Urge to kill...rising...

O2. I thought they would be a good mobile network to move to a couple of years ago after Orange went down the toilet (they were bought out by a French Telco and the customer service died a death plus I couldn't get a signal either where I lived or worked which made a change of network a pressing concern). I had previously been with Vodafone for years but for some reason I decided that I should give another operator a go. Anyway, long and short is that I shifted to O2, albeit via the Carphone Warehouse. In truth I hadn't realised I was going via CPW as the website I got the contract through, which I had used before, had been bought out by a subsidiary of CPW. Had I realised then I would not have touched them with a barge pole as you have to use CPW customer service (which provides none of any consequence and is probably the most incompetently run outfit ever to disgrace these shores), but I was stuck with them for the 18 months of the contract.

Once the contract was up I shifted to O2 proper, got a new phone and 18 month contract and a free 19 inch high definition LCD telly. All was good. However, recently I have noticed a few little niggles. Number one, whereas on every other contract I have ever had the unused inclusive minutes rolled over to the next month (with a 3 month expiry), they do not on this contract: Use 'em or lose 'em. Next, I've been finding that my texts are often not getting through to the recipients for a long time. In fact today a picture message arrived on a friend’s phone a week late. I had already re-sent it and therefore been charged twice. I regularly get people telling me they can't call me at all - they don't even get my voicemail - even though my phone is switched on and on the network.

Next up, it seems that O2 doesn't support delivery reports on messages so I can't even see if messages have got through. I also found out that contracts taken out after Feb 1st 2008 (mine was in March 2008) should get a free 'bolt-on' worth £7.50/month. These are extra goodies like more cross network minutes, unlimited landline calls, unlimited texts etc. I was never told this so I haven't been getting it. I am also eligible for O2 'treats' - every month you get a little freebie, perhaps some more minutes, or some more texts or some free data transfer. It might not always be useful to you but sometimes it might. I was never told about this either.

And finally, when I rang up tonight to ask about my free bolt-on, I was told their systems were being upgraded and could I please call back after 10.30am tomorrow. This is not the first time I have rung during the day and been told their systems are unavailable. What sort of incompetent fuckbag of an IT manager (and business manager for that matter) decided that upgrading systems during peak hours was a good idea? Seriously, if I suggest upgrading our systems at work in any way which involves downtime, I have to fight to be allowed to do it at any time other than the dead of Sunday night, but O2 seem to think its OK to have 18 hours of downtime at peak hours. Fucking bellends.

The result of this is that I am seething and frankly I can't wait to dump the twats when my contract expires in 9 months or so and go back to Vodafone. I never actually had any trouble from them so why on earth did I ever leave?