O2 advice.... (and a bit of a moan)

[knivesuk]

Last month I changed my bolt on from free weekends to free o2 to o2. This should have gone onto my account the 18th of March.

Come 19th I was ringing someone for a long time on O2, and the next day checked my free minutes (which shouldn't have been affected.) I noticed that they had gone down....

I rang up O2 and asked them why the bolt on hadn't been changed. The guy apologised and said he wasn't sure why the change hadn't been put through, but said he would get it done that evening and also add those o2 minutes back onto my free minutes per month.

Was busy the weekend, so today I check again and still when I checked on my online account the Bolt on package hasn't changed and the minutes have not been refunded.

I ring up again and am advised that the package is active now, but hasn't updated online. Then he advises that it is impossible to refund minutes, and will have to wait till the end of the month and any o2 calls will be refunded.

This is fair enough, but then i enquire as to how I am suppose to know how many free minutes I actually have to use, as in this situation I wouldn't know till the end of the month. Therefore either I guestimate and go over my free minutes and get charged, or i under guess and don't use my free minutes.

The guy on the phone just says there is nothing he can do, and that I should know which numbers I ring are on o2 and then go online and calculate it myself. I advise him that I only know for sure 2 numbers which are defo on o2, and either way it was o2's mistake so why should i have to do go out of my way to make sure i use my free minutes which i pay for.

So even though it is their fault to apply the package and their call center staff that told me the minutes can be refunded, and I did not receive one apology, they expect me to go out my way and correct their mistake.

Well after a heated discussion, i asked to speak to a manager. The guy came back on the phone and said that a manager would ring me in 24 hours... which i don't hold my breath for.

Has anyone else hada similuar situation such as this? If I do get a call back from the manager any advice one what i should say? Should I be getting compensation for potentially losing free minutes i pay for and wasting time on the phone.

Cheers.

[5cupa]

i have had many many problems when it comes to upgrading or changing contracts, in fact I am in the middle of changing right now. before after so much hassle i did secure a better package. but only after speaking to a manager and noting down all my call times and notable people I had dealt with. stand up to them and ask what the official complaint procedure is even if u dont use it

[finlay666]

for the inconvenience its worth a try

Took me 3 or 4 calls to get my contract sorted out, same to get my phone repaired (taken a week to be told to take it into an o2 store)

[Ferral]

If you have having contract probs, coming into store won't help you. We do sales stuff mainly and send out repairs. Primarily we are a sales environment.

We don't have access to customer service systems, so if you come into a store you get put on a phone to customer services. Only exception to this is if we make a mistake, we can rectify it on upgrades and new contracts by contacting our retail support team. It does happen occasionally where we will accidentaly put a wrong tarriff on an upgrade for example so the following morning we contact our support team and get it sorted.

But when it comes to things like you are mentioning it has to be done through customer services over the phone. I would definately follow a complaint procedure to get it sorted, don't get shirty or you will get nowhere.

I would recommend logging into your account online to keep track of your usage when getting towards the end of the month. Also you can send a blank sms to a shortcode (don't worry its free) to check your allowance, I can't remember the code off the top of my head though. Have a look on the O2 site for this. Finally, you can keep check on your usage via most phones now. Most have a call, data and sms log which you can reset every month. Granted this doesn't tell you if you have called O2 numbers or whoever else but it will give you an accurate amount of usage.

Anymore queries just give me a shout and I will try and give you a bit of guidance as I work for O2