Assistance With O2 Poor Service

Iain-T

Hi Folks,

I'm hoping someone can help with my query and where I stand on getting a helpful result when dealing with O2. I'll try and keep it brief but apologies if this is a bit of a long explanation.

I took out a 24 month contract in August 2010 at Car Phone Warehouse. The deal was with the O2 network and was on the O2 30 tariff which includes 600 minutes and unlimited texts for £30 a month. I then took out a £5 data bolt on which provided 500mb of data a month.

Everything has been fine until this month. I got a text message saying I had gone over my 500mb data allowance. I didn't mind this and logged into my O2 online account. I removed the 500mb bolt on at a price of £5 a month and added a 1Gb bolt on at a cost of £10.21 a month. I got SMS messages confirming my 500mb bolt on had been removed and another to say my 1Gb bolt on had been added. I got the same information by email. Great!

A couple of days later I checked my online account again and noticed that no bolt ons were appearing against my account. I also noticed that I was getting charged up to £1 a day for data (£30 a month), bringing my estimated monthly bills from £35 a month to £60 a month. I heard nothing from O2 so emailed their Customer Service to ask why my 1Gb bolt on was not appearing. I got the following reply:

Hello Iain

Thanks for your email.

Please note that you aren't being charged for data service, as no Data Bolt On is added to your account.

Since you've removed the data Bolt On, the O2 Web Daily promotion has been added to your account, where you'll be charged up to a maximum of £1.02 including VAT per day (from 12am to 11:59pm).

When you've reached your maximum daily charge of £1.02 including VAT,the O2 Web Daily promotion allows you unlimited Internet usage (maximum 100 MB) provided your usage must be for your private, personal and non commercial purposes. This means that on any particular day, you'll be charged a maximum of £1.02 including VAT for using the Internet on your mobile phone.

I'm afraid, the 1GB data Bolt On hasn't been added to your account, as it's no longer compatible with your tariff. Also, we won't be able to add the 500 MB data Bolt On to your account.

If you wish to add the data Bolt On to your account, you'll need to move your tariff to our newer version tariffs.

You can change your tariff to £31 (24 months) tariff, which includes 600 minutes and unlimited texts. Then you can add any of the following data
Bolt Ons:

- The Basics (100MB data at £3.00 a month)
- The All Rounder (500MB, unlimited Wi-Fi data plus 20 UK MMS at £6.00 a month)
- The Works (1GB data, unlimited Wi-Fi plus 50 UK MMS at £10.00 a month)

Are you still with me?

So because I swapped my 500mb bundle for a 1Gb bundle (which O2 let me do), they are now saying I must change to a newer (more expensive) tariff and I now can't get my 500mb bolt on for £5 anymore. They won't let me go back to my previous package due to a fault in there systems.

Is there a clause I can get them to revert my package with? If not, is the fact that they have changed this without my agreement, can I cancel my contract with them. I moved from O2 to Orange in the past due to poor customer service, and now I wish I hadn't come back.

Has anyone been in a similar situation. Is there a customer care or complaints team at O2?

Many Thanks.

DUTR

As I understand the new bundle will apply from the next billing cycle, so you may have to wait up until a month for it to be active, why not give them a call on 202 ?

Wintermute

The 1GB data allowance is only available on the post Q1 11 tariffs (Quarter 1 2011) so what O2 are saying in reply sounds correct however from what you're saying there is an error/glitch on the website which needs to be addressed.

My advice is call them, be polite, on the phone system select one of the technical options (like problem using the internet on the phone), explain what's happened and ask them to deal with it as nicely as possible.

The email you got back is pretty much correct, if you want 1GB of data you'll need to move to a newer tariff, however if you want to go back to what you had before with the 500MB data bolt-on ask for them to do a "legacy tariff transfer" which will allow you to have your data bolt-on re-added even though it wont be directly available to customer services.

split_second

in theory i am sure on the postpay side you can add more data, it isnt immediate but i am sure you can. i used up my data a while back (not on a 2011 tarriff) and i got it upgraded and sorted it a day or two later

Iain-T

Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess I am jumping the gun. Just annoyed that they seem to not forewarn customers when changing bundles to get them to move to new tariffs. Will give them a call and see how it goes.