Function and purpose of 'Talk to' forums

Owen

Bah, accidentally posted this in Feedback first. Anyway.

I'm just looking for clarification on the limits of the various Talk To forums. In one forum, we've had a thread which has been mostly negative feedback for the company closed - at the request of the company itself.

I always thought the point of these Forums were that they were to be impartial, and the companies had to take the good with the bad? Or have I got it all wrong ... that's entirely possible too.

Dav

The analogy we use is that they're like a unit in a shopping centre. We own the centre, and they rent the unit from us and are (more or less) free to do what they link in their forum. So they can have promotion and competitions and all the rest as well as deal with Customer Service issues.

They're not meant to be impartial - the various companies with forums are paying for them after all and shouldn't be expected to or allow people to promote their competitors at their expense.

We do have to close threads from time to time, mostly because people are abusing the reps, not because they've asked us to just make it stop because they can't deal with it. If you could tell me which specific thread you're referencing, maybe I could shed more light on it for you.

Owen

Thanks for replying Dav. Specifically this thread in the o2 forum. I've confirmed with Duadara that it was closed at the initial request of an o2 rep, and by Duadara after reading the content of the thread.

Dav

There was a thread (which you were quite involved yourself) that was, quite correctly, calling O2 on their nonsense (inconsistent information between marketing blurbs and in-store staff not to mention a 150MB data plan?!?!?!) and so from what I can see, the thread was more or less done - there was no more to be said and no more that the reps could really offer in explanation so rather than have it keep descending into chaos (and it was well on its way), why not close it when there's a thread of mostly constructive criticism that you can show to senior management types without it being dismissed as the rantings and ravings of a few and also before people cross the line into flat out abuse which we'd have to take action on.

So the thread you just linked to got started and closed because there was no use in it, it was set up just to continue, in a rather troll-ish manner, a topic which was already done and dusted and we'd kill those sorts of threads off all over the site anyway. There's nothing more that can be done on the topic tbh, the Rep's hand's are tied because they have no control over how the tarrifs are put together only than to be able to say "here's a 13 page thread on Boards where we're being torn assunder for what we're trying to offer people" when it comes up for internal review.

I hope that answers the question for you.

Owen

But would it have been closed if the rep hadn't requested it be closed?

IMHO the thread was serving a purpose - to highlight the lack of value o2 are currently offering and the subtext that they're deliberately offering less than they were before and packaging it as a better offer. There are similar threads in the Vodafone forum which are still open.

I guess in a roundabout way, I'm asking is - is there censorship on the Talk-to forums, and if so where does it stop? If Eircom decide in the morning they no longer want any negative feedback, will they get it? Likewise with Komplett, Elara, etc.

cookie1977

I'd agree with Owen. There's still enormous inconsistances surrounding the price plans and what you "can" and "cant" do and O2 seem quite happy to see this confusion.

There are still numerous customers being told they cant upgrade to the iPhone 4s and hold on to their old plans when in fact they can.

That thread also served as a focal point for queries re the new plans as to whether or not people had to change their plans when upgrading (which they dont). Now that focal point is lost and people are afraid to start a similar thread for fear it'll be closed at the behest of O2.