Voicemail deleted by 02

[02frustration]

I have moved over to a sim only contract with 02 who I have been with for many years. It would appear that they deleted my precious historic voicemail messages in seconds

How can messsges I’ve saved simply be wiped out of my account. These messages were very precious to me. Advice to others - DONT ORDER ONLINE with 02 I’m gutted and extremely disappointed with 02. Thankfully still in 14 day change mind period so will be cancelling. I won’t get my precious voicemails back but won’t pay o2 any more

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Sorry to hear that @02frustration.  If its any consolation any change effected through any (sales) channel, and on any network would have wiped your voicemail box; every operators VM systems are close to being legacy, are poorly maintained, badly supported and difficult to manage by today's standards. They were not designed to hold messages long term and many (other) networks eventually auto delete, regardless of hitting save message.  😞

[MI5]

Another lesson for making manual backups unfortunately.

[02frustration]

Thanks. My naivety - I was not changing network or provider - just moving from phone and network to sim only - both on O2. A tough lesson learnt! All ordered through the O2 ap. No warning - 02 should emphasise this before moving folk over

[Anonymous]

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@02frustration wrote:
 I was not changing network or provider.

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I know, what I meant was even any minor change , for example requesting a number change, or change in voicemail settings or something even more trivial ; on a similar contract, on any of the networks, might well have resulted in voice mailbox wiping. It's so far below the radar, no one on any network, would have warned you it was a possibility or even an issue.

[02frustration]

Thanks. I really appreciate the direct answer. Should have come here first before wasting time with gurus who do not want to say it as it is! Thanks for your help.

[Anonymous]

Any time - sorry again for your loss.

[Tsidkenu1es]

Thank you Mi5 for welcoming me to the community...!
Lessons learned sometimes could be very costly...

[EmilieT]

Hi @02frustration, and welcome to the Community  I'm sorry to see you've lost your voicemail history but it's great our members were able to help you understand what happened better!

Cheers @Anonymous & @MI5 for helping out.

[zd]

I just wanted to share my frustration.  I have just found out that O2 have deleted all my voicemails.  I now only have voicemails from Jan 2019.  My mother died last year and I was keeping the voicemails that she had left me, so that I could hear her voice from time to time.  When our broker contacted O2 they said that there was nothing they could do to retrieve them as there is new ruling and you can only have 40 minutes of voicemail on your phone.  Instead of letting O2 users know about this they have just gone and deleted them.  These were my personal voicemails and I do not think that someone should decide on my behalf that they are going to be deleted.  If I had had some notice I could have saved them somewhere else.  I am sure that people keep voicemails for different reasons and they just shouldn't be deleted by the provider without informing their customers. Unfortunately nothing can be done now, but I just needed to get this off my chest. Shame on you O2!!