I cannot believe how difficult it is to cancel a bolt on. (In fact, it turns out you can’t cancel a bolt-on.)
Is my journey of discovery unique?
I simply wanted to add one 4Gb bolt-on via the app. I selected 4Gb and paid but the screen which popped up immediately suggested I’d bought only 100mb for £3.50. Ok, I chose 4Gb again and paid. Uh-oh, the same screen again indicating I’d bought another 100mb. Of course, it turned out I had indeed bought 4Gb … twice! There’s something not quite kosher there. Why doesn’t the buyer receive a clear receipt on completing the purchase?
Now begins the 2-hour journey of discovery trying to find out how exactly one cancels a bolt-on. (Spoiler: you can’t). The O2 website took me into a series of dead-ends where the words “cancel” and “bolt-on” never appeared in the same sentence. (The words “buy” and “bolt-ons” were however everywhere.) Then, almost by chance, there it was: call 202. I did, and was presented with three choices, none of which concerned cancelling a bolt-on. The search continued and eventually resulted in a pop-up QR code which, it promised, would take me to an assistant.
I clicked on the QR code, waited, and 45 minutes later found myself typing with what appeared to be a real person.
She started by telling me that she wasn’t allowed to cancel a bolt-on! Are there any lawyers reading this? Does this refusal to refund actually comply with UK consumer law? I doubt it.
Long story short, the assistant didn’t (“couldn’t”) cancel the unwanted second bolt-on but came up with a reasonable compromise.
I am less than impressed with the customer service. Cancelling bolt-ons should be possible and should be a simple process. After all, buying them takes only seconds.
