O2

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A description of the good or service offered and what happened.
My girlfriend's O2 mobile was stolen from her car last year. She tried to contact O2 (using the "24 hour" number given on her O2 bill) as soon as was physically possible. The contact lines listed did not work. I am her witness to this as I was there trying to contact O2. Eventually we got through and the phone was cancelled. This cut off a call that was being made by the thief which turned out to be a £65 call. When she received the bill my girlfriend phoned O2. Basically that they implied that she had been making the call and would not cancel the charge. She sent the letter shown below but got no further.

What have you attempted to do so far?
Phoned O2 and after not making any progress there she sent the following letter which also did not result in a favourable outcome.

To Whom It May Concern:

On the 27th October 2007 between the hours of midnight of the 26th and 6:00am, my bag containing my phone was stolen from my car. The police case number is: 1236798/07. I lost a lot of expensive personal items in the theft but, to add insult to injury, I recently received my O2 phone bill for October/November and I discovered that a phone call had been made to the following number, 0018764633594, before the phone was cancelled. This call was made by the person who stole my phone and the charge for this came to £65.
After discovering that my phone had been taken, the call to cancel my phone was made as soon as possible. Although my boyfriend tried several times from his "3" mobile phone using the "24 hour" number given on my O2 bill, we were unable to get through to anyone who could cancel my phone. Eventually I phoned a girlfriend and she was able to do it for me from her phone. It turns out (when I later spoke to O2) that when the phone was cancelled by my friend, (which was at least 20 minutes after we had first tried to get the phone cancelled), the thief was actually on the line making the £65 call and his/her call was cut off by the phone being cancelled.
I spoke to someone at O2 and was told that it was not possible for the charge for this call to be waived. Given that I was speaking to a junior member of staff, (who also hinted quite strongly that it may have been me making the £65 call), I am now making this appeal to the highest level. I am asking that as this call was made by a thief on my stolen phone, that you waive the charge for this call. I am saying that the call to cancel the phone was made as soon as it was possible to do so and I am also saying that were it not for the fact that your help line did not work, the phone would have been cut off sooner, possibly cutting the thief's call time by at least half. I am saying that I have been with O2 for almost 5 years and have always paid my bills on time. I am saying that my bills never exceed £50 so it should be obvious that this was an uncharacteristic call.

I know that this call will cost you significantly less than the £65 it will cost me. If you do compel me to pay for that call, I will say that the £65 you will make from it will be the last money you make from me on this and any other possible future contract (apart from the bare minimum I need to pay to see this current contract through to it's termination).
You will probably find that in the end the goodwill and money you receive in the long term will outweigh the £65 charge.
Thank you for your understanding.

Yours sincerely

Miss Karen Jones
Account number: 8797123
Telephone number: xxx

Ps May I also add that the charge to replace a SIM card is extortionate at £15 and the charge made by most other service providers is about £5 (which is what my boyfriend paid with the "3" network when his phone was stolen a few months previously).

Why you feel your complaint has not been fairly or properly addressed by the company?
O2 still insisted that she must pay for a call made by a thief on her phone. They did not investigate the claim. They consistently display what I call corporate arrogance in that they are only concerned with making a profit and have no interest in providing a quality service to their customers if that involves the slightest bit of effort on their part.

O2's response (shown below) claim the complaint and the customer's contact details we supplied them were not enough for them to identify the customer, or investigate the issue. They then list a number of requirements that would allow them to contact and help the customer; many of which are supplied in the complaint above, and contact details we sent them.
Surely the account number given in the complaint above is adequate for O2 to at least identify their customer, and begin investigating their claim. O2's response raises questions about their committment to identify and resolve the customer's complaint.

Hello Clik2complaints Team

Thanks for emailing us regarding our customer's complaint. I'm sorry I'm unable to help you with your query as you haven't provided us with any account related information.

Please understand that we work within the confines of Data Protection Act. Due to Data Protection Act, we can't share account related information other than the account holder. Please ask the account holder to contact us directly with the concern with the following security information:

account holder's full name (this must be the name that your account was registered in initially)
account holder's full address including postcode
account holder's date of birth
account holder's O2 mobile number
account holder's registered email address.

We'll then be able to help the customer with the concern.

If you have any further questions, please visit our online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

Important - When you email us please provide: your date of birth, postcode and mobile number as it helps us answer your query faster.

Kind regards

Lava Kusha Dogra
O2 Customer Service.

Getting your query right the first time you email us is very important to us. If your query has not been resolved this time, please reply to this email with the words 'Need More Help' in the subject field.

On the 17th September 2008 Mr Bemont wrote:
Hi clik2complaints,

Latest update.

I sent the e-mail below and got the response below.

As you can see it has gotten me nowhere. I am not about to phone that number and waste even more time.

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Glenn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello Glenn

Thank you for providing us with the details.

I'm sorry I'm unable to help you with your query. You'll need to call 08701 117 200 for further help with your query. Lines are open:

- Monday to Friday between 8am and 8pm.
- Saturday between 9am and 6pm
- Sunday between 10am and 5pm.
- Bank Holiday between 10am and 6pm.

Should you need any information on our products and services, please visit our online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

Kind regards

Ravi Kumar Pareek
O2 Customer Service

Getting your query right the first time you email us is very important to us. If your query has not been resolved this time, please reply to this email with the words 'Need More Help' in the subject field.