Zero signal in the village of Yateley, Hampshire

[Anonymous]

Hi.

I'm very new to this, so please forgive me if this has already been posted. 

I live in the village of Yateley in Hampshire, and for the last 6 weeks I have had no signal on my o2 phone.  I have been a customer of O2 for a number of years and never had an issue like this before. 

We have a very close community in Yateley, and it appears that I am not alone with this issue, in fact numerous, possibly hundreds of residents are having the same problems.  We have reported these issues to O2 countless times, but keep being fobbed off with excuses, such as  "it's your sim card" "It's your phone" "There are no issues with service in your area"  "O2 don't guarantee you service in your home" After many long telephone calls with O2 we have now found out there are mast issues, which have been down since late May 2015. 

As a pay monthly customer, I can't use my phone to send or receive text messages or phone calls at home or anywhere in the Yateley area, other residents are in the same situation, some worse, as their business contact is their O2 phone, meaning they can't receive any calls for their business.

Quite honestly, I'm getting sick and fed up of having to pay for a contract I can't use, and many others are feeling the same.  O2 aren't offering any compensation, as they are telling us there are no problems. 

So...  My questions are: Does anyone know whether there have been similar issues in other areas, and how were they resolved by O2, and secondly, who can we write to at O2, at the highest level to get a proper answer to our questions and to discuss compensation to customers?  We won't give up on this!

Many thanks.

[MI5]

Couldn't agree more - have you tried the official complaints service?
http://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain

[carpets]

Not yet I haven't but that will be the next step. I understand if parts have to be ordered that there will be a small delay but 3 - 6 weeks that is just a bit excessive! I will update when I have contacted them and received an answer

[jonsie]

Others have got out of a contract and been allowed to leave without penalty after prolonged periods without service. You do need to go down the complaints route though first.

[carpets]

Been in touch touch and the agent I spoke to did seem a little bit more sympathetic, not that it helps with the issue but more understanding all the same.  She agreed it was an unacceptable length of time to be without service without the aid of wifi and assured me she would escalate this herself and advised I do the same via their complaints process and sent me the address rather than looking for it myself.  

They won' t know what hit them when they receive it!

You would think with all these complaints they would just push to get it done to get us out of their hair.  Maybe they like talking to us!

Let's hope we can get something sorted but will go to the ombudsman if not.  Don' t want to really leave due to the principle of all this but if I don' get anywhere with this I may have no choice 

[Anonymous]

hi @carpets and @Anonymous

   You may already be aware of this , but I'll post it just in case. O2 had  to remove their mast due to the landlord redeveloping the land and they have maximised the nearby masts to increase signal where they can.  

Service Update

We recently decommissioned a mast in Yateley which has resulted in a reduction of coverage around that area. Unfortunately this couldn’t be prevented and we're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. We have maximised signal for surrounding sites and we're working to make a new mast live as soon as we can. Did you know that O2 TU Go lets you make and receive calls and texts using your mobile number when connected to Wi-Fi?  It’s available on phones, tablets and laptops. Click on the link here http://www.o2.co.uk/apps/tu-go
Updated 10:30 (refreshed hourly). Recent faults might not show yet.

[jonsie]

To me, that's a good argument for leaving the contract. I can fully understand a mast being decommissioned but this has impacted on everyone in the area. It's a change from the original good signal over a long period of time with no end date given as to when the mast goes live. There can really be no argument given the facts.

[MI5]

Definitely a case for an official complaint http://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain