Persistent signal issues at home address and local area, rendering phone effectively useless

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I joined O2 in November 2015, based on good coverage reported on the coverage checker for my home postcode. Unfortunately, my phone is next to useless at home, and in the immediate streets surrounding my house. I either get "Network not available" or "No signal found for mobile networks" when trying to dial out, or call quality so poor and intermittent that it's effectively unusable. Even outside in the garden, the phone is basically unusable. I estimate over half the calls I make drop before they are finished too.

This is not a handset issue. I had a Microsoft Windows phone from work on 02 which had exactly the same problem. It has become a standing joke among friends and colleagues when they need to contact me. My daughter has a Samsung phone on my contract and that too is very poor at home. My current work phone is on EE, and it has no signal issues at all, indoors or out.

What can I do about this? I am 7 months into a 2 year contract and I feel I am paying for a service that I am not getting. There is also a massive gap between the service suggested by the coverage checker at my postcode, versus what I am actually getting. The result is a phone that, unless I leave the house, I cannot use, and have to borrow my wife's iPhone (on Vodafone) or use my EE work phone to be able to use a basic service. I am not even talking about data here, just simple voice calls.

I have installed TuGo, but that has limitations in that incoming calls often get routed directly to voicemail without the phone ringing. The point also being that according to the coverage checker, I should have good voice and data (2G, 3G and 4G) at this postcode. I can't even make calls reliably. 

Any advice gratefully received.

Many thanks

Dan

[MI5]

As always, the advice is to try PAYG sim cards before committing to a contract.

[Anonymous]

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@MI5 wrote:
As always, the advice is to try PAYG sim cards before committing to a contract.

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or use your 14 day cancellation period however its no good if you start with fantastic signal which then deteriorates to being unusable

[MI5]

I agree. If signal deteriorates after a time, that's a different scenario altogether.

[Anonymous]

Hi Gindygoo, sadly not within 14 days... 😞 thanks for your help though  

[Anonymous]

@redtitbit... thank you thats really useful info 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous... thank you thats really useful info 

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No problem. Good luck

[Anonymous]

my partner is on o2, had a great signal, which is what made me change, then in the last month our signal is dead, I'm told even the local MP has jumped on it to try to help the local businesses who are in dire straights

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I had exactly the same issue.....took out a contract based on good coverage but that all changed 6 months into it.

What I did was raise a complaint through the link and after pointing out they are breaching their own T's & C's such as section 2.2 "You're entitled to the quality of service generally given by a competent mobile telecommunications service provider, using its reasonable skill and care" and  "Sometimes technical issues or outages on our Network can occur. If something goes wrong, we'll try to fix it quickly" along with other conditions I felt they haven't kept to, O2 have offered me a vastly reduced early termination fee or the free return of my unlocked handset.

Stay firm and stand your ground.....O2 are not gods and the law does apply to them

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Thanks for this info @Anonymous. Good to hear you got a resolution...

[gindygoo]

@Anonymous it sounds like your whole community are affected, this gives you a stronger case. Make sure everyone affected uses the link on the live issues map that reports the signal not being as advertised.

Here's a snap of what I mean. You see where it says "I disagree".? 

Follow the advice of @Anonymous as well. Which is very interesting.

Do come back and let us know if you manage to sort it out or not.

[Anonymous]

Oh I am signed up for the updates -

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So you see we are powerless to do anything.... we rely on our mobiles these days so it's hopeless