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My daughter wants to disown me my wife says no more cooked food. Please help

Anonymous
Not applicable

Dear Big People at O2

 

I have a daughter who is 16 but believes she's 24. She's threatening to disown me, partly because I've moved to Ely near Cambridge. My wife hasn't quite reached my daughters level of frustration yet but I am now having to eat mostly microwave meals from the local supermarket. 

 

So what has this got to do with O2 and posting to this help forum? I'm glad you asked. You see, for my daughter, moving to a new town is stressful. All the friends she's grown fond of are now living three hours away. She misses them and apparently it's all my fault. She tries to BBM them in the morning on her way to school but they only get her message when she arrives back home (wireless zone) after school. She could of course text them but who texts nowadays? She can't Instagram photos of Ely to them, or use social media. It's very frustrating for her and it's all my fault. 

 

She blames me for not checking what the 3G/4G coverage in Ely was like before we moved here. I, like her, thought that as Ely was only a few miles from Cambridge (a hotbed of technological research and a nursery for the smartest computer scientists in the world) that 3G/4G would be a given. I was secretely even hoping we might get 5 or 6G but alas, we get none of that. What we did get is a symbol that I have not seen since I moved from Johannesburg, South Africa six years ago and possibly three years before then. It's a symbol that I had thought had gone the way of the fax or even the dreaded telex machine

 

Imagine my horror when she pointed out the "resurrected-from-the-dead "gprs" symbol to me on her trusty old iPhone 4 a day after we settled into our new home. "It must be a temporary problem dear. I'm sure no one uses gprs anymore" I said, quite sure that her technology obsessed Dad was right.

 

I started to panic a little when my lovely golden iPhone 5S displayed the same - gprs - symbol. "This cannot be real" and "I am living in a first world country" were thoughts that crossed my mind many times as I tried to sleep that night. I kept checking my phone throughout the night, hoping that the gprs symbol would just go away and in it's place would be the much loved 4G symbol that had graced my phone in Berkshire in a little town that has a high street with all of 7 stores. How wrong I was.

 

The next morning and the one after that and the one after that, the gprs symbol seemed to be etched into my phone. It simply would not go away no matter where I went. I drove around Ely holding my phone in my hand to see where I could find 4G or even 3G but there was not a single place that made me happy. Of course it's true to say that I did not cover every single square inch of Ely and for this I do apologise. I could have done better but although small, Ely is not that small. 

 

I came to the O2 website to look at the coverage map hoping that perhaps my iPhone was misbehaving and in reality you really did have 3/4G coverage and I was just being a little anxious, but no, to my surprise, your coverage map showed that apparently my house and almost the whole of Ely was covered in glorious 3G but unfortunately no 4G. Not only was my area listed as having wonderful 3G but it was also said to have 3G indoors and outdoors - whooohooo I thought, I knew it. I could tell my daughter it was only a temporary problem and soon we would have 3G. Perhaps O2 were upgrading to 4G I told her. 

 

Day after day I would wake up, turn off the wireless and the dreaded gprs symbol would make it's appearance. Why don't you use wireless you ask? Glad you asked.. Well I do when I can but you see, because I am in a new area I don't know the roads very well and just the other day the trip to Milton - which is just 11 miles away and about 24 minutes on a good morning - took me about an hour with me driving through Suffolk and god knows where. Howcome you ask... Well, without 3/4G your precious and trusty GPS on your golden smartphone simply does not work with a "gprs" connection. It simply times out and no matter how much you may curse and moan it really does not help. You simple cannot get directions. I would hate to think what would happen in a medical emergency as I actually have no idea how to get to the closest hospital without directional aid from a GPS. 

 

So I turn to the forums for help. Could you please update your coverage map for the area of Ely to reflect that you have actually made a mistake and that for Ely and all the way up the A10 to Milton there is in fact no 3G, 2G, or Edge coverage and that the "gprs" symbol that you do show is actually for decoration purposes alone as it's pretty much useless. My daughter still wants to disown me and move back to Berkshire and my wife says it's microwave dinners until she can get 3G on her phone. 

 

As you can see it's a difficult situation for me. I love my daughter & wife and being Portuguese I really do like freshly cooked meals. I'd prefer not to move to one of the other networks, I've been with you through five generations of iPhone, travelled with you to all parts of the globe and you've never let me down - except for that time in South Africa where you surprised me with an £800+ bill when you charged me £8.00 per MB but I've forgiven you for that mishap. I'd like to stay, I've on occasion used Priority Pass and I've even got a Pizza for a Quid from Domino's which made me very happy. 

 

When you do update the map to show we only enjoy "gprs" coverage in Ely and surrounds please point out that the "gprs" symbol is only for decoration purposes as in reality it actually has no practical value and one day - hopefully in the new future - when you have time and lots and lots of money could I  beg you to help my home situation by placing some 4G towers in the area around Ely. I promise to tell all my work colleagues when you do and try and convince them to move to O2.

 

Sincerely

Malaguetas

Message 1 of 90
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gemz4the1
Level 23: Casual Specs
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Registered:

Hello @Anonymous 

I thought I held the record for the long wind posts but clearly you have beaten me now. Crazy

We can't really do anything to help with the network in your area as we are O2 customers.

With regards to your family life, your daughter needs to realise that there is more to life that BBMing all of her friends.  A few years ago when we didn't have BBM, how did people get in contact? They called eachother or they met up with eachother.  I know I may sound like a bit of a hypocrit, but there is more to life than phones and internet.  It shouldn't get to such a point where it is causing trouble within your family.

I really do hope that you sort things out soon as life is too short to spend it falling out with family. heart

Message 11 of 90
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Anonymous
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@Anonymous    Life throws up tough choices at times, and what could be tougher than having to choose between  O2 and Wife/daughter.  I know what I'd do, but it's not for me to prescribe a solution for others. Zipped    But one thing is clear - you've got to decide, and quickly, who wears the pants (and pays the bills) in your situtation.

 

 

Gerry

Message 12 of 90
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Anonymous
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Well well well, thank you for all your replies, humorous, serious and everything inbetween.

 

I have news to report. Today I went for a walk around my house and I discovered a delightful little childrens park about 750m (metres not miles) from my house. Imagine my unbridled job to discover glorious 3G on the left swing (facing the road that is)

 

I smiled for I had so missed that 3G symbol and here it was staring at me. So how good was it? The attached image shows how good - superb. I moved to the right swing and the same thing and then onto the bench about 10m away and the same thing again. Joy joy joy. I immediately walked home to tell my daughter only to find the dreaded "gprs" symbol return about 300m from my house. Curses. Anyway I suggested to my daughter that there was a special place she could go to after school where she could BBM her friends back in that other county. She looked at me with a smirk that said quite a bit without a word being uttered at all. 

 

Perhaps I could suggest we purchase a tent on Saturday and she could move her belongings to that little park. Perhaps I shouldn't. 

 

Anyway I just wanted to apologise to O2 for saying their map was false when it said there was 3G coverage all over Ely. The truth is there is a children's park which has very good 3G signal and I think the coverage map should be updated to reflect that. After all fair is fair. 

 

One last thing. I got lost coming back from Aldi. Going there was no problem as I got directions while in my home and connected to wireless. Returning home however was rather different. The connection varied between "Service Unavailable" and "gprs" - I'm not sure which is worse. Perhaps O2 should have a new connection symbol called "lost"

 

I'm sure I'll eventually learn all the roads around here and that some of my nagivational issues will sort themselves out but I'd just thought I'd keep you informed of all the places O2 insists they have 3G coverage where in fact they don't. Oh, the Ely trains station is another one. Got lost there too. 

 

I look forward to the weekend. Perhaps I'll just turn my phone off or play chess.

 

Thanks for reading and keep smiling.

Malaguetas

 

Message 13 of 90
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Anonymous
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Oh no not at all. 

 

I've enjoyed reading the responses and am quite amazed at quite how many people responded and read my post. 

 

The saga continues. Please read my latest post

Message 14 of 90
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Anonymous
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Thanks for your response. 

 

I'm rather happy in this beautiful country and have no appetite to go back other than on holiday. I even love the weather - mostly. Living in a country where everything works so well leads one to complain about the most trivial of things like 3G connectivity. Of course life is more important than 3G after all there is cricket and rugby and fish and chips and a few other things that are as or more important. 

 

I just thought I'd vent a little.

 

The saga continues however. Read my latest post on how things worked out today and thanks for your comment slight_smile

Message 15 of 90
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Anonymous
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Delighted you have found at least one small area where you can get good reception @Anonymous ,  but all joking aside, sir, you do need to be careful .  Men who hang around childrens playgrounds with mobile phones taking photos can be very seriously misunderstood.  

 

Gerry

 

PS By the way there was no image attached to your message, at least it does not show up on my Internet Explorer.

Message 16 of 90
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Cleoriff
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Hi @Anonymous  and welcome back with your update.

You can only imagine how delighted I am that you found 3G....

Unfortunately I am not sure that hanging around a childrens park near the swings is the way forward LOL

I am also sure that the park keeper would move you and your tent on....

I look forward to hearing the next episode in this sorry saga. Did you manage to get a home cooked meal yet?

Edit: no image shown....

Veritas Numquam Perit

Girl in a jacket
Message 17 of 90
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Anonymous
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Thank you for your response. 

 

I hope they send me some vouchers from a restaurant that doesn't microwave their food either but I'm not holding my breath (for the vouchers that is) 

 

I like O2, they've been good to me so I don't think I'd change just for 3 or 4G but having a network coverage map that is clearly not accurate irks me and I'd like them to fix it. 

 

Anyway, the saga continues. Read my latest post on how things worked out today and thanks for your comment!

Message 18 of 90
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Anonymous
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Hehehe well, thank you for your comment. Let's hope it gets better then I can stop writing long-winded posts like last night's one or today's fresh one. 

Message 19 of 90
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Anonymous
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Hehehee a man who understands by dilema! 

 

Thanks for your response. I'm taken aback by how quickly people responded, replied and read the post. I had quite a chuckle. 

 

The saga continues. Read my latest post on how things worked out today and once again, thanks for your comment slight_smile

Message 20 of 90
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