No network or data after requesting iPhone Data Bolt On be enabled!

[Nai4ety]

Hi. I wonder if anyone else has this issue and if they have any answers as O2 customer service and “2nd line” technical team have been appallingly useless and unsympathetic. I have spent 2 hours on chat and have been tossed around between a total of 7 advisors throughout.

It has been 2 days since I called O2 to have my iPhone data bolt on “enabled” (as apparently that’s why personal hotspot doesn’t work on my iPhone 11 Pro) and I was quoted 24hrs for this to happen.

It has been a day (over 24hrs now) since my network and data just dropped off the face of the earth right while I was using the phone (since around 6-7am). I cannot even call emergency services!
I chatted to O2 after this happened and was told the system was stuck enabling the bolt on and that they would raise the issue to an engineer to be resolved and that it should take up to 24hrs.

I should say I went through all the standard troubleshooting steps both whilst waiting for the bolt on to activate that first day and as soon as I noticed I had no network yesterday. I did as advised by the Guru throughout yesterday - starting and restarting my device and went further by reinserting my SIM card and resetting network settings etc. trusting the engineers would resolve the issue by the end of the day.

Lo and behold a further 24hrs later and the system is still “stuck”, I have no service still despite paying for it, I was given no answers as to why I wasn’t informed dropped network connectivity during this bolt on activation was a possibility nor was my question as to how often this happens or why the system is stuck in the first place even acknowledged let alone addressed!

Since I was getting nothing but “sorry for the inconvenience” and “all I can do is apologise” instead of actual answers or alternative solution I made the suggestion of having the bolt on cancelled. The whole reason one pays for a phone and a service package to go with it is to, dare I say, be reachable and be able to reach people, of which I can do neither without WiFi and even then I cannot call anybody nor can they call me!
I was transferred yet again to supposedly cancel the bolt on activation and was then told it was impossible to do so.

So I suppose O2 advisors/Gurus are in the business of wasting paying customer’s time and making a joke of their justified concerns also?!

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Surely I’m not the only person this has happened to 😞 And if any O2 rep is seeing this - I need answers! Needless to say I will be leaving my SIM only contract with O2 without penalty once this is resolved (if ever!) as well as seeking money back for lack of services rendered.

[Cleoriff]

@Nai4ety 

The idata bolt on is usually an easy thing for O2 to apply, so I have no idea whether the system is glitching or not. In fact I've no idea why it wasn't on at the time of purchase.

You can only persevere with customer services... until you find someone who knows what they are doing.  Also take a look  at this guide https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Apple/Connecting-iPhone-to-Data-Services/m-p/544210#U544210 and see if it helps?

If you have no luck I will tag our managers @Marjo or @Martin-O2  to see if they can help.

They won't be on until Monday though.

Best of luck and welcome to the forum

[MI5]

@Nai4ety 

The iData bolt on should not effect calls and texts so there is another problem here. 

Your SIM may be faulty, so I would try a SIM swap too.

Any O2 shop will do this for you for free. 

[Nai4ety]

@M15

Both technicians I was transferred to seemed convinced that was the issue - they certainly didn’t offer up any alternative options.

I might stop by a store and try that out - my concern would be what further complications that could introduce obviously seeing as how the system is struggling so much with a supposedly straightforward task.

I’m also not sure I can trust any assurances any advisor would give me at this point considering how things have gone so far. It’s a horrible feeling to not be able to trust the people who are trained to help you.

I will consider it. Thank you for the suggestion!

[Nai4ety]

@Cleoriff

I would’ve assumed it’s fairly straightforward and common. I am more appalled at having had no forewarning that this could potentially happen - atleast then I could have let friends, family and work know that I may be unreachable through the usual channels. And if the sticking bolt on activation is not causing the issue then it’s even more disturbing that I have had two technicians tell me it is and not offer up any alternatives 😐

Thank you for the link - these are all troubleshooting steps I have followed since yesterday that have yielded no results I’m afraid 😞

Oh, it wouldn’t have been applied at purchase as I did move to SIM only after having paid off my device plan for a Samsung phone.
Although I did select “iPhone” from the drop down menu in MyO2 when prompted which device I would be using the plan with. I guess that makes not a lick of difference in terms of auto-enabling relevant features.


I had found O2 customer service quite efficient and reliable the very few times I had reason to get in touch over the past 7 or 8 years. Last time I had to contact them was in 2017! I guess times have changed and so has the quality and consistency. The main reason I switched to O2 in the first place was because of their customer service! A shame it’s now a matter of who you get through to just as with every other provider.

Thank you for tagging them, that is much appreciated!

[Marjo]

Hi @Nai4ety , sorry to hear about the frustration you've had with this. 😞 How are you getting on now since you last posted - any progress? If you're still stuck, I'm happy to get one of our Platinum Gurus to have a further look in case they can help sort this out for you!