Customers Will Not Be Compensated For O2 Outage

O2 has apologised for the outage on Friday which left one in ten of its customers unable to make calls or access data services, but will not offer any compensation.

The operator blamed the fault on one of the network nodes which helps manage traffic on its network for the problems. It said that the node failed around lunchtime and a fix was found by around 3.30pm.

However the company added that due to the high demands placed on its network on Friday evening, customers might have experienced intermittent performance as it worked to clear the backlog of traffic following the fix.

No Compensation For O2 Outage

“We are genuinely sorry that a number of customers had problems with their service on Friday afternoon and evening,” said O2 in a blog post. “The problem is now fixed and full service has been restored.  We can assure all our customers that we are continually working to improve the consistency of service they get from our network.”

“We operate to the highest industry standards and using leading industry infrastructure,” it continued. “We will continue to challenge and assess what further steps we and our infrastructure partners can take to further improve our network performance.”

O2 also confirmed that no compensation would be offered to those affected by the fault, something which has sparked anger from unsatisfied customers.

Some posted comments on the blog post, complaining of missed arrangements and the inability to contact friends and family during the outage. Small business owners were also infuriated, claiming that they had suffered financially due to lost business. Others said that they would leave the network as soon as possible, voicing concern about O2’s reliability.

Customers were subjected to a massive outage in July, when a fault with one of O2’s systems meant that some mobile phone numbers were not registering correctly on the network. O2 offered its pay monthly customers 10 percent off their July subscription, and pay-as-you-go users 10 percent extra on their first top-up in September. However, it denied the offer was compensation and did not admit any fault.

O2 refused to compensate users for another outage in May 2011. Customers in East London, North London, Kent and Sussex were affected following theft and vandalism, but O2 said it would work with the police instead.

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