To think I am being stolen from? And what can I do? I am desperate

[PollyPicksMe]

Over a week ago now, my phone was stolen. It’s insured so I got a replacement phone the next day. Along with a new SIM that has my usual number on from my provider

After a few days, it became clear the SIM wasn’t activating. O2 shop looked into it for me, and I was told it needed to be manually activated by their ‘back team’. So I had to phone customer services, again

I have been told repeatedly by customer services that it’s being past to the back team, and I’ll be activated within 24 hours.

They have told me this for 8 days now :(

On day 5 I think it was, I escalated it and complained to their CEO as suggested on here. I copied in their complaints department email. No reply. So I followed it up, still no reply.

I phone customer services and they tell me the same thing every time - We understand your frustration but it’s being sorted now and you’ll be up and running by tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes.

I am locked out of emails. Online banking. Various, multiple medical teams involved with my DC cannot contact me. There’s too many teams and departments to update them on my temporary phone number, being borrowed to me by a friend

I can’t access my Apple ID. Can’t verify who I am without my number.

I can’t access any banking accounts. They all want text verification. I recently had my Passport renewed and it isn’t here yet. So I don’t have that to prove who I am if I go into Branch to sort it out that way. The nearest branch is also an hour away.

I am so fed up. Their social media team are awful. I have messaged again today to explain and see if they can help. They replied with ‘We can see we have already looked into this for you. We will reply when we have an update’.

I would bet you £1million I would never get a bloody update!

I can’t even escalate this to the Communications Ombudsman - It has to be 8 WEEKS before they are allowed to get involved

I feel as if I am being robbed - Paying for a device and service I can’t use, and a kick in the teeth of being lied to and ignored over and over

What else can I do? How can I do any more?

I’ve posted Jo’s one a few posts back, and the LinkedIn idea might be good.

i would advise anyone to be very careful about cancelling a contract - they WILL mess up your credit score. So much so that recently read a woman lost out in a house purchase .

there is a Facebook group - O2 Incompetence and Complaints , and it makes some scary reading with the constant fraud & ruined credit scores

That's absolutely appalling service!!!!

@HayNo I won't cancel my contract and have continued the direct debit. I just need a phone that works. Also missed hospital phone calls for long term treatment I'm on. Just desperate at this point. Thanks for the LinkedIn info. I don't have an account however will sign up and hopefully can make some progress

OP was clear that her issue with getting into her email was that it was on a new device. So what you seem to be saying here is that you didn’t read OP’s posts properly. Another good reason not to comment.

Regardless of what you thought the situation was, your advice is appalling.

Don’t suggest to people that they write their passwords down. It is a terrible security practice. There are a number of good ways to avoid the situation OP found herself in in the future. The best one will depend on her personal situation and tech set up. NONE of them involve writing her password down.

If you’ve ever given this advice to anyone you love, appologise to them and tell them they should ask someone with a better understanding of tech and security to help them change it to a set up that will suit them.

I had my phone stolen earlier this year. Luckily I got a replacement handset and sim quickly (well done EE) but 2FA made everything tough.

The morning after the theft I went online to choose a new handset (I always buy outright). I got all the way to checkout but couldn't pay for it as all my cards and PayPal use 2FA via my phone. Luckily my husband stepped in. It was hugely disabling trying to do anything online due to 2FA. And EE (who were at least efficient) require you to call them to report a stolen sim. Which I couldn't do because someone had stolen my phone... (and we don't have a landline). Luckily my husband came to the rescue again and I could access my email from another device to confirm my identity.

I hope O2 get their act together soon OP.

I’m not at all unhappy. I just know what I’m talking about and want to stop you endangered my other people’s security with your ignorant and dangerous advice.

You are trying to rewrite history here to justify your ignorance but since you can’t edit your previous posts now, it doesn’t work. Your “mistake “ was nothing to do with assuming she had other hardware- she does. You made two errors in your first post: You assumed, despite her already saying otherwise, that she had forgotten her password and then you gave appalling advice that, even if your assumption had been true is not advice you should ever give out.

if you believe in a God who values humility it might be worth considering how that characteristic could help you right now.

You clearly think you're psychic.
You seem very bitter and clearly can't express yourself in real life so are as nasty as possible hiding behind your keyboard. Hopefully, God will give you some courage soon and help you through your darkness.

I've just watched "Wicked Little Letters" and this post is giving me Edith vibes 🤣

I worked for a telco and those who shout loudest get results. I would call them tmw and insist on speaking to a manager advise them you are documenting the conversation and that you have been without service for 8+ days which you are paying for. Get the name of every person you speak to so when it is sorted and you’re seeking a month (or 2) credit for the inconvenience you can point to specifics. Ask them for the ticket number that has been raised to resolve the issue, the date it was logged and the last update on it and keep calling back. Good luck

This and tell them you're writing notes ...

For fun ... Yours not theirs
..you could do a subject access request.

Ugh, this is horrible to read. The perils of technology, and it will only get worse

Psychic? What are you talking about? Absolutely nothing in my posts requires me to think or be psychic. All I’ve needed is decent reading comprehension.

You are the one referring to things that you have no knowledge of. Calling me bitter because I called out your ignorance and your dangerous advice. I’m not bitter. I have nothing to be bitter about. My life is good. Disliking people spreading ignorant and dangerous advice has no relationship to bitterness. I have no idea who you are or what your life is like and I don’t pretend to. I’m simply working on the contents of your posts which have been of no use to anyone.

if you actually believe in this god you keep mentioning, you might want to consider how poorly your posts reflect on your belief and the god they refer to.

I sort of know what you mean. It has dystopian elements, I felt like that when I was stuck in a similar cycle with my mobile provider and I couldn’t do what I needed to do and spent several hours trying to fix it all. There are almost always workarounds as well - they just require a bit of legwork aka the olden days when legwork was the norm.

On balance I would probably choose some occasional inconvenience to usually have everything at my fingertips, though. I don’t want to spend hours going into bank branches, going to specialist shops, having to make phone calls and write/ respond to letters to access services.

I hope you've had a resolution now OP.