O2 vs O2 (from cpw) !!

stillnoname

I ordered a mobile phone on carphonewarehouse site and was surprised to know that customer services for this (as well as billing, etc I presume) will be handled by Carphonewarehouse and not O2.

I have another O2 phone and I can dial 100 to get to O2 customer services who I think are good. (got phone from mobileshop).

On the other hand this service would have required me to call carphonewarehouse number for customer service. I've had customer service experience ranging from acceptable to poort with CPW and sister companies.

This was not told to me at all. So it was a bit of a surprise to me.

One of my reasons for taking contract with O2 was their customer service. This is reason why I'm not choosing "3" for example.

I think this would help more people.

Further, quite possibly this will be the case if you get phone through e2save or OSPS (or other CPW sister companies).

This means that all the deals from CPW, e2save and OSPS and off-limits for me since I want O2 contract :-(

vansboy

CPW were most helpfull on demonstrating fones - much better than O2 shop.

But I discovered i'd loose outstanding call credit, on my O2 PAYG, if I bought from them.

It seems only O2 shops or the link can credit this to your new account, if you upgrade or go to pay monthly.

Still undecided, but the V3i is looking favourite!!

VB

stillnoname

O2 shops claim that they're selling O2 connections. Nowhere is it clear that this is O2 Carphonewarehouse.

If you think it makes no difference, you probably think t-mobile, virgin (easymobile? and others) are the same.

I do not think so.

pin

Historically o2 (then Cellnet) and Vodafone were not allowed to run the phone network and billing (including cs), so this had to be done via a third party. What would happen was the two networks would sell the time in bulk for a third party (a service provider) to deal with the customers.

Things have slightly changed now, so that o2 and Voda can run the network and deal with billing (they have been buying up the service providers over the years). However there are still some service providers around. As CPW is such a big player in the field it is able to negoiate deals with o2 and voda and run itself as a service provider.

Therefore if buying an o2 contract through cpw the network will be run by o2, but the billing will be done by cpw. It should be in your contract with cpw who bills you. Also your direct debit will give an indication of this.

deutzkiwi

I'd just be happy you didnt sign up through phones4u when you'd get billed by them (the actual name of the cp escapes me atm and as far as I know they no longer exsist) they were notoriously bad, charging for pac cods etc

ukbondraider

deutzkiwi wrote:

I'd just be happy you didnt sign up through phones4u when you'd get billed by them (the actual name of the cp escapes me atm and as far as I know they no longer exsist) they were notoriously bad, charging for pac cods etc

Singlepoint?

dav_blackpool

Yea, my dad had a Vodafone contract through Phones4u... managed by Singlepoint4u... diabolical CS, and charged the earth for the most basic things like a new SIM etc.

David