The providers - not only o2 and not only in the branch of telecommunication - want to attract new customers with special offers, that as a princable are not available for existing customers. This is really nothing new. Accept this fact or don't.
You see, I wanted to write an Email to have a proper conversation with a representative who would take the time to talk through this with me and actually offer a little bit of customer service, where as now I have to endure the drawl comments of people who literally have nothing better to do than read other people's issues and offer unconstructive, unhelpful comments in turn.
What exactly does your comment add to this?
You may assume I am too stupid or ignorant to understand why this kind of practice exists. In actual fact it requires a little reading between the lines.
Firstly I'm not actually asking them to simply answer my questions, I'm letting them know that I am not happy about their practice and I would like them to do something about it. In my experience unless you question and pull providers up on such things they tend to not know that you are annoyed about it, and if they don't know you are annoyed about it then there is nothing they can do for you, that is also why companies have customer service departments, to deal with exactly this kind of situation.
Secondly I would like to see it written down by an official representative of O2 that a new customer is more important to O2 than I am, to actually make that literal statement. Most companies are not willing to make such a bold statement literally dspite that being exactly what this kind of policy is saying, so pushing them to actually have to write that down often yields the solution I am looking for.
Thirdly I shouldn't have to be sat here explaining myself to someone who is essentially inserting themself into a conversation they don't really belong in. I understand you may have thought that you were being helpful in a passive aggressive sort of way, but I am asking you to please respect my wishes and keep your opinions to yourself unless you actually have something of value to add to the conversation in the future, at least with my case. I have asked you very nicely.
I would appreciate particular attention paid to point 2 of my previous post, re: why I am unable to contact you privately so as not to subject myself to the opinions of complete strangers.
You seem not to know what a forum is for. This is a public forum. Anyone is permitted to post here. If you cannot bear statements of other users that do not support your opinion, better avoid public forums.
And to be absolutely clear: You don‘t decide nor you are in the position to decide,
if other users post or not. And I will do so when I think I should, regardless if you appreciate it or not.
Apart from this: you are naive if you really believe, that o2 or any other provider will tell you their trade secrets or discuss on them. And it is silly to expect that employees you talk to are allowed to do so. They surely don‘t even know the backgrounds and criteria that lead to the prices.
What you expect is just ridiculous.
I would appreciate particular attention paid to point 2 of my previous post, re: why I am unable to contact you privately so as not to subject myself to the opinions of complete strangers.
See if you would have read this part of the message then you would understand that actually I completely understand the point of a forum and how they work, and that I am subject to other users opinions, though this just reinforces my point that they should have a private contact method so exactly this kind of thing does not need to happen. I actually feel very uncomfortable having to do this in public and you are not helping me feel any more comfortable at all.
And to be absolutely clear: You don‘t decide nor you are in the position to decide,
if other users post or not. And I will do so when I think I should, regardless if you appreciate it or not.
I can see that my subtle point was lost on you. I had hoped you would respect my request. Note I used the word 'request'. I had not 'decided' anything, I had simply requested that you just let me be, the same as I would if you were involving yourself in a conversation for the sake of being argumentative in real life. I'm not sure if you have noticed but the world is something of an open and public forum, but people tend to back off when other people ask them to and generally show each other a little respect.
Apart from this: you are naive if you really believe, that o2 or any other provider will tell you their trade secrets or discuss on them. And it is silly to expect that employees you talk to are allowed to do so. They surely don‘t even know the backgrounds and criteria that lead to the prices.
What you expect is just ridiculous.
I'm not really sure which part of any of my posts you are referring to here. At no point have I requested that anyone discuss 'trade secrets' with me, and why you are concerning yourself with what employees do and do not know, I have no idea what you are reading into what I have said, but I have never said any such thing, though I have an idea you are referring to this:
Secondly I would like to see it written down by an official representative of O2 that a new customer is more important to O2 than I am, to actually make that literal statement. Most companies are not willing to make such a bold statement literally dspite that being exactly what this kind of policy is saying, so pushing them to actually have to write that down often yields the solution I am looking for.
What I am saying here is not that I wish for them to reveal 'trade secrets' as you so dramatically phrased it, but that they commit to text to me in a written statement, literally what their policy implies. As you point out in your first reply, companies want to attract new business and to do this they make special offers. I agree that this is an accurate statement. My point is that despite their policy and business practice being to offer new customers better deals, companies are often very reluctant to say literally that new customers are more important to them than existing customers (that being the implication of the policy of offering better prices to new customers). With that being what it is, in my experience I have found that companies will very often make special deals to keep customers with them in instances where they are likely to leave, as is exactly what happened back in 2007 with O2 UK and since then with various other companies, this is fairly normal practice for any large company to apply oil to the squeaky wheels.
So I think you have misunderstood what it is I expect, I expect nothing more than a private conversation with an official representative of O2 where I can speak to them in a civilised manner and, as I did back in 2007 with O2 UK when they were very courteous, took my points and gave me the same deal they would offer to a new customer.
Now, regarding your ongoing insistence on replying to these messages - If you sat in a public place and I came and sat next to you and began offering you my opinion on your expectations based on my interpretation of your viewpoint, as heard while you discussed something with another person in a public place (as I would have every right to do), would you expect me to back off if you asked me nicely to do so, or would you expect me to stand next to you the whole time and continue to bother you? Even if I had mistaken your communications as being directed at me, would you not expect me to back off once I understood that actually you were waiting for a reply from a very specific person and simply let you be? Or would you think I was a bit of an aggressor if I stuck around and continued to argue with you despite being told that I wasn't actually talking to you?
As I said previously, I would appreciate it it you would simply let me be and allow me to wait for a reply from the people this post is actually directed at, I appreciate that you have an opinion and a viewpoint, but I'm not interested in it and I don't want it, I would very much like it if you would simply leave me alone. I have asked you nicely once, and now I am asking nicely a second time. I understand that you can leave comments and that you are able to, and that it is a public forum, but I have also made it clear that I am simply not interested in the thoughts or opinions of anyone except an official O2 representative.
If you cannot bear statements of other users that do not support your opinion, better avoid public forums.
I am also only writing here because it is the only method of contacting O2 I can find where a written record is kept of exactly what is being said, if I could Email them I would not be writing here, as I raised in point 2 of my original post.
Hi
@DaringD,
welcome to the o2
community!
I am sorry to hear that your experience at one of our stores was rather frustrating, of course that's not how things are supposed to go.
And if you felt threatened or pressured, that is definitely not in our interest, and if that was the case also not acceptable behaviour among our staff.
I'm afraid there are a few mixups as well as some correct information in what my colleague at the shop has told you, so let's see if this can be resolved:
The offer you described in your initial post is an offer if you're an o2 customer and would like to get a
second contract (Partnerkarte).
Currently the same offer is valid for
new customers.
It is correct that this is not available to existing customers.
However, existing customers can ask for an offer for the extention of their own contract (maybe even with a possible discount and a new phone) either publicly here in the forum, or at the hotline, via chat, on Facebook, or on Twitter. So feel free to contact us there if you prefer a less public form of communication.
We are constantly expanding the options of how you can reach us; however, email is currently no longer supported as a means of communication.
As for
@Omikron's replies: while I understand that he did not provide the answers you hoped for, his answers were correct with regards to contents. Also, he is right that this is a public forum in which customers discuss topics with other customers. If necessary, the moderators will step in and provide information or solutions that cannot be provided by other customers, of course.
Still, this is a public forum in which every registered customer is allowed to express their opinions and provide information, which is what he did.
Best regards,
Jan.
Thank you so much for your courteous and even handed reply,
I would like to move to a private mode of conversation, I shall probably pursue the Facebook option.
WIth regards to @Omikron's replies, I totally understand that this is a private forum and that people will give their opinions, however I have to say that @Omikron, while completely entitled to his opinion and equally free to express it, did not do so in a particularly friendly manner, the last sentence of his first reply was, in my estimation, passive aggressive/rude at best. Not content to leave it at the bare facts (with which I am in total agreement with), which would have been completely acceptable, @Omikron then added an unnecessary and patronising final sentence. If a member of your staff had communicated with me in this way I think you will concede that they would have been crossing a line. While @Omikron is not a member of your staff, and while being rude is not strictly a breach of the rules, it is not constructive and completely uncalled for.
That being said, @Omikron did respect my wishes and behaved in a manner I would expect any good natured person to act once I made my position clear a second time and so I have to give @Omikron the benefit of the doubt.
I must point out that O2 Germany has created a very frustrating environment for customers who wish to connect with them privately and are working within some fairly questionable lines. To speak privately one must either phone, chat (which I must say is not of much use having tried it twice I was circled back to unhelpful and automated responses) or Facebook. Facebook may seem like a good way to connect, however upon doing this I received warnings from your team telling me that Facebook are able to collect my private data while doing so. So I'm forced into a situation where I can either connect on a public forum and be subject to the direct opining of strangers, a phone call where I am totally unable to keep a record of what was said, or facebook where all of my personal data is essentially revealed to a third party. SUrely you must be able to understand why this can be so frustrating.
Lastly I have to say that removing Email as a way of connecting and effectively replacing it with a 'community' is a money saving technique that replaces paid professionals with paying customers and advice for which O2 is accountable with advice from unaccountable members of the public. It is a very shrewd move by O2 Germany and I say that with no sarcasm, however I can't help but feel it is an exploitative move that removes liability and accountability from O2 and instead leverages their very own customer base to do their job.
Is there an address I can write to someone at with physical mail, or a fax number I can contact someone at?
I spoke with another of your customers who told me that they very recently also contacted O2 via fax to resolve a problem.
@Omikron I would like to apologise to you for reacting how I did in previous replies, please understand that I was extremely frustrated for reasons I have stated above and your reply, though factually correct, rubbed me the wrong way and I reacted in a frustrated manner. I still believe that you had misunderstood my intentions with your second reply, however I can see from your many replies to people that you do generally help others and I believe that my post touched on a subject you probably feel very strongly about, prompting that reply I got. However with many other people you have been a huge help and that is a great thing for someone to do. Under other circumstances I am sure our initial interaction would have been vastly different.
Hi
@DaringD,
no worries, I totally get that one is not necessarily in the best of moods when something goes wrong or is rather upsetting.
If there are particular documents that need to be sent to o2 (for example, in case you need to send in proof that you're eligible for a discount like Junge-Leute-Vorteil), a fax number is provided to those customers, but it is not used for regular customer communication.
However, you can check out our usual ways of contacting us
here, if you'd prefer to write to us you can do this by sending your letter to this address:
Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG
Kundenbetreuung
90345 Nürnberg
Best regards,
Jan.
