Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
The Egg found stock of the iPhone on Vodaphone and called O2 for his PAC - it was the Retentions department that sorted him out.
Ah. I called O2 for my PAC today and got offered 300 minutes for the price of 100 minutes (i.e. £30 a month for 18 months), with the phone delivered in 1-2 working days. Decided the data allowance (and contract length, so overall cost) was better with Tesco and turned it down.
Within minutes of the call ending I regretted it (based on them actually having it to deliver in a couple of days and the anti-hassle factor of not changing from O2. So called back, only to be told that a) that offer wasn't possible, as the only offers they (retentions) could make were the same as those on the website anyway, so it would be £35 a month, and b) they were out of stock across the whole of O2 and had been since before the weekend so no offers could be made until they were back in stock and I'd need to call back then. I asked to speak to the person who'd made the offer and was told that wasn't possible as she was in a different call centre and they couldn't dial direct (this is a communications company!). Getting slightly pissed off at being messed about, I asked to speak to a manager. The manager was extremely unhelpful and rude and sounded about 12 (I know that shouldn't matter, but he gave the impression of being a kid out of his depth). He did that customer services thing of not actually accusing me of lying about the offer, but very strongly implying it ("we have no record of that", "that offer is impossible", "you wouldn't have been told that") which did nothing to endear him to me.
Eventually I got the name and extension number of the person I first spoke to but was told again that they couldn't transfer me directly, but that I could keep going back into the queue in the hope of reaching the Preston Brook call centre at which point I could ask to speak to her. After talking to another three or four people, I eventually reached another person at PB who asked what the problem was. I expained and she said she'd check what she could offer me. She came back with the same original offer (300 minutes for the price of 100). At this point I made another stupid mistake and said "Oh I'm glad you said that because the manager said that wasn't possible". So I'm put on hold and then politely informed that she'd made a mistake. She then offered me the same as what's on the website. How long would that take? One moment... oh we're completely out of stock so you'll have to call back another time.
So in all about another hour of my time wasted getting nowhere. Great customer service there O2. Made me all the more determined to leave them (I know Tesco basically are O2, but it's a token gesture).
The Egg, I really hope they were wrong when they told me they'd been out of stock since before the weekend and that yours does actually turn up in a couple of days.