Last night, I started filling in a form on the o2 website, looking at prices for a contract phone. After getting an idea of what said prices would be, I closed out of the form and thought nothing of it.
This morning, at 11:02, I get a phone call from the sales department, asking why I closed the form and if everything was okay. This is fine, I explained I was simply looking at prices but had no interest in pursuing a contract phone yet.
"Okay," he said, "What phone was it?"
I told him what phone it was
"What prices were you looking at?"
I explained what prices I was looking at.
"That's great, now if I can just get some details from you, we can go ahead with the transaction and-"
Whoa whoa whoa, what? I just explained I'm not interested in getting a contract phone yet, and that I was simply looking up what the prices would be..
"Oh okay sir, that's fine, did you manage to find everything you needed to on the website?"
Yes.. the prices for the phone
"That's good to know sir, it was the [insert phone here], yes? Now if you want we can continue this transaction and I can set up the phone contract for you now?"
.. You're kidding, right? I've just told you twice that I don't want to do anything yet, and that I was just looking up prices.
"It was the [insert phone here] with the [insert price here] package, correct?"
It was, but-
"Okay that's great, I'll just need to fill in a form here so if you could give me some details-"
Are you trying to continue the transaction so I can buy the contract?
"Yes sir"
Wow. How many more times do I need to tell you that I don't want this phone yet? Yet again; I was looking up the price, the reason I closed out of the form is that I wasn't going to get it. I don't know how much clearer I can make the phrase 'I was just looking up prices, I'm not interested in getting it yet', but now I need to try and think of one.
"Oh right, sorry sir, goodbye."
End of conversation. I understand there's a sales script and everything, but my god someone needs to drop the sales department a note saying "Listen to your **bleep** customer".
So I turn to the o2 guru chat as I can't find any other place to fill in a small complain/suggestions form, and speak to Aidan in the business department.
After explaining my situation and asking where I could go to make a complaint/suggestion, or if anything could be forwarded to the sales department, repeatedly, the most I got from him was "Sorry for your experience, Jay. You can contact the telephone preference service and have them block the sales number."
Again, not what I asked. I explained this and explained very clearly; "I just want to contact the sales department, put in a note, and be done with it."
He asks for the time and date of the call, my number, and the number that called me. I provide all these things. He then says "I see you're on pay and go"
I am indeed.
"In that case, I'll put you through to the pay and go department so they can sort out your issues with pay and go"
.. I have no issues with pay and go, I have an issue with whoever called me at the sales department
You are now being transferred
Well, fantastic. 45 minutes later, absolutely nothing done. I didn't realise it would be so hard just to suggest to the sales department to be less pushy and actually listen to their customer when they're speaking. On top of that, I didn't realise it would be so hard to get a straight answer or any actual help with what I wanted from the customer service team, either.
I get there's a script they have to follow, that's standard, but what I don't get is when someone says "Can I make a complaint/suggestion to this department, how would I go about it?", why there isn't an answer for that and instead I'm told to phone the TPS and get them to block the sales department's number. Every other dealing with o2 I've had has been fantastic, but when it comes to actually making a complaint over the way I've been ignored in regards to sales and customer service, nothing gets done. It's all tiptoed around.
So, to summarize:
Listen to your customer when they say no, stop trying so hard to meet your quota, it comes across as pushy.
