Saturday 6 October 2012

O2's Chief Executive is Ronan Dunne



For a company in the communications business - O2 seem to be pretty bad at it. Maybe that's why parent company Telefonica's profits in 2011 were down almost by half. They still made £4.6bn though. Here's how they do it. 

They help themselves to our money without our authority

My partner wanted to move her Broadband to a new address. O2 don't serve that telephone exchange so the price would jump from £14.95 to £28 a month. Although she was still in contract by a couple of months O2 said there would be no cancellation charge because of this.

So she was quite surprised a week or so later to receive a demand for £39.64 cancellation charge.

I phoned O2 and asked them to amend it. After much discussion a supervisor, Rory, promised they would re-issue the final bill for the correct amount. That was September 9th. 

Nothing happened. Does this sound promising? You're right. It doesn't. Something is going to go wrong. It will, but not quite yet.

So on 2nd October I call again. Sarah agrees the final bill should be just£ 5.81 - but we can't pay now because O2 have cancelled the direct debit. She promises to call back to take the payment tomorrow when her supervisor has amended the account.

I have a feeling of deja-vu.

3rd October - No call from Sarah at O2. But she promised I hear you say. I know, she promised, but she lied.

4th October - I call again. This time it's Gary. He promises either he or Sarah will call back later to take the payment of £5.81.

5th October - No call from O2. But they promised! I know. They lied.

5th October - O2 help themselves to £39.64 from my partner's bank account. Yes that's right they just stole £39.64.

THAT'S HOW O2 MAKE £4.6 BILLION PROFIT - THEY HELP THEMSELVES TO OUR MONEY!

6th October - Saturday night 7.30pm I phone O2 again. This time its Mark. He doesn't know the name of the Chief Executive of O2 (Ronan Dunne). I ask to speak to a manager. After much faffing about with nonsensical explanations that no one can help he puts me through to his boss Wayne.

Wayne knows Sarah's boss, Kerry, but only Kerry can put this mess right. Kerry's gone home.

I explain we don't have a contract with Kerry, our contract is with O2. And O2 is in breach of the Direct Debit Guarantee (they take your money without consent, they must give it back).


Apparently I can email in a complaint.


So here is my complaint. I've also tweeted this article to Ronan Dunne, the CEO at O2. No one I've spoken to at O2 knows his name. His twitter address is @ronandunneo2. If O2 have taken any money from you, or failed to call you back you might want to give him a shout. 


I've asked for a letter of apology, a full refund, and £25 compensation for the almost 2 hours I've spent correcting O2's mistake. 

With £4.6 billion in the bank O2 can afford it.

Update 20th November 2012 
After filing a formal complaint O2 finally confessed they were completely at fault. They said they would refund the money they stole, and offered £15 compensation. 

But then they failed to hand back the cash, and said my partner must send in her bank statements to prove they hadn't. She politely declined - would you trust O2 with your bank statements? 

Pushed to increase their offer of compensation to £25, O2 refused. Now we've referred them to the Ombudsman who will investigate. Apparently the Ombudsman Service will charge O2 £400 to tell them they must give back the money. 

This is a company who don't seem to care how heavily they trample on their customers, but with £4.6 billion profit last year O2 can afford it.

5 comments:

Tony Preece said...

Did you get this resolved through Ofcom? What was the outcome?

The Chief Executive said...

Tony Preece - Consumers cannot take their individual complaints to Ofcom. The complaints process is devolved to independent 'ombudsmen'.

O2 use a company called Ombudsman Services.

So I took my complaint to Ombudsman Services and it was upheld.

You can read about it here:

http://thechiefexecutive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/ombudsman-orders-o2-to-pay-up.html

It is quite a long winded process and the ombudsman cannot 'punish' O2 so no fines are levied. You will see I got the figure I asked for - £50 compensation and a refund of the incorrect charges. I'm still waiting for the money (the ruling was 3 weeks ago).

Anonymous said...

Here we are in 2015 and still O2 don't give a toss. The switchboard say they don't know how to put anyone through to Ronan Dunnes office. They open their mouths and another lie pops out. This involves a vulnerable lady who upgraded her phone on the 30th September 2015. THEY WOUND A TABLET AND PHONE INTO HER BEFORE THEY CANCELLED HER OLD ACCOUNT AND HER NEW ONE. SHE HAS LOST THE PHONE NUMBER SHE HAS HAD FOR MANY YEARS AND THEREFORE CONTACT WITH HER FAMILY ABROAD AND THEY HAVE CANCELLED THE NEW NUMBER TOO. SHE HAS NOW 2 UNUSED ELECTRICAL ITEMS SHE CANNOT USE AND IS BEING CHARGED FOR THEM.I am listed as the ladies carer its been left to me to sort it out. Despite the promises yesterday and apologies that they realise its their fault STILL the lady has no recognised service. HQ even tried to blame the shop manager who actually has been helpful. Im guessing the phone and tablet work but only if attached to a service provider which O2 have failed to provide. They told me that they would not tell the account holder nor me anything but I could drive ten miles to the shop and they would tell the store manager what was being done. Sadly they told the store manager that they wont tell her anything. They even thought it amusing to list the ladies birth year as 1900. If they are willing to do this to a disabled lady listed as vulnerable what hope do all customers of O2 have. Here we are in October and the lady is paying for an O2 service yet she doesn't have a service from them. Shamefull.

Lauren T said...

Good day.

I am still waiting for a response from 'Sharon' in the outbound team (this is all the information that was given to me after I very confusing phone call from a member of your staff called Richard in the 'outbound team'. I have been in contact with Sharon Lumb.

The phone call I received was with regards to my contact coming to an end and the options I have. He kept changing his mind about my discount and in my opinion I didn't received very good customer service ! I am now left confused and frustrated. I moved to o2 after being with Orange for years !!! this was due to recommendations from other o2 customers. I have now updated them on my experience and they are now rethinking being with yourself as am I.

Please advise - laurenhackfath@gmail.com

Regards,

Mrs Thabethe

sue said...

02 again after relentless calls to 02 they still send me a bill for £28.02 when the number has been cancelled since december by 02 as my daughter had upgrade on her phone I was told by 02 to cancell my direct Debit and payed what was owing in December which I did.I tried calling again and the have me a number to call which when I called was discontinued.. when will this end I owe nothing get you act right 02 sue