Academic references for PhD applications

Hello,

For those of you who went on to do a PhD after your OU studies without a masters in between, how did you get the required two academic references? The OU has told me they only provide one via the central referencing system. I contacted my two level 3 tutors and one says she is only able to provide a reference as part of the central reference system which will contact relevant tutors for their contributions, and the other says she will provide a personal one if she is allowed to do so but it won't be as detailed as the PhD admissions would probably require because of the nature of OU distance study.

Was an OU reference a barrier to your PhD application?