Poor/Non-existent signal for months at a time, just to be told they're working on it, year on year.

[benfphillips]

Hello all,

I'll keep it short, and to the point as much as I can.

My expenditure with O2 between work and business is a few pounds shy of £200 per month. I live in the South West of England where the signal isn't usually too bad. maybe 5-10mbit. no 5G.

For the last two summers from June-July onwards it becomes a total joke. Web pages, even single ones don't load. Speed tests (when they work) are awful. Often 0.05mbit down and 0.02mbit up. We're genuinely in the realms of 56k dial up from the 90s or WORSE.

I complained last July to be told (I can see it gets busy and we ARE working in that are to improve it). 

This year comes around and somehow the service is even worse and today was really the straw that broke the camels back.

I've been ill this week, unfortunately involving a hospital trip and multiple GP visits. I woke up to see the low electricity notice. I make a drink, I sit at my desk to address the power issue and my electricity goes off.

I pull out my phone and I cannot load the British Gas site or app on any one of the two phones and two iPad pros I own. In fact, I cannot load ANY site at all. I reboot all devices, I toggle airplane mode and mobile data on and off a few times to get a useable connection. No joy.

I then end up having to walk around the stressing when its hammering it down looking for a free Wi-Fi from someone BT/EE internet connection. After about 10 minutes I find out, I'm able to login to BG and make the payment so that I can have electric again.

Sure, it's an extreme case but not being able to load pages, or watch netflix, or youtube videos when my devices are ALL reporting full bars of 4G internet (4/5 can't remember how many) on a REGULAR basis is really starting to bug me.

Is there a department at O2 to speak to about this? Are there options to cancel airtime contacts? I don't care about paying for the devices as that's fair but the airtime contracts are an absolute joke.

This isn't just a problem in/around where I live which is Truro and arguably should/probably does have the best mobile infrastructure.

The irony is that I had this issue last July of no internet data at all, went to Spain on holidays and it worked perfectly. How Malaga can provide a better infrastructure when they're getting hammered with tourists, yet Truro who get very seasonable tourists, of much smaller numbers just cannot cope is beyond me.

I'm not really one for asking for compensation or complaining as such but this is REALLY becoming bothersome. Is there recourse or is it the old we'll give you your airtime costs back, but disregard the expensive and totally unusable device you pay to use the airtime plans on, you know, the one that regularly don't function for days at a time, despite reporting the maximum possible number of 4G bars possible.

[MI5]

@benfphillips 

Pay off the devices and you are free to leave penalty free.

Guide: How does O2 Refresh work? 

[Bambino]

@benfphillips Get Pay & Go sims from the other networks, find the one that gives you the best signal, and switch providers. Why have you put up with this issue year on year and not done anything about it?

[benfphillips]

@MI5 I think you are maybe disregarding contract lengths these days. Am, I allowed to drop airtime plans, yet still pay off the device part on the monthly? It sounds unlikely.

I'm also not of the believe that paying the full/remaining price of two iPads and an iPhone in one huge payment (totally negating the 0% interest monthly payment options provided) and switching to another provider that is actually able to offer the service provided is the most sensible/cost effective way to approach this.

@Bambino I don't mean to be rude, but it's been a little over 12 months. I think it was July ish time last year. I immediately reported the issue to O2 who told me "we can see speed in that area is sometimes slow, we are expanding our network there and doing everything we can to improve it". I live in Truro, Cornwall, with a whopping population of 23,047 residents. Things seemed fine until the weather improves and here we go again..

I'm not sure about you but when someone says (especially probably a multi billion £ market cap company) to you the issue is known about and actively being addressed, you wouldn't expect the same issue to rear its head again the next summer? I suspected it's tourist related, but cannot confirm. We also have no 5G etc down here yet.

"year on year" is a little bit of a reach, it's also putting the onus on me to fork out the device values in full, negating the benefit of the 0% interest monthly payments, unlocking the devices and find a new provider, all because O2 cannot handle the summer peak. Yet you can fly to Malaga, get 5G and a working service almost anywhere you can go, yet in the UK with O2 I can't even load a single letter of ANY webpage.

[MI5]

@benfphillips 

Once the device plan is paid, either after the contracted length, or before, even after one month of taking the contract, you can leave penalty free. 

Additionally, after two years, you can cancel the airtime and continue to pay the device plan monthly.

No confusion from me at all. 👍

[benfphillips]

No confusion?

I'm not sure what to call it then, quite frankly.

If I wish to leave due to abysmal service I'd be forced to cough up the entire amount of the devices in one lump sum, therefore also nullifying one of the attractions of a monthly based device contract. Even though said devices seem to be without internet for several months a year whilst outside of the house.

EDIT: - For clarity, the O2 site tells me even at this very moment how amazing my indoor and outdoor 4G experience would be at my address and the entire town, despite admitting problems last year and again in July of this year.

I have zero issue with paying for the devices, I just think the idea of having devices I can't use outside of the house, given they're "mobile" devices on "mobile" or "cellular" plans seems a bit off.

It seems my only option would be going through CS and the complaints procedure. There's a twitter thread of messages so there is at least some paper trail.

Given the above, I'm assuming you'd just pull the 2/3k out of your behind, pay it with a smile and look for another provider, whilst being 100% happy about the whole situation and also losing one of the benefits of the monthly contract being the 0% interest MONTHLY payments on the devices.

[MI5]

@benfphillips 

I'll leave you to it.

I've given you the correct and accurate facts, what you do with them is up to you.

[benfphillips]

Frankly your comments read "lol, you're screwed".

Yes, I can pay off the devices in full, therefore losing the contractual benefits, as well as not being able to use the cellular part of the contract for large periods at a time.

Your omission about any of the other contractual points of obligations from both sides says an awful lot. Sometimes the detail is in what isn't said, rather than what is.

Zero suggestion about contacting CS and possible recourse.

I'll just nip down the road and grab a chocolate tea pot to drink my tea from whilst I consider my options.

Thanks.

[Bambino]

@benfphillips Your initial post saying 'year on year' implied that you were having this issue for longer than 12 months, hence my initial reply. It's not my intention to be rude either, but what's the point of paying your device plan with 0% interest if you can't use the phone? I don't see that as a money saving deal. Also, O2 devices have been sold unlocked since 2018, so I don't think that will be a problem for you.

Go through the complaints procedure with customer service if you choose, but bear in mind that the average response time to a formal complaint from what we've been told is 8 weeks, and the chances of your complaint being resolved that way is extremely slim.

As an aside related to one of your comments, you get a better signal and 5G in Malaga because you're probably roaming on a network that has nothing to do with O2.

If you can afford to pay off your devices and move to a provider that will give you better coverage, in my opinion, that's what you should do. If that's not an option, you're stuck for the duration of your contract.

[benfphillips]

I will be in contact with cs. I've just tired them off an email with the twitter thread. More the fool for me to thinking O2 could upgrade the network in what they admit to be an area that suffers with data issues.

Apologies, I've just noticed I wrote year in year in the title, despite it spanning a little more than 2, it's not entirely accurate in the grand scheme of things.

At the end of the day I just want the damn thing to work, ya know?