I cancelled my O2 contract (O2)

Member Name: MyKittenFloss

Product:	O2
Date:	06/05/03 (1770 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good price plans, Good reception

Disadvantages: Rude customer service, Can't deal with problems

I signed up with Genie over two years ago. My deal was unmlimited texts and wap (within "reasobale personal use") and 50 free off peak minutes a day all for £20 a month. So for two years, I happily sent texts and used wap without ever having to think of the cost. I accessed my bills online and never paid more than £35!!

Then..... Genie, along with BT Cellnet became O2. As soon as that happened, I couldn't access my bills online. I must have sent dozens of emails (I wasn't going to call the customer careline as it's 50p a minute!) some of which were replied to with "new" account info and passwords (which never worked). The biggest problem was being prompted for my username and password at the time I purchased my phone - which was over two years ago and long gone from my memory. I was really annoyed at the fact O2 saw fit to collect direct debits from my account every month but didn't seem bothered about granting me access to see what I was actually paying for. Eventually I wrote a bit of mean email and told them I was cancelling my direct debit and I would happily explain in court why I was refusing to pay bills that I was not allowed to view. That prompted a phone call from a customer care executive, who magically sorted the problem out with a new password...... until I tried it and was rejected.

During all this, O2 kept sending me leaflets and emails about how I was on the wrong tariff for my needs and made recommendations for new plans I should be on (which I always worked out would actually cost me more than my historical tariff).

I eventually called the customer care line to cancel my contract and had the misfortune to speak to the rudest woman ever. There was no way she was going to let me cancel my contract. She just bleated on about how I was going to pay more with Vodafone. She wasn't interested in the fact that I would pay a lot more on my contract if at the end of the day some
one would take ownership of a problem and sort my account out.

So anyway, she gave me a disconnection date, which came and went and I was not disconnected so I had to call them again (there wasn't any record of a disconnection request apparently).

The tariffs are very good, but the handsets are priced higher than most other mobile companies (who seem to have the latest mobiles long before O2 do).

Would I recommend O2? For the tariffs yes, for customer service - absolutely not, I doubt I am alone in my experience of crossing over from Genie to O2.

Summary: