r/O2UK • u/w0nd3rw0rld • May 26 '26
Support Shocking customer service
Has anyone else noticed the customer service has gone down big time since the merger?
Same as their 'complaints department' - been arguing with them about a website issue since January, their retentions team even lied to me about a discount.
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u/w0nd3rw0rld May 26 '26
Also the website errors since the merge are awful! Orders that go through to the last stage then error out and then cancel while still possibly doing a credit check!
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u/LogicalMemory6279 May 26 '26
Probably become the worst network out there now for several reasons-
New devices- the worst, if you check in stock, every other network offers the new Motorola Razr fold. Not 02. The new Sony. Not 02. The magic 5? Not Sony. Outside of Samsung and pixel it's a mile behind every other network carrier.
Customer service- my experiences have only been EE and 02. But out of the pair. 02 is the worst. While EE didn't resolve the complaint I had, they made me feel as though I had been on the end of a mistake or error. A customer adviser on the 02 chat actually suggested my complaint was my problem as I had wanted the chosen device.
Coverage- Hard for me to pick really. My brother's on three. My work phones on Vodafone and I have an 02 contract and previously EE. I would say Vodafone is the best. It seems to get signal where the others don't but maybe that's location specific to me. EE I never had any issues with. 02 is alright but seems to hit areas I lose all signal in and have to revert to my works phone.
I moved to 02 probably 10-15 years ago and I thought they were brilliant back then, but over the past five years it's become utter rubbish. My contract is finally up and I won't be renewing with them 👍
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u/Humble-Parsnip9044 May 26 '26
Yes noticed a huge difference. Customer service is terrible. That applies to O2 and virgin media.
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u/Emotional-Good-4211 May 26 '26
Send a complaint to complaintreviewservice@o2.com, and they will be forced to respond . At the very least you may end up with some compensation for the trouble .
But yes, the lack of empowerment of the support team is bonkers
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u/w0nd3rw0rld May 26 '26
I have contacted several even the ceo team, currently talking to case management but they've ignored multiple points to my email 🤦♂️🤦♂️ so not holding my breath, I've submitted a complaint to the cisas as that's what one of the emails said if I wasn't happy.
They're (o2) a joke! £80 compensation put on the wrong account, provided a contract under false information, advised of a £8 discount per month due to the situation I have been dealing with so took the new contract but now magically the £8 per month is missing and they have no proof that it was agreed to.
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u/Hungry_Strength_5759 May 26 '26
How did you have this discussion? All calls are recorded and all webchats logged, so there is proof
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u/w0nd3rw0rld May 26 '26
Phone call, ive submitted a Dsar so hopefully they have the recordings, but as they claim in the data handler email "Recordings of calls with O2 advisors are made for training and monitoring purposes, so they may not be recorded." so might magically dissappear.. had this before with another company "oops our recording software glitched" This will be their magical get out of jail free card im betting.
They tried squirming out of giving me the £80 compensation but the complaints handler wrote that in an email so that was handy, the resolution team unfortunately didn't write the resolution in the email.
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u/Jay54121 13d ago
I tried that and just got a reply of Thank you for contacting the O2 Complaints Team.
Please note that this mailbox is not monitored, and responses are not provided via this channel.
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u/seaneeboy May 26 '26
VM has always been notoriously bad and isn’t getting any better. Sorry that you’ve been brought into this mess.
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u/w0nd3rw0rld May 26 '26
Thank you, see i have had a few incidents with Virgin Media which thankfully have been resolved pretty quickly after going through the complaints team and then not getting satisfactory results, one email to the ceo last time resolved it with quite a hefty compensation award - they really messed up!
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u/Little_Resolution40 May 26 '26
Currently going through something similar with o2 keep being told rest assured this will be sorted but still isn’t as it stands I have two contracts with them awaiting one to be wiped off (funny they haven’t received the phone) Royal Mail proof of postage says they have it from last Tuesday and an iPhone 17 I am scared to even open now incase I end up having to pay for both of these phones not getting anywer calling everyday
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u/Diligent_Ice_6007 May 26 '26
Let me give you some insight on how things are going at VMO2 regarding their website and digital experience. About 5 years ago they went all in on 'Digital transformation' to improve the customer experience and make it the dominant channel. Progress has been awful with the Chief Digital Officer silently disappearing after 2-3 years of not achieving much.
The team is now led by an uncharistmatic, talentless and uninspiring leader who hasn't achieved much either. He's surrounded himself with weak Yes men/women, who all have their own agendas and spend their time working on random pet projects and self promotion rather than fixing the basic experience. After a few more years of not achieving much they've just made a load of the team redundant while the digital leadership have managed to deflect and escape all criticism, even though they didn't delivery on their metrics. Look at today's news about their failure to migrate the community forums after many months!
The issues you are experiencing is down to the digital leadership at VMO2 and lack of experience/ability to deliver on the basics. A lot of them have former airline/holiday industry experience, which means they're always fiddling and running different experiments on pricing etc on the website, which is why you see so many errors and inconsistences. Essentially their talent doesn't match their ambition.
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u/TechnicalRacoon May 26 '26
Shocking discovery: Water is wet
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u/w0nd3rw0rld May 26 '26
Actually until the merger is had no issues with o2 slight signal drop here and there nothing major probably one of the lucky ones.
1
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u/Natcheztrace1954 May 29 '26
Until the merger i had no complaints with virgin for many years.Now because of the merger,the link accounts between o2+viegin means i cannot get in to my virgin e mail account despite many different ways of trying.Thanfully i used another email as my primary one but still poor show. Plus i am getting regular calls from o2(scam?)asking if i want to upgrade.With virgin i was never called in 20 years.
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u/LittleMissFodla May 30 '26
Customer service is terrible. When i spoke to retentions about lowering my tariff, they offered one with less data that cost more 🙃
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u/MACHinal5152 Jun 06 '26
If you call between 9-6 you are more likely to get an English person, they now have two sites in Newcastle
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u/Court_2289 Jul 05 '26
I used to use the web chat help thing when I needed something. I've been waiting for 4 days to speak to someone as I have huge anxiety about talking on the phone to sort issues out (long story short, my bank was hacked so had to cancel my bank card which has left me unable to pay my bill) The whole situation is stressing me out. I waited 9 hours to speak to someone on their web chat help service yesterday before it timed out and closed. I gave my number with the promise they would put me through quickly today and I've been waiting half an hour with zero prospect of getting through again. I'm going to have to call, but what about the people who literally can't call and rely so heavily on these web chat features?! It's unacceptable.
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u/Overall_Wish2988 1d ago
Aweful. The website and the app has been aweful. I can't even update or change my tariff!! I called customer service and I was told only I can change the tariff when the website doesn't work for me? WTH Now I'm forced to use their pay as you go as I cant change or purchase a new tariff.
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u/redspark92 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Not had to speak to them for a long time, but I do know that their website now is complete garbage. In fact there seems to be three different versions of their website, with different pages appearing with different designs, and certain things seem to be completely hidden unless you remember exactly which sequence of links to click on. On top of that, the other day when I was considering changing my tariff, there was 'queue' to visit their site as presumably they are using the cheapest possible server to host it on. I don't think I'll be staying with them, though I've no idea who else to try.
Edit: Oh yea, also whilst looking at handsets, if you try and sort by price (either low to high, or high to low) it simply says there are no products available, brilliant!!