O2 No service/Not Registered with Network

[Anonymous]

I've had this problem now going on for more than a week. Basically, i was a a little late on my payment and as you know they temporary bar your sim to restrict outgoing calls until payment is upto date. Payment was made including a further month in advance and the bars were lifted. But strangely, my handset will no longer connect to o2's network anymore. I'm on emergency calls only, and attempting to make a call produces a message "Not Registered on Network".  Considering i'm in a 24month contract with them, i find this a little bizarre.

Now i've checked area coverage several times, all is fine. The o2 Sim works in other phones fine and i'm able to make calls and other sims work in the handset too without problems. But the handset that actually came with the contract (Samsung Galaxy Note 1 aka N7000) doesn't let me use o2 at all. At first i spoke to several "supposed" o2 Gurus's and they have been absolutely disgraceful in their support. One claiming the Samsung N7000 isn't a Galaxy phone and another saying Vodafone has put a restriction on the handset which is even more bizarre since i've never been with Vodafone lol. They sent me a replacement sim, even though i knew it wasn't sim related. But upon receiving the new sim and activating it (it's been way over 24hrs) i still have the same problem. No Service/Not Registered with Network....

But yet the new sim works fine in other handsets. Now, i've contacted o2 support via landline and they tell me there is no bars on my account and everything is fine as expected. So they assume it's a handset malfunction, which it can't be since everything has been working flawless for around 1.5yrs. Their bar on my sim for late payment was when this started. How can my contract handset now refuse to use their network? Is my handset barred? Now you'd think they would know this anyway....seems they don't. So in a nutshell i'm paying for an o2 contract that i can't even use on the handset it was bundled with. I've attempted factory resets on the device to no avail....

Thanks for your time and any input you could produce.

[MI5]

I can't suggest anything that you've not done or tried already... The other SIMs you've tried in the Note, are they O2 SIMs?
The only thing I can think of is that O2 have IMEI blocked the Note.

[Anonymous]

No they are not o2 sims. That's my only thought too, that they may have blocked my handset but for some reason they don't seem to be aware of this. What the hell do i need to do to convince them? A hammer across the head? They must have caused the problem after all.

[MI5]

You need more O2 SIM's to try in the handset (best to try in store in front of staff), this will prove if O2 block as other network SIMs work fine.

[Anonymous]

Let us know when (if) they sort it out, and I'd be demanding compensation for loss of services you are paying for.

[Anonymous]

One thing I have noticed since they asked for IMEI of the phone is that the IMEI displayed on the battery is different to the one shown on screen.

Upon inspecting these numbers, the one under the battery does in fact correspond to my handset (Galaxy Note 1), although the one displayed on screen is in fact in relation to a Galaxy S3. This can't be normal? This handset was purchased online via Carphone Warehouse bundled into the 24month contract i started.

[MI5]

That is definitely not correct in any way. The IMEI number should never change......

[jonsie · Accepted solution]

Give customer service the correct IMEI number and get them to check restrictions on that number.

[Anonymous]

Well after much more messing about trying to contact o2 (25mins of waiting for a human being to answer) I actually got through to someone that actually has some intelligence.

As I said my "Brand New" handset at the time that came with my 24Month contract had 2 IMEI's. One printed under battery and one that's programmed into the handset.

Long and the short of it is, the IMEI i'm using is blacklisted as far back as 2004 and again in 2011. The CS person assured me it will be lifted as it had nothing to do with me. But it does make you wonder how the hell this could of occurred.

The Galaxy Note was released back in 2011 so how the hell can Carphone Warehouse give me a brand new handset programmed with an almost 10yr old blacklisted IMEI? I've been using the phone for a almost 2yrs now, and I only just discover this due to the recent restriction put in place.

I'll be contacting Carphone Warehouse about this asap as either it's a computer glitch in the programming of IMEI's or something more sinister is operating. Be warned.

[MI5]

Something very fishy going on here......

Has the phone ever gone in for repair anywhere?

I'd be back to CPW for a replacement phone with matching numbers, If I were you.....