The cushy O2 iPhone support policy
Like a cruel lover, the iPhone has brought me nothing but heartbreak. The more I love it, the more it rejects me. And lo, how the cruelty continues. I spent the weekend in Belfast, at CreativeCamp. It was great. More on that later. On the train home, I turned on the unit to find that the Home button no longer worked. What the fuck? My phone is less than a month old.
Is someone taking the piss? Mike Murphy has crept in and replaced my iPhone with a dud and he’s filming me now, right? Must not make unusual moves, go Hulk SMASH! and shout profanities at the top of my voice. Also I have to be wary of priests with 70’s quaffs and cameras crudely disguised as suitcases. If only just a smidgen of that were true!
I haven’t even been billed for the first period and now no Home button juice. I. Was. Pissed.
To switch between applications, I now need to do a hard restart. To boot, Safari was crashing on me and dumping me out to the main menu. Annoying, but useful as I now have a dependable way of getting there. Safari crashes when opening a new page at least 60% of the time. Yessiree, irony!
Friends suggested a backup and restore. I did this last night and prayed to the deities of Appleverse. All to no avail. My iPhone is grumpy white box that refuses to do what I want it to do!
This morning, I rang my friends at the O2 support centre. After 6 minutes of waiting on the line, listening to a monotone message to the effect of “All our O2 operators are busy at the moment speaking to customer, one will be with your very soon” play every 25 seconds or so, I got a customer support specialist. I regaled my story to her. She told me that more than likely my unit would need to be replaced and that I needed to contact Apple support as they take care of after-sales support for the iPhone. Fine, grand. At the close of the conversation, I ask the O2 agent if this hardware fault was common. Interestingly, she said it was and that she had had a few customers with similar problems.
So, I call Apple. Their call response is much faster. I was impressed they worked the word “expedite” into the support-line blurb. They know what they are about. Expedite kicks off an impression of rocket-powered, efficient customer care. They must be able to help me. I got put through to a nice agent who took down my details and made note of my problem. She said I had two options. Number one – take my unit to an O2 store and get them to sort me out. Or number two – a much slower operation whereby she would send a courier out to collect my device (could take up to three days) and it would be mechanically inspected by Apple for faults. If the problem is fixable, the phone would be repaired else a replacement would be sent to me. Mean time of Apple’s inspection of the device is seven days. That’s effectively two working weeks, without a phone. She obviously recommended the O2 store option. If I wanted to go with the Apple/courier/two weeks of living in silence option, I could call them back.
So, this morning I decided to brave the O2 store located at 50 Grafton Street in Dublin. After queuing for ten minutes (thankfully there were no queue jumpers), I got to speak to a young sales assistant. I took out my phone and he listened carefully to my problems. I told him that Apple had directed me to them. He patiently told me that he could do nothing for me. Apple own their own support. I should go through Apple for support. I explain to him that Apple told me to contact my nearest O2 store. He repeats that he cannot help me and that Apple should not have told me that. He says Apple own their own support. O2 do not. I tell him I’m paying the iPhone premium. I pay more on my call plans than other non-iPhone customers and that if I go with the Apple route I will not have a phone for two weeks but still be paying for my O2 monthy calls. Again he tells me that there’s nothing he can do. At this stage, I’ve completely lost the plot. I make it completely plain to customers in the shop that O2 are ripping off people as I leave the store. O2 don’t care now that I’m a customer. They have me shackled for another seventeen months.
Who now owns the support story? I’m confused. More than likely Apple, but why would they specifically direct me to an O2 store telling me that I can go through that avenue to get a quick turnaround on my iPhone woes? Has this method expedited a fix on others’ iPhone hardware faults ?
I entered the O2 store with trepidation this morning and left wholly dissatified. Again. Fuck me, I never want to return to an O2 store, ever. The member of staff was perfectly mannerly, but really couldn’t give two shits about my issues. No compassion whatsoever. O2 don’t want to offer you a replacement phone. It’s easier on their balance books, to hoover up money on your monthly bills and not provide a replacement phone to you. It suits them. Good little O2 customer pay up your money for fuck all in return. I have to have my phone repaired. I don’t have a landline in my house, so I’ll be effectively out of contact with everyone for two weeks. O2 are doing this. It works for them nicely, doesn’t it?
Update: Rather than post another O2 rant, I’m just going to update you on what happens next. I’m not one for naming individuals out in posts, but Karol from the retail arm of O2 comes in for some praise. For every woeful experience I’ve had with O2, he comes back with the fluffy O2 support and tries to fix the problem. O2 needs more Karols. So do all the Irish mobile companies. Employees that engage with customer support nightmares, cut the bullshit and just do their jobs. So, thanks Karol. I know he reads blogs. In fact, I’d encourage Karol and his colleagues to engage more with bloggers. Word of mouth is a powerful thing. O2 continue to support the Best Blog Post of the Month and they are to be commended for doing it while some of us bemoan our experiences. At least O2 are tuned into respond to some of our grievances. I hope O2 set up a spot on Twitter and deal directly on it like so many other companies.
Back to my case, so I need to return my iPhone to my nearest O2 store for it to be sent away to Apple for appraisal. O2 have arranged for me to get a loaner phone while I wait for my iPhone case to be sorted. Here’s hoping it will be fast and I can get a working iPhone back asap.
Jesus H Christ, the more I read of this sort of thing, the gladder I am that I’m with *both* Meteor and Vodafone and have no problems of this nature. Any queries I have from either provider, whether on phone or in store are dealt with efficiently and directly with the minimum of fuss.
I really feel for you Alexia. I’m glad though you’re taking no prisoners. Great post. I’m looking forward to seeing if/how they react…
WTF? So you’re being billed by O2 for two weeks for a phone they know is NOT working and they CANNOT replace? It looks like Apple and O2 don’t have the customer service thing sorted and don’t care either. What does the small print say about this? *sigh* I feel your pain Alexia.
Oh no, you know how I feel about your situation, I cant get over how unlucky this past month and a half has been for you, seriously, I would be making that call I spoke to you about earlier.
Thats madness, surely they could ahve replaced it? Anyway as I was saying on Twitter, I love the pic, its perfect.
Woooo they are totally out of line. As usual (O2 I mean, not Apple). I told this on one of the other O2 sob stories and can’t remember which one – so here goes.
When I bought my first iPod I took it home, unboxed it, and there was a problem with the screen. I went back straight to town (Nassau Street) to be told that I had to send it to Apple. No no no, my contract was with the retailer, not the manufacturer. They said I was wrong, and they had notices around saying that in the event of a problem (ho ho ho) you would have to go to Apple. I had seen the notices when I bougth the iPod, so I’d checked before taking it in again.
I had looked up the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs http://url.ie/oiq and found this (and more).
<> [my caps]
<>
http://url.ie/oir
They contined to deny responsibilty, and refused to help me. I rang the Small Claims Court who said I should write to them and serve two week’s notice, so I went home, wrote a letter serving notice (the SCC helped me word it), and faxed it to the manager, the CEO and every top name I could find on the O2 website. (Did I mention I was furious?)
Later that afternoon (less than two hours after faxing) I got a phonecall saying that a replacement iPod was at the store ready for me to collect, which I picked up the following morning.
Total time taken: less than two days.
Go get the bastards, and don’t let them away with a damn thing. You’ve been through enough already!
Debbie
From the 3 stories I’ve heard
There’s a long thread on this on the o2 Forums.. http://url.ie/oip .. but the long and short of it is that Apple will most likely provide the better experience (compared to o2).
o2 have sent some broken iPhones back (including the broken Home button) to Apple for inspection/replacement/repair. That usually takes longer than the (free) courier service offered by Apple. Normally Apple would send out a replacement with the courier, but not when you didn’t buy the phone directly from them, I think. 1 dude I know, got a replacement within 4 working days from his local o2 store, but that was down to being lucky with incoming stock.
Finally, and what really gets me going, o2 have been grossly misleading customers and blatantly ignoring their legal obligations.
Ignoring the fact that dealing with Apple directly may be quicker/cheaper/easier/less-vomit-inducing, o2 have a legal obligation to deal with your faulty iPhone. That they may take some time to establish that it is faulty (and that’ll probably be just the shop sending it back to Apple anyway), is besides the point. The shop can’t tell someone they won’t deal with the fault, as they are not permitted to under Consumer Law.
They’ve been suggesting this on the above thread as well (resulting in my snotty post at the end of page 10 .. http://url.ie/ois ).
Still, though, 2 of 3 friends that I know have had the Home button problem have had Apple replace it (1 thinks he got someone else’s refurbished phone) quicker than the 3rd dude was dealt with by o2 directly (having got snotty and brought in printouts of the sale of goods & supply of services act and a ConsumerConnect.ie email!).
That doesn’t alter their legal obligation, though.
Sorry to hear about the new toy acting up, btw! Very annoying.
Officially my longest blog comment!
.cg
Sorry, don’t know why the quotes didn’t quote. Here goes:
“If you have bought faulty goods, remember that it is the SHOP, NOT THE MANUFACTURER, who is responsible for sorting out your complaint.”
and
“If the goods fail to comply with any of these criteria – for example, they turn out to be faulty – you have certain clear rights under consumer legislation. These entitlements come under the three R’s:
* Repair
* Replacement
* Refund
If the shop offers to repair the item, the repair should be permanent. If they offer a refund, this can be in cash or by cheque, or (where appropriate) they can refund your credit card account. If they offer you a credit note or voucher instead, it is your right not to take it and request a refund instead.
If you are not happy with their offer you have the right to request an alternative remedy, and to take legal action if you are not happy with their final offer. You have the option to refer the matter to the Small Claims Court, which can handle a claim of up to €2,000 by a consumer against a shop. The application fee for Small Claims is €15.”
cg, I just registered at the forum with a view to posting the link to the ODCA but it wouldn’t let me post. Pah!
Well and truly my longest blog post(s) too!
O2 are well out of order and have been trying to flout this law for years. My incident was four years ago.
It’s unbelievable o2 wouldn’t offer you a replacement phone or suspend billing…how bad is that?
In my experience Apple customer support are excellent. My brand new MacBook Pro died the evening I got it, and a few checks on the phone and they replaced it without question, just had to wait while the courier did its thing.
It sounds like O2 are just digging themselves deeper and deeper into a large steaming pile of cow shit…
They sold it, it stops working, so it’s up to them to fix it. Maybe you should see if there’s some clause in the contract that will allow you to get out of it early?
Sorry to hear of your travails. You’re not alone with a fragile iPhone. Based on what Google reveals, more than a quarter of a million items appear online about “iphone home button” problems. Caveat emptor.
There have been sales and support issues ever since O2 joined Apple at the hip in its iPhone sales strategy. I’m sure Apple gained some market share by the arrangement, just as its sales partners took most of the brunt when the product performs poorly.
I get a new phone every five months, normally through a trustworthy O2 channel partner who has been told he cannot sell me an iPhone. And because he knows my mobile needs, he’s keeping me clear of the headaches he’s read about–like yours here.
Hope you find reliable mobile connectivity soon.
The day apple kill all their snooty little exclusivity deals is the day we can actually start enjoying their products.
They disgust me.
Imagine a world where you could just buy an iphone.
Glad you got sorted Alexia (and Debbie commenter) but I feel bad for all the people out there who don’t know the difference and take what their retailer tells them at face value! They have no Karol who reads blogs (probably don’t have a blog to complain on) and they don’t know enough (or aren’t assertive enough) to get their rights straight and shout until they are supported as they should be!
What frustrates me is that these are not new consumer problems and that everyone in Ireland seems to think that educating consumers about their rights is “the solution”. It’s not! It is one step… The solution would be punitive charges in EVERY case where a customer is mis-informed by a shop / retailer /company of their legal obligation to support (Replace / Repair / Refund). Fine them for non-compliance and let them work out what makes more financial sense…
At the moment companies like O2 turn away a huge percentage of complainants on the first (/second/third/etc) complaint and only take care of them when they kick up a fuss… This is very cost effective and we can only stop it by making it less cost effective.
Your contract is with O2 and is covered by the provisions of the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Acts. Print off a copy of section 10 of the 1980 Act which sets out at section 14 the requirements that goods sold be of merchantable quality and fit for the purpose for which they were intended.
Explain that the phone is new, isn’t of merchantable quality and that you wish to exercise your statutory right to a replacement.
The Iphone is the worst phone I have ever had
Hi I wonder have you been sorted out and is Iphone now working? I ahve just got an Iphone 3weeks ago and is going to white screen , I have to reset it when this happens.