of £31 will be taken as per payment instructions, for what exactly, for a phone that I don’t even have? (email included)

I would appreciate a response but if O2 are running to form then I fully expect never to hear from you or any of your representatives.

Yours disappointedly




Mr Michael Griffiths

Butty

iTrader: (2)

I switched to O2 last year to have an XDA - have regretted ever since.
After being with Orange for some 8 years and not having too many issues, I couldn't beleive how inept O2 were.
As soon as the 12 months are up, I'm exporting my tel number elsewhere.

Rob D

O2 were on watchdog not long ago regarding their poor customer services.
I'm currently with Orange and have had no problems, I did ask CFW and P4U who have the best customer services and they both said Orange.

InvisibleMan

even with a massive company contract we are having major problems - cancelling them has been a real pain in the ***

jd

I agree, Orange have the best customer services, but Vodafone coverage where I live (south coast) is far superior. All depends on what your criteria is, like choosing an ISP....

tucker101uk

A letter of complaint i sent to O2 a few weeks back:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have recently purchased a Samsung D500 from “Phones4U” in Crawley, West Sussex.

Originally, I was planning to buy the phone from the O2 online shop, however when I phoned to order it, I was told it was out of stock, and to phone up in two weeks when it would be back in stock.

Some two weeks later, I phoned again, only to discover that on the tariff I had selected (O2 online 200) the phone would cost £79.99. Obviously this had changed from the date of my previous call, at which point the phone was free. Planning ahead, I asked if the phone would drop in price, back to its original ‘free’ status, to which the answer was explicitly – “No”

Following this call, I went into various high street phone shops, and ended up at phones4u where I discovered that I could get the phone free on the normal O2 200 tariff. I am a heavy text user, and so this option, combined with the 400 text bolt on seemed adequate, although much more expensive than the opportunity I had missed online.

I therefore purchased the phone and took out the contract enclosed on the 15th February 2005.

I have today discovered that my phone, on the original contract is now free again – which contradicts what the O2 sales representative told me a month or two ago. I telephoned O2 customer care again, and was told that I was still in my 14-day cooling off period, as the contract had only been activated on the 16th Feb 2005. Happy with this I proceeded to the shop where I had purchased the phone, only to be told that I was in fact not in my cooling off period, as it counted from the moment I signed the contract.

This is where the discrepancy begins. According to Phones4U, my contract starts from the moment I signed the form, not from when I could use the phone. I have since spoken to O2 customer services who confirmed this, as my phone was apparently activated at 3:15PM on the 15th Feb, therefore I am in fact on the 15th day of my contract.

Regardless of what day I am on in the contract, I have still ended up paying an extra £16 a month, because of a string of mis information from O2.

I have had my contract two weeks, and already I am very dissatisfied with the standard of service from both O2 and phone4U– I feel that I have been tricked into signing up for a more expensive contract than I needed to – as soon as my cooling off period ‘apparently’ ended, the phone dropped in price on the website – which I was told It wouldn’t do!

I have requested call logs for all of the calls I have made – however have been informed that it will take up to 30 days for me to receive this information – which doesn’t help. I feel that of all the avenues I have been down, nobody has been able to A) explain the discrepancy in the contract wording, or B) offer a viable solution.

The only way this problem can possibly be resolved would be to not cancel the contract, but to move it over to the O2 Online 200 with the quoted 500 inclusive texts, and cancel my 400-text bolt on. In this way my line rental would be considerably less (£30) and I would be happy to keep my existing D500.

I look forward to your reply –

Best Regards,


Tom Stanton

Needless to say i got the following letter back a few days later:

WRX-Mark

Same story here after about 8 years and a contract with four phones, I just gave up. They just constantly failed to produce bills / credits/ refunds on time or when agreed.

Vodaphone seem better.

2000TLondon

I'm still disputing a bill from June and July last year! It was around the time of the "overcharging" story in the papers and O2 wrote to me saying I'd been overcharged. I cancelled my direct debit as I didn't trust them, so needless to say most months I forget to pay on time and get barred for a day or two! Each time I ring to query the over charging, it has to be put into dispute again, as no-one has done anything about it! I seem to spend half my time on the phone to them. When I went through to customer retention to cancel, the smarmy b@st@rd argued the toss and told me I had no right to cancel as they had always provided me with network coverage, and I would have to see out my contract, which luckily ends next month!

Abdabz

I know someone who's worked for them for 7 years in their different guises (Cellnet etc) and a lot of the complaints are down to customers not reading contractual small print (its all on the back of my contract) or lack of understanding (not ness pointing the finger at Tom or Mike here)... There are some genuine cases where bad business practise occurs and thats never good.
O2 recently won the best call completion rate Ofcom test thingy so network wise its the market leader.
Im on O2 never had a problem at all - great network, accurate bills, punctual order delivery and good high street presence. A few of my mates are scattered across the other networks and the stories are much of a muchness - Standard customer service training in the banking industry says 'If you have a bad experience with a company you tell 10 people - If you have a good one you tell just one'...(its just a phrase dont shoot me down for it )
Right Im off to send a text

2000TLondon

Good point! I've been in telecoms for 11 years, from post-sales to engineering.... which may make me pickier and more demanding, but I don't tell them that!

Jerome

I've had phones with BT Cellnet (as it was called then), Vodaphone and Orange between 1995 and 2003. I had appalling service from all of them - hence three different providers in 8 years.

However, all three were better than the shower of rip-off-retards that I now have to deal with here, called Rogers.

Lum

Try upgrading your phone, and then getting them to enable GPRS, that took me a month and a half.
I had customer service drones notice that one for the things needing to be set up was not done, so just sort that (so I had GPRS enabled ont he billing system, but not on the access points), I had them SMS me settings for every type of GPRS phone out there apart from the phone I had (Nokia 9500 comes with O2 settings as standard), they would regularly drop me back to the main menu when supposedly putting me through to the technical people, and every time you call back you have to go through the same bloody script which involves a good 4 or 5 options that require you to leave the phone switched off for a few hours.

Eventually I got through to one of their techi guys who was in fact excellent, and hates the customer service people as much as I had come to. He gave me his direct line number but unfortunately it was a 09xx number @ 50p a minute. Having said that he did call me back regularly as promised and I never had to ring it.

I am tempted to try and move my phone to Orange, but O2 will probably lose my number that I've had for 6 years, and my GF still uses O2.

Redkop

I have just had a torrid 7 days with O2 Customer Services, some of the people I dealt with were complete morons!

Last Monday I went to pay my bill online, just as I went to press submit, my PC froze. So I rang o2 and told them what had happened, I spoke to a very helpful guy, who said don't put the payment through again, just in case it had managed to go through. He couldn't take payment over the phone either, because all of o2's systems were down. He said he would make a note on my account for anybody not to activate a barring and he told me to call back Thursday. I duly rang back on Thursday and was told that the payment hadn't gone through, so I paid by DC on the phone and got 2 email confirmations saying account had been paid in full.

Two hours later... I can't make calls or send texts. I rang Customer Service, got through to a right dipstick of a girl, who could not comprehend what I was saying, she kept saying I had a bar on the phone as I had NOT paid the account. Red mist was descending by this time and eventually she got a Manager in on the conversation, so for the n'th time I explained it all again. He understood and said... I will request the bar be removed and you can expect your phone to be active again in 48 hours. Errrr let me get this right... I don't pay my bill and I can still use my phone, I do pay my bill and I can't use my phone, unbelievable the bar was lifted in 2 hours actually.

I have upgraded my phone too and received a tracking number for delivery of the new phone, I have just checked on it and I get this...

Ident Code Current Status Date Time Signatory Branch
02421******* Delivered 10/06/04 08:28 MANSFIELD BRANCH

WTF

Oh and I missed the best bit out too...

When I got my last new phone from them 12 months ago, the guy who took the order said he would activate Media Messaging.
I haven't bothered to use it until week before last when I tried to send someone a pic. Four times I tried and they didnt receive it, but I was charged for them on bill received this week.

When I ordered my new phone, I was told that Media Messaging wasn't and never had been activated since March of last year! The **** who took my order last year must have forgotten to do it. So I now also have to contact o2 about getting a refund of £1.00 + VAT... I really don't know if I can be arsed to phone them again. They get me so wound up.

Dicke C

O2 ex BT Cellnet, must have really piised BT of as well. They are in the process of tranferring all their work mobiles to the Vodaphone network.

Dicke C

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

Yeah 02 are hopeless and ive been with them 8 years for my sins

computers always down cant seem to switch off european travel after 6 phone calls

Free itemised bills which they charge for
didnt charge any texts for 6 months to the boys acount and then £173 in one go and disconected untill he paid it !

trying to cancel a contract is a no hoper

and why do you have to wait for 30 mins on hold then 5 different depts ?

dont respond to e-mails or letters as you give up trying to talkto them in customer service

Lum

PMSL!

Do you have a news source for that information by any chance?

Bash0rz

Well....

I went for an o2 contract in mid 2004 - then decided not to go ahead with it and they did take £25 for the phone and £25 for a months contract bill.... i emailed them saying i cancelled delivery of phone

Every email i sent i got a reply within 24 hours, and i got my refund after about a month but at least they emailed me everytime and never had to ring them.

Im gonna go with them again when the d500 is free on any contract