How not to do it

I've mentioned O2 support here before, with mixed feelings. It seems that it's a case of 'the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak' generally, and my recent experiences support this.

Some months ago, I swapped my mobile phone (a dysfunctional XDA Exec) for a nice new Orbit2. This had all the functionality I might want, after I paid for extra Internet access, right down to reading email etc via a VPN link back in to not only my own work servers, but also connecting to our clients' systems.

After a couple of weeks, it stopped working. Knowing that I'd hacked things unmercifully, I didn't worry too much about this for a while. Then, this week, we've had need to prove the connections once more, so I set about fixing the phone links. Everything looks perfect, we know the server end works, but the phone would not connect. Having seen problems with a phone purchased from Three, who were able to confirm that they didn't support VPN (and who got the phone and contract back in very short order), I decided to check with O2 to see if they had any ideas. Their reply astonished me:

"You won't be able to set up a VPN link from your O2 Xda. to your company network. This is because this facility is available to our business customers. As you're our (sic) offline customer, you won't be able to create a VPN link."

Hold on - this used to work, it still does work for one colleague with an O2 (non-business) phone, and it was clearly specified when I ordered the phone. Now I'm happy to work with O2 to resolve this, but what gets my ire is their insistence on sending boilerplate replies to my emails, just reiterating the above. So far, I've been told twice that the subject will be passed on to specialist advisors, but I still get the same emails. Do these people have any idea of customer service? Do they realise that no-way will I be returning to an O2 contract if there is not even an attempt to manage this problem?

It's clearly not a technical issue, more a bureaucratic one. This suggests at least one solution (no, not firing all the support desk people - they do a hard enough job), but I'm going to let O2 find it. Or not, as the case may be, in which case they go down another step and lose even more future custom.