O2 from an Unbiased Customer Perspective - My Online Diary

[MI5]

I've decided to take a Refresh deal on a 4G phone and will treat everything as a normal O2 customer, ie, phone will be O2 locked & branded, I will not root or jailbreak, if anything goes wrong I will contact live chat in the first instance, repairs (if necessary) will be done through O2 etc....

I haven't decided which phone as yet, but it will probably be a mid range handset and I will document my experience from ordering, through to setting up & using, the quality of CS and my thoughts on 4G along with the whole "O2 user journey" throughout my contract period.

I will be completely unbiased and I have the option to compare all services to the other 2 networks I use on a regular basis (Three & EE) along with GG which my wife uses.....

I'm hoping it will be a pleasant and enlightening journey

[MI5]

So it's been a few months since this was updated and that's because there hasn't really been anything to report.
My tariff was reduced by £5 as promised and everything was ticking along nicely, until, the phone decided to update to Android 4.3.
I did the usual update, reset, set-up routine and it was immediately noticeable that the phone was much slower than before (most disappointing as I had put off the update after reading reports of this on the net, but I was assured that the O2 version of the ROM was OK). However, I persevered and added my apps and settings etc only to find that it would take 30 secs (no word of a lie) to respond to any press on the screen. As if this wasn't bad enough, answering calls met with the same lag which mostly resulted in people hanging up before the phone decided to respond to my request for it to answer....
No problem... I'll follow my own advice and reset again, do a firmware repair through PCC and try again.....
Still no better 😞
This time I'll try SUS.... Slightly better but now only a 20 sec delay 😞
So the final straw that has tipped me over the edge is that I have to turn off wifi and back on again every time I unlock the screen in order to get an active data connection.
A repair has been booked through O2 over live chat. "Shak" was most helpful, hopeful and apologetic and had my work order raised within a few mins.
It now only remains for me to package phone and post off to O2's repair centre where he assures me my phone will be restored to its former glory within 3-4 days....
As always - I'll let you know

[Toby]

Thanks for updating us MI5. I'm eager to see how this goes for you.
I'll pass on your kind words about Shak if you'd like?

[MI5]

Please do Toby - There was no fuss, he just got on with it quickly and efficiently
I will also add at this point (you all know why), there is no physical damage to the phone, it has not been dropped, screen not smashed and it has not been within a metre of water

[jonsie]

Sounds to be affected exactly like my S3 was by the update. Although your restore instructions helped a little, the lag and delay is still very noticeable and the phone is now largely redundant. I just use it as a backup phone with a P&G sim although I may use it with a local sim next trip to Thailand.

[MI5]

My thoughts are that the 4.3 update is too memory hungry for phones with only 1gb RAM (there are a lot of phones either running 4.1.2 or 4.4.2 in this category) so I doubt very much that O2 will fix it, but I have to let them try....
If they fail I will push for a replacement phone that is usable as this one really isn't usable at all at the moment, in any form 😞

[MI5]

Phone posted at 1.00pm today - I can track it online via a link given on my confirmation booking email.
One niggle though - The PO seemed to think the pre paid label didn't provide adequate insurance and wanted me to pay £7.40 for SD, for which I declined as I wasn't certain if they were correct or not.
To me, a pre paid label provided to me for returning a phone under warranty should adequately cover the value of the handset, shouldn't it?

[jonsie]

It should cover it to be fair. I think they just try it on in all honesty. I certainly wouldnt have paid the extra.

Let's hope it comes back repaired and not deemed to be water damaged!

[Cleoriff]

Well I for one can't WAIT to hear how all this goes.....

I wonder what @MI5's reaction would be, should he have reports of 'water damage'...or 'cracked screen'..or

(even worse) 'there appears to have been some sort of flashing undertaken'.....

WW3 maybe.....(I wish I was a fly on whatever wall').......

Anyway, patience is a virtue Cleo....

[MI5]

As if they very dare

[viridis]

@MI5 have you tested 4G speeds recently? I've always found the city centre to be very variable with speed, funnily I've found speeds in Longford area to be mental fast.