[Daveoc64]

Most companies will simply offer a refund for the time that the service was unavailable (although you have to request it).

That's how most mobile networks and ISPs work.

[alan1302]

Originally Posted by Anika Hanson

They don't text mine to me

Or mine

[gamercraig]

I saw a clip on BBC News when channel flicking earlier, and there was a woman on videocam or similar saying she hadn't been able to speak to anyone for 2 days. She had such a forlorn look, and tone of voice, that you would think she had been told she had terminal cancer and 2 days to live.

Too many people are cossetted and need to re-evaluate what priorities are.

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by gamercraig

I saw a clip on BBC News when channel flicking earlier, and there was a woman on videocam or similar saying she hadn't been able to speak to anyone for 2 days. She had such a forlorn look, and tone of voice, that you would think she had been told she had terminal cancer and 2 days to live.

Too many people are cossetted and need to re-evaluate what priorities are.

Easy to say if you weren't the person inconvenienced and fed up. She obviously wanted to speak to friends and family, 2 days is a long time not to have a service you're paying for.

I can't remember another network having such a prolonged event apart from when Vodafone were burgled and even then I don't think it was this long.

They had another outage last month, customers were unable to send or receive texts for 24 hours. A few years ago they had 6 outages in 8 months and had to apologise to their shareholders. The parent company's share price is down 4% today.

O2 have the worst reputation with regard to outages. Giffgaffe customers have certainly experienced a lot lately too.

[alan1302]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Easy to say if you weren't the person inconvenienced and fed up. She obviously wanted to speak to friends and family, 2 days is a long time not to have a service you're paying for.

There are other ways to contact people though...and there are still landline phone and phone boxes (just about) - it's not the big deal some of the media make it out to be.

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by alan1302

There are other ways to contact people though...and there are still landline phone and phone boxes (just about) - it's not the big deal some of the media make it out to be.

Oh of course, people should be paying £25 a month for a phone service that doesn't work for 16 hours and then walk in the rain to the phone box.

Businesses rely on O2 to provide their on call IT jobs, or to run a 24hour plumbing service for water leaks, or locksmiths etc etc.

People have lost money and been inconvenienced and for a very long time. Whilst you might expect an outage once in a while O2's reputation for reliability is a joke.

[gamercraig]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Easy to say if you weren't the person inconvenienced and fed up. She obviously wanted to speak to friends and family, 2 days is a long time not to have a service you're paying for.

.

Well (assuming she didn't have a landline) she wasn't disabled and therefore capable of walking into the outside world and asking a neighbour/friend to help if the call she needed to make was THAT urgent.

What people think of as an urgent phone call is grossly exagerated in today's society.

[coopermanyorks]

Where there is blame,there is a claim it seems

[confuddled]

technology breaks down now and then, even that with billions plowed into it. it's the nature of the beast.
yes, i was a bit miffed last night because i was working and could not use my phone but i certainly wont be looking for compensation.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Easy to say if you weren't the person inconvenienced and fed up. She obviously wanted to speak to friends and family, 2 days is a long time not to have a service you're paying for.

I can't remember another network having such a prolonged event apart from when Vodafone were burgled and even then I don't think it was this long.

They had another outage last month, customers were unable to send or receive texts for 24 hours. A few years ago they had 6 outages in 8 months and had to apologise to their shareholders. The parent company's share price is down 4% today.

O2 have the worst reputation with regard to outages. Giffgaffe customers have certainly experienced a lot lately too.

Get a grip for goodness sake - all this angst because your phone doesn't work for a few hours is quite simply pathetic. We didn't have a phone of any discription when I was growing up. If one had to make a telephone call then you went to those red boxes at the end of your street popped a few pennies in and pressed the large letter A. Quite frankly I wouldn't care one jot if my mobile never worked again. Truly modern society has quite simply lost the plot big time. I laughed to I almost cried listening to that women bemoaning her fate on the BBC News at teatime.

[wilt]

Originally Posted by Faust

Quite frankly I wouldn't care one jot if my mobile never worked again.

I'm sure you would care if it didn't work but you were still paying for it. Yes you didn't have mobiles 'back in the day', but you also weren't paying a monthly line rental for them, either...

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by Faust

Get a grip for goodness sake - all this angst because your phone doesn't work for a few hours is quite simply pathetic. We didn't have a phone of any discription when I was growing up. If one had to make a telephone call then you went to those red boxes at the end of your street popped a few pennies in and pressed the large letter A. Quite frankly I wouldn't care one jot if my mobile never worked again. Truly modern society has quite simply lost the plot big time. I laughed to I almost cried listening to that women bemoaning her fate on the BBC News at teatime.

It wasn't 'a few hours', if it had been people might not have been so annoyed.

Quite often people will say I'll meet you in a big shopping centre or in town and they will call when they are there and meet up. If phones don't work for 18 hours it messes up people's day.

Not to mention those who rely on them for work or for their business. As I say, you do expect small outages once in a blue moon, but O2 has many more problems than any other network.

A massive 18 hour + outage of all services yesterday.

A 24 hour national SMS outage last month.

A 9 hour national Giffgaff outage a few months ago.

A few years back 8 outages in 6 months and apologies to the shareholders as the London network had a meltdown.

You misunderstand me, I'm not saying these things shouldn't happen, it's inevitable that some form of limited service disruption will happen from time to time, it's the scale and regularity of O2's outages for their paying business and personal customers I'm criticising.

[confuddled]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

It wasn't 'a few hours', if it had been people might not have been so annoyed.

Quite often people will say I'll meet you in a big shopping centre or in town and they will call when they are there and meet up. If phones don't work for 18 hours it messes up people's day.

Not to mention those who rely on them for work or for their business. As I say, you do expect small outages once in a blue moon, but O2 has many more problems than any other network.

A massive 18 hour + outage of all services yesterday.

A 24 hour national SMS outage last month.

A 9 hour national Giffgaff outage a few months ago.

A few years back 8 outages in 6 months and apologies to the shareholders as the London network had a meltdown.

You misunderstand me, I'm not saying these things shouldn't happen, it's inevitable that some form of limited service disruption will happen from time to time, it's the scale and regularity of O2's outages for their paying business and personal customers I'm criticising.

take some comfort in the fact the government were not able to spy on you for a few hours

[gomezz]

Ah! But O2 went offline to allow the government to slurp all your old data then install the kit for future monitoring. The system problem story is just a blind.

[AntiDote]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Quite often people will say I'll meet you in a big shopping centre or in town and they will call when they are there and meet up. If phones don't work for 18 hours it messes up people's day.

Yes, let's hope people get compensation because O2 'messed up their day'

No wonder Britain has a 'Jeremy Kyle' generation.

[Glasgow Girl]

I have already been told by an O2 guru that all O2 pay monthly customers will be credited on their next bills an amount that they couldn't use their phone for. He didn't state what that amount was, as he said it would depend on what your tariff was.

I amn't looking for compensation, but I think most people surely would be happy if their bill was credited with an amount for however long they couldn't use their phone.

[gomezz]

Except for those people who suffered consequential losses such as missing that vital call confirming them winning a big contract or offering them a job.

(yes I know, a sane person would use alternate methods of communication if expecting some such vital call)

[wilt]

Originally Posted by AntiDote

Yes, let's hope people get compensation because O2 'messed up their day'

No wonder Britain has a 'Jeremy Kyle' generation.

No, lets hope people get compensation because O2 charge them for a service that they didn't provide for a day.

Reading some of these responses here, you would think O2 were some sort of charity providing phones out of the goodness of their hearts. They aren't, they are a corporation and make a decent profit out of providing these services - there is no reason why they should be able to charge for not providing them.

[gomezz]

Apart from the contract willingly entered into by their users.

[wilt]

Originally Posted by gomezz

Apart from the contract willingly entered into by their users.

Ah yes. No moral reason, then.

[Ray266]

Originally Posted by AntiDote

A refund of any provable financial losses and nothing more.

Not being able for access Facebook for a few hours or 'have been a loyal customer since 1971 etc' and the like are all classed under "shit happens".

Too many people are obsessed with the notion of 'compensation' these days and I'd love to see a company stick their middle finger up at them.

With you on this Facebook rubbish so what, When I hear all this its too sad Facebook & Twitter have these people nothing to do but look at this garbage, To be honest these sites cause nothing but agrro I for one would never use them.

[AntiDote]

Originally Posted by wilt

No, lets hope people get compensation because O2 charge them for a service that they didn't provide for a day.

Reading some of these responses here, you would think O2 were some sort of charity providing phones out of the goodness of their hearts. They aren't, they are a corporation and make a decent profit out of providing these services - there is no reason why they should be able to charge for not providing them.

Perhaps O2 should charge them for not reading the part of the contract they signed which stated they don't guarantee 100% up-time?

Don't get me wrong, if someone can prove (and more than "It's true because I'm telling you it's true and if you don't believe me I'm off to Vodafone") they lost out financially as a result of the outage then morally I think O2 should do something about it however legally they don't have to do a thing.

Yes we live in a culture where if anyone (a person, a company, whatever) inconveniences someone else, they are then expected to stump up that evil word, 'compensation'.

No doubt O2 won't have the testicular fortitude to do this but I would stand up and applaud any company that greeted a spurious 'compensation' claimant with a big fat middle finger.

[wilt]

Originally Posted by AntiDote

Perhaps O2 should charge them for not reading the part of the contract they signed which stated they don't guarantee 100% up-time?

Don't get me wrong, if someone can prove (and more than "It's true because I'm telling you it's true and if you don't believe me I'm off to Vodafone") they lost out financially as a result of the outage then morally I think O2 should do something about it however legally they don't have to do a thing.

Yes we live in a culture where if anyone (a person, a company, whatever) inconveniences someone else, they are then expected to stump up that evil word, 'compensation'.

No doubt O2 won't have the testicular fortitude to do this but I would stand up and applaud any company that greeted a spurious 'compensation' claimant with a big fat middle finger.

The thing is, there is a decent shout for O2 being required to give some sort of compensation for this. Lets looks at the clause in question:

2.2 The Service isn’t fault-free; a range of different geographic, atmospheric or other conditions or circumstances beyond our control can impair it. For instance, coverage is affected by things like the thickness of the walls of the building you’re in. It might also depend on how many people near you are trying to use the Service at the same time. For more information about the things that affect coverage, please look at the dedicated Network pages of our Website. You’re entitled to the quality of service generally given by a competent mobile telecommunications service provider, using its reasonable skill and care.

If we assume for a moment that what the register is saying is true (run with me here) and this was caused by a botched transfer to new equipment:
Is a botched transfer beyond their control? I wouldn't have thought so
Is a botched transfer competent? I would argue not.
Is botching a transfer using reasonable skill and care? Not in my opinion.

Obviously I'm no legal expert and I fully expect, that if O2 wanted to they could get out of giving compensation, but by my reading under clause 2.2 they are on very dodgy ground. Messing something up and denying service to 7 million customers as a result is not competent, nor does it show that reasonable skill are care is being taken, and nor is it beyond their control. Therefore they haven't supplied what I am entitled to according to the agreement.

I'm not crying out for a full free month or anything like that - I have said earlier in this thread (and I'm not joking) that I would be personally happy with something like a chocolate bar (or something similarly gimmicky) by way of an apology - but I don't think it is fair to criticise people for wanting some sort of financial recompense from O2 for the inconvenience of not having access to a service they have already paid for, for an entire day.

[neo_wales]

Originally Posted by Faust

Get a grip for goodness sake - all this angst because your phone doesn't work for a few hours is quite simply pathetic. We didn't have a phone of any discription when I was growing up. If one had to make a telephone call then you went to those red boxes at the end of your street popped a few pennies in and pressed the large letter A. Quite frankly I wouldn't care one jot if my mobile never worked again. Truly modern society has quite simply lost the plot big time. I laughed to I almost cried listening to that women bemoaning her fate on the BBC News at teatime.

Common sense on a thread full of the gimme gimme compensation generation. We are becoming nation of ambulance chasing, whimps and wusses. Grow up the lot of you

[wilt]

Originally Posted by neo_wales

Common sense on a thread full of the gimme gimme compensation generation. We are becoming nation of ambulance chasing, whimps and wusses. Grow up the lot of you

Well you can continue to pay for stuff that doesn't work, if you want. Seems a bit silly, though. Nobody is forcing you to accept any compensation that is offered - that is even if you were affected, I have a feeling you weren't.

I'm all right, Jack