Taking O2 to small claims court

[jahman]

Hi All,

Apologies if this is the wrong board but I'm looking for a bit of advice re. taking O2 to small claims court.

In a nutshell, I have had simply shocking customer service from O2 which they themselves have admitted. I went through months of grief trying to resolve numerous problems which they caused with the management of my account, initial discount tariff, direct debit and the phone itself. This amounted to many hours of my time spent dealing with them rather than working at my business.

I went through the O2 complaints procedures all the way up to High Level Complaints but their offer of compensation was inadequate to my mind considering the trouble they had caused me. I was left with no choice but to take them to small claims court. In fact I'd been told by one of the HLC staff to do this and they'd probably settle out of court.

I have issued proceedings in the form of an invoice for my time and O2 has offered to pay half of my claim. I'm still not happy with this. They say that the contract I signed has a clause stating that they are not responsible for any losses in terms of time, out of pocket expenses etc. I think that this is an unfair contract term.

I would like to know if anyone has actually gone to court against O2 and won. Whether it's advisable to stand up to them in court or just take the money offered.

Thanks in advance.

jahman

[orfoster]

I would just like to add how terrible I have found O2 and am nearing the stages for Small Claims also with them. They are most unhelpful and when e-mailing and writing to the complaints team I am getting the identical reply back stating they are sorry I am unhappy with their service but they won't do anything.

I have now submitted a Subject Access Request to them as I realise I can't do anything in the small claims without evidence so I will await their response.

Good Luck.

[jahman]

Hi orfoster,

I too did a Subject Access Request and it wasn't particularly informative. It merely demonstrated that the call centre staff seldom entered any information into the system regarding calls or complaints. Either that or O2 was illegally withholding information from me.

I've actually decided to settle with O2 and I'll be looking for a good opportunity to rid myself of them at some point in the future. In fairness to them, however, at least O2 has actually responded to my complaints. I was with Orange for one year and they were horrendous. I was told the only way to complain was to write in to them and my letter was subsequently ignored. Needless to say I left them, never to return, when my contract expired.

Customer service is obviously a rotten job and many of the people engaged in it seem to be determined to ensure that customers know and appreciate this by being the most objectionable possible. There doesn't seem to be much you can do about it as these companies aren't held responsible in law for the amount of time and hassle they cost customers in rectifying their mistakes. It's only if the company itself acknowledges how dreadful their service has been that a customer can expect to be compensated as I have although not quite to the extent I'd hoped.

One suggestion I'd make is that, if you're sending letters to the High Level Complaints department is that you should CC them to the CEO Peter Erskine at peter.erskine@o2.com. I think he's still CEO. This may have helped in my case as his office was then aware of my complaint.

Cheers,

jahman