O2 - A Complete Joke

Shane732

I'm not sure if this is the right forum but most threads about O2 iphone plans seem to here....

At the end of March O2 changed me over to, what I thought was a new iphone plan, it turned out not to be an Iphone plan at all and I got screwed for data usage, calls and texts etc...

I contacted O2 and they recognized the error of their ways and agreed to refund the charges in relation to data and also some calls and texts that would have been covered on my old plan. They changed me over to the correct plan at this point.

It comes to billing date and they issue a bill - and surprise, surprise there's no credit. I contacted them in relation to it. At first they weren't able to see anything to do with the credit. I explained the situation and all of a sudden they found the credit. I then listened to the girl try to convince me that I had received the credit for about 25 minutes. I clearly had not received a credit - you add up the charges and take away the credits to get your total. There isn't any credit.

In the end I just said fine and let it go - there was no way I was going to get the credit from the girl I was speaking to. So now I'm left with a huge bill because of O2's mistakes.

It's a complete and utter joke that a company as big as O2 can't even get their billing system to operate correctly. It's any even bigger joke that O2 contacted me about the new plans and made a complete arse of the switch over and now I'm left paying for it.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Bosshogg

Shane732 wrote: »

It's a complete and utter joke that a company as big as O2 can't even get their billing system to operate correctly. i.e. it errs in their favour.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Their billing system works perfectly from their point of view.

Shane732 wrote: »

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

1000's of people.


Read this for a (pointless) explaination of complaints escalation.
http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/resources/file/eb08320cfc10f10/O2_CodeofPractice.pdf

Mostly go to your local TD/Gov rep and keep the heat on them.

Tom Dunne

Moved from Apple Media Devices as it is a non-technical, non-handset issue.

PCPhoto

bosshogg - do you have a personal experience with o2 ?

I've been an o2 customer for about 5yrs, I was a vodafone customer for about 8yrs prior to that and from what I can tell - they are each as bad as each other in terms of customer service, o2 offered me cheaper deals and my phone bills dropped from €400-500 a month to €200-250ish a month, vodafone were not interested in my complaints.

Admittedly o2 are not without problems - I've yet to hear of any network that will perform flawless and keep ALL customers happy - the problem is that its the unhappy ones who make the most noise .... at a wild guess lets say o2 have 500,000 phone users...so if approx 1000 people are upset - thats quite a lot of people - but in terms of percentages - its a small number, of course every month its possible a simple error on a computer system could cause thousands of people to be unhappy - but its also possible that the phone user is looking for soeone else to blame except themselves(mobile phones dont magically phone someone and have conversations for long periods of time) ... its up to the individual to monitor their own calls and data - if you use your phone abroad be ready to accept charges from abroad, personally I dont use my phone while travelling - as I'm on holidays its brought along for emergencies ONLY.

some of the more common complaints from people that I've read on boards:

- claiming charged excessively for calls/data while abroad (sometimes a person doesnt realise how long they are on the phone/internet while abroad, sometimes the network that they are using is not a business partner of the home network and cheaper prices are not available)
- phone stolen and international calls made for long periods of time - this has popped up a few times, in theory a person is supposed to report their phone lost/stolen as soon as possible to the network so they can restrict its usage, but people dont report it until the following day or after the weekend - and then blame the network, usually in these cases an agreement is made but the phone owner feels pissed off 'cos they lost a phone and have to pay some part of the bill and have to buy a new phone.
- customers admitting they went over their limit - but blaming phone network for not telling them they were near/over their limit...so they get a high bill and then complain. - this ones self explanatory.

nanook

have to disagree with PCphoto


I have been with O2 and Vodafone, and I have to say that Vodafone are far superior to 02 at the moment.
I have ongoing issues with 02 with regard to unlocking an Iphone and they are messing around for the last 5 weeks.
If i have an issue with vodafone, i call them, it is dealt with and all credits are added to the account straight away, you may even get an additional credit like a months credit when the issue is on their error.

Bosshogg

PCPhoto wrote: »

bosshogg - do you have a personal experience with o2 ?

Hi PC. Tom just asked the same question, short answer = yes, lots.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=65674557&posted=1#post65674557
Getting customers protected from the dire behaviour of companies like O2 is a past time for me.

PCPhoto wrote: »

- customers admitting they went over their limit - but blaming phone network for not telling them they were near/over their limit...so they get a high bill and then complain. - this ones self explanatory.

Not really self explanatory imo. This argument never allows for the human factor. We can all be cought out from time to time no matter how tech savvy or diligent we are. People aren't stupid for this but O2 are very prepared to take advantage. For this reason we need safe gaurds in place so O2 can't toddle off counting the roll of cash they just dipped from our household income.

When you delve into this the scale of the problem is staggering. There are links on boards.ie going back to 2006 logging this behaviour.

My main point of view is the social issue. I couldn't care less about any technical mumbo jumbo excuses. I don't want anyone getting stung in this way again.

PCPhoto

nanook wrote: »

have to disagree with PCphoto


I have been with O2 and Vodafone, and I have to say that Vodafone are far superior to 02 at the moment.
I have ongoing issues with 02 with regard to unlocking an Iphone and they are messing around for the last 5 weeks.
If i have an issue with vodafone, i call them, it is dealt with and all credits are added to the account straight away, you may even get an additional credit like a months credit when the issue is on their error.

to be fair - I havent dealt with VF for about 5yrs so cant comment on their customer service "at the moment" .... at the time when I switched over, they were not willing/able to help with any issues that I had - all that I used to get was the usual dribble "turn the phone off, wait five mins...turn it back on" - I've had huge issues with Data problems and my main problem at the time is that their "Data team/experts" only worked mon-fri 9-5 ..... so if/when I had a problem connecting phone-laptop...I was told that a complaint would be logged and it would be dealt with after the weekend - which was of no use to me if I was trying to send pics out from the side of a football pitch in an effort to make money....I work as a freelance photographer - anyway that was my experience at the time.

I cant recommend o2 as a network - but havent had too many complaints, I cant recommend Vodafone as I havent dealt with them in over 5yrs and I cant recommend any of the other networks 'cos I have had no dealings with them.

As regards - unlocking problems - I thought all networks had to unlock the phone/give the unlocking codes at your request....I've said it on another thread, if people have problems.... make a note of it and when contract is up - change to another company - but be prepared to experience the same/worse service - they are all as bad as each other in my opinion.

Bosshogg

nanook wrote: »

have to disagree with PCphoto

If i have an issue with vodafone, i call them, it is dealt with and all credits are added to the account straight away, you may even get an additional credit like a months credit when the issue is on their error.

+1 for me.
Dealing with Vodafone feels like they understand you may be frustrated and they don't want you to be p*d-off - as a result I'm with them 15+ years spending 1000s each year happy and satisfied. Also we're bringing my wife over from Meteor PAYG to Vodafone billpay just today with a new iPhone. This is a direct result/reward/vote of confidence to Vodafone for their fine CS assistance with a new phone purchase problem this week that was completely resolved. (Thanks again Brenda)

Dealing with O2 feels like they get a kick out of p*g you off. They log your calls to track your frustrations to excuse their persistant hanging up on you. I got a distinct impression that Mary was doing her nails or playing with bubble gum in her mouth while she refused to escalate my complaint way back then.

That's a slice of my O2 experience. There's 1000's like me.


gtg - going to Vodafone Store Liffey Valley to get new iPhone for darling wife :0)

PCPhoto

Bosshogg wrote: »

Hi PC. Tom just asked the same question, short answer = yes, lots.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=65674557&posted=1#post65674557
Getting customers protected from the dire behaviour of companies like O2 is a past time for me.


Not really self explanatory imo. This argument never allows for the human factor. We can all be cought out from time to time no matter how tech savvy or diligent we are. People aren't stupid for this but O2 are very prepared to take advantage. For this reason we need safe gaurds in place so O2 can't toddle off counting the roll of cash they just dipped from our household income.

When you delve into this the scale of the problem is staggering. There are links on boards.ie going back to 2006 logging this behaviour.

My main point of view is the social issue. I couldn't care less about any technical mumbo jumbo excuses. I don't want anyone getting stung in this way again.

how can it not be self explanatory ...as an example http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=63482649 the person goes over his/her limit ...and gives out about the bill claiming he should have been cut off/warned when approaching limit.

dont get me wrong - in an ideal world ALL mobile networks would allow us to switch and none of their contracts would be binding, the reception would be 100% ALL the time , calls would be cheap and data speeds would ACTUALLY be those advertised, unfortunately - these people are running businesses and they are in it for the profit only and dont give two sh1ts about joe bloggs and his problem.

Tom Dunne

I really don't want to be dragged into a "who is the worst operator" thread, so I will let the figures speak for themselves.

Here is a poll from late last year on the Mobiles/PDA forum. Of the 161 people who voted, 13% found O2 to be the lesser of several evils.

Obviously, this is not an overly scientific poll, and is certainly not biased by one person's experience, but I do think it says a lot. No matter what operator you use, you will always hear horror stories.

mad muffin

Shane732 wrote: »

I'm not sure if this is the right forum but most threads about O2 iphone plans seem to here....

At the end of March O2 changed me over to, what I thought was a new iphone plan, it turned out not to be an Iphone plan at all and I got screwed for data usage, calls and texts etc...

I contacted O2 and they recognized the error of their ways and agreed to refund the charges in relation to data and also some calls and texts that would have been covered on my old plan. They changed me over to the correct plan at this point.

It comes to billing date and they issue a bill - and surprise, surprise there's no credit. I contacted them in relation to it. At first they weren't able to see anything to do with the credit. I explained the situation and all of a sudden they found the credit. I then listened to the girl try to convince me that I had received the credit for about 25 minutes. I clearly had not received a credit - you add up the charges and take away the credits to get your total. There isn't any credit.

In the end I just said fine and let it go - there was no way I was going to get the credit from the girl I was speaking to. So now I'm left with a huge bill because of O2's mistakes.

It's a complete and utter joke that a company as big as O2 can't even get their billing system to operate correctly. It's any even bigger joke that O2 contacted me about the new plans and made a complete arse of the switch over and now I'm left paying for it.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Give Daryll a pm he should be able to help you.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=202303

jor el

Shane732 wrote: »

In the end I just said fine and let it go - there was no way I was going to get the credit from the girl I was speaking to. So now I'm left with a huge bill because of O2's mistakes.

Why did you let it go? You ask to speak to a supervisor if the person you're talking to can't or won't help. Letting it go will mean it's never fixed. If they've accepted responsibility, and said the over charge would be credited, then it should be done. By some other error it wasn't, so you need to speak to someone that can do it.

Contacting TDs and Government representatives, as Bosshogg suggested, would be an even bigger waste of your time. They can't do anything about this, but you can if you can just get through to someone that will help. Failing that, put it all in writing (which is always better than the phone) and send by registered post to O2. Cancel your direct debit in the mean time so that the over charged bill isn't taken from your account.

dotsman

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Of the 161 people who voted, 13% found O2 to be the lesser of several evils.

I think you got that wrong. It should read that 87% found O2 to be the lesser of several evils (ie only 13% said they were the worst!):)

Domscard

dotsman wrote: »

I think you got that wrong. It should read that 87% found O2 to be the lesser of several evils (ie only 13% said they were the worst!):)

And that's only if you can assume that everyone who voted had experience of all of the providers in the poll Lies, damn lies and stats ...

yoshytoshy

I had an issue with them last year ,sent them a disconnection email to the proper address.

Three months later I'm still connected and the direct debits are still coming from my account. After several calls they agreed to refund me ,but they refund my O2 account.

Is this right ? ,can a company who have taken a direct debit from your bank account ,refund money to their O2 account with you ,even in the knowledge the account is closing ?

Never again will I deal with them ,they deliberately ripped me off.

joewicklow

Was actually going to get the GF an iPhone with 02 today. Looks like its gonne be VF now!

rubberdiddies

i dont know what difference, if any, that this makes, but for the past year or so most of O2's technical support is coming from india with a small amount being done from Ireland. in theory it shouldnt make a difference where it is done from but the guys in india may not have the experience that the guys who were replaced in Ireland had.

pawrick

I just switched to a data package but was keeping an eye on my online bill to see how it was going. Bit confusing trying to see what plan you are on and that all is correct on the web site when you are switching from one to another mid billing cycle.

anyhow - was set up on the wrong option - spotted this after i ran up a bil of about 200 euro (approx) after my first week! As it happened they phoned me on my mobile as i was calling them on my house phone to see whats up.

they looked in to it and yes indeed I was on the wrong bill plan - they didn't spot this until I said it to them, they were just calling to say I was running up a huge bill. They said they'd sort it out for me on their end and not to worry.

I'm on the correct plan now but I haven't seen any change to the 200 euro yet, not sure if it cancels out when they issue the bill or what but I'll be keeping a very close eye on things. They were helpful to me and I don't blame O2 as it was human error. It will be interesting though to see if how the bill goes.

whiterebel

yoshytoshy wrote: »

I had an issue with them last year ,sent them a disconnection email to the proper address.

Three months later I'm still connected and the direct debits are still coming from my account. After several calls they agreed to refund me ,but they refund my O2 account.

Is this right ? ,can a company who have taken a direct debit from your bank account ,refund money to their O2 account with you ,even in the knowledge the account is closing ?

Never again will I deal with them ,they deliberately ripped me off.

You'll have to ring them, because they'll never ring you!! Did the same to me, and eventually they credited it back to my credit card. They go out of their way to make life as awkward as possible, seems to me.

yoshytoshy

whiterebel wrote: »

You'll have to ring them, because they'll never ring you!! Did the same to me, and eventually they credited it back to my credit card. They go out of their way to make life as awkward as possible, seems to me.

I will ring them tomorrow ,your right about them being awkward.

foggy_lad

They go out of their way to make life as awkward as possible, seems to me.

i found this to be the case with both o2 and meteor and it is simple, if their phone customer care can stop/prevent you from seeking a refund or getting your money back when you have been overcharged it is all money in the bank for the operator on top of your normal charges and imho i think customer care are trained this way.

Kimono-Girl

just my 2 cents,

years back i was on o2 bill pay, i have been on vodafone/eircell payg, o2 payg, meteor payg, vodafone payg is my current operator,


and from my experiance with all the CS reps i find vodafone were always the most helpful, on o2 bill pay i found they were the most unhelpful, only interested in pulling in the money regardless of problems with their service! on o2 payg i felt they just tried/said whatever they could to get you off the phone.

on meteor they acknowledged there are problems with their network but were unable to assist with those problems and eventually i left them because of these problems.

on vodafone payg any issues i had were resolved over 1 phone call, or 1 pm on boards. they were always polite and helpful and as a result they now have 2 iphone customers with me and my mum and they are about to get another two when my sister switches from o2 when her iphone contract is up (she's had her fair share of unresolved problems with them and has had enough)and my oh joins the iphone group!

Mort5000

nanook wrote: »

I have ongoing issues with 02 with regard to unlocking an Iphone and they are messing around for the last 5 weeks.

+1 for me on this issue.

Absolutely pathetic network.

goretti

Mort5000 wrote: »

+1 for me on this issue.

Absolutely pathetic network.

I requested an unlock for the iPhone earlier - I was told it would take about 2 weeks ... not so hopeful now!

Mort5000

goretti wrote: »

I requested an unlock for the iPhone earlier - I was told it would take about 2 weeks ... not so hopeful now!

They're now just refusing to unlock my phone until I've spent EUR150.
Unbelievable.
The handset belonged to a subscriber for over a year, i.e. O2 have already recovered the cost, but they're just being thieves now.

"Even though the handset belonged to someone else we take the personal o2 number into account not the handset usage."

:mad:

matchthis

Mort5000 wrote: »

They're now just refusing to unlock my phone until I've spent EUR150.
Unbelievable.
The handset belonged to a subscriber for over a year, i.e. O2 have already recovered the cost, but they're just being thieves now.

"Even though the handset belonged to someone else we take the personal o2 number into account not the handset usage."

:mad:

Could the original owner request the unlock?

Mort5000

matchthis wrote: »

Could the original owner request the unlock?

Yip, thanks for the idea.
Will give that a go

Bosshogg

jor el wrote: »

Contacting TDs and Government representatives, as Bosshogg suggested, would be an even bigger waste of your time. They can't do anything about this, but you can if you can just get through to someone that will help. QUOTE]

If you are expecting instant results to your problem then you won't get it from a TD. Then again neither will you get it from boards.ie. However you should make your TDs aware of the consistant shabby behaviour of O2. Over time, and it will take time, legislation will be put in place to make dealings with O2 safer for all. If you do nothing at all then they'll just move along to the next victim.

krpc

Bosshogg wrote: »

jor el wrote: »

Contacting TDs and Government representatives, as Bosshogg suggested, would be an even bigger waste of your time. They can't do anything about this, but you can if you can just get through to someone that will help. QUOTE]

If you are expecting instant results to your problem then you won't get it from a TD. Then again neither will you get it from boards.ie. However you should make your TDs aware of the consistant shabby behaviour of O2. Over time, and it will take time, legislation will be put in place to make dealings with O2 safer for all. If you do nothing at all then they'll just move along to the next victim.

A TD? I must admit that this seems a bit melodramatic. I would be embarressed to address an issue of poor customer service to a TD. We all experience poor customer service from time to time - it happens and it's not something unique to O2; charging off to report it to a TD? I have better things to be doing, to be honest, and given the current economic climate I would hope they do too. If there was a persistent issue that I could not get resolved with some good old fashioned patience and determination, then I would report it to the organization that has been established to regulate communications in Ireland: Comreg. It would be a final resort, though.

You seem to have also given O2 it's own character traits as if it is it's own person, rather than a corporation. In other words, you seem to have a personal agenda against O2 as is evident from many of your posts regarding O2, and that agenda should not be imposed on others looking for clear, objective and good consumer advice.

Mort5000

rc_irl wrote: »

You seem to have also given O2 it's own character traits as if it is it's own person, rather than a corporation. In other words, you seem to have a personal agenda against O2 as is evident from many of your posts regarding O2, and that agenda should not be imposed on others looking for clear, objective and good consumer advice.

You clearly haven't experienced O2's "service".

krpc

Mort5000 wrote: »

You clearly haven't experienced O2's "service".

Oh yes, yes I have. I would be more than happy to document some of them, if you wish. However, there's a responsible way to handle things, and there's a way to fly off the handle