How big companies treat us – O2
April 23rd, 2008This post is along the lines of those I have written about BT and npower on the basis of my own personal experience in dealing with large companies. It is also included in the Manic Depressive Diary category. Because what is common with all three is that they appear to doubt my own sanity, grasp of the facts and ability to find out ‘the truth’. And they activate my paranoid fears that these all powerful giants might get me locked up in the looney bin, or cut off my electrity or hack into my mobile phone.
O2, the latest Goliath who I have been taking on with my catapult-like emails, is actually a split off from the even bigger BT company. It provides the service for my Sony Ericisson mobile phone, which I dearly love because it is a mind-boggling example of the wonders of the new technology. It not only enables me to make telephone calls, it enables me to connect to the internet, download games and send and receive emails. And it allows me to take photographs, which are almost as good as those I used to take with my equally beloved Pentax. And with something the size of a small pocket calculator.
This is a copy of their latest email to me. It starts with ‘Hello Bob’ and ends with their wish that I enjoy the rest of my day. So perhaps they do love me as much as I loved them. But it is what is in between that concerns me.
Hello Bob,
Thanks for replying to Paula’s email about the games that have been downloaded on to your phone.
We can clearly see from your account activity that you, or someone with access to your phone has requested and downloaded these games.
As a result as we’ve explained previously we’re unable to refund you the #5 you were charged for each of these games.
Under the Data Protection Act, you have the right to see any information we keep about you on your account, including call information.
If you’d like to see these details, please reply to my email with the following information:
- name
- address
- mobile number
- alternative contact number.
Please note that there will be a small administration fee of #10.
If you change your mind and would like us to resend these games to your phone, free of charge, please reply to my email to confirm and I’ll be happy to do this.
I realise that this is not the answer you were looking for, but I hope I’ve explained everything clearly for you.
Thanks for contacting customer service and enjoy the rest of your day.
The story of how my love affair with O2 turned sour is necessarily long, but I hope not too boring.
Earlier this month we were driving on a beautiful sunny day to have lunch with my sister who lives near Kingsbridge in East Devon. A mini-bus dis-obeyed a stop sign and drove in front of us at a junction. My wife slammed on the brakes, but the front of our car was seriously scraped. I jumped out of the car and walked over to the minibus driver, a bit shaken, but fishing in my wallet for my insurance certificate. The driver shook my hand and immediately apologised for his mistake. But then my mobile phone rang.
It was my sister asking what time we would arrive. As quickly as possible I told her that we were half an hour behind schedule, and tried to end the call. And failed, partly because I could barely see the screen in the bright sunlight, partly because traffic was building up from all four directions, with drivers honking at us. In rising panic I pressed three or four buttons, without success, and then turned the phone off.
I did not check my phone until the evening, when I found that three messages thanking my for ordering three computer games, and telling me that £15 had been deducted from my Pay as You Go account. I concluded, mistakenly as it turned out, that this was all my fault, as a result of my panicky pressing of buttons.
So the next day I rang O2 customer service, and explained what had happened. About the minor crash, which had made me a bit shaky, and had caused me to press a few buttons accidentally. I furthermore explained that I never played computer games on my mobile and that I had not used the internet facility. O2 insisted that games could not be down-loaded accidentally. And kept on repeating that, until I gradually realised that they were accusing me of lying. I patiently repeated my story, only to be told that I was not listening to what O2 was saying. By this time I said that their behaviour was a disgrace, and rang off.
The next day, when I had recovered my cool, I emailed them with a patient written explanation couched in the most temperate language. In their first reply, they said that their records showed that one of the computer games had been downloaded twice, so they were refunding me £5, but I must pay the other £10 because the games could not have been downloaded accidentally.
Before I replied to this I checked the file manager on my phone. There were no downloaded games there. I also checked the times. The telephone call from my sister was at 12.47 PM but the messages telling me I had downloaded the games, came at 4 PM. I told O2 this in my reply. Their second email to me asserted that it was not possible to download games accidentally, because in order to do so you had to press four keys in an ordered sequence. My reply repeated that I had not done this, and asked them for an explanation of what had happened, including the discrepancy in the times. Their reply is the one I have printed above.
It convinced me that I was not going to get anywhere by writing emails.
But the matter should not be allowed to rest. It raises questions about what O2, and maybe other mobile companies do, which are far more important than the £10 at stake.
The O2 reply above includes this sentence:
We can clearly see from your account activity that you, or someone with access to your phone has requested and downloaded these games.
If they look into my phone and send me messages they must also have the ability to download games even if I have not asked for them.
So I am writing this blog, in the hope that some employee of O2, or some reader of mine, will come up with a more satisfactory explanation of what happened.