O2 puts on ‘stupid hat’; tells me to ‘wait’ to buy new Pay & Go iPhone 3GS due to transfer oddness
O2’s been criticised for treating iPhone users with contracts like everyone else and forcing them to honour said contracts or buy them out. With O2 having set a precedent on the move from the original iPhone to 3G, I have some sympathy with user expectations not being met, but understand O2’s reasoning. However, my experience over the last week in the Pay & Go space (and, frankly, O2’s now very regular network outages) has removed any lingering doubt that the company needs a slap.
My story begins last year, and ends with some ‘O2 stupid’. Last year, I bought a 3G iPhone on Pay & Go, because I make few calls via mobile and figured it’d be cheaper in the long run. Prior to the Pay & Go pricing becoming official, I noted how it went up by £60, but O2 added an extra six months of internet bolt-on. Essentially, O2 got more money up front and presumably hoped you’d not use the bolt-on that much, thereby generating more profits per Pay & Go device. As a consumer, this made no odds to me, since I’d be buying the bolt-on anyway. However, I had, as far as I was concerned, paid up front for 12 months of usage.
Clearly, though, I’m a total idiot. I assumed I’d be able to retain remaining bolt-on time in some manner when transferring the phone. I’m in the market for a Pay & Go 3GS and plan to give the 3G to my wife. Surely, I thought, I’d get to keep my remaining time or transfer it?
My first email to O2 revealed that bolt-ons are tied directly to SIM cards. I was told that I could buy a 3GS and my wife would have my remaining internet time on the 3G. Something in the curt nature of the email started alarm bells ringing, and so I asked for further clarification regarding transferring numbers, and a rather large snag became apparent:
“If you buy a new iPhone and transfer your existing number on the new SIM card your current SIM card will be permanently disconnected,” said O2. “If this happens we won’t be able to transfer the free Bolt On to your new SIM card. Also you wife won’t be able to transfer her number to this SIM card.”
O2’s wonderful suggestion to me is this:
“I would suggest that you wait until the free Bolt On gets ended and then buy the new iPhone.”
It seems O2 is treating the bolt-on as a freebie that the company gives you when you buy an iPhone because O2 is made of fluffy bunnies, and not because it’s bundled into the device’s price, and not because you’ve actually paid real cash money for it. My assumption is also that I’ll have to—for no good reason—buy a new SIM for the 3G so that my wife can use it, or just jailbreak the phone (which I don’t want to do).
I’ve got three months left on my bolt-on. I’m now hoping the rumours are true and the announcement of the end of O2’s iPhone monopoly comes around that point, because its Pay & Go attitude strikes me as unbelievably dumb and has really rubbed me up the wrong way.
Can’t you buy a 3G S, put it’s SIM in your 3G and give to your wife, then put your existing 3G SIM in your 3G S and keep your number and current bolt-on?
Apparently not. It’s all a bit strange when it comes to iPhones and O2.
Just had a call from a service rep who was a bit further up the ladder, and he says what I’m asking is actually technically possible—it’s just they don’t do it by default. However, if I take an email he’s yet to send me into a store, I might be able to do the transfers as I want to.
Caveats: using the process he’s talking about, I will ‘lose’ my number for at least a day, and I only ‘might’ retain the remaining bolt-on time. *sigh*
And this is it, the iphone and especially app store and now good enough that even I’d quite like one.
But there’s no fucking way I’m dealing with O2. Ever.
Dealing with the O2 technical-help person I got was a nightmare. Instead of wanting to sort out this customer’s problem and make him a happy bunny, all she wanted was to have an argument, score points and send me off with a flea in my ear. She started from the default position that all arrogant blighters have: “This guy is a problem. I’ll treat him like sh1t and teach him a lesson for thinking we should care.” Bye-bye O2 when my contract runs out.
@Duds – I suspect Apple will drop AT&T and O2 the second it can. If the rumour-mill’s on the ball, other carriers will get the 3G officially soon, and the 3GS will likely follow not too long after.
@Neil – Oddly enough, I got a call from O2 in the end, after sending a fairly, er, ‘curt’ email back their way. Much the same response, although he admitted that what I wanted to do would be technically possible if it was done in-store – it’s just not what they do by default or in an automated fashion.
All great, until I asked for email confirmation, whereupon the response was almost identical to what the other support person said, rather than telling me what I should say to the people in the store. *sigh*