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O2 compensation: How you can claim money back from O2 after network went down
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MILLIONS of O2 mobile customers have been hit after the network suffered an outage this week, which left users unable to use their data.
But O2 has confirmed that it will offer refunds to all 25million of its customers.
2
Pay monthly customers - including small business and mobile broadband users - will be credited with the equivalent cost of two day's worth of their plan.
While pay-as-you-go (PAYG) mobile users will get a 10 per cent credit on a top-up in the new year.
PAYG mobile broadband customers will get a 10 per cent discount on a bolt on purchase in the new year.
Of course, if you feel the outage caused you significant problems or you waited a long time for repairs to take place and don't feel the redress being offered is enough, it's worth complaining.
To complain, you need to follow O2's formal complaints procedure.
It's worth submitting copies of any receipts or bills which prove any spending you've had to make because of the O2 outage as this will strengthen your complaint.
How to complain to your mobile provider
WE'VE put together the complaints pages of the networks affected by this week's outage to make it easier for you to claim:
- GiffGaff customers will need to complain to GiffGaff.
- Lycamobile customers will need to complain to Lycamobile.
- O2 customers will need to complain to O2.
- Sky Mobile customers will need to complain to Sky Mobile.
- Tesco Mobile customers will need to complain to Tesco Mobile.
If you need to take your complaint further, as with O2, GiffGaff, Lycamobile and Tesco Mobile are members of the Ombudsman Services complaints scheme.
Sky Mobile is a member of CISAS.
If you need help with your complaint, free online tool Resolver is a good place to start - it has ready-to-use template letters and makes sure complaints are sent to the right people within the business.
If your problem is still unresolved after eight weeks you can submit your complaint to an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.
Telecoms regulator Ofcom has approved two ADR schemes - CISAS and Ombudsman Services: Communications. O2 is a member of the Ombudsman Services scheme.
When O2 suffered a similar outage in 2012, it reportedly gave affected users three days' worth of data back, while all O2 customers got a £10 O2 voucher.
Of course, it's not just O2 customers that are affected as GiffGaff, Lycamobile, Sky Mobile and Tesco Mobile all piggyback on the larger provider's network.
In this instance you need to complain to your provider.
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If that doesn't work, you can take your complaint to the Ombudsman Services or to CISAS if you're a Sky Mobile customer.
All four providers have, however, announced the following redress plans:
- GiffGaff says affected customers can apply for compensation or opt to give their share to charity - it will email all customers in the coming days.
- Lycamobile says it will refund bundle customers with two days’ worth of credit.
- Sky says it will offer customers a day's worth of free data to make up for the outage.
- Tesco Mobile will give all customers a 2GB data bundle - users will be contacted directly about how this will work.
Millions of O2 customers woke up to 'no service' warnings yesterday, following an overnight service outage on the network.
It is estimated 32million people were left without online access, with O2 blaming it on a software issue with a third party supplier called Ericsson.
O2 says the problems are resolved as of this morning (December 7). An O2 spokesperson said: "We can now report that our 4G network has been restored.
"Our technical teams will continue to monitor service performance closely over the next few days to ensure we remain stable.
"A review will be carried out with Ericsson to understand fully what happened.
"We’d like to thank our customers for their patience during the loss of service on Thursday 6 December and we’re sorry for any impact the issue may have caused."
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