02 Customer complaint

qt9ukbg60ivjrn

I need some help with a problem I'm having with O2.I wrote to them and they wrote back. Please read below, i wrote this after loads of hassle

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To Whom It May Concern,
Over the last number of months I have been having problems in relation to getting an upgrade for my phone. I have never used my upgrade but have intended to for quite some time but due to one problem and another I haven't availed of this option yet. I will explain my problem fully.
In November 2007 I contacted 02 customer care asking about my upgrade status and how much a certain phone would cost with the upgrade status I was on. The lady who was helping me told me that I was a gold upgrade and then told me how much the phone I asked about would be. She then told me that she would put a note on my account recommending me for a platinum upgrade and that as soon as this went through she would contact me. I received no communication from her or 02 in regards to this matter.
In August 2008 I visited an 02 store in Dundrum Shopping Centre, Dublin and was interest in purchasing the Nokia N95. The sales man told me that I had a gold upgrade. I then explained the situation (as stated above) to him and he said that because the system was down, he could not help me with this matter but in one week I should call back.
A week after this I rang 02 customer care and was talking to a woman. I explained the situation to her and she checked the note on my account from November. She said that since she did not have authorisation to give me a platinum upgrade she would e-mail the lady who had left this note on my account and this person would call me back. I received no call.
I rang again, one week later and was talking to a man who told me that the upgrade system was down. I asked him is it possible that I wasn't contacted back by the lady who helped me in November because she didn't work there anymore, but I was told that she infact still did. He then told me that as soon as the upgrade system was back up he would contact me and help me through my problem. I have received no call.
Today, I called customer care and a lady told me that the upgrade system was functioning again. I asked what upgrade I have. She told me I have a silver upgrade. I explained that the last time I asked what upgrade I had, which was one week ago, I was told I had a gold upgrade. She explained to me that the upgrade conditions have been changed. I was not informed that this would happen and considering I have been in contact with three separate people from 02 over the last three weeks I think this is a disgrace. The fact that the upgrade conditions were changed but I was not informed by individual 02 employees or buy a general letter to all customers is short-sighted by the employees and by management.

This is not the first time that I've had problem with 02. When I first signed my contract I was told by the sales man in the 02 store on Graton Street, Dublin, that he would put me onto the system first thing the next day. He didn't come in to work for two days. I was called by a customer care person who apologised and put me on to the system.
02 staff have displayed an appalling lack of customer care and product knowledge.
I do not find it acceptable that I was told that I would be on a platinum upgrade but have now been told I am on silver. I expect this matter to be resolved to my satisfaction as soon as possible or I will cancel my contract with 02.

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This is the reply i received

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Thank you for contacting O2 Customer Care by email (Query Number C024660). I would also like to apologise for the bad experience you had in one of our stores in Dublin.
I can see from the notes on your account that you were speaking to Julianne on the 5th of November, 2007. You were indeed advised that you would be eligible for a platinum upgrade the following month. However, as a business we review and update our upgrade criteria regularly, which can mean amending the eligibility thresholds. For operational reasons, we have recently made some changes to this eligibility criteria.
Unfortunately at this time you do not meet the criteria to receive an upgrade, however we do continually review our upgrade criteria. You can monitor your account on www.o2.ie to check your upgrade eligibility.
I hope this is of assistance to you.

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I know its an absolute cop out but i can't reply to them saying this (or can i?)
I am now still on silver, i went from gold to silver within a matter of 2 days
when i first was told I would be put on platinum i was happy about the money i would be saving but now I don't really care about the money, its the principle, i was told I would be put on platinum and i wasn't
this is my INTENDED reply

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Thank you for your reply. However you have failed to clear the issue and have stated what I already know.
I am aware that upgrade criteria changes from time to time.
But the problem remains that because of O2 employees' short sightedness and lack of customer service I am now on a Silver upgrade. when I should have been on a Platinum upgrade almost 1 year ago.
If back in November I had been upgrade to Platinum, failed to avail of this and my upgrade criteria was change this would have been my fault but the fact is that I wasn't called back by the customer care agent. O2 is clearly at fault. So whether the criteria change or not is of no consequence to what occurred.
As soon as a better offer from another phone company is available I will be discontinuing my contract with O2

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any thoughs and suggestions???
i want to nail these bastards to the wall cause their customer services has been appalling and i've had a contract with them for 1 1/2 years
i've never upgrade so its not like i'm abusing this offer constantly

dade

I think your issue may be similar to this

they made changes to their upgrade policy over the last few weeks and a lot of customers are severely pissed off with it

Doctor DooM

Yeah, do what I did and leave them.

Purely specualting I would say o2 are trying to increase share price by retaining capital.

You want to hurt them? Take your money elsewhere. I already have.

qt9ukbg60ivjrn

when i talked to the girl in november she told me i would get an upgrade and she put a note on my account..is there anything to do with breach of contract in this...verbal agreement or even written considering she wrote it on my account in a note?? I'm useless at law!

jor el

Jazmin Inexpensive Sneaker wrote: »

when i talked to the girl in november she told me i would get an upgrade and she put a note on my account..is there anything to do with breach of contract in this...verbal agreement or even written considering she wrote it on my account in a note?? I'm useless at law!

I really don't think so. The upgrades aren't a right, they're a privilege that the operators offer to long time, or high value, customers.

You should ring back, check whether your silver status has been reset back to gold, and if it hasn't, then ask to be put through to cancellations. Tell them, if they offer something to appease you, that the only thing that will keep your business now is a platinum upgrade.

If you don't get it, leave.

Trampas

Their customer service is terrible.

One rep will tell you one thing and another will tell you another.

As soon as my contract is up I am out of there.

All I wanted was a bill printed off but they wouldn't do it cause I was on paperless billing.

If I was a business with thousands of euros of month bill I am sure they will but I was only €50 so they wouldn't.

krudler

Trampas wrote: »

Their customer service is terrible.

One rep will tell you one thing and another will tell you another.

As soon as my contract is up I am out of there.

All I wanted was a bill printed off but they wouldn't do it cause I was on paperless billing.

If I was a business with thousands of euros of month bill I am sure they will but I was only €50 so they wouldn't.

you can easily get a bill reprinted even if you're on paperless billing

to the OP, they wont give you back your upgrade under any circumstances now, at best expect a voucher to use in january when the upgrade status is either changed or they start putting them through again

rainbowtrout

Jazmin Inexpensive Sneaker wrote: »

when i talked to the girl in november she told me i would get an upgrade and she put a note on my account..is there anything to do with breach of contract in this...verbal agreement or even written considering she wrote it on my account in a note?? I'm useless at law!

probably not, when you ring in and it is checked on the system it comes up which upgrade you are entitled to. the customer service rep had no authority to tell you she could upgrade from gold to platinum, she would have at least had to check with a team leader first. I reckon, she did this to get you off the phone or did it without realising and then just decided to ignore her mistake and hope someone else would deal with it, which isn't on but to her it's just another call.

and as was said, upgrades are not entitlements and they do have it in the T&Cs that the can change the criteria at any time.

The best thing you can hope for as was already said is to ask to be put through to cancellations and see what they will offer you.

wmpdd3

SDooM wrote: »

Yeah, do what I did and leave them.

Purely specualting I would say o2 are trying to increase share price by retaining capital.

You want to hurt them? Take your money elsewhere. I already have.

As far as I know your right, cash flow seems to be restricted this quarter and next.

Surely they have weighed up the risk involved in this, have the top spenders they want to keep already renewed their 12 month contracts and got their phones?

Are the customers they will loose because of this expendable?

qt9ukbg60ivjrn

Trampas wrote: »

Their customer service is terrible.

One rep will tell you one thing and another will tell you another.

As soon as my contract is up I am out of there.

All I wanted was a bill printed off but they wouldn't do it cause I was on paperless billing.

If I was a business with thousands of euros of month bill I am sure they will but I was only €50 so they wouldn't.

yeah i know what you mean , if i was incharge of telephone bill contracts for a company i would drop 02 so quickly, if it was a big enough contract i reckon they'd take notice but its only me :mad:


thanks for the replies everyone, good to get different perspectives

castie

krudler wrote: »

you can easily get a bill reprinted even if you're on paperless billing

to the OP, they wont give you back your upgrade under any circumstances now, at best expect a voucher to use in january when the upgrade status is either changed or they start putting them through again

I was told the same.
So i changed from bill to speakeasy first then transfered to 3 using a household bill.

krpc

There is a LOT of people going through this at the moment.

The best place to voice the concern is with O2 through their new customer forum - it is located here.

I hope it helps.

Rowley Birkin QC

I have never had a single problem with 02 customer service and tbh whenever I fancy a new phone I give them a bell and ask what my upgrade level is at, then nicely ask them to bump it up a rank, i.e. Gold-->Platinum etc. Simple.

krudler

bigkev49 wrote: »

I have never had a single problem with 02 customer service and tbh whenever I fancy a new phone I give them a bell and ask what my upgrade level is at, then nicely ask them to bump it up a rank, i.e. Gold-->Platinum etc. Simple.

They wont be doing that anymore though;)

Trampas

krudler wrote: »

you can easily get a bill reprinted even if you're on paperless billing

how do you know that?

Gummy Panda

Have you tried printing off a bill from the website?

Trampas

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Have you tried printing off a bill from the website?

I can put it is part of a claim so they want it on o2 headed paper.

Not hard to ask

krudler

Trampas wrote: »

how do you know that?

I've done it countless times for people

Bob the Builder

You are free to ask for a paper bill if you want, and they are obliged (by their policies) to give it to you. Three, on the other hand charge something ridiculous like €7.50 for it.

SDooM wrote: »

Yeah, do what I did and leave them.
Purely specualting I would say o2 are trying to increase share price by retaining capital.

Bad decision by o2, and SDooM, you're not the only one. The real reason was due to a budget overrun, from what I've heard. This was thee worst decision they could have made, no matter what sort of financial tiddle they're in.

castie wrote: »

I was told the same.
So i changed from bill to speakeasy first then transfered to 3 using a household bill.

if you're leaving o2, then ask to change to speakeasy account, then move network. It's safer, less confusing, and solves a lot of potential problems(not just on o2's side either.)

i-bloodhound wrote: »

The best place to voice the concern is with O2 through their new customer forum - it is located here.

The guys there are brilliant, and at least stick in your complaint there to let them know how you feel.

bigkev49 wrote: »

I have never had a single problem with 02 customer service and tbh whenever I fancy a new phone I give them a bell and ask what my upgrade level is at, then nicely ask them to bump it up a rank, i.e. Gold-->Platinum etc. Simple.

Lulz, if you hit customer service for a call on a good day, get through to someone nice, they're usually brilliant in that aspect.

As for the customer service, in all that I do talk to them, I'd say less than 1 in 15 times I call them, they are bad. For the most part, they are brilliant to deal with. I work in an o2 dealer shop btw. Had reason to call paypal a few times, and they are horrible, and even on the odd occassion, i had to call vodafone and they were really snobby to me on the phone, and then when they realised i worked in an o2 shop, they started shuffling me around the place - just like dell do.

As for the upgrade, the best I can say is to hold on till' january. And then they will stop this crazy crap then. As for now, if you really need an upgrade, we've had two customers who cancelled their contract, and then signed up again just to get their phone on the cheap. it worked as well, even though, on our end, we had a bit of extra paperwork to do.

Wishing you all the best anyway OP. When you have to write a letter to complain about something, it surely means that people aren't happy and i hope you find a solution. And if you can't hold your breath for the next three months until january, then i wouldn't advise you holding your breath in search for a solution.

jor el

Conor Pope is on about this on Today FM right now. Seems there are lots of people who have lost their upgrade altogether. O2 are saying that they've removed their upgrade program, and are not giving any upgrades to people at all.

smashey

I had a silver upgrade and one of the O2 reps called me a couple of months ago asking me to sign up for a new contract. I agreed but with one condition - they upgrade my upgrade from silver to gold. They agreed and I got the Nokia E51. Sweet.