O2 250 12 Month

...category that was specific to O2 as a company rather than their tariffs independently, but the tariff we were ordering was indeed the O2-250-12month tariff hence why the review has been placed here. A couple of readers have rated this post as "off-topic" and should you, dear reader, choose to do the same that is your decision; suggestions have been made that this review should be in the Buyer Beware section and before I go to the review ...
...of the site, searching for O2 reviews, would not come across this - or any other review - written under the Buyer Beware section; therefore, the placing of the review is logical as it will hopefully help somebody make a decision on whether to go with O2 or not as they will be able to find it as part of their search.

I hope this clarifies why the review is listed here and why it will not be posted under the Buyer Beware section. Should ... more

Editorial Note: I'll apologise up-front of this seems like a rant-n-rave review; I couldn't find a category that was specific to O2 as a company rather than their tariffs independently, but the tariff we were ordering was indeed the O2-250-12month tariff hence why the review has been placed here. A couple of readers have rated this post as "off-topic" and should you, dear reader, choose to do the same that is your decision; suggestions have been made that this review should be in the Buyer Beware section and before I go to the review I would just like to explain why it isn't. First of all, the review is not "off-topic" as it pertains to the exact tariff listed; a review about a Ferrari written under the Ford Focus category would be off-topic, but a review about O2s 250-12-month tariff, regardless of whether the tariff was ever activated or not, is not off-topic. Second of all, the Buyer Beware section of Ciao is in the Cafe, which means it is for members only. A generic reader of the site, searching for O2 reviews, would not come across this - or any other review - written under the Buyer Beware section; therefore, the placing of the review is logical as it will hopefully help somebody make a decision on whether to go with O2 or not as they will be able to find it as part of their search.

I hope this clarifies why the review is listed here and why it will not be posted under the Buyer Beware section. Should you disagree with this decision having read this note then I will respect that; meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the review, regardless of how appalling my experience with this particular company has been!

Markd_uk

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Now that my business is up and running properly it seemed like the right time to go back to a contract mobile phone instead of my pain-in-the-butt Pay-As-You-Go model. My wife needed a new mobile phone, too, and - as we are a business - we are eligible to go for a businesstariff that would allow the two of us to share the bill across two mobile phones. Shopping around on the web it appeared that O2 were the best option for us. On thetariff we could have a Mini-XDA for my wife and the Sony Ericsson K610i for me and the overall monthly cost would save £10 per month on our current mobile bills. It seemed pretty much the perfect solution for us so we went ahead and ordered.

The first thing that happens after you place an order with O2 online is that they send you an e-mail receipt, pretty standard practice in this modern day of Internet purchases. The receipt documents your order, any charges for the phones if applicable, the monthlytariff and a confirmation that your order is being processed. It states a credit check is in place and if you are successful the phones will be issued to you within seven days; if you fail the credit check a letter will be issued to you outlining this within five working days.

After ten days of no communication - we allowed a couple of extra days for processing time etc. - we called to find out what the status of the order was. No confirmation that the order was being processed or that we had failed a credit check (which we shouldn't do!) had been received. Getting through to a telephone operator took ten minutes and then when the operator answered we explained the situation and gave our order reference. "We're waiting for your PAC codes," she said. "Get them from your existing supplier and send them to us, we'll then process the order." And with that, she hung up. There was no opportunity for us to point out to her that O2 are already the existing mobile providers or that nobody had mentioned this to us before.

Further calls were made to obtain the PAC numbers (a perplexed operator on the Pay As You Go customer service desk couldn't understand why the PAC numbers were being requested because it was normally done in-house, she advised) and then they were issued to the business department, who advised us that the order would be processed and that the phones would be issued.

One week later, still no phones and we called again to chase up the situation. "One of the phones is out of stock," the operator advised, "call back tomorrow." And *click*, the call was cut off. Business being what it is, another week passed without any phones arriving and so we called again to be told exactly the same thing. Again, the operator hung up before we could clarify further.

After four weeks of waiting I attempted to get hold of a manager, but they were all out at a meeting. Oddly, this was at 12:30 on a Friday lunch time, so I suspect the meeting was rather an early celebration of the weekend. "I'll get a manager to call you as soon as they return," I was promised. Four days later I tried to contact a manager again, only to be told that calls are not routinely put through to managers and surely the telephone sales girl could help?

"This isn't a routine situation," I advised, "so I'd rather like to be one of the non-routine calls that a manager takes, please." The manager refused to take my call.

The next day I tried again and this time was told by the operator that no managers were available, but let me look into your account. "Oh," she said, "one of the phones is still out of stock but it should be coming in tomorrow. We'll get it dispatched for you then." *click* the call was ended before I could even draw breath.

After six weeks, I called again. Once again the management seemed unwilling to take my call but the operator offered to help. "Before you tell me the phone is still out of stock, please can you tell me which phone it is that's not in stock?" I was expecting it to be my wife's Mini-XDA, being as this is a less-common phone that people order. I was surprised to be informed that it was my mainstream Sony Ericsson that was the one causing the problems. "Well that's not an issue," I said, "what other phones can you offer me?" If O2 had advised me which phone it was that was out of stock in the first place I would have simply ordered a different model; after all, all I was after was a new phone.

"Oh," the girl sounded surprised. "You'd be happy to go with something different?" In fact, she was able to offer me the model up in the Sony Ericsson range, with no extra charge involved. I presumed that this meant the phones would now bedispatched without any further delay. "Yes sir," the girl said, "we should have the phones with you by Monday." And with that, *click*, the conversation ended.

I'm aware that in this article I have not given any review on the O2 service, their tariffs or the phones fully available to you. This is partly because, apart from the Pay As You Go relationship I've had with them, I have not successfully been able to get a contract phone from them despite passing all the credit checks and being assured that my order is in process. As a business, we've jumped through every hoop to meet O2's requirements and have been more than patient with them while we waited for delivery. Repeatedly, people advised me that they had received their phones from O2 the day after they placed the order, so I find myself wondering if I was just a one-off 'blip' in such a massive company's Customer Services department or whether this is the way business customers are routinely dealt with. Either way, I must say I'm not happy with the service and decided that enough was enough, it was time to find another provider. After all, I've waited seven weeks, waiting another couple of days to go through the order process with another network is no longer an issue to me.

On Thursday of this week, exactly one week from the last call and four days after the date I was promised my phones, I rang and asked for a manager. "I'm sorry, there are no managers available." I advised that if a manager wasn't available that I wanted to cancel my order. "OK, sir, I've processed that for you now," and with that, *click*, they hung up before I could utter another word, without trying to find out why I didn't want to continue my business with them or to see if they could help further, and my relationship with O2 ended. 

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