O2Home Update

[Daddydoink]

I've just been told that an email or letter is due to be with people next week or week after, explaining about refunds and what to do with equipment.

Best regards,

[PhoneChanger]

Shame its come to this, hopefully they will perhaps offer a solution to continue to use the equipment with alternates, so example changing the firmware on the Samsung Camera so it can be used with the Samsung App (or smart things)

[PhoneChanger]

28th February is the shut down date. Letter received this morning

[pgn]

Some info here on what will still work after O2 Home is terminated:

https://home.o2.co.uk/en-GB/#collapse_close_devices_that_will_work

[Cleoriff]

@pgnI have just read that link and whilst it's 'great' that they are fully refunding payments made.....it's not so good when you realise you have to remove everything you don't want yourself (no doubt leaving holes in your walls etc) Then you have to find a specialist recycling centre.

The gadgets that can be used with other compatible stuff will incur further cost from the customer.  

Bit of a cheek if you ask me....:smileysad:

[pgn]

Yes, @Cleoriff - looks like O2 are reducing services left, right and centre at the moment, to concentrate (hopefully!) on their core function: mobile telephone service provision. 

Not good news for anyone who decided to take up O2 Home, despite the fringe benefit of 20% discount on their Airtime bill(s).

[MI5]

As we've been saying for years, they need to concentrate of providing a phone service instead of faffing about with all the extra unrelated rubbish!

[pgn]

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@MI5 wrote:
As we've been saying for years, they need to concentrate of providing a phone service instead of faffing about with all the extra unrelated rubbish!

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Couldn't agree more, @MI5. 

[gmarkj]

Seems as though they have removed the website already!
The above link does not work (times out), as does the link from the o2 banner (Shop-Digital Services-o2 Smart Home).
So, can someone (@Martin-o2, @MercedesS, @Marjo) check what's going on?
I disagree actually re concentrating on core services. It is (or should be) obvious that they haven't been doing this (coverage,network access and amount of spectrum they own). Where they (used) to be able to differentiate themselves was the extra services - see Tu and World Chat as two examples.
Unfortunately they have a history of trying to broaden out but after a small trial give up and move on.
This entry into the Smart Home was actually a good idea I think. More people are interested in this, specifically the security part and had they priced this correctly (and opened it up to a wider area) I think they could have done really well.
There were the normal teething issues, but the experience overall was very good. The flexibility of getting the parts you wanted was really good.
Plus they could well have done some sort of tie-in to the mobile side of things - free access to your hub for example.
I for one am disappointed that they are closing the service, and will be looking for a way to do this myself.

[gmarkj]

Contacted o2 on twitter yesterday to report the issue and they advised to call customer services.

Tried the website last night and it was working, so must have given someone a push to fix.

The most annoying thing (apart from the service closing at all) is that the most important items are the ones that will no longer work (alarms, smoke detectors and cameras). In the case of the cameras, these will also have required the most amount of work to install and will probably also cause the biggest problem on removal.

Why is it that these items cannot be made to work with other hubs once the o2 service closes? Reading up on the different types of hub that are now available most of the ways to connect the o2 kit are covered.

So if it is a security question, why not give the user the choice of whether to replace the hub and keep the kit or start again? 

All of this just leaves a sour taste on the palate really.