Be Excellent To Each Other

I just wrote a letter of complaint to 02, copying in their UK MD.

When I got back from posting the letter I noticed there was a typo on my opening line (Word was still open):

"I am writing to complain about the huge determination in customer service at O2"


ARRRGGGHHH!!!!

Wish I'd just told them to "get to fucking fuck" as per my original plan.

What is your complaint with them? Mine starts with the fact I was going overseas, and upon calling them up to ask if my account was enabled to let me use my phone in Canada was told my phone was 'too old' and not on their list, and that I needed and upgrade, and then the stupid bitch assumed I was going to the USA (where my phone wouldn't work, would I like an upgrade?) and not Canada (where my phone would work, but would I like an upgrade anyway? BE OUR BITCH FOR 18 MORE MONTHS. YOU LOVE IT)

So, despite having informed them that I am going to Canada from 5 to 15 of June, one of their cunts FUCKING RANG ME AT FIVE IN THE CUNTING MORNING (Toronto time) TRYING TO GET ME TO UPGRADE. I know it was them because when they called again later in the day, it was the same number that had heartattacked me awake that morning.

I have no problem at all with the actual mobile telephone service they provide, but their customer services are doing my fucking head in, and the next cunt who rings me trying to get me to upgrade can transfer me to their supervisor.

Hah, what a perfect mistake.


I won't go with O2 any more since last time they lost my direct debit details, didn't charge me for 15 months, then cocked up every single time I tried to pay them. Then they got fed up and just sold my debt off to a collector*, with a hefty fee attached.

*whom I explained the situation to, and managed to settle the bill at its original amount, fortunately.

8 years without fault. Changed tariff. Told I didn't need a new SIM, I did need a new SIM, internet still didn't work, turned out 02 had sent so many settings to my phone it was jammed up. Internet now works but is still fairly shit.

Bill for £400 arrives for the quarter when it should be £90, turns out I'm on some mega tariff despite me ordered a very specific tariff by phone. Took them a month to investigate this. They debit the correct amount for the quarter but keep on sending me bills saying I am £300 in credit (rendering the bill useless for tax and VAT purposes).

Repeated requests for change of DD detail forms ignored.

Stupid security procedures (I can order a 1.5k Mac over the phone with no security, but 02 made me jump through hoops just to ask for a DD form).

And the fucking phone barely functioned in Eastbourne yesterday. Full coverage but no data and took 3 attempts to make a call. Although I didn't complain about that but. Although I did complain about their shit data coverage.

It all went wrong when I switched business tariffs. The previous business team were great, but I changed tariff and got lumbered with cretins.

I pay £16pm to O2. That doesn't seem to be enough for them to want to keep me as a customer. I'm a year out of contract and they still won't give me any incentive to resign to my contract.

I hardly use the phone anyway, except as a camera, so I think I'll shift over to Pay as you Go in the next couple of weeks and hopefully save a tenner or so a month. I just hope I can keep my number if I do that.

I'm almost positive you meant "re-sign" rather than resign.

I'm not being a pedant, I was genuinely confused for a bit.

The bit that got me with O2 was this:

O2 person: For security clearance, can you tell me your password?
Me (quite surprised, but I phoned them so I'm sure it's not a phishing thing): Er.. [password I used when signing up on the O2 site]?
O2 person: That is incorrect.
Me: That's the only password I used.
O2 person: It should be the answer to the security question you were asked.
Me: Ah, ok, what's the question?
O2: I can't tell you that for security reasons.
Me: ?!

Ah yes.

I did.

I found I could bypass their security last week just be getting Comical Games style angry as them doing the same thing to me.

Perhaps I should package and sell my brand of anger. Please be sure to make no further use of it until I've spoken with my trademark lawyer, as you may be infringing my highly valuable anger rights.

Just splash it all over.

Now O2 have always been great for me... I moved from Birgin pay as you go to a contrat at £25 monthly three years ago, splashing out £80 on the new S700i as well, because it did MP3 and the internets and had a 1.3 megapixel camera and I had no diital camera at all at that point. A year later I called up and asked about free upgrades, but didnt fancy any of their phones, so they gave me £100 credit and another year's contract. 2 years in I called again* and got the brilliant W810i, the last truly decent Sony phone, and even tough I love my Dad I still regret upgrading sometimes, it was just that ace to own. Upgrade I did though, and I've got an N95 now, free upgrade, having first opted for the abortion that is the Sony K850i (though the camera on it is brilliant). Th duration from ordering the first phone to receiving the second, having tried the first ad sent it back, was about five days. Magnificent service.

*They would offer me originally a k750 Sony with no change to contract. When I told them Virgin woud match my contract and give me a w810i (which was true, they went d checked, took ages!) they offered me the same, and upgraded my monthly minutes from 200 to 500 and y texts from 50 or 100 to 500. Tidy. I bought my original phone and therefore signed my original contract in an O2 shop (Hull Pincess Quay) though, and my wife who has been with them forever, or at least since you were first able to order and get a contract online, has had relatively lots of grief with her upgrades. They always send them elsewhere, for starters.

O2 is an amalgalm of three or four companies, and online/instore function seperately behind the scenes, apparently.