So I attempted to take an O2 contract out on 07/10/19 in the evening and I never thought I was about to go down a long road filled with lies, timewasting and just extremely poor and unacceptable customer service. So starts the evening of 07/10 where I try to purchase a mobile phone contract online. The first hurdle I came across is that it was not accepting any of my cards, I used 2 debit cards and 2 credit cards, all with funds and they all declined. I then started an online chat to see if it was their issue, which is was and I was told to use a different browser to process this. I went to do this and the payment went through with the extra delivery charge for next day delivery. I received all the confirmation emails and it seemed like everything was fine. The advisor on the live chat said my order as been “referred” and asked me to call a premium rate number to sort this. He confirmed to me that once I call this number they will be able to deal with this referral straight away and get my order cleared. So I begrudgingly rang this premium rate number only to be told that I will receive a call back within 48 hours to go through my referral and there was nothing she could do right there and then? The call ended and I went back to the online chat and explained this to the advisor and also said that I have just paid an extra delivery cost for next day delivery and now it could take another 3 working days before it’ll appear, depending on when the “referral team” bother to ring me back? He explained that was all he could and I would get a refund on my delivery if the item was not delivered on the designated slot.. So I ended the chat and just had to wait for this call. The morning of 08/10, I received a call from a number that my phone flagged up as “fraudulent” and an advisor was on the phone saying they were from O2, they didn’t ask any security questions or any normal customer service chat (how are you, how is your day etc) which I thought was weird. He then asked “Has your order gone through” of which I replied “Yes I have my confirmation email”. He replied with “Thanks, bye” and then hung up? I didn’t give out any bank details or anything but that was a really poor call, was that the referral call that I’ve been waiting for? Does that mean my phone will be dispatched and received today? Who knows?! So as I had no idea on the status of my order, I rang O2 Customer Service and spoke to an advisor who said no you’re still waiting for a call from the referral team and this will be within 72 hours. So now the time has somehow increased by a further 24hours so I might not get my phone for another 4 working days, even though it’s meant to be here today! I left the call at that as I wasn’t prepared to argue at that point. I checked my bank and I noticed that 3 payments of £28.99 (down payment and delivery fee) had been taken out of my account so again I am back on the phone to the O2 Customer Service team in the evening of 08/10. A advisor said that they will get that all refunded and two of the payments are just trial payments to make sure I have the funds in my account, well I bloody well don’t now that you’ve charge me triple what I should have paid! As I was on the phone, I thought I’d check my order status again. This time, I was told my order seemed fine and has actually been dispatched for delivery for tonight! I said I had no tracking information or anything to confirm this but she was adamant that my order was fine and my delivery will be between 6pm and 10pm on 08/10. I had a bit of hope at this point. Around 7pm on 08/10 I rang O2 Customer Service again as I wasn’t sure when my item was being delivered so was hoping for some tracking information. The guy on the phone turned around to me and said your item hasn’t been dispatched as it’s out of stock. Out of stock!?! Why let customers order items for next day delivery if it’s OUT OF STOCK!! I was put on hold for a while as he had obviously read the notes from my previous conversations and realised this order had been a mess from the get-go. When he came back, he then turned around and said that the item is now in stock and I can get it delivered by 09/10. He said that it was all fine and all he needed to do is call the warehouse first thing on 09/10 to let them know to have the delivery from 6pm to 10pm as that is what I originally wanted. So at this point I finally thought it was all sorted… Come the morning of 09/10, the advisor from last night rang me to say he is still in contact with the warehouse and will contact me within the hour. I did receive a call back from him within the hour however he told me my phone won’t be dispatched because it is in fact still out of stock… He said they’re not looking to get it back in stock for the next 7-10 working days.. Brilliant! He then says well I can go and collect it in store, but it won’t be my local store, it’ll be 16 miles away so a 32 mile round trip then.. He advised me all I needed was my order number that he supplied me and I can go and collect it and he will put it through as a click and collect order, but they don’t have the colour I want as it’s out of stock. At this point I didn’t care, I just wanted my item so off I went to the O2 store 16 miles away.. When I got there, I explained the situation to the advisor and he said he hadn’t received any click and collect order so they will need to set me up a whole new order and then cancel my other order. So we went through all my details again that I had already input online, he had to read me all the legal stuff that I had already read when I purchased online on 07/10.. After all that, he then took my bank details to sort out the contract and now I’ve been declined due to my credit. Most likely because I only just took a phone contract out 2 days ago.. I would be suspicious too but the fact is it’s their bloody contract I took out! So he called O2 Customer Service but he didn’t seem to have any direct number so we were sat on hold for around 8 minutes, got through to someone and then got cut off. So the advisor rang again and this time we were on hold for nearly 20 minutes before getting through to someone. He spoke to advisor on the phone about the situation and after discussing it with him, I was then advised there is nothing further they can do unless I buy the phone outright and have a sim only contract. As you can imagine, I was pretty fuming at this point as I was told by the guy this morning that it would be fine so I just walked out of the store. So after driving another 16 miles back home, I am currently without a phone, out of pocket by £86.97 and I’ve wasted a good few hours of my time talking to these useless people, being lied to and then being told to drive to go pick up a phone that hasn’t actually been ordered for me. I have put in a complaint but I’ve been advised this can take a week to deal with.. of course it’s on their own time. All in all, O2 are shocking and I will never use them again and I will tell everyone I know about this but god help anyone who has to go through the same situation that I have had to!