What is going on?

[ajscott32]

Hi to everyone hope you can help me-this is my experience from today:

Earlier today i tried to order a new mobile phone(Nokia E90) with o2 online. When i got to the pay section it could not process my order as i live in a new build property which had not been registered on their systems. The website directed me to phone a customer services number.
When I spoke to the chap he advised me he would check the situation with his manager and call me back in 10 minutes.
10 minutes later he called me back and i completed my order-no problem (so I thought).
He gave me an order number, password to access my account and a number to call him back on. He also advised me that I would have a confirmation email within 30 minutes.
He called me back a few minutes later to double check my postcode.
3 hours later no email so I called the number he gave-this number does not exist.
I did 1471 and the number 0161 2178600 was the last number dialled.
I phoned this and some Nigerian bloke answered "HELLO"
Me "Is that o2?"
Him "ERM YES"
Me "I'd like to speak to someone about my order please?"
Him "HE'LL CALL YOU BACK, I AM JUST THE SECRETARY AND HE IS BUSY...."
Hangs up.
The alarm bells started ringing so i contacted my bank to double check nothing had been going on with my account-all ok at this stage.
I phoned o2 customer services on the phone number on their website-they have no record of my phone call, order-nothing.
I spoke to them in length about my concerns but they did nothing-i will be writing a lengthy letter of complaint in the morning.
They told me the order number I was given by the bloke is nothing like the numbers they use and he could not have process my order as new addresses take a few days to register on their system.
Either the guy is dodgy and has passed on my details to some fraudster or he is totally incompetent.
I have managed to get through to the 0161 number just now-the woman who answered said she was security and all the o2 workers had gone home.
She gave me the address of the place which is:
LBM
Paul House
Horsefield Way
Breadbury Industrial Estate
SK6 2SU
Does anyone have any knowledge of this place?
Sorry for the long post-any ideas anyone?

[hip59]

Sorry I dont care who they are, clearly not O2 direct. i would contact bank and advise them to stop all payments on your card etc and reissue a new one.

Ive found this on goggle:

http://www.lbm.co.uk/map/

[pctech]

Did you by any chance link to O2 from Google or another search engine?

This sounds very dodgy to me.

NEVER EVER follow a link from a search engine when you are intending to buy something, this is for two reasons:

1) Google (and others) cache copies of pages and serve these from their servers to try to speed up your browsing experience, this can lead to you viewing old copies of pages with redundant links to forms that are no longer in use such as those for credit card details so your order will go nowhere.
2) and most likely in your case, fraudsters can build very convincing fake sites to harvest details, these will have all of the company logos and colour schemes, these will have lots meta keywords built into them that are read by the search bots, the more keywords, the higher the page will rank

When you want to buy anything and you know the company name and URL, always type it into the address bar of your browser to ensure you are going to that company's website and always check the security certificate by double-clicking the padlock icon, this will list who it was issued to and the issue and expiry dates.

If you do come across something while searching, go back to the search results and look at the URL (particularly the domain name, note this down and enter it into your address bar instead of following the link)

Also if you are suspicious of the domain name do a WHOIS search and check out the registrant information:

http://www.internic.net US department of commerce lookup facility for addresses ending in .aero, .arpa, .biz, .cat, .com, .coop, .edu, .info, .int, .jobs, .mobi, .museum, .name, .net, .org, .pro, and .travel
http://www.nominet.org.uk Nominet who are the registry for the .uk namespace so any names that end in .uk can be looked up here (companies have to publish contact information).
Another useful facility is the companies house webcheck facility at http://www.companieshouse.co.uk/

If in doubt, don't proceed with the transaction.

Hope this helps.

pctech

[ajscott32]

Thanks for the reply-the number i got was definitely from the official o2 website. It appears that the 0161 number is the main switchboard number of their Stockport call centre. I have spent about 2 1/2 hours in total speaking to their complaints department and they still cannot find out anything. It appears to be a highly incompetant member of staff who has screwed up my order completely making no record of my telephone calls. They claim there is no way they can find out who the member of staff was. Not happy with them at all!

[hip59]

" Thanks for the reply-the number i got was definitely from the official o2 website" SO how come the 0161 number belones to this firm??

Let LBM redefine customer management for your business today and every day.


call: 0870 845 5005
email: redefining@lbm.co.uk
visit: www.lbm.co.uk
Head Office Address:
LBM House
Atlantic Street
Broadheath
Altrincham
Cheshire
WA14 5FY
Switchboard: 0161 929 5799
Download Map



Other Offices:
Atlantic Point
Atlantic Street
Altrincham
Cheshire
WA14 5DE
Switchboard: 0161 616 0333
Download Map




Bredbury
Paul House
Horsefield Way
Bredbury Industrial Estate
Bredbury
Stockport
SK6 2SU
Switchboard: 0161 217 8600
Download Map



Middleton
Shenton House
Stakehill Lane
Middleton
Manchester
M24 2UG
Switchboard: 0161 617 4000
Download Map




London
8-10 Lower James St,
Soho,
London
W1F 9EL
Switchboard: 020 7460 5220
Download Map



Belfast
Unit 9 Millennium Way
Springvale
Belfast BT12 7AL
Switchboard: 02890 533 800

[ajscott32]

Apparently the o2 call centre is located in the Bredbury LBM building. Their fraud department confirmed this.
Sorry forgot to add the 0161 number was not advertised on the o2 website it was 0870 2257879. The website i got this off was www.o2.co.uk

[gadgetnutter]

Reading their website, LBM are an outsourced partner of O2.

Essentially, it looks like they provide telesales for O2