Why is O2 not prioritising fixing my calling issue in Italy?

[jschoete]

I recently switched to O2 before spending three weeks in Italy, thinking it would be great since I could use my phone and data like in the UK.

Man, was I wrong... First of all, data stopped connecting most of the time after the first few days. I had to restart my phone multiple times to have the slightest hope of it randomly reconnecting. Sometimes it just didn't (mind that I was in the middle of Florence, so no way that there wouldn't be any reach).

On top of that, I was unable to receive or make calls, something I found out after my voicemail telling me I had missed calls. This also includes not being able to send or receive SMS text messages as I found out later.

I contacted O2 customer service, in the only way possible to me since I could not call: Facebook Messenger. This was painfully slow, with their side replying only three or four messages per day.

I believe the mobile data issue got fixed (although I did not move around much the last few days to properly test it).

The calling issue however, did not. After O2 removing a "roaming bar" (why is that even a thing???), I waited 24h with multiple restarts of my phone, and I also tried selecting a network myself, instead of automatically doing so. Nothing worked. Now O2 said I may need to wait 10 working days before technical support reaches out to me??? How was this not technical support to begin with, and why do I need to spend even longer without calls? How is this not a priority: O2 is clearly not respecting their side of the contract! How do I escalate this to obtain a sure and fast solution?

I also reached out twice in terms of refunding this month's "service" and both times they basically ignored it... I'm seriously thinking of leaving O2! Never had this problem with Three!

Finally, a minute ago, to log in to this O2 Forum (or Community or whatever), I had to receive two text messages from O2 with a code in them, which I DID receive...? So why is that working but not any other kind of text messages (or calls)??

[jschoete]

Oh I have Pay As You Go, could that be the problem? I can have a look to switch to a contract instead...

[Enlli]

Almost certainly. We have many reports of PAYG problems in Italy since they closed 3G

[Cleoriff]

After all that, I'm laughing that @jschoete is PAYG.

One important question I failed to ask at the beginning of the thread 😂

Oh well, a lesson learnt.🙄

@jschoeteYou could change to a sim only contract and have 4G calling available to you.

[jschoete]

@Enlli @Cleoriff I went ahead and changed my contract to a rolling plan, instead of the Pay As You Go. I'll update here if that doesn't work. If I don't come back, then it probably worked. I don't know why they didn't propose this plan to me from the start tbh.

[MI5]

Unlikely to make any difference as it's still PAYG with all it's limitations.

[Enlli]

I suspect the rolling plan to which you have changed is still classed as PAYG by O2

You would have to go onto contract and that would need a credit / affordability checks.

[pgn]

My Google Pixel 6a (contract) also fails the O2 validation check for 4g-calling readiness, @jschoete - one of the O2 guys here who left O2 a while back said the IMEI lookup tables behind that page are woefully out-of-date. 🤷

In any case, as mentioned by others on this thread, as an O2 PAYG (ie, not Contract) customer (Big Bundle or Rolling Plan), you'd not have access to 4g-calling anyway. Those of my family group who were in Germany in August last year, all PAYG, one Pixel 6a, one Pixel 4a, got on fabulously with WhatsApp and data roaming, and the Pixel 6a user was in Germany again this August, equally no issue from the south-east near Czechia to the very north-west of the country near Denmark, including several days in Berlin.

[Cleoriff]

@pgn 

You were querying the Google 6a and Wifi/4G calling way back in January 2023 in this thread:

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Android/Pixel-6a-4G-Calling-Support/m-p/1599261 

I would have thought, nearly 2 years later, this device should have been compatible?!