My stressful attempt at buying an iPhone
26 May 09

I have been a customer of Vodafone for 14 years. At the weekend I decided to jump on the iPhone bandwagon, which meant signing up for Vodafone's rival service provider 02. You'd imagine, in these difficult commercial times, that anybody switching would be love-bombed and welcomed with open arms. Not So.

On Saturday morning I went into the 02 Experience shop beside Brown Thomas on Grafton Street. I approached a shop assistant and told him that I wanted a 16 GB iPhone, and that was where my problems began.

Even though I'm commonly know as Jack, my birth cert says John. I came prepared with my passport (which says Jack) and bills from ESB, NTL, Eircom and Bord Gais (which say John). In a few moments the shop assistant said that the woman in the strangely named “02 Fraud Office” in Limerick would not accept my documentation. I guided the man to the Medicontact.ie website, I gave him my business card, I showed him the contents of the bank cards in my wallet, all to no avail.

Despite my frustration we agreed on a solution. I agreed to go back to my office and route out something official that said John on it. He gave me the phone number, and fax number of the shop and said I could fax ahead the material and the phone would be waiting for me on my return. The nightmare continued. When I eventually found something with the name John on it, I couldn't get through to the shop for love nor money, so I cycled back to Grafton St in in the rain. And this is when things took a bizarre twist. I produced proof of my christian name John, which was a bank statement from AIB. Game set and match to me? No, the woman in the fraud office in Limerick still had doubts about me. Then the shop assistant dropped the bombshell. It went something like this:

02 Shop assistant: "What is your occupation?"
Me: "I'm self-employed"
02 Shop assistant: "Then we will need a tax clearance certificate from you before we go any further."

As you can imagine I sat there angry, frustrated and flabbergasted as to why 02 needed a tax clearance cert from me. All I was trying to do was become a paying customer of theirs. I asked the shop assistance why this bizarre over-the-top policy rule existed.

I asked to speak to the shop manager. He stone-walled me and said the policies were the policies and there was nothing he could do about it. I asked if I emailed or faxed my tax clearance certificate would he be able to process my credit card and post me the phone, as I'd been in twice already. He refused to help me out this way. I asked if he thought it was ok that that I was made to feel like a criminal by coming into his shop? I asked if he thought it was ok that his staff were calling an office in Limerick called the “02 Fraud Office” to check me out? He had no answer.

So I contacted Majella Fitzpatrick, Corporate Affairs Manager at 02, and informed her of my terrible experience in pursuit of an iPhone. Like the fantastic PR woman that she is, Majella got on the case very quickly and by mid-morning on Monday I had an apology. Later that afternoon my fantastic new iPhone was sent by taxi by a member of 02 staff to my office. He was a nice man and he even helped me set up the phone on my laptop. I also received a voucher for €100 for iPhone accessories and a free carry case. In fairness to Majella, she aked all of the right questions and wanted to make sure that my dreadful retail experience is not visited on anybody else. She responded very quickly and did an excellent job for 02 in turning the situation around to my satisfaction.

She said that the reason that self-employed customers are sometimes asked for tax clearance certificates is to prove the legitimacy of a business. It still makes no sense to me as a policy and I think it is very unfair on self-employed people.

I am conscious that it's much easier for me to solve this problem, because I have the email address of the Corporate Affairs Manager. Majella said that if any of our readers have had a similar problem they would be dealt with fairly by O2. Anyone who has suffered a similar fate should contact the following numbers:

Customer Care 1909 - Post Pay
Customer Care 1747 - Speakeasy
customercare@o2.com - email
Customer Care, McLoughlin Road, National Technological Park, Plassey, Co. Limerick

You might also email us at info@mediacontact.ie and share your experience and we'll have more in the next issue.
by Jack Murray