meteor incompetence

Sam Vimes

i went into a meteor shop and asked for a replacement sim. the guy walked around the front of the counter to a computer that faced outwards, ie i could see the screen. he logged in, letting me see his logon details:
username: erased
password: password

then he asked me to type in my phone number. i did, then he pressed enter and all my details popped up on the screen. at that point he violated the data protection act. he typed in the new sim number and gave it to me. the only detail that i'd given to this guy was my phone number.

but oh no, the tale does not end there. after about an hour the sim still wasn't working so i phoned customer care to ask if the account was active, since i blocked the account yesterday when i lost my phone. the woman assured me that all was well and it would work within 2 hours. 2 hours were almost up when i phoned up again and this time the woman said that the account was still blocked. hopefully she's unblocked it now.

i know how meteor can afford to be so cheap: they get their employees from a local school for the hard of thinking

edit:erased username so the guy won't get sacked

chrislad

Ironically, it was your incompetence that led to theirs.

gearbox

i dont really think its fair you name the employee on this site either after all you could get him in trouble, would like to see your reaction everytime you messed up in work that you got slated on the internet, nobody's perfect mate

Sam Vimes

gearbox wrote:

i dont really think its fair you name the employee on this site either after all you could get him in trouble, would like to see your reaction everytime you messed up in work that you got slated on the internet, nobody's perfect mate

i usually don't break the law when i mess up in work. i told customer care about him too. i want him to get in trouble so people can't go into the shop and get anyones number they want anymore

gearbox

To be honest he didnt break any law as he asked "you" to put in "your" number so technically nobody broke any law, however if you had of put in a different number other than your own you would of broken the law and so would he for giving you access to the system, so all your doing is stirring the s**t for him in his job, and by your comments about were they hire id say ur jelous as i can be very confident that he is on better money than most!

Sam Vimes

gearbox wrote:

To be honest he didnt break any law as he asked "you" to put in "your" number so technically nobody broke any law, however if you had of put in a different number other than your own you would of broken the law and so would he for giving you access to the system, so all your doing is stirring the s**t for him in his job, and by your comments about were they hire id say ur jelous as i can be very confident that he is on better money than most!

until my identity was verified he shouldn't have shown me any details. the only info i gave was a phone number and i saw someone's name, address, DOB and home phone number. therefore he violated the data protection act.

also, i work in a phone shop and i'm on pretty much the same wages and commission as him. and if i gave someone a replacement sim without verifying any details i'd expect to get sacked.

working in a phone shop, i have to deal with meteor customer care on a daily basis and i've never come across a more incompetent group of people. the most retarded thing i've seen them do is this:

my colleague was on the phone to a woman. she said she couldn't do what he wanted but gave him a different number to ring. the person he got through to was sitting next to the first one. we know this because she said "oh you were just onto joan next to me here" (name made up). of course this person couldn't help either

and that's just the most retarded story. it's by no means the only one

chrislad

Commander Vimes wrote:

also, i work in a phone shop and i'm on pretty much the same wages and commision as him. and if i gave someone a replacement sim without verifying any details i'd expect to get sacked.

Why couldn't you get yourself a replacement sim then?

Seriously, mate, you're being an ass. You're posting someones name on the net, plus confidential passwords, and it could cost him his job. You mightn't care, but I'm betting he does.

You had a bad experience, because YOU lost your phone. Yeah, people messed up. It's the bloody 2nd of January. People are still getting over the new year and aren't exactly thrilled to be coming into work on a bank holiday.

I'd recommend that you just delete this thread, and get over it.

Sam Vimes

chrislad wrote:

Why couldn't you get yourself a replacement sim then?

Seriously, mate, you're being an ass. You're posting someones name on the net, plus confidential passwords, and it could cost him his job. You mightn't care, but I'm betting he does.

You had a bad experience, because YOU lost your phone. Yeah, people messed up. It's the bloody 2nd of January. People are still getting over the new year and aren't exactly thrilled to be coming into work on a bank holiday.

I'd recommend that you just delete this thread, and get over it.

my shop doesn't do meteor replacement sims. if his password was confidential i wouldn't know it. in fact the phone was robbed, i just didnt feel it necessary to mention. i realise its the second of january but i don't want random people seeing my details or stealing my number any day of the year. i was horrified when i saw my details after giving no verification and i felt the need to post it here.

i haven't posted his name, i've posted his username, which i've now erased. i could have given his full name and the branch he works in but i didnt.

i didn't have a bad experience. this is the latest in a very long line of stupid things i've had to put up with from meteor. if you ask anything more complicated than how much credit you have left they have to ask a technician. and when they attempt to answer themselves its rare to get the same answer from two different people

eg, my mate wanted to switch from o2 the other day and wanted to do it before the 31st when the free texts offer was supposed to end and the woman said there was no rush because it was extended so he could use up his credit first. we phoned up again on the 31st to do the port and the woman said that it was ending that night. as i'm sure we all know it has been extended

Pythia

Is it war of the phone shops in here?
Does everyone who works in a phone shop think the rival phone shops' employees are incompetent?

Random

This guy deserves to loose his job. If he was never told about data privacy then he deserves a chance, but Meteor need a kick up the arse.

The whole situation is ridicolous and I would write a formal complaint to both the shop management and to Meter customer care.

BuffyBot

*melodramarama*

Sam Vimes

BuffyBot wrote:

*melodramarama*

tell you what, if your on meteor give me your phone number so i can steal it from you. and once i see your name, address and date of birth on the screen i can do a lot more stuff to you

Sam Vimes

Pythia wrote:

Is it war of the phone shops in here?
Does everyone who works in a phone shop think the rival phone shops' employees are incompetent?

only when they do incompetent things

chrislad

Commander Vimes wrote:

my shop doesn't do meteor replacement sims. if his password was confidential i wouldn't know it. in fact the phone was robbed, i just didnt feel it necessary to mention. i realise its the second of january but i don't want random people seeing my details or stealing my number any day of the year. i was horrified when i saw my details after giving no verification and i felt the need to post it here.

You're complaining about Data Protection, yet you gave out in a public domain access codes for anyone to get at them. Random people could be seeing a lot more random peoples details now.

i haven't posted his name, i've posted his username, which i've now erased. i could have given his full name and the branch he works in but i didnt.

You posted his username, which is his initial and his surname. More or less the same thing. Still not cool.

i didn't have a bad experience. this is the latest in a very long line of stupid things i've had to put up with from meteor. if you ask anything more complicated than how much credit you have left they have to ask a technician. and when they attempt to answer themselves its rare to get the same answer from two different people

I agree and I disagree. Some people in Customer Care are fairly incompetent. Some people are great at their jobs. Same goes across the board for O2 and Vodafone. Same goes for the shops. Some people actually try to provide a good service, some just try to make as much commission as they can and don't give a rats.

It was a ****ty thing to happen, but it should have been said in store to him, and not to the entire world.

Darz0re

Pythia wrote:

Is it war of the phone shops in here?
Does everyone who works in a phone shop think the rival phone shops' employees are incompetent?

i work in a phone shop of one of the networks and have for the last year and a half and have never had hassle with any staff from any other network. Must be one of the few that understands that with very high turnover in our work that not everyone can be trained for every thing since there are so many possible questions and situations that happen in a busy store.

ciaranfo wrote:

This guy deserves to loose his job. If he was never told about data privacy then he deserves a chance, but Meteor need a kick up the arse.

The whole situation is ridicolous and I would write a formal complaint to both the shop management and to Meter customer care.

thats a bit much in fairness now. fair enough he didnt verify account details as much as he could have, but losing a job over one event is a bit much.

ciaranfo wrote:

It was a ****ty thing to happen, but it should have been said in store to him, and not to the entire world.

Totally agree here, even if you had said it to the manager of the store while you where there so that it could have been made sure that it'd never happen again it would have been better

Sam Vimes

chrislad wrote:

You're complaining about Data Protection, yet you gave out in a public domain access codes for anyone to get at them. Random people could be seeing a lot more random peoples details now.

you have access to meteor's internal system now do you? the only people who can get into that system are people who already have logins

chrislad wrote:

I agree and I disagree. Some people in Customer Care are fairly incompetent. Some people are great at their jobs. Same goes across the board for O2 and Vodafone. Same goes for the shops. Some people actually try to provide a good service, some just try to make as much commission as they can and don't give a rats.

It was a ****ty thing to happen, but it should have been said in store to him, and not to the entire world.

it is true that there is bad customer care everywhere but meteor is considerably worse than the rest. i've found the other networks to be almost invariably very good (except when you ask for an unlock code from voda, at which point they lie a lot). its come to the stage that if i want to be sure of something, i ring up twice and when i get a different answer (more often than not) i make them go off and confirm what they're telling me with someone who knows, no matter how much they insist they're right.

maybe i shouldn't have posted his username and password, but then maybe he shouldn't have let me see him type it in. if i let someone watch me log in to my online banking i wouldn't go crying to them when they robbed my money


i was once left on hold for about ten minutes, then they guy came back and said he forgot about me

BrianD

The guy didn't break any data protection laws. The data was secure and you had access to only the record you claimed to be yours and had no wayof copying it or desiminating it. Perhaps they should ask for a little more than your phone number before issuing a new SIM card.

chrislad

Commander Vimes wrote:

you have access to meteor's internal system now do you? the only people who can get into that system are people who already have logins

:rolleyes:

it is true that there is bad customer care everywhere but meteor is considerably worse than the rest. i've found the other networks to be almost invariably very good (except when you ask for an unlock code from voda, at which point they lie a lot). its come to the stage that if i want to be sure of something, i ring up twice and when i get a different answer (more often than not) i make them go off and confirm what they're telling me with someone who knows, no matter how much they insist they're right.

maybe i shouldn't have posted his username and password, but then maybe he shouldn't have let me see him type it in. if i let someone watch me log in to my online banking i wouldn't go crying to them when they robbed my money


i was once left on hold for about ten minutes, then they guy came back and said he forgot about me

The main problem, I belive, with some Customer Care is that they are outsourced. Sure, it saves the company hassle in getting staff sorted but more often than not, they get far inferior training. I know a recruitment agency that told staff that they were getting paid 12euro an hour basic, when it turned out that they only got that if they got the highest level of commission.

parsi

Commander Vimes wrote:

you have access to meteor's internal system now do you? the only people who can get into that system are people who already have logins

'twould be so much sweeter to commit a nefarious crime using someone elses login credentials...

Sam Vimes

BrianD wrote:

The guy didn't break any data protection laws. The data was secure and you had access to only the record you claimed to be yours and had no wayof copying it or desiminating it. Perhaps they should ask for a little more than your phone number before issuing a new SIM card.

the law requires that they ask for a name, address and date of birth before mentioning anything about an account, never mind giving control of it to someone. if the sim isnt registered, they have to give 2 recently dialled numbers. i had a number years ago that had free texts for life and i tried to get it back about six months ago. the guy wouldn't even tell me if the number had been reassigned, as it should be with the data protection act.


on new years eve a friend of mine went missing for a few hours from the house we were in. since he was seen on the phone just before going missing, i phoned up 3 and asked for his last dialled number and they wouldn't tell me even though i had his name, address and DOB. you can't even get such a non-important piece of data as the last person they called under the act!

yes, some of meteor customer care is outsourced. im one stupid answer away from asking if they're in the waterford place (outsourced) before proceeding with the call

Sam Vimes

parsi wrote:

'twould be so much sweeter to commit a nefarious crime using someone elses login credentials...

yeah it would, but my point is that the only people who can make use of what i posted are people who are already authorised to access the system

BrianD

Commander Vimes wrote:

the law requires that they ask for a name, address and date of birth before mentioning anything about an account, never mind giving control of it to someone. if the sim isnt registered, they have to give 2 recently dialled numbers. i had a number years ago that had free texts for life and i tried to get it back about six months ago. the guy wouldn't even tell me if the number had been reassigned, as it should be with the data protection act.


on new years eve a friend of mine went missing for a few hours from the house we were in. since he was seen on the phone just before going missing, i phoned up 3 and asked for his last dialled number and they wouldn't tell me even though i had his name, address and DOB. you can't even get such a non-important piece of data as the last person they called under the act!

yes, some of meteor customer care is outsourced. im one stupid answer away from asking if they're in the waterford place (outsourced) before proceeding with the call

Incorrect. The law does not require any of the above though it is best practice to ask for as much unique information - usually 3 pieces for fiinancial customers - as possible. He should have asked for your number and then asked you to confirm some other personal data. Here's what the law says:

"appropriate security measures shall be taken against unauthorised access to, or unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction of, the data, in particular where the processing involves the transmission of data over a network, and against all other unlawful forms of processing"
- section 2(1)(d) of the Act

It doesn't specifically say that you ask for the information you stated. However, I would see it as common sense that you do. The customer service guy was lax.

Ironically the one big mistake that he did make was having the screen facing outwards where other customers could see your personal data. This has already been the subject of a complaint that was upheld by the Data Commissioner.

You however behaved very irresponsibly by publishing the username and password on a public board. Beacuse you saw it does not mean you have the right to disclose it.

Mad Dog

Commander Vimes wrote:

the law requires that they ask for a name, address and date of birth before mentioning anything about an account, never mind giving control of it to someone. if the sim isnt registered, they have to give 2 recently dialled numbers. i had a number years ago that had free texts for life and i tried to get it back about six months ago. the guy wouldn't even tell me if the number had been reassigned, as it should be with the data protection act.


on new years eve a friend of mine went missing for a few hours from the house we were in. since he was seen on the phone just before going missing, i phoned up 3 and asked for his last dialled number and they wouldn't tell me even though i had his name, address and DOB. you can't even get such a non-important piece of data as the last person they called under the act!

yes, some of meteor customer care is outsourced. im one stupid answer away from asking if they're in the waterford place (outsourced) before proceeding with the call

GET A F***KING LIFE AND STOP TAKING UP VALUABLE THREAD SPACE WITH THIS ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

turbot

Vimes,

(who demonstrates none of the tact, streetsmart, grammatical ability or evidence-based argumentation to ever deserve the title of "Commander")

It seems that you are (unduly) outraged about how your sim replacement was handled in this particular case. You also overlook vistas of factors involved in this situation:

1) Many of these systems have more than one level of security
2) Many of these shops have video cameras filming who is operating the till and the computer
3) You do not describe the layout of the shop, the number of people around, or other details indicating the extent to which your personal data could possibly be compromised.
4) Unless you have an eidetic memory, it's unlikely you could do much with data glancing at a computer screen showing *some* personal details. You were not given a print out. I suspect you cannot even remember. If you had started writing all those details down, or tried to photograph the screen, you would have attracted attention.

Your whole vibe is bitter and irrationally vitriolic towards meteor; I wonder if something not so nice happened to you around x-mas to make you so angry generally. I don't think this is about meteor; this is about you.

My experience of Meteor directly contravenes your statements about the company:
- I got a cool number by simply asking for one
- I met a rep from Meteor who then dealt with me personally; he was professional, efficient and courteous
- I got a good deal on a phone
- Initially, the K750i that was delivered had a software fault; this was replaced with another, and then a different phone after it was esablished Sony Ericsson seemed to have issued a batch of faulty phones. Meteor were easy to communicate with (for me), responsive to my requests, and overall I was satisfied with their service.
- When I was in paris shortly after getting my new phone, I didn't have the pin-code for my meteor phone, but I did have his number. I left a message on his voicemail, and 1 hour later he texted me the unlock code on my alternate phone so I could change a the pin.

Relative to the competency of other mobile networks, and the pricing Meteor offers, I think they offer good service, great prices and am happy with my experience of them thus far.

Slice

If I messed up in my work I'd prefer that person take issue with me or my company than bitch about me online. Why don't you look up their complaints procedure on their website and write to them?

Sam Vimes

turbot wrote:

Vimes,

(who demonstrates none of the tact, streetsmart, grammatical ability or evidence-based argumentation to ever deserve the title of "Commander")

there is nothing wrong with my grammer and all my statments have been backed up with evidence.

turbot wrote:

It seems that you are (unduly) outraged about how your sim replacement was handled in this particular case. You also overlook vistas of factors involved in this situation:

1) Many of these systems have more than one level of security
2) Many of these shops have video cameras filming who is operating the till and the computer
3) You do not describe the layout of the shop, the number of people around, or other details indicating the extent to which your personal data could possibly be compromised.

i don't understand what your point is here. I don't care whether or not other people could see my details, I care that i got access to my account without giving verification. I have customer care ask me for a pin whenever I call specifically to stop this. Of course, being meteor, they rarely ask for it unless i tell them to.

turbot wrote:

4) Unless you have an eidetic memory, it's unlikely you could do much with data glancing at a computer screen showing *some* personal details. You were not given a print out. I suspect you cannot even remember. If you had started writing all those details down, or tried to photograph the screen, you would have attracted attention.

i remembered his username and password didn't i? There are a multitude of people whose name and address i know. All i would have had to spot is the DOB and i could mess with them.

I remember the exact layout of the screen in fact. I saw it for a good ten-fifteen seconds while he was typing in the new sim number.

turbot wrote:

Your whole vibe is bitter and irrationally vitriolic towards meteor; I wonder if something not so nice happened to you around x-mas to make you so angry generally. I don't think this is about meteor; this is about you.

no, this is about meteor. My vibe is indeed bitter but rationally vitriolic towards meteor. If you search this thread you will find many examples of me saying "meteor customer care is staffed by monkeys" spread across several months and usually after they've done something stupid.

turbot wrote:

My experience of Meteor directly contravenes your statements about the company:
- I got a cool number by simply asking for one
- I met a rep from Meteor who then dealt with me personally; he was professional, efficient and courteous
- I got a good deal on a phone
- Initially, the K750i that was delivered had a software fault; this was replaced with another, and then a different phone after it was esablished Sony Ericsson seemed to have issued a batch of faulty phones. Meteor were easy to communicate with (for me), responsive to my requests, and overall I was satisfied with their service.
- When I was in paris shortly after getting my new phone, I didn't have the pin-code for my meteor phone, but I did have his number. I left a message on his voicemail, and 1 hour later he texted me the unlock code on my alternate phone so I could change a the pin.

Relative to the competency of other mobile networks, and the pricing Meteor offers, I think they offer good service, great prices and am happy with my experience of them thus far.

i agree that meteor are helpful when they can be. they don't purposely lie to you like vodafone customer care. Its simply that they aren't given the training necessary to do their jobs and therefore regularly make stupid mistakes.

turbot wrote:

Meteor were easy to communicate with

when insulting someone's grammer erroneously, you should attempt to have your own grammer correct.

also

turbot wrote:

(who demonstrates none of the tact, streetsmart, grammatical ability or evidence-based argumentation to ever deserve the title of "Commander")

possibly the made-up word "streetsmartness" would make that sentence gramatically correct but as it is that sentence means nothing.

i normally don't correct peoples' grammer but when someone makes two mistakes in the course of insulting mine i feel the need

Sam Vimes

look people, meteor ****ed up one too many times and i felt the need to vent my anger here. it doesn't mean that something else has made me angry or there's some underlying psychological reason, i'm simply pissed off at them and rightly so. It's come to the stage in my shop that the staff avoid doing meteor contracts if at all possible. I have been working there since roughly april and i have only managed to successfully complete one contract. Something has gone wrong with every other contract that I have started. After half an hour on the phone the customer eventually gets angry, tells me to cancel it and goes for a different network. When he leaves, one of us says "meteor strikes again" and we all know what he's talking about

to be honest, I did manage to complete one more but the woman came back the next day to say there was no sim card in the box, so it wasn't successful.


As you can see, my "vitriol" is not irrational but based on many months of past exprience

Sam Vimes

Mad Dog wrote:

GET A F***KING LIFE AND STOP TAKING UP VALUABLE THREAD SPACE WITH THIS ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

same to you mate

Pythia

Commander Vimes wrote:

look people, meteor ****ed up one too many times and i felt the need to vent my anger here. it doesn't mean that something else has made me angry or there's some underlying psychological reason, i'm simply pissed off at them and rightly so. It's come to the stage in my shop that the staff avoid doing meteor contracts if at all possible. I have been working there since roughly april and i have only managed to successfully complete one contract. Something has gone wrong with every other contract that I have started. After half an hour on the phone the customer eventually gets angry, tells me to cancel it and goes for a different network. When he leaves, one of us says "meteor strikes again" and we all know what he's talking about

to be honest, I did manage to complete one more but the woman came back the next day to say there was no sim card in the box, so it wasn't successful.


As you can see, my "vitriol" is not irrational but based on many months of past exprience

Have you addressed these concerns with your area manager/Meteor rep?
You've only completed one contract properly?
*Are you sure it's not just you?*

BTW Commander, it's grammar!

daiixi

OP.. if Meteor suck so bad, why do you continue to stay with them??? They are extremely cheap and it sounds like you're getting the service you're paying for.

chrislad

I've done about 60 Meteor contract. All with zero problems.