O2 are Shit

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I discovered today that O2 can’t tell their arse from their elbow.

It took their struggling billing department monkey 30 minutes to conclude that he couldn’t find out what my call tariff costs are. What? The fucking billing department don’t have access to my tariff information. What’s that all about? 30 minutes, no doubt on a premium call rate.

All I wanted to know was the cost of data calls when using the built in modem on my handset via my laptop, the cost of GPRS calls, the cost of calls from my mobile while in the Netherlands to a UK O2 mobile and vice versa and to make sure that International Roaming was enabled on my contract.

To be fair to the guy on the other end, he was kinda new and his system for some insane reason didn’t have the title of my phone tafiff with a button next to it that told him what my call charges were. Surely thats a basic principle of database design – the linking of relevent information for presentation in simple reports.

Nor could he issue a letter or leaflet telling me what my call charges are. Isn’t that insane? Why not? Isn’t it a common customer request? My tariff is 2 and a half years old and I can’t remember what they are, but damn, why can’t they do that? Why don’t the billing department have the relevent call charges at their fingertips? Surely thats one of the main things people want to know from a billing department.

After 30 minutes the guy came back from the data services department to tell me that GPRS calls are 12 pence per minute, data calls using the modem are 35 pence per minute, but when using the mobile phone modem with a laptop the calls cost £2.35 per megabyte. Eh? Whats the difference whether I use the modem to make a data call from the handset itself or use a laptop and a bluetooth connection to phone to use the modem.

Let me clarify, I need to be able to use a dial-up modem connection in the event that one of the servers at work goes down and I need to SSH in to have a look at the problem. I could be anywhere, I could be in the middle of the woods but still have my mobile phone and a notebook. How does it make any difference to O2 whether I dial straight from the phone or use the laptop to dial using the phone modem.

I know I’m repeating myself but I find this contradictory information frustrating. Either that or there is some vital piece of information that I have missed. I’m not a mobile technology expert to be honest.

Fucking O2 are shit and it probably cost me £30 if not £45 to find out. I hope this turns into a google bomb.

19 thoughts on “O2 are Shit”

  2. GPRS appear to be free on O2. Myself and 2 colleagues at work arent getting billed for them at least 😀

  3. I agree completely with the fact that o2 are far from satisfactory in the customer services department, as i have spent countless time talking to their under-trained staff. O2 really are shit!

  4. i hate o2 they messed me about so much i cuold have killed the fat dickhead who sold me the phone there. he lied to me about the inclusive mins and texts and i ended up paying over £70 for a £30 ( supposedly anyway) bill, then my phone broke and they wont fix it so i am stuck with £30 a month with no phone alltogether over £200 for nothing i hate o2 i have been waiting on hold for half an hour to pay them and im now being blacklisted because of their incompetance the bastards

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  6. Just wanted to say a year on and O2 are still shit. I am being charged a month’s line rental (they’ve also suddenly taken away the discount they gave me to stay with them last year) on two phones even though I cannot use them while the numbers get transferred to new ones. They said in their letter “we’re really sorry that you’ve decided to leave O2, but we won’t make switching difficult for you. After all, we’d like you to come back one day.” Well, you can imagine my response to that.

  7. Yep !!! I have had my contract with O2 for 3 months now and now i have to folk out £10 more on top of my contract for connecting to the mobile web sevice i’ve never used….STRANGE !! after 5 attempts over 2 days i managed to get through (yes 30 mins+ wait)to correct my bill but they said, quote “the information is on the system, you must have used the internet. try contacting Nokia your phone could be broken” eh? what goes on? i am now gonna try ending my contract with shitty O2 and go back to pay as you go.

  8. Yes, I’ve had that happen to me too, but only at the cost of 13 pence per incident, one per month for about 3 months. It ended in fact when I called them up to ask why they were billing me for a service I hadn’t used. I’m not suggesting they are deliberately taking money for things that I’m not using, but perhaps there is a glitch somewhere, that isn’t you, me or our phones.

  9. From: Roman Daniel
    4 The Close
    IDALIA, Townsville Qld. 4811
    Tel. 0747783514
    Mobile 0434116434
    romandaniel910@yahoo.com.au

    25 August 2006

    To whom this may concern,

    Dear sir or madam,

    I have been as patient with my O2xda II mini, as I have been with my own daughter, sometimes it seems even more so. But today, after losing all my data again; for about the tenth or so time since I got it; (after it “locked-up” locked me out from all controls and froze-up, requiring total reset to get it going again) I finally lost my patience to the extent of returning it to you again, and writing this letter in order to ensure a clear and thorough, description and understanding of its problems or “Special Features”.

    Just as my daughter, this particular O2xda has a fluctuating or sporadic, surprising and unpredictable nature; as if it had a mind of it own, and daily performed its own independent functions.

    This lock-out or freezing-up as I call it is but the final and most disrupting “feature”, which usually lasts only a short time, and just a normal reset, or the power-button, or even a little time “rest” is enough to get it going again. But it has many and various such “features”.

    Right now, after the ‘total-reset’ process and another ‘screen alignment’ it is working seemingly okay again.

    However, ever since I got this particular handset (after being initially, very impressed by an article introducing it, in a magazine), the GPRS settings, for one example; never stayed correct for longer than 2 or 3 days, usually drop-out the same day I set them. As a result, I never use MMS or internet access. I can’t even look inside my MMS inbox.
    Initially when I bought it, the Optus customer service told me that they were aware of this problem and led me to believe that it was a problem initiated by the net-work rather than the O2. And in order to use GPRS I need to set it first, every time.
    I did it few times and lost interest due to all other little hick-ups the O2 kept me busy with. Sometimes totally unfamiliar functions appear performed, other times it wont do the function you desire, and, for example; yesterday after performing the total reset, and entering the Owners Information details, after checking it was all correct and ok, I tapped the OK in top-right corner and as the screen changed to Start, it was:
    “OWNER: Roman Daniel
    dbt”
    That was it, nothing else, and it caught my attention as if “debt-without-e” and as I had returned to the “Owners Information” screen, my name was intact, there were no tel. nos. and in address space was: “dbt”. As I inquired further; the “d” could have been left from the word “Queensland” which was the last letter ^ first in “dbt”, “t” appeared only in capital, and “b” does not appear anywhere in my information.
    And this is just the most recent “hick-up”, since then it has been fault-free now for two days (its Sunday night). And I’m already thinking that it’s okay again, but then I remember the very poor, questionable reception; my calls very often break-up and disconnect, daily and in various places. And the fact that the head-phones do not work since the front been replaced, as the new “features” of almost daily screen-alignments (Some times the displacement was so great; 1cm. or so, that as I tapped the very bottom of the screen the second or third option from the bottom would highlight, and the new screens lack of apparent sensitivity particularly in bottom corners, were challenging but relatively controllable. These new screens “special features” seemed to have ‘settled-down’ in time and now I rarely ever need to re-adjust or improvise.

    I do appreciate my O2 even as limited as it seems to be, as most of the features function okay. Its independent nature makes it more like an individual requiring re-adjustments; like a child or not all there family member, rather than a PDA.
    I suppose it was the reason why I didn’t send it straight back when the front got replaced months ago. When it came back it had new screen-misalignments and apparent lose of sensitivity, the head-phones did not work at all, plus all the same problems as before; no GPRS, bad-reception, locking-up, etc.
    But it looked nice shiny and new, and I missed it, and it would have been a shitty thing to do, to whom ever was working on it, to return it. So I kept trying to use it.

    Monday the O2 worked so well that I decided to keep a log and set the GPRS settings.

    Tuesday the 29th of August 11:45 am;
    I ph about doctors app, The receptionist I know for years (Valerie), did not recognised me at first, and complained about the line breaking-up or dropping-out and that she couldn’t understand what was said.

    29th of August at 12:00 noon;
    I ph the Optus Customer Service in order to set GPRS settings: Auto-Configuration
    After 1 minute or so of average reception, the call was terminated. The representative at Optus phoned me back, inquiring where and how long ago I bought this phone. And recommending I ought to have it looked at, but assisted me in getting GPRS up and running again, and the reception quality was very good after he called back..

    GPRS settings: Activated throughAuto-Configuration at 12:05/ Restart 12:10 or so.

    29th of August at 15:15
    Tried to ph a friend – fourth attempt successful, reception quality OK

    Wednesday 30th August at 19:45
    I just noticed GPRS is down again

    Thursday 31st August 16:30.
    Set GPRS settings, again: Auto-Configuration (Default displayed again, changed to Optus again) Restart completed at 16:31

    Thursday 31st August 21:30
    I just noticed GPRS is down again
    The reception today has been poor also, breaking-up a lot, and one call terminated.

    Is this how the O2 supposed to function?
    Is it just the bad reception in the area I live in?
    Or is it something else?

    Friday 1st of September I will return my O2 back to his doctor and maybe something can be done this time, to make the “features” mentioned above less problematic.

    Finally to sum up the problems;
    1. bad reception
    2. GPRS dropping out
    3. headphones don’t work
    4. The phone-case pops-off the plastic belt-clip too easily, rendering it unusable
    5. I had lost the first stylus after some 11 month, and only weeks later I lost the second, spare-one. Would you recommend I get 2 or 3 or 5? I think 3 will do

    Please call me if I can be of any further assistance

    Faithfully
    Roman Daniel

  10. God, I feel your pain. I have serious issues with the customer service at 02. A while ago I received a few calls from a con-artist pretending to be from 02, who knew all my personal details.
    I called 02 to find out how they were storing and using my personal data to try to get to the bottom of how my details could have fallen into the hands of crims.
    I just wanted a some simple questions answered – is there a database with my name, number and other details on it? Who can access it? Do 02 ever sell or pass on my contact details to other organisations? Do they vet who my details get passed on to?
    In my mind these are simple data protection issues that their customer care assistants should be able to answer or at least investigate.
    After being fed an dazzling array of bullsh*t answers (them: “you didn’t tick the ‘no publicity’ box so we can pass your details on to other companies”, me: “What? To criminals?” them: “Er…”. Them: “we don’t sell on any details but ofcom do” me: “Oh – ofcom, the industry regualtors – they’ve slipped my details to the crims have they??” them: “Um…”
    Several times I was told that a mystery ‘supervisor’ would call me back with some hardcore facts, but I was right not to hold my breath on that one.
    Annnnyways, so I won’t be renewing my contract with 02 this month and I’m still none the wiser on this whole data protection issue. I would write to ofcom about it, but you know how slippery they are…

  11. EBPP_1005: Your session has expired.

    Re-enter “My Bill” All i see is this error message on my online billing. Even at my mates house on his pc. Any suggestions, security settings are no good. Don’t work and also its not timed out, only just logged in 🙁

  12. Agreed. O2 are really SHITE. Website a fucking joke, staff fucking worse. I hear the rest of them (orange & co) are just as bad. Why don’t we put our mobiles in the bin – who the fuck needs them anyway – really – what are they for other than bugging the shit out of you when you are driving / drinking / shagging etc.

  13. Strange Goings On Inside O2!
    We operate a driving school in the North West of England. Three years ago we dismissed one of our drivers for misconduct.
    Recently we discovered that our driving school’s mobile phone calls were being diverted to a competitor- this ex employee!
    The call divert had been setup only to be active when the original phone is busy. That way it was virtually impossible to detect, as some calls were still being received.

    O2 alleged that there was only three ways that the calls divert could have been instigated:
    1. By ourselves.
    2. By the recipient of the calls; pretending to be ourselves
    3. By someone inside O2
    The first two options were definitively eliminated, leaving O2 with just option 3.
    O2 then claimed that they could not say when the phone divert had been put on, when it had been taken off or what initiated the phone divert to be activated. O2 investigated and eventually admitted they believed that this situation could have been in place for three years.
    It appears that the method used to implement this system of divert is invisible to O2.
    O2 were unprepared to investigate further in relation to an employee being concerned and our only option was to report the matter to Lancashire Police. This was done on the 6th October 2006.
    Lancashire Constabulary was given written authorization to contact O2 on our behalf and obtain all records relating to our account. They intimated that this could take up to six weeks.
    On Thursday the 4th January 2007 Lancashire Constabulary was contacted in an effort to obtain an update on the situation. They claimed that O2 had failed to respond to their enquiries but that they could do nothing about this and that it was common for O2 to act in this manner. They maintained that unless O2 responded Lancashire Constabulary could not class our complaint as one relating to a crime. However they refused to expand as to how they could progress the matter further.
    This was despite our previously supplying copied documentation which clearly indicated unauthorized diversions from our mobile phone, having been received by the ex-employee.
    However, the police would neither confirm nor deny that an enquiry on our behalf had been issued to O2. They were unable to supply the manner of their application, the department applied to in O2, or what the alternatives were to obtain the required information from O2. They claimed that records did not exist of this information.
    A separate issue has been highlighted in relation to our findings is the presentation of telephone billings as court evidence:
    All the diverted calls are shown on the recipient’s bill as direct calls made from our telephone to the ex-employee’s mobile. No indication is given on the billing as it being a diverted call from any other source. In effect we could be shown as making harassing phone calls to the ex-employee. This therefore clearly shows the billing information as incorrect, inaccurate, misleading, and could be held responsible as to misleading the court into reaching an unjust verdict. We believe this is clearly unacceptable as definitive and accurate legal evidence in any court action. Especially as O2 are unable to supply any information as to the method or timescale of the phone divert. It appears that this information is not recorded.
    A further use for this way of redirecting calls is to obtain a database of telephone numbers in order to ring back potential customers. By not immediately answering, the calls would not show on the recipient’s phone bill and therefore would be untraceable but would be available to the receiving mobile and could immediately be called back or recorded.
    In our particular case the ex-employee never answered a call (except once, see below- possibly by accident) made from our company mobile number, (which he knew), but always answered when the company’s withheld number office phone was redirected to his mobile. On one occasion the principal driving instructor of our school actually dialed himself and was answered by the ex-employee on his mobile!
    This method of obtaining telephone numbers being made to a certain number, together with times & dates, without the need of a court order, would I believe, be of interest to many branches of the intelligence services; especially as, it is now being clamed, no crime is being committed in obtaining information in this manner!
    It would also be in their interest that this system was not in the public domain!
    This is the position to date. After our insistence, Lancashire Constabulary now claims that they have re-applied to O2 for the required information.
    Has this happened to anyone else? It’s nearly impossible to detect so it could be happening to anybody.
    contact:
    info@patmosisland.net

  14. Shit is a euphemism for what O2 is. And monkey is far too generous a term for a member of their call centre staff. Far too high a species.

  15. what are you lot on about?
    o2 is great and they are a great company to work for. its not just u lot that have problems wit customer service we do too but u get that wit any company and as for crap service i got a 100% mystery shop 3times in a row so we not all that bad are we?

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  18. Hi , just to let all you morons know who complain about customer service advisors at 02 that you dont help matters when you come on to the phone to us and give us shit , talking to us like crap, not willing to listen and most of the time not even wanting help to resolve the problems that you have!!!
    I look at it this way , Talk to people in the way you would like to be spoken to yorself and you will get somewhere..Just a bit of respect goes along way!! I have worked for the company for 3 years now and talk to some hard faced arrogant bastards who want it all for nothing!! I have to admit that 02 are not as bad as some competitor companies for customer service(no names mentioned) as we are at the moment in 1st place for customer satisfaction..I THINK I HAVE MADE MY POINT..Tanya

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