Since when did o2 become such a massive pain in the bottom when it comes to upgrading?!

[Anonymous]

all this 'fixed tariff' crap. 

i have called o2 today to upgrade my phone earlier, its not due till another 2 weeks. 

they said i would have to pay £12 as it would be an 'early upgrade', which i am fine with, but they wont let me have the tariff i have seen on several other mobile phone dealer sites (£27HTC ONE, £22 HTC MINI), even though its with the same bloody network! i dont want a deal for £32 a month with a ridiculous amound of minutes i will never use!

all my other upgrade have been fine over the last decade with them, but this time they say its all 'fixed' and i have to open a whole new contract on a whole other site, with new login details for the o2 site etc etc. 

why not just give me the contract straight away rather than forcing me to fart arse about opening a new one?! its the same network! 

sorry, but they have completely lost me on this one. 

theres surely no explanation on how this could ever be better for the customer. 

i rung vodafone to sign up with them as soon as i got off the phone to o2. they actually seem to have common sense, not only is the deal offered better for a new customer on there network than it is for me a current customer on o2, they also do loyalty deals etc when upgrading (according to the man on the other end anyway), only problem is, my friend has managed to convince me the 3G coverage with Voda where we are is appaulling, which has sent me back to square one. 

should i go with Voda anyway? is o2 a lost cause these days?

[perksie]

I would go where you get the best coverage and the best price.

Coverage is very important for me.

I prefer to get my phone sim free and just use a sim only tariff.

[Bambino · Accepted solution]

If you can get a better deal elsewhere and still stay with O2, that's the way you should go. O2 now offers a 'fair deal' policy for new and old customers. Loyalty counts for nothing. Your signal and coverage where you live and work should be your main concern, so if you're happy with O2's coverage, just shop around.