Friday, October 27, 2006
O2 Number Blocking Part 2
In Part 1 I explained that I was convinced that O2 were blocking calls as they see fit to try and keep my calls entirely in the O2 walled garden. I also explained how on the 4th of this month I called about it but their agent denied it, but I called customer services on the 20th and the new agent admitted it. Well yesterday the 26th October I called again and the first agent denied it and the second agent seemed to indicate it was true but told me to put the question in writing. Full details of the call now follow...
I called back after the first agent hung up (because I told him that I recorded all outgoing calls). The new agent said that the system was frozen (typical) and to call back later. I said I had a question and before I could finish saying it she put me in a queue. A new agent answered who said the system was down and she would pass me to someone else. Another agent answered after the second lengthy queue but said that she was on the wrong billing system. She said she was on the “Dice” billing system and internally they need the “Companion” billing system! She said she would have to pass me over to an agent with access to the correct billing system. I was queued again.
Agent number five answered (Peter). All I was calling for was to ask what the O2 policy on blocking calls was – how they decide which numbers to block and what the general strategy is. I wanted this information to make a more informed choice of which operator to keep a subscription with (if any at all, I’m getting that sick of them over the years). I hate operators blocking legitimate numbers that represent VoIP calls or cheaper international calling services.
He proceeded to vehemently argue that O2 are not blocking discrete numbers. He even went as far to say that it would be a violation of privacy. He had the word “privacy” mixed up with “ethics”. I’m used to deciphering O2 call centre speak. It seemed that no matter how much I pointed out to him that I had already established by basic logic and the last call on the 20th that O2 were blocking calls, he continued to forcefully argue otherwise. At one point he said with great sarcasm “you know better than we do and we work for the company”. What a scream. Where the hell do they find such agent assholes? Yes I do know better than him, not because I wear an O2 badge but because I am not an amoeba.
One of my biggest hates about call centers (which O2 often exibits) is that often instead of taking a step forwards calling them, you take two steps backwards. I’d already established on the 20th with an O2 agent that they did indeed selectivity block calls. But this agent in line with what I perceive as the norm from O2 agents, wanted to keep spouting his mouth arguing, talking complete rubbish and not once pausing to listen to reason. He tries to claim as per the agent on the 4th that it is a SIM fault or a handset fault. Wow amazing handset fault; if you try to use most services that offer discounted calling, the handset has a unique fault that flashes “network blocked”. This must be a very handy fault that develops on handsets from O2’s point of view. He even tried to educate me that maybe it is because I could be forgetting to remove the ‘0’ from the ‘0800/0808’ prefixes when I dial.
The part when I knew I had a top class O2 zombie was when he read out the two freephone numbers that I’d been complaining about being blocked then asked if it is premium rate numbers that I am having problems with. Fu$# the guy just read out the two numbers I have a problem with (both freephone) and then he asks if they are premium rate FFS. How thick do you have to be to read out two free phone numbers then ask if they are premium rate numbers? How the hell does this guy get out of bed and put his own clothes on in the morning? I can only guess his mother is still packing his lunch box.
One thing he does get right is a shared sentiment - he stated in relation to my call blocking claims that
“it’s like having a BT line and suddenly you ring up Harry over there and you can’t get thru to him and then your going to ring up BT and say excuse me this number is blocked, they [O2] can not do that”
Hole in one for change! He gets what I am saying O2 are doing at last! But he thinks that I am the ludicrous one fully believing that O2 would not be doing such a thing. If the poor chap would listen to the facts in front of him it would be very clear that indeed O2 are.
Again I repeated to him that I’ve already established that O2 are blocking calls during the call on the 20th but he retorts in Rumsfeld like language
“well you haven’t as it does not say it over here [onscreen] this is what you think you’ve said or somebody said to you now if he said this to you he is absolutely wrong”.
To make me begin cringing he even tried to say to argue that there needs to be an agreement between O2 and the called party in place before a call can be successful to that called party! The poor chap was mixing international roaming agreements into the equation. The agent was completely incapacitated in the listening faculty. He could not get off the subject of call bars, premium numbers, international roaming agreements and faulty customer hardware. Yet the complaint was about two
It took me 43 minutes in total to clear past this guy! But it is OK O2, I’ve got hours to spare paying premium call charges to 0870s to talk to your morons. It makes me love your brand more, increases my loyalty and makes my monthly spend higher. But to be honest, when I see the adverts on TV campaigning “O2 – See What You Can Do” I sit and wonder what your call agents can actually do, starting with putting their socks on each day.
Without warning I was placed back in the queue. After sometime agent number six answered (Duncan) who claimed to be a supervisor. He seemed indicative that there was a dynamic discrete list of blocked numbers. But said I would have to write to the following address to find out:
O2 Complaints Review Service
LS11 5DS
OK so that took pretty much an hour of my day and six agents to have an address given to find out an answer to my simple question. The agent claimed that numbers may be blocked if O2 suffer a direct loss as a result of them. He seemed to think that calling (and paying O2 for calls to) UK freephone numbers were causing O2 a direct loss! It seemed to be his opinion that "direct loss" meant using any service which achieved the users aims at a lower cost and not bypassing O2 tollbooths at any point.
I will write to the address above...no doubt a Part 3 will be produced. I chopped out the hold music and the first 4 agents, you can find the call here (15 meg MP3).
