Volt Activation

[NigelY]

Wow,

What a great welcome to O2. (not)

I opened an O2 Mobile account on the 6th January 2022 as the double data Volt offer was better than my current Virgin Sim (which should have entitled me to Volt benefits anyway) having had a Virgin Media account for more than 15 years.

And so begins the saga of the ridiculous message on the MyO2 website which tells me that I haven't got a Virgin account and that Virgin Media isn't available in my area. Now, this may have been complicated by my full name being "John Nigel", which I used for the O2 account, and Virgin Media being set up as "Nigel" which I'm always known by.

So, after many calls to Virgin to 'change my name' to John Nigel and, after filling in forms and sending my passport, I managed to get the names to match. Still no Volt, same silly message!

Yesterday evening (10/01/22), I managed to get an outstanding Virgin customer service rep who activated the Virgin end of Volt, by opening a new account / plan so that he could send a reference number to O2 (he was baffled that the VM broadband checker was also telling him that VM is not available at my address).

Sadly, he couldn't activate the Volt benefits on the O2 system so I needed to call O2.

To be fair, when I called O2 customer service at 08:02 this morning, after getting past the 'Robots' my call was answered immediately. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the poor lady at the O2 end couldn't do anything to help other than fill in a form and send it off to "investigate" the issue - which, with much apology, will take 14 days!

So, no O2 Volt benefits yet, and strangely, when you're tempted to change to O2 to enjoy the Volt benefits, it doesn't tell you that their robots aren't much good at it so you need to jump through many infuriating hoops.

In summary, watch what you're doing when you fill in the details and, even when they match perfectly, don't expect any Volt benefits quickly - and expect to spend about 6 hours on the phone trying to sort it out.

Finally,  before I'm told I should have checked the Forum, I did search the Forum during this frustrating saga, and, sadly, found no solutions!

So, I'll just have to wait up to a fortnight and see what happens. 

Star ratings: Virgin Customer Service (eventually) 5*, O2 Customer Service 1* (for answering quickly), Robots and O2 website -5* for being no help at all and driving customers mad with stupid, infuriating messages.

[MI5]

@NigelY 

That's standard.

See main thread here Volt Megaguide 

[NigelY]

Thanks for your prompt reply MI5. I did read the main thread and found it to be no help at all as MyO2 just goes round in endless circles. If by "standard" you mean that this always happens then it's simply not acceptable. As I found, posted by others on this Forum, that O2's crazy message (no Virgin Media available) has, for them, also proved frustrating, and does not seem to have been resolved.

[Cleoriff]

@NigelY  Probably best if I tag @Chris_K  to this thread. He wrote the introductory thread on Volt and has answered many questions re the same.

[NigelY]

Thanks Cleoriff, I guess that's the right thing to do..

It's the Volt message that's so frustrating:

The first message is straightforward - wait a few days, which I have

1. Your Volt benefits are active.

Thanks for taking Volt. We hope you enjoy your supercharged benefits. If you've not got them already, it can take a few days for them to be applied, but we'll send you a message as soon as they're active. Once active you can see your double data and other Volt benefits in My O2.

When you've waited a few days, it's the second message which applies and which is so frustrating:

2. It doesn't look like you can get Volt right now.

You need to be a customer of both O2 and Virgin Media to be eligible for Volt. Right now, Virgin Media isn't available at your address below. But don't worry, we're always expanding our broadband network, so keep an eye out for when it becomes available in your area.

It's just plain wrong! Perhaps @Chris_K will be able to help and thank you for your prompt reply

[Chris_K]

Hi Nigel,

From the above, I can understand the frustration - and it's something we're looking into as we want the process to be as smooth as possible for our customers. In your particular case where you're getting the error saying VM isn't available in your area (which it clearly is since you have it!), in the majority of cases it's down to a mismatch in details but in either case, at that point we need to fall back on a manual process to get the benefits applied which is where that form comes in that you say has been submitted on our side - which can take up to 14 days depending on how busy the team handling them are.

Sorry for the frustrating experience so far, but you shouldn't be waiting long to receive the Volt benefits. If for any reason you're still waiting after the the 14 day mark, I'd suggest dropping us a message on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram so someone in our Social Media team can check into things for you.

[Cleoriff]

@NigelY 

Just tagging you so you can see @Chris_K's response.

[NigelY]

Thanks very much Chris, I'll do as you suggest and I appreciate the reply. N

[jonsie]

14 days is standard. Be patient