Now, before I start, and people shout things like “No, wait, I’ve never had any problems with o2!” please understand that I have been with the company since it took over Cellnet (and before that, I was WITH Cellnet). For the mostpart, I’ve never had a problem with them, until I switched from Pay n Go to contract…

:o

I signed my contract in March of last year and from the off there were problems. I had opted to pay extra for an itemised bill, and when the first one arrived on my doorstep, there was no itemised billing. Of course, I was still charged for it! On phoning the customer services, after holding for what seemed like an eternity (yes, I know, they are busy etc etc but I have been in the customer services industry for most of my working career and leaving customers on hold for 30-40 minutes is unacceptable) I eventually got through and was told that they were very sorry, and the mistake would be corrected immediately. In the meantime I had lost my mobile and was shafted by then insurance company, but that was the fault of Phones 4 U, not o2, as it was them who mis-sold me the insurance policy. This had obviously created some calls to o2 however, as each company was telling me it was the others responsibility, and each time I was on hold for no less than 25 minutes. Again, I find that unacceptable.

*deep breath*

Next in the saga was a mix-up over a bolt on. To cut a long story short, I was trying to activate o2’s “three favourite numbers” bolt on, having seen it in a brochure I picked up from the o2 shop near me. When I rang customer services they told me that they had never heard of the bolt on, and it was probably a shop-only promotion. So on their instructions, I went back to the shop, who then told me to activate the bolt on I’d need to ring customer services! This continued a number of times (being sent between the shop and customer services) so eventually I went to a different o2 shop and was told the same, though this time they suggested I ring customer services from the shop. On doing this, the agent who answered the phone recognised the bolt on immediately and said it would be added to my account straight away and the savings would be deducted form my next months bill.

Great :P

Except, when the bill came, there was no mention of the bolt on, and I was faced with charges running into several hundred pounds, double my normal costs Might I add, at this point, that I was still not receiving my itemised billing, despite ringing up each month and being told that next month it would be sorted for me. On speaking to customer services about this latest monumental cock-up, they informed me that the bolt on I had selected was for Pay n Go customers only, and that I should have been informed of this in the first place. Grr. By this point, I was pretty upset, and the advisor at o2 didn’t help much by saying that I’d have to pay the bill regardless. Eventually, I received a call back form a manager, and he explained that he was very sorry this had happened and that my bill would be halved immediately as compensation. Well it wasn’t. They took the full amount out of my account, which then bounced my credit card payment as I had left just enough in there for the two bills.

Cue one angry phone call later, and a different manager assured me that I would be refunded immediately, and that if I faxed a copy of any bank charges incurred they would credit me for those too. Needless to say 10 days later I was still waiting for the money to be credited into my account, and having given them a reasonable amount of time to do it, I called them back. Only to be told, that the money was not going into my account as previously arranged with the nameless manager that had contacted me, no, it was instead going to be credited to my next bill! I should add that each and every call I’ve ever made to o2 customer services has had me on hold for at least 20 minutes, which has hardly helped to calm me down. At this point in the epic, I had informed o2 in no uncertain terms that in future, any bills I received that were not itemised would not be paid, cos I was still not receiving my bloody itemised billing! They informed me that the itemised billing was now added to my account by a member of the IT department, and that it could not be taken off even if they tried, so I would now DEFINATLEY receive my itemised bills. To this day, I’ve not received one, which has left me with a substantial bill to o2 that I have no intention of paying unless they can provide me with the fully itemised bills for each month that I owe. Obviously they have cut me off, and I am now an o2 Pay n Go customer again, purely because my fiancée is still on o2 (for now) and it is her I mostly use up my calltime to, so it remains cheaper than other networks.

I have had troubles with o2 since going to Pay n Go as well, but my fingers hurt form all this typing, so I’ll save that one for another time.

All in all, o2, you suck

Shadowise, I had the exact same problem when I switched to Pay N Go for the second time!

I could use GPRS fine, but MMS wouldn't work. So I emailed them asking for it to be activated, and they replied, saying they'd do it within 24 hours. Next day, not only did my MMS still not work, they'd cut my GPRS off too!!!



It's sorted now though, thank christ...

Good luck mate, just shout really loud and they might actually listen :?