Now up until recently, I had absolutely no problem with O2, which is unusual in this day and age where people are regularly foaming at the mouth when it comes to their network provider or handset manufacturer. I thankfully avoided the storm surrounding Blackberry when they had a whole world of issues with downtime causing people to lose their minds, and up until recently, O2 had provided a good service with no issues.
Something I expect when I'm paying hundreds of pounds a year for the privilege.
I succumbed to the iPhone buzz shortly after the 3GS was released in the summer of '09, committing to a two year contract at £36 a month. I had absolutely no issues with Apple or O2 during this period, and was looking forward to upgrading to the next iPhone model whenever it came out after my contract ended. Now, the iPhone 4 had been out for some time by this point, so I wasn't particularly keen to commit to 18+ months of something that would soon by superseded by the iPhone 5, or 4S as it ultimately was.
In July, when my contract ran out, I got a call from O2 offering to put me on a rolling contract that kept the same texts and minutes (unlimited and 600) for £16 a month, as I was no longer paying for the phone, simply the sim. I was told categorically that I could leave this plan whenever I wanted, which I said would be when the new iPhone was released later in the year.
I was delighted with that, and was impressed that O2 would not only get me off my more expensive contract for a cheaper one, but would be happy for me to upgrade back on to a premium contract when it was possible, i.e. once Apple had decided to release the next generation of iPhones.
Needless to say, I didn't think twice about it after that, and looked forward to being in a position to get a new phone. I let the initial rush for the 4S pass, and went in to the Derby store about a month after release date. I sat down with the O2 shop assistant, and began the process of getting a new phone. However, it soon became clear that I was "ineligible for upgrade."
It turned out that O2 offered a similar sim only plan to a number of people in a similar position, and then decided that it was not possible for said people to leave the contract freely when they wanted to. Clearly, I and many others, had been misled. I was then told to ring up customer services and get them to remove the ineligibility with regards to my upgrade, and that it should take 24 hours or so to process.
That's fine, I thought, whilst a little frustrating, I accepted it. With one thing and another, I didn't return to an O2 shop for a couple of weeks (getting a new job, finishing my old job, and the continuous cat and mouse game of finding a store that had the handset that I wanted in stock). I finally managed to find a store that had it in and drove in this morning. I went through the same process, and low and behold, the same problem was there - "ineligible for upgrade."
I explained the situation to the shop assistant and he immediately understood, stating "it's happened to quite a few customers." At this point, I knew full well that I wouldn't be getting a handset today. He rang up the upgrade department, reciting my story, and found that there was indeed a note that backed up my story - yet no changes had been made to make me eligible.
Two things; how on earth does a company like O2 not have a simple button they can press to make me eligible, 2-3 weeks after the initial promise of it'll be done in 24 hours And secondly, how can a company like O2 tell me, and I'd imagine hundreds of similar customers, that they can do something in terms of agreeing to the sim only plan, only to decide a few months later that no, this wasn't possible and these customers were locked in to a 12 month deal?
It became clear that it was not possible to get a phone in store before the end of this "contract" so I agreed to order the handset over the phone. Apparently, it will be here Monday, but I'm not holding my breath.
To be misled not once but twice by one of the biggest companies in the UK is very disappointing. If I wasn't "locked" in to this 12 month plan I would be very seriously considering switching network.
The lack of alignment between the telephone sales advisors and the shop assistants is incredible. Surely, you'd expect both departments to be singing off the same hymn sheet for the greater good of the company, but clearly not. I felt sorry for the shop assistants who have had to deal with the customers face to face who had been misled by the telephone sales advisors, completely hamstrung in their efforts to do anything for us.
For a company who prides them self on being "better connected", the service provided by O2 over the last few weeks has destroyed the good work they had done, by simply doing their job, over the previous two years.
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