Tried to get an O2 Landline - Gave up - Kafkesque Nightmare

mrmustard

I had an order placed with good old trusty BT who I'd grown sick of and had problems with in the past for a new line at my new house. But O2 rang me and said they could do the installation for only £45 instead of the £127 BT would charge. Hey that sounds great I thought so cancelled my BT order and placed one with O2. Two days later, heard nothing back, thought hmm when's my activation date, being without broadband is not fun when it's your living! Rang up O2 and spoke to most annoying man in Britain. He said there was no order, I asked him to look at when o2 last contacted me, he told me, I said are there any notes, yes he said, What do they say I said, that you placed an order he said, but it hasn't been processed yet. He went on to say he could place another order but it would be at full price, obviously a pretty inflammatory thing to say at this stage of rising annoyance.

I asked to speak to a manager to find out what's going on, he refused to put me through, eventually after a few minutes of arguing he acceded, kept me on hold for 5 mins, came back and said no one was available and continued to bait me. I therefore said I wanted to cancel the order, I would go back to BT, he then refused to cancel the order. Eventually after a few minsof arguing he said he would write a note cancelling it, but only after the call ended. He added that I would have to call back again to confirm the cancellation. I said I had no intention of wasting further time to cancel an order they hadn't even bothered to process yet. I asked him to type in 3 words, "customer cancelled order", again he refused a few more minutes and eventually he agreed, and then another few minutes debate when he said he wouldn't press the return key on the note until I hung up. I insisted I wouldn't hang up until I knew he'd added the cancellation note, eventually he said he had sent it, but I very much doubt he did.

This lengthy diatribe here is in fact a much shortened version of the 25 minutes of nonsense I went through. I rang BT to reinstate my order and they agreed to better O2's offer anyway!!! I've had o2 broadband for a few years and was very happy with it but that will be going as will my o2 mobile phone contract once that expires. I will NEVER deal with o2 again as their customer service is like being in a surreal bbc3 sit-com. They are new to the landline business, I cannot see why anyone but the most hardened masochist would even consider it. I guess I should be grateful for the dufus in o2 customer support for making me aware of just how totally !!!!!! they are before I committed to any sort of contract with them. A lucky escape methinks. I googled in advance for any reviews on the o2 landline service and didn't come across any, now I know why! no one else is that stupid!

Wanders off humming "rather the devil you know" and thinking of Bob Hoskins saying "it's good to talk"

macman

I don't follow your post at all. You already have an 02 broadband service, were you simply trying to switch your BT line rental and call package onto O2? If so it should be simply a matter of logging into your O2 online acount and requesting the additional service. No 'installation' is required, and you would not have any downtime on your broadband as you were already with 02.
If however you were trying to have a new/additional line with O2 calls and line rental, that is not possible, as O2 Home Phone is not a standdalone service-you must also take (or already have) 02 broadband on that line.
My phone service was switched from TT to 02 in about 10 days with no drama at all (apart from getting a rebate from TT-but that's another story).