Comedy with o2's 'Customer services'

[efcmandan]

Had some fun trying to get my XDA2s unlocked by o2, the only reason I now find it hilarious is because I managed to get it unlocked elsewhere! I emailed them on the 1st of Feb, explaining that my device was an insurance replacement, therefore I had no 12 months contract to worry about, and no 'subsidised' phone. Here's a transcript of my emails to and fro, starting with their reply:


Dear Daniel,

Thank you for contacting O2 Customer Service.

The unlatching code is only available to customers who have had their mobile for 12 months since its activation. It is not policy for the code to be issued prior to this period, in accordance with rules approved by OFTEL. This is because prepay mobiles are heavily subsidised to reduce the purchase price for the customer, and it would not be commercially viable for us to provide the code prior to the 12 month period having elapsed.

There is an administration charge of £15 for the unlatching code, either payable by credit or debit card or debited from your call time credit, which covers the costs incurred by O2 in obtaining the code for the customer. The manufacturer of the mobile provides the unlatching code, and there are some models of mobile for which an unlatching code is unavailable, due to technical constraints.

Please understand that the unlatching code will enable you to use another SIM card in conjunction with your existing mobile, THIS NEXT SENTENCE SHOULD ONLY BE INSERTED FOR BRITE CUSTOMERS but will not allow the use of your SIM card in a different mobile.

If you meet the criteria as described above and would like us to obtain the unlatching code for you, please provide the following information, and I will deal with your request as soon as possible.

Name
Mobile Number
Address (including Postcode)
Mobile Model
Date of activation
IMEI Number
Contact number - so we can contact you to take credit or debit payment for the unlatching code. Credit balance on mobile (needs to be at least £15 if you wish payment to be taken from your call time credit)

As this is not a secure connection, please do not send credit or debit card details via email.

I hope to hear from you soon.

This information is also on our help pages. Please click on the link below, enter your mobile number and 'Network locked' in the search field.

www.o2.co.uk/help

If you need further information regarding this matter, please reply to this email.

For further details about O2, please visit our online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

Kind regards,

Siddhartha Ludbe
O2 Customer Service.
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And my reply to that:

Hi,

Like I said in my original contact with you, I only have an o2 PAYG SIM card, my XDA2s was an insurance replacement for a stolen XDA2. Therefore there is no "12 months since activation" to wait, no "subsidy" to consider.

I am happy to pay the £15, please contact me ASAP to unlock the phone.

Name - Daniel xxx
Mobile Number - xxx
Address - xxxx
Mobile Model - Xda2s
Date of activation - n/a
IMEI Number - xxxx
Contact number - xxx


Many thanks
----------------------------------------
Their reply:

Dear Daniel,

Thank you for contacting O2 Customer Service.

I would like to appreciate the efforts that you have taken to forwards us the information asked from you in the previous email.

I have forwarded the details provided by you to the relevant department. Please note that it will take Up to 28 working days to complete your request.

If you need further information regarding this matter, please reply to this email.

For further details about O2, please visit our online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

Kind regards,

Siddhartha Ludbe

----------------------------------------

Looking promising, I thinks, perhaps I will get it unlocked after all! Anyways, I get bored of waiting a few days, and email them thus:

Hi,

I know it was stated that the unlatching key could take up to 28 days, but I'm getting quite desperate. I'm going to America on Friday for work reasons [lie], and could really do with using my XDA2s whilst over there, hence me needing to use the work SIM card which isn't o2.

Any help greatly appreciated
----------------------------------------
At this stage, I'd already got the phone unlocked anyway, but wanted to see if I could actually get anything out of o2. They replied:

Dear Daniel,

Thank you for contacting O2 Customer Service.

I am sorry to inform you that your request for an unlatching code for your phone cannot be processed, as your phone is under 12 months.

Even if you have a replacement phone, the replacement phone should be of minimum 12 months old.

I realise that this was not the answer you were hoping for, but I am sorry we cannot forward your request to the manufacturer for an unlatching code as per the business rules.

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

If you need further information regarding this matter, please reply to this email.

For further details about O2, please visit our online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

Kind regards,

John Chettiar

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Talk about going around in bloody circles, I've never ever had the misfortune of dealing with such crappy customer services, and I've been an NTL customer! I sent them this reply:

Please explain to me how this makes a difference? My phone is not tied to any o2 contract anyway! To be honest, I'm not arsed. I've just paid somebody else to unlock it, quicker than you, and I'd rather give them the money. I'm now happily using a decent network.

Dan
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I didn't expect a reply, but I got one, the same guy saying that he was glad I'd found a solution to my particular problem!

All in all, a completely terrible experience from o2 CS. I hope I never have to deal with them again.

Just thought I'd provide a laugh!

Dan

[numanoids]

The unlatching code is only available to customers who have had their mobile for 12 months since its activation. It is not policy for the code to be issued prior to this period, in accordance with rules approved by OFTEL.

As its now OFCOM - doesnt this statement constitute a failure in O2 procedures. I.e. quoting a now defunct body's procedures effective renders them null and void!



Please understand that the unlatching code will enable you to use another SIM card in conjunction with your existing mobile, THIS NEXT SENTENCE SHOULD ONLY BE INSERTED FOR BRITE CUSTOMERS but will not allow the use of your SIM card in a different mobile.



Please tell me this is exactly what O2 mailed you as this has to be a severe insult to O2 customers (including myself), especially since the person writing the standard template must appear to be having problems themselves with writing!

Num

[faizanowais]

Yea o2 Cs is really bad. So far i have spent about an hour arguing with these people trying to get my phone unlocked since i bought it from ebay.
I have given them every possible excuse to unlock the phone but got the phone same reply that i will have to wait 12 Months even though i dont even have a contract with o2.

I was wondering if u could tell me how and where did u unlock your phone from?? I Dont have a vodafone contract and it would be nice to use the phone on their network :)

[numanoids]

http://www.imei-check.com

Will be unlocking them generally from Monday from what I've read. Price is 20 GBP

You can get access to this before then, but you have to sign up to http://www.modaco.com/index.php and pay for the PLUS service to get details.

[efcmandan]

Please tell me this is exactly what O2 mailed you as this has to be a severe insult to O2 customers (including myself), especially since the person writing the standard template must appear to be having problems themselves with writing!



That is exactly what they emailed me! They really are a bunch of wasters. I am dreading the day when every customer service call-centre is outsourced to these kind of places....

[efcmandan]

I was wondering if u could tell me how and where did u unlock your phone from?? I Dont have a vodafone contract and it would be nice to use the phone on their network :)

If you can wait until Monday, you'll be able to get it done on www.imei-check.com. It's painless, it works, and it's only £20!

[weasley]

by end of the 12month, the XDAIIs already Out-date.... and we all using XDA 6 lol but the time O2 still didnt want to unlock the xdaIIs for us because is such a hard work them

[birdog]

AH, at last a chance to bitch about O2 (not such a fine smelling breath of fresh air).

About 2 months ago I noticed that the stylus pen wasn`t working very well on my XDA2, and then I noticed a few small scratches around the bottom of the screen, around the area that you write lower case letters. Now, its my fault I know, I should have used protection, but I though that I couldn`t be the first person to have this problem and that they might fix it under warranty, so I called Customer service (OH NO).
2 days later, after many phone calls, a walk to the local O2 shop, a few e-mails that have never been answered and numerous yes, no and maybe answers to my question, I got the definitive no.
Okay I thought, I have tried and failed, so I carried on using the old XDA2 for the past months.
Now it that time of year again, upgrade time (WOOHOO), been reading reviews and decided on the XDA2s, phoned customer services again.
I was given a price of £148 by a very nice lady, who did actually know what she was talking about, but because it was a weekend and the sales department was closed, asked if I could pfone back on monday.
I did call back the customer services on monday, I spoke with someone else who gave me a price of £199 and explained that it couldn`t possibly be £148 as they all have the same price list, the person went looking for the reason the prices would be different and cut me off in the process.
I called back again, different person again (I had been noting peoples names, but they were always on another call when I called back, which was within a minute of been cut-off), the price quoted was 200 quid again, but then he tried to transfer me to the sales team, and he cut me off in the process.
Called back again, different person, who gave me the direct number to call the sales team, I called it but the sweet lady who answered had never heard of a XDA2s as she worked for a company called alison windows.
I called the sales team number again to make sure I had dialled it correctly....."Hello, thank you for calling alisons windows...how can I help you".
I called customer services again, different person again, but this time I managed to get transfered, successfully, to the sales team where the deal was done and was told I`d have it in 2 days, that was monday, its now wednesday, just gone home for dinner, no new phone and no note from parcelforce saying "we tried to deliver".
If this is how a company respondes when I`m trying to give them money, I dred to think how they will respond should I have a technical question or problem.

I might forward this onto O2, anyone know an e-mail addresss that they read and respond to ?

Feel a lot better now I got that off my chest.

Cheers

Nikki

[birdog]

OH MY GOD
its now thurday, just been home for lunch, no phone and no ticket saying "we tried to deliver", spoke to another peron at O2 customer services, "Yes we show that you have ordered a XDA2s but as yet no consignment number is shown"
We will see what happens.

Starting to get a little annoyed again.
I`m now waiting for them to get back to me.
The odds are:
1/1 that I`ll never hear from them again, ever
10,000,000,000,000,000/1 that I get a call before the end of the day

[pen6uin]

i have read a post recently saying that they are out of stock i had to wait 2 months for my xda II last year and i waited a week for my IIs 2 weeks ago
keep your fingers crossed birdog

[birdog]

well, 1715 at the mo, no phone, and no phone call, I`m gonna give them 20 mins and then call back.
This is a disgrace.

oh...and someone ows me ten thousand trillion pounds

[birdog]

Oh pen6uin, your right
Called them up, and a moderatly heated discussion tells me I might get one a week tomorrow, which the lady didn`t tell me when she was taking my money.
This is a real disgrace.
Told them I want it for free or I`m taking my business elsewhere, and I was told they might knock 20 or 30 quid off as a good will gesture.
Again we will see,

They said they call back today.

[wilesd]

Just tell them yor cancelling your contract and Moving to Orange as they have offered you an MPV for free. Thel'yy beg you to stay and match it.

Got my IIs for free doing this, only a £25 a month contract as well

[birdog]

got another call earlier, he offered 30 quid off, I told him to cancel the contract, then he suggested that he get his department manager to call me tomorrow.
we will wait and see what happens tomorrow.

[xdadom]

birdog

I don't usually get involved with soaps but this story has got me hooked!!!

Please keep us updated!

Dom

[birdog]

Next time on 24
Bing...bong...bing..bong

Somebody owes me another ten thousand trillion pounds, they didn`t call
Just phoned them and they told me (again) they`d have someone call me before the end of business.

For more interesting stories goto www.blagger.com and type o2 under search by company.

Is peter erskine still the CEO at O2 ? If so this site gives his email address too.
Not that difficult to guess, ends in O2.com and has a dot in the middle.

getting bored of this now.

nikki