Shame on O2 for treating iPhone customers with contempt
In what world do O2 think they can treat loyal early adopters of the Apple iPhone with such sneering contempt?
Wait, it will be the world where slavish adoration of the sleek iconic phone and limited supply forced such early adopters into draconian contracts that have yet to end as the new iPhone 3GS comes on the market. So they face hefty bills to leave the contract early and will still face paying full price for the second generation iPhone.
It is little wonder that Twitter is flapping with contempt for O2 and has even seen personal contact details for senior O2 staff being Twittered online with an urge for people to make their feelings known. There are petitions galore and this is a belated blog post compared with many. You certainly do not need to carry out a customer satisfaction survey to work out how they feel!
However, it is in terms of customer service - or rather the complete lack thereof, that we examine this. Honestly, how can O2 believe this is the right way to treat their customers? How many prospective customers are now thinking that they will not use O2. How much negative public relations is the company receiving? PR is all about getting people talking, but you surely want them to say the right thing?
How could this happen? Well, with remarkable candour, the general manager of devices for O2 UK, Steve Alder told TechRadar: “Having subsidised much (or all – depending on tariff) of the price of a customer's iPhone 3G, we simply cannot justify invalidating that contract and subsidise a second device for the same customer.
“Much as we understand the desire of many customers to have the latest version, this would be a loss making deal for O2 and would be a distinct set of business terms for iPhone customers that don't apply to our other customers.”
So it is business driven incompetence that has led to this problem. O2 never considered when Apple would most likely launch an update while they greedily locked loyal Apple customers into punitive contacts without considering that they necessarily stretched beyond a likely date for another Apple innovation for the iPhone.
That's a special kind of greedy stupid.
Here at Morgan PR we are blissfully happy with our BlackBerry Bolds, which have been swiftly supplied by the ever attentive Vodafone. They know the meaning of customer service, not least that when they have got things wrong, their resolution has consistently exceeded our reasonable expectations.
Of course Apple must be thrilled with the publicity! For as negative as it is for O2, it just goes to show the demand for the iconic device. However, with other tempting fruit in the telephony orchard, they should not take Pavlovian loyalty for granted.