Ovivo New Network. 200 minutes 200 Texts Free indefinitely.

Doc_N

Smeagal, like others here I've always had excellent service from them and I'm amazed at your comments.

Odd that your experience has been so different from that of the rest of us.

JDPower

Smeagal wrote: »

not as though I can threaten them with leaving is it, would they be bothered.

Because they rely on a large as possible customer base for serving ads, just cos you aren't personally paying them money doesn't mean you aren't WORTH money to them. They don't offer you the service out of the good of their heart, they do it cos they can profit from you.

Smeagal

Whatever, clearly I am wasting my time and deserved to have the account terminated.

NonGeographicalMan

Smeagal wrote: »

Ovivo are great value for money IF everything goes well and you have no reasons to contact them but if you do have issues be prepared for the worst customer service you will have ever encountered.

So they've terminated my account because I threatened to write bad reviews on the internet, joke of a company. Going to make a complaint with the ombudsman anyway.

Smeagal,

You are definitely not the only long time customer of Ovivo who has suddenly recently been given the order of the boot for daring to complain too loudly that their frequently defective ad server (now.ovivomobile.com) is preventing access to all web browsing operations by customers.

In my case after I chose to communicate my displeasure at the non functioning of the advertised service apparently too proactively to their most senior member of staff (who had previously chosen to give me own his personal mobile phone number in an email he had sent me) on a Sunday - when their customer service department was closed - I had my outgoing credit balance of over immediately £15 wiped out so I could not make any outgoing calls and was issued with a PAC code that I now have to use or risk losing my number. I was also prevented from topping up the quite unreasonably wiped out credit balance online.

I intend to complain to the Communication Ombudsman about having been placed in an extremely dangerous position by Ovivo where I had no outgoing call facility on my mobile phone when I found my path blocked on the A24 northbound at Burford Bridge on Christmas Eve by the severely flooding River Mole (as featured on both BBC and Sky News that day) and then found my diversion route around that closure also blocked by a flooding related tree fall. This was due to Ovivo maliciously wiping out a perfectly valid call balance during the period of validity of the PAC code and well before I had any chance to consider what other network I might move on to let alone complete the number port process.

Their excuse seems to be that I was too critical with their staff about their service not operating as advertised so by eliminating my credit they prevented me calling them for free on 263. This seems an absurd argument for leaving me with no outgoing call facility on no notice as they still have a published 020 landline number that I could call them on from numerous other landlines if I was actually determined to try and be a nuisance when they clearly do not wish to speak to me any more. However I have also received a dark threat from their most senior staff member that if I dare to contact them again in any way that "the matter will be referred to the authorities"

This aggressive threat by Ovivo to report their customers "to the authorities" has unfortunately been made before as detailed at http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?p=61124947

The bottom line is I found their service perfectly acceptable for over a year (I became a customer in summer 2012) but I slowly found that the Ovivomobile Now ad server was popping up ever more frequently and interfering more and more with using the web browsing aspect of the service. I then finally lost my patience completely when I had a temporary configuration fault with the router on my landline broadband and needed to look up my ISP's technical helpline phone number using my Ovivo phone's web browser and could not do so thanks to their internet web browsing service being completely non operational due to the defective ad server. I also spoke to an extremely obstructive and evasive member of their staff on 263 who would not admit this problem with not being able to access web browsing was their fault and affecting all their customers before then later finally speaking to his female supervisor who admitted that all customers were affected by the ad server fault and was quite apologetic for the provocative manner (IMHO) in which the previous adviser had handled my call.

Unfortunately it appears that the new corporate mentality at Ovivo seems to be that because we don't pay them (Ovivo) a regular monthly service fee (we do however pay them money from time to time as my credit card can show) that they can simply treat any customer who dares to complain too loudly their service is faulty with almost total contempt by immediately terminating their relationship as a customer. I find this a great shame as I previously had the impression they were a friendly company with excellent customer service (I would particularly single out Libby, who worked in customer services from the start, as being one of their best and most customer friendly members of staff) and I was also originally under what I can now see was a hugely mistaken apprehension that their Chief Executive also valued all his customers and the feedback that they could provide. Sadly subsequent events have proved me to be completely and utterly incorrect in that regard.

I may be in a position to discuss this issue a little more freely once my mobile number has finally been ported away from Ovivo to another network in a few more days time. Of course Ovivo may now choose to try and obstruct my number port as some form of punishment for making this post but if they do so this will simply be added to the complaint I intend to file against them with the Communications Ombudsman.

Smeagal

I got a similar wiping of my credit balance, my balance up until yesterday was £16 now it is £0.

In the email telling me I have been terminated I got my PAC code and they are giving me 7 days to find a new supplier before they terminate the account, he went on to say that if I call or email customer services again for any reason then he would terminate my account with immediate effect.

If they hadn't of ignored my technical issues then they wouldn't have had a complaint, they take no responsibility for that whatsoever.

NonGeographicalMan

Smeagal,

I suspect that the recent appointment of a certain Mr Mark Howson as Customer Operations Manager or Head of Customer Services in September 2013 as detailed at http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhowson may perhaps explain the new seemingly intolerant manner of dealing with what are perceived to be difficult or demanding customers.

In his Linked In profile he says of his role with Ovivo:-

It’s my job to make sure that customers have an amazing experience that makes them brand advocates and encourages more business in the most efficient, lean way possible.

But then rather contradictorily he goes on to say that

I’m used to achieving this through creating great policies, facilitating training and development and working closely with third party organisations, including outsourced call handling and training facilities.

Then finally he says:-

Recently, I’ve been doing this for OVIVO – an exciting new MVNO in the UK offering an exciting value proposition, regularly featured on sites like HotUKDeals. In the last few months, thanks to a thorough care transformation program, we’ve been able to halve average queue time, lower average handling time by 20% and introduce the self service tools necessary to double the size of our busine without adding any additional resource to our Customer Services team.

Now I would tend to take the final highlighted statement in the last paragraph as probably actually being translatable as something like "we no longer have lengthy conversations with demanding or opinionated customers who have problems with our service and instead find it much easier to show them the door and get rid of them". After all how else is it possible to halve call queuing time and reduce call handling time by 20% without any additional staffing to the customer services team.

Lastly regarding your PAC code if Ovivo has not given you the normal 30 days to make use of it and move elsewhere (which they have actually given me) then they are quite clearly in breach of Ofcom's procedures as laid out at http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/telephone/how_long_PAC_valid so this would then also form part of your complaint to the Communications Ombudsman, given that your dispute with the company is clearly now deadlocked.

Now Ovivo may try to hide behind the section of Ofcom's PAC rules at http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/telephone/refuse_PAC which say:-

The only reasons why a provider can refuse to give a PAC are:

• the number does not belong to the customer of the losing mobile provider
• the account for that number has been terminated
• the account holder has died
• a PAC has already been issued and is still valid
• the customer has not adequately proved that he or she is the legitimate account holder.

However you would then merely cite with the Communications Ombudsman that Ovivo clearly had no valid reason to terminate your account with them before the end of the validity of the PAC code when you did not owe them any money and were not misusing the service but instead were merely being critical of the fact that they were not delivering the advertised web browsing service to their customers.

Quite clearly Ofcom's rule on not issuing PAC codes for already terminated accounts is only intended to cover the situation of a customer trying to get a PAC code for a mobile number many months or years after they (the customer) have already voluntarily chosen to end their relationship with the company. However it is quite clearly not intended that the mobile company should be allowed to summarily and immediately terminate a customer account with no adequate notice simply as a means of avoiding having to issue a PAC code to the customer and so also punishing the customer simply for being in dispute with them.

Of course it may perhaps need a test case with the Communications Ombudsman in order to force Ofcom to update its PAC code rules to make it clear that a mobile company cannot immediately close down a customer's mobile account with no reasonable period of notice as a means of avoiding issuing the customer with a PAC code valid for 30 days. It does however seem clear to me that to issue a PAC code with less than a 30 day ability to make use of it is a breach of Ofcom's rules.

Parisien

want_to_save wrote: »

hi guys how long does the sim card take to arrive once you have ordered it?

Still waiting 12 days later!!!

:eek:

want_to_save

mine arrived 23rd December... am so pleased I went across, loving my new Huawei Y300

federer

sorry if asked before but can i have another ovivo sim for a second phone in my name. i have one already on the free plan. so can i have a second one for another phone ?

devizes18193

federer wrote: »

sorry if asked before but can i have another ovivo sim for a second phone in my name. i have one already on the free plan. so can i have a second one for another phone ?

yes i have three sim cards