O2’s Aggressive Backup Sim Service

Update: 28th of July 2010

It’s been six days and not one backup message. Hallelujah! Thanks to Ciara from o2 Customer care!

So with my updated phone model I’ve had one problem. It lies in the network not in the phone.

O2 for some reason have designed the most annoying backup service in the world. It is aggressive marketing at it’s finest.  Let me walk you through how this works.

1. Late May - I am not signed up for the service. O2 send’s a service message daily asking me if I wish to avail of their O2 backup service. The message comes up above the keypad lock. Two options are presented, ‘Yes’ / ‘No’. Either can be pressed in your pocket. The message turns on the background light and keeps it on either until you make a decision or your battery dies.
2. After countless pressing’s of the ‘No’ option, ‘Yes’ eventually gets clicked in my pocket. I am charged €2. My contacts get backed up.
3. A contact gets updated.
4. I get a message saying
   

   7 contacts have been updated since your last backup. Would you like to backup your SIM contacts now? The service costs 0.50 eur (inc. VAT) for your backup update.

   This message also comes above above the keypad lock. The same two options are there, ‘Yes’ / ‘No’. Both clickable in your pocket.

5. I have no credit, I press ‘No’.
6. The message comes again within 10 minutes.
7. I press ‘Yes’.
8. I get told I have insufficient credit and that when I top up I should backup my contacts.
9. I press ‘Ok’.
10. The message comes again with 10 minutes. It doesn’t care that I don’t have credit.
11. 16th June - I call O2 and complain. I get told that this is a common problem for a lot of people and that they have flagged a technician to fix the problem on my account. There’s a backlog of people at the moment so this could take up to a week.
12. 28th June - A week and a half later I go on holiday’s to Holland. On the way to the airport I top up my account, get the lovely message yet again and press ‘Yes’ in the hope it will leave me alone.
13. The lovely message greets around five minutes after turning on my mobile after getting of the plane. I say what the hell, press ‘Yes’ and get told that because I am roaming I cannot backup my contacts.
14. The message comes every ten minutes, of every hour, of every day while I’m on holidays. I’m forced into turning off my phone at night to preserve my battery.
15. I return from my 10 day trip abroad and ring O2. Not wanting to see this message ever again I explain to the customer service agent that I want to be removed completely from this service. I tell the agent that I also wish to raise a complaint over the way the message gets around the keypad locked and get told that ‘the majority of users find this feature handy’. I really fail to see that. I’m told that the issue will be resolved within 24 hours.
16. Today - 24 Hours later. The message is still doing it’s five – ten minute routine. It seems to be coming in faster and faster now, does it feel its end drawing close?

So what I really want to know is how are o2 getting away with a service like this?

• The whole thing is blatantly designed so that you accidently at some point in your pocket press the ‘Yes’ button, get charged €0.50 and your contact’s get updated.
• There is no option anywhere to opt out of the service. You have to ring o2, complain and rely on them to sort out the problem.
• You get forced into signing up for the service as the message comes up every day until you decide to use it.

It is like a smart scam.

I bet all those update charges are adding up for o2, nice to see a company that doesn’t mind aggravating & tricking their customers to make a bit more money. If my phone wasn’t locked to o2 I would have changed company already. Needless to say if this continues much longer I’ll be paying to unlock that phone and will go through the hassle of getting a new number.

If anyone else is experiencing these problems with o2 perhaps you’d like to leave a comment..