My Bloggywog Man + Geek + Ego = Georgie Hammerton

Based on my behaviour over the last two iPhone releases I should be holding a brand new iPhone 3G S in my hand right now, rather than writing this blog post, but lately O2 has left a bad taste in my mouth.

It’s been three days since I last contacted O2 and no response from their customer services so I’m putting this out there for the rest of the world to enjoy. Following last year’s rather good customer service where all previous iPhone customers were allowed to start a new contract with O2, like a new customer, this year they’re sticking two fingers up at the suckers who fell for it. As an existing customer, currently paying £52.50 a month (£45 tariff + £7.50 unlimited text bolt-on) I have already paid O2 £630.00 over the last year alone but am I a ‘valued customer’? Apparently not. I sent O2 a note a few days ago and within 24hrs received the below response:

O2:

I understand that you want to upgrade to the latest iPhone 3G S. I can see that you aren’t eligible to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G S now. You’ll be eligible to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G S on or after 12 December 2009.

I do appreciate your concern, as you weren’t aware that a new iPhone will be launched now.

I would like to inform you that we shared information about the new iPhone 3G S as soon as it was available, which was late last night after the Apple’s World Wide developers conference.

[iPhone 3.0 Free Upgrade stuff]

If you’re still interested in getting the new iPhone 3G S when it’s launched, you can cancel your existing contract and then purchase the new iPhone 3G S.

As you’re still within your contract term, you’ll need to pay the relevant termination charge if you want to cancel your contract now.

This is because you’ll be cancelling your contract within your Pay Monthly contract term. The termination fee would be:

- the amount of months remaining in contract

- multiplied by the monthly line rental charge (£45.00)

- plus any outstanding balances due on the account.

I hope I’ve explained this clearly to you.

I would request you to please keep visiting our website using the link below for most up to date information on the iPhone 3G S:

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

Have a pleasant evening.

Please visit our website using the link www.o2.co.uk/iphone for the most up to date information on iPhone.

You can also 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,

Kanchan Parab

O2 Customer Service.

Not a satisfactory answer. I don’t know if I’ve just scared them off but I’m yet to receive a response to my reply:

Kanchan,

Please ensure that I recieve a response from your manager to the following.

How important is customer satisfaction to O2? Secondly how important is customer loyalty and positive word of mouth to your business model?

With government statistics currently giving a life expectancy of 76 years for males and at my previous tarrif of £52.50, over the next 56 years you stand to take £35,280.00 from me as a life long, and satisfied customer. If I were to choose another carrier however, you stand to loose that same £35,280.00 – remind me how much the iPhone 3G S costs O2, I dare say it’s hardly £35,280.00 is it?

Please also note that your script needs to be updated as it refers to the phone’s announcement the previous day which is of course wrong. The grammar in your email is incredibly poor for what reads as a sloppy script and the condesending tone is very dissapointing. Apple has been kind enough to provide me with Beta releases of its 3.0 build so I appologise that I don’t share your excitement for a simple software update; the Gold Master of which I am currently running as I write this. Your customers are not stupid.

Impress me.

Georgie Hammerton

Not an unreasonable set of questions I’m sure you’ll agree. While AT&T, iPhone carrier in the US which is renowned for bad service, has announced that existing customers can upgrade for $100, O2 offer me the option of paying £440.40 for a pay-as-you-go handset OR paying for the rest of my contract to start a new one!

At this point I’m more than happy to dismiss my previous brand loyalty to O2 and give that £35,280.00 to another carrier, Orange for example has the Blackberry Bold at a very reasonable price; I might even get to keep some of my money which would be nice wouldn’t it?

Despite angry twitterers, petitions and very vocal disappointment from O2 customers, O2 failed to take care of its customers which meant O2 were met with this response today.