yonmei

yonmei @ 11:53 am: What should I do about my mobile phone?
On 17 December I went into Phones4U and got a rather cool new Nokia phone, which I would like to keep (or at least get another one, same type). I got for free because I agreed to be transferred to O2, and was told that my number would be switched over by 24 December, or if it was delayed by Christmas, the first working day after Christmas, 29 December. The tariff at O2 suited me, though I've since discovered (like, this morning) that in fact Orange will match the tariff from any other supplier. (On the other hand, they would charge me £30 for the phone and I'd have to trade in my old one.)

Anyway, my new phone wasn't connected on 29 December. I rang Phones4U yesterday, discovered that they were closed (fair enough) and attempted to ring O2 using the Keep me handy card they'd supplied by post.

The number 100, advertised as "Free from your mobile", which normally gets you at least to a helpful operator who can tell you which number you should have rung (and at this point I wasn't even sure if I should be chasing O2 or Orange, understand) redirected me to a number which would cost me 50p a minute. I hastily rang off, and tried the Customer Services number. This was probably free, but got me nowhere - I got an endless engaged signal.

I rang Orange, and got a prompt answer from a helpful operator who said she'd look it up. She got back to me a few minutes later and said that owing to the Christmas/New Year shutdown, the first date on which it would be physically possible to transfer my old number to my new phone would be 7 January.

Having nothing better to do, I e-mailed O2.

==
I bought a Nokia phone and an O2 service from Phones4U on Princes Street Edinburgh, 17 December. Account number xxxxxxxxx.

I was posted a bunch of information pamphlets, including a small card labelled "Keep Me Handy" which purported to provide useful phone numbers.

The only two I have yet had occasion to test, one is wrong and the other was apparently permanently engaged. Under 02 Network services, this card makes the claim that I can use the number 100 for free from my mobile phone to report network coverage difficulties or for out-of-hours support: this is not accurate, as when I dialled 100 I got a pre-recorded message telling me to use another number, which would cost me 50p a minute. So it is neither of use to me, nor is the number given as an alternative free. I am reporting this card as providing inaccurate information: please send me one where prices and phone numbers are provided *accurately*.

Second, the 02 Customer Services number, repeatedly tried, 0870 241 0202, appeared to be permanently engaged appart from a pre-recorded message. There was not even notification that I was in a queuing system. I eventually rang Orange, the company I was planning to switch from, and got a prompt answer within minutes of calling.

I am still within my 30-day notice period for 02 and I am thus far really, really not impressed.

1. The card you provided which *should* have accurate customer service infomation on it was wrong in at least one major respect.

2. It appears from real-world information - not the false information provided on the card - that O2 is in the habit of charging its customers 50p a minute when they call to report network coverage difficulties. While this may cut down on the number of annoying phone calls from disatisfied customers, it does not bode well for the disatisfied customers.

3. When I call a customer service number within office hours, I expect to get an answer - even if the answer is a pre-recorded message notifying me that I'm in a queue and waiting for a reply. I do not expect to get a repeat engaged signal.
==

I sent the e-mail. When I checked again moments later, I'd got a bounceback message: the e-mail address provided on the card was wrong. I tried to look it up on the URL they'd provided, failed to do so, spent a happy hour figuring out what the e-mail address of the CEO of O2 UK might be, and sent off an e-mail to him via multiple possible address. (Most of which bounced back. But not all. I copied it to their sales and marketing department, which was the one valid e-mail address they did provide at that URL.)

Then this morning it occurred to me that I could try looking up the e-mail address via the @mailo2.co.uk half, and discovered that there were a bunch of e-mail addresses available, so I re-sent the e-mail to a couple of them with this addition:

==
4. The card I was sent with all the misleading information on it, among its other faults:

-Included a defunct e-mail address, memberservices@o2mail.co.uk, to which I originally sent this e-mail
-Included the URL for www.o2.co.uk, a website of an unhelpfulness almost comic in its completeness, if I hadn't actually wanted to get help.
-Did not include *any* correct e-mail address or any helpful/free telephone number to call
-Did not include the URL of the website where I eventually discovered the e-mail addresses to which I am now sending this e-mail, http://www.consumerdeals.co.uk/o2contact.html
==

So what should I do? Take the phone back to Phones4U and complain that if they'd told me Orange couldn't change my number till 7 January I'd have come in after Christmas rather than paying for 3 weeks worth of phone I wasn't going to use till I had my right number?

Go back to Orange and tell them that their customer service is so good and O2's is so lousy that I'll switch back to them if they match O2's tariff?

Basically what I want is to end up with O2's tariff, my cool new Nokia phone, and some kind of payback for the fact that I will have been paying the 02 tariff and the Orange tariff simultaneously for 3 weeks when I only planned to have to do it for a week, plus the mental stress (whine whine) about having a cool new show-offy phone that I can't in fact use because I don't want people to pick up on the wrong number.