Day Long O2 Outage in the UK

[Trippik]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46464730

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/o2-down-compensation-free-credit-refund-airtime-package-4g-data-internet-a8672281.html

I hadn't seen any mention of this on the forum yet so thought I'd start a topic. One of the 4 main cellular network providers in the UK had a day long outage nationwide yesterday. I'd be interested to see what backlash or potential class action lawsuits come out of this.

[Spotty]

6 minutes ago, Trippik said:

I hadn't seen any mention of this on the forum yet so thought I'd start a topic. One of the 4 main cellular network providers in the UK had a day long outage nationwide yesterday. I'd be interested to see what backlash or potential class action lawsuits come out of this.

Class action lawsuit? You've got to be fucking kidding me. Shit happens. Networks go down. It's not the end of the world.

[DildorTheDecent]

8 minutes ago, Trippik said:

I hadn't seen any mention of this on the forum yet so thought I'd start a topic.

At least try and search:

 

[BananaInSandals]

8 minutes ago, Trippik said:

potential class action lawsuits 

I'm no legal expert but I don't think there's such a thing in the UK. Class action lawsuit is like a unique thing in the US afaik. 

[Trippik]

1 minute ago, BananaInSandals said:

I'm no legal expert but I don't think there's such a thing in the UK. Class action lawsuit is like a unique thing in the US afaik. 

In the past they were, but for consumer and b2b sales and contracts they were introduced into law in the 2015 Consumer Rights Act

[Trippik]

5 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Class action lawsuit? You've got to be fucking kidding me. Shit happens. Networks go down. It's not the end of the world.

For individual users yeah, but giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile etc run on O2's networks, and were therefore affected, also many companies use 4G broadband for remote locations due to the often patchy fibre coverage in areas of the UK. 

[BananaInSandals]

1 minute ago, Trippik said:

In the past they were, but for consumer and b2b sales and contracts they were introduced into law in the 2015 Consumer Rights Act

That's interesting. I hope that law is actually used instead of simply sitting around getting dust. The legal system is like one of the slowest changing area.

[Trippik]

Just now, BananaInSandals said:

That's interesting. I hope that law is actually used instead of simply sitting around getting dust. The legal system is like one of the slowest changing area. 

I know, there have been a few cases of it being utilised in the UK, but it's mostly for big b2b stuff, rather than the broader consumer lawsuits you often get in the US, that's why I wondered if it might come into play here, due to O2 having a lot of deals with secondary carriers and larger businesses for failover broadband etc

[manikyath]

39 minutes ago, Trippik said:

potential class action lawsuits

none.

 

there may be social or economical backlash from customers or partnered companies, but there is no legal binding to their requirement to be online.

[Ekreed]

11 minutes ago, Trippik said:

In the past they were, but for consumer and b2b sales and contracts they were introduced into law in the 2015 Consumer Rights Act

Class actions wouldn't apply here - I'm no lawyer, but my understanding is that the act only allows a form of class action for cases of anti-competitive behaviour, not for compensation for a failure to provide services like this. 

 

There is going to be some kind of compensation offer from O2 for consumers - they aren't legally obligated to do anything like they are for their government and large business contracts, but they'd be pretty stupid to do nothing considering the bad PR. But it's unlikely to be much, probably some percentage of the month's bill back (though, from what I gather if this were a class action in the US the customers also wouldn't stand to make much out of it). If you suffered larger actual losses than just being without service you can make a claim under the consumer rights act but that would have to be for verifiable material losses, and substantiated with evidence - For example if a plumber had to cancel a job they were hired to do because they couldn't get in contact, you can probably claim for the cost of that lost work. But if it is about potential losses, that's a lot dicier - For example the same plumber who had no scheduled work for the day but would expect to get a job in that time but can't prove they actually missed out on a job because there's no record of the call out they didn't receive. There may be other avenues for a claim, but I'm no lawyer so I can't comment on that, but unless there is a serious consequence as a result of the outage I don't think there's a huge scope for a useful lawsuit. 

I imagine that anyone who has to upgrade in the next few months have an extra arrow in their quiver if they want to negotiate a good deal on an upgrade. And I don't envy anyone who has to take calls or work in stores - Christmas is always a busy period, it's only going to get harder when you add a lot of customers that are already upset or angry.

 

Disclaimer - I do work for O2, but I can't comment on anything for the company, I have to leave that to the PR people - these are just my own views.

[Sir Asvald]

This stupid issue made me miss my phone interview... Luckily they rescheduled.

[Crunchy Dragon]

-Thread locked-

 

A topic for this already exists:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1005033-uk-mobile-network-o2-suffers-outage-25-million-customers-are-affected-across-europe/