O2 Feed Woes

dialtosave · 27-05-08

For several weeks now I've been receiving complaints from my site visitors about incorrect prices for O2.co.uk deals.

I've passed on those complaints to Buy.at who have so far been unable to get an automated feed from O2. Apparently it's created manually, but I don't quite understand why that justifies several phones being advertised as free when they just aren't.

It's been going on long enough and Buy.at have been unable to fix the problem as yet that I want to ask if anyone has a contact at O2 rather than Buy.at who I could maybe get in touch with.

Let me know. Cheers.

Richard
DialToSave
Mobile Phone - Mobile Phone Deals - Free Mobile Phone - DialToSave

Nick Caulfield · 28-05-08

Hi Richard,

I know the O2 Feed has been some cause for concern for a lot of affiliates and it is something I am desperately trying to get resolved as soon as possible.

We are currently in the process of testing the automated feed so that issues like this cannot happen again and hopefully this should be in place shortly.

The contact at O2 has been away for the past three weeks but I have passed on your concerns and I will endeavour to update you on this by the end of the day.

I'm sorry that this issue has dragged on longer than it should have but it is something we are working hard to correct.

Kind regards

Nick Caulfield
Account Manager
buy.at
nick.caulfield@buy.at

Nick Caulfield · 28-05-08

Hi Richard,

We are implementing a skeleton feed for the time being so that we can show the correct information and will look to get the automated feed uploaded as soon as we have ironed out all the issues.

Once again, i apologise for the delay on this.

Regards

Nick Caulfield
Account Manager
buy.at
nick.caulfield@buy.at

bewise · 28-05-08

Hi Richard/Nick,
I feel your pain on this one. We too have suffered at the mercy of the O2 feed. I think for a merchant the size of O2 it really isn't on to be supplying affiliates with incorrect data, after all we are trying to sell their products for them. By doing this thet are only shooting themselves in the foot.

We have also noticed that the number of minutes or texts are incorrect for certain tariffs which unfairly skew the results on our site.

Also what happened to the feed going directly through to the basket page instead of the phone page, as it currently does? There is no need to make the customer choose the tariff twice?

Sort it out O2

Nick Caulfield · 29-05-08

Hi Bewise,

Hopefully this situation can be resolved once and for all when the feed becomes automated. With it still not being implemented I will put forward the suggestion of deeplinking past the Tariff pages because that can only help increase conversions.

If you have anymore suggestions or like something on another mobile feed that isn't currently incorported on the O2 feed then drop me an e-mail on nick.caulfield@buy.at and i'll try my best to get it implemented.

Regards

Nick Caulfield
Account Manager
buy.at
nick.caulfield@buy.at

tomgould · 29-05-08

Mobile Phone company feeds are always a nightmare as most of the companys supply different quality of data and make it hard to do anything useful.

bewise · 30-05-08

Hi Nick,
thanks for the reply. Sorry if my post sounded sherky yesterday, it just baffles me how merchants seem to make it so difficult for affiliates to promote their products sometimes. They should know that we offer the cheapest CPS of all channels, yet they still don't help us.

Looking forward to the automated feed, will email you with any other suggestions that i have.

dialtosave · 30-05-08

While we're waiting for the feed, maybe the manually edited feed could be manually edited to be correct.

The main problem I have is that there are always several phones advertised as free that are not free and have never been free on a particular tariff. I don't quite understand how lack of automation is really an excuse for wrong information being advertised.

Or is that what you mean by manual as opposed to automated feed?

Sarah Johnson · 30-05-08

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the call back.

As it stands we've made notes of these errors on certain handsets you mentioned and approaching the client to get this updated properly ASAP.

I will get back to you by COP with an update on email and post again when this issue is resolved.

In the meantime - call me on 0191 222 9744 if you have any further issues.

Thanks

dialtosave · 04-06-08

Just a thought Sarah, if the feed is not automatic and always goes via Buy.at on the way to the affiliate, can't you just change the incorrect records in it? Or can't you tell the merchant that you won't provide affiliates with obviously incorrect data, and stop publishing it until they notice the drop in sales and hurry up and fix the problem.

For the other people reading this, I'm referring to the Motorola Z10 and Nokia 8800 Arte both advertised as free handsets on all tariffs, which they definitely are not. And also the Samsung G800 which is advertised but isn't available from the O2.co.uk shop.

dialtosave · 23-06-08

I thought I might remind people that O2 and Buy.at are still publishing a feed that is advertising prices as lower than they really are. And what's bizarre is that the mistakes are the same as they have been for several weeks. What a shame.

dialtosave · 08-07-08

Just to let everyone on the forum know, O2 are apparently working on an automated feed.

They have now updated their manual feed which as of last week appeared to have fixed all the errors.