o2 FAIL [updated with WIN]

Last week I received a 3G iPhone from Lift, connected to the business account. The iPhone is great, but I have to say I am majorly disappointed with o2's incompetence on one really simple task: Number transfer.

UPDATED: See the end of the post.

Not long after I bought my o2 Cocoon, I decided to get a new sim with a new number. The number I received was great, easy to remember due to 3 blocks of double digits, so I wanted to keep it. When I was told about getting a work 3G iPhone and that I could transfer my number, I was even more thrilled! I called up o2, got my PAC code (required for transfers) and passed it on to Matt Carey, so he could initiate the transfer when buying the phones.

And then there was constant failure.

After much hassle - I'm not kidding, the nonsense he has put up with is incredible - Matt was able to pick up two new iPhone's (one for me and one for Jo Lankester) and attach them to the business account. Right then and there, at the o2 store, he ask for the transfer to be put through. The o2 staff were fine, and put through the transfer in front of him using the provided PAC code.

Or so it seemed. This all happened on Thursday, by Monday I was without any service on my iPhone. Being with a business account, Matt can call up and have someone dedicated to sorting any problems, with call backs at a specific time. So, Matt called up o2 and asked what was the status with the transfer. "What transfer?" is basically the response he got, there was no record of any transfer for my old number.

When Matt moved his number to o2, back during the 1st gen iPhone, and had issues he was able to get them fixed during a phone call. His number was transferred and working then and there, so he told them he wanted the same applied to now. The women told him that it was not possible, and that he didn't understand how transfers work after he explained that he had this done before. Eventually, it was agreed that a temp number would be activated within an hour and my old number would be sorted by Thursday. Yesterday.

I've tried restarting the phone, leaving it off for a while then switching it back on, no luck. Matt is out at dConstruct today, but I am fine using the temp until Monday.

Or I was. As I headed out to lunch, I had a look at the phone and noticed that it had no service. Restart, no service. Thinking it might just be a connectivity problem, I went for lunch but still had no service, and still don't. Everyone else does.

To sum up:
- o2 failed to put through a transfer despite doing so in front of Matt.
- Their customer service is inconsistent
- They can set a new number to a phone in less than an hour but can't transfer, INTERNALLY, in 5 days.
- They fail to check that the transfer has gone through and cut off the temp number.

o2 fucked up. This is the first time I have had any support issues with o2, the only other time I have had to contact them is for the PAC code, but this coupled with the stupidity of the majority of their staff is ridiculous. I could make this post twice as long with the problems Matt has had since getting the first two phones (for himself and Clare Carey) and attaching two more phones, but I'll spare your eyes.

Feel free to rant about o2 cock-ups in the comments!

UPDATE: James (twitter) saw my ranting on Twitter and got in touch. He offered to look into the issue for me and see what he could do. Shortly after, a contact of his called Chris gave me a call and had my transferred number working while on the line. Thanks guys, great job! If only all of o2's staff were as committed and helpful as you :)