i'd like to cancel o2 and here's why

[Anonymous]

I'll just take you through chronologically:

1. Went to the O2 store, spoke to the agent there, showed him my phone HTC One Black, asked if the 4g in my area is good and confirmed that everything will work on my phone. Listened to their tarriffs and decided to take my time.

2. Went home, browsed the internet for O2 tarriffs and actually found one on the website called o2 4g simplicity 12 months plan with 1gb data for a discounted 16gbp. Great! 

3. Purchased the plan, entered all my details and set up my account. Purchase was made on 26th February.

4. On the 27th February my order was marked as "Complete", so obviously I went to check my post - nothing there.

5. On the 28th February I went to check the post - nothing there. What the hell i thought, First Class Mail taking 2 days after dispatch? Weird. Went to see my account and guess what? I've already been billed on the 28th. Talked to the O2 support via the Chat, complaied about not getting the sim card, was promised I'll get it next day.

6. On the 1st of March, Saturday, there was obviously no sign of the sim card in the post. I contacted O2 again, and finally they dispatched a new sim card. 

7. On Monday, 3rd of March, i got the new sim card, but since it was a replacement I had to go through the procedure of sim swap. No problem, done that. Noticed that my phone doesn't connect to 4G. Went to the O2 4G setup page which after 50 attempts and 3 days always returned with a 500 error.

8. Contacted the O2 support again, explained that I can't seem to activate 4G on the phone and the website setup is broken. They told me - don't worry, we activated it on our end and you'll get 4G tomorrow. During the conversation I also noticed I can add 5gb of data bolt-on for 5 pounds! Awesome, lets do it i thought!

9. Sigh, tomorrow again... On 4th of March... guess what? No 4G. And I'm getting familiar with all the O2 staff at the chat. Contacted the Guru's. First one told me to reboot the device, eject the sim and so on. Duh. After I told him what the problem was I suggested maybe there's something with the APN settings. So this Guru goes - I'm sending the APN settings to your email, goodbye. Awesome.

10. APN wasn't the problem. So I contacted another Guru. Thank God this person was tech savvy and we could talk rather quickly without stupid suggestions like "turn it off and on again". So we're trying to figure out the whole LTE (4G) not working and I notice 1 curious thing: if i force my phone to LTE Only (via 4636 menu) - I don't get any network at all. Guru suggested me to go and search manually and there I can only see two other mobile companies (wont name them, you can guess). Guru says its probably a sim card issue and we say goodbye.

Now, interesting fact I thought - I can see other networks, except O2 and Voda. And guess what? These two networks both work on LTE 800Mhz frequency, while others have 1800 or 2600mhz. I've contacted another Guru and explained this to him, suggesting its probably not a sim card issue (didnt want to wait another two days). Unfortunately this persons tech knowledge was at my grandmothers level. Alright then i thought, ill wait for the sim.

But this issue with LTE has been bugging me. So I went through all my phone documentation and data, Model ID's and serial numbers. I've been able to find that my HTC is actually from Australia. (Surprise). And its model is actually 801s. After another hour I've been able to confirm that this phone's LTE bands are actually only 1800 and 2600mhz. Explains the whole network thing.

So I quickly contacted the O2 support (again. i think they hate me there). I explained that due to some technological misunderstandings I wont be able to get 4G on my phone, and I've explained to the person everything I've written above. We tried to figure out a better tarriff with only 3G on it, but nah - nothing better. So I kindly asked if i can cancel my contract for obvious reasons. After the support spoke to his advisors, they suggested I call 202 and cancel, since I have that option during the 7 day period. I quickly realized that today is 5th of March, my order was on the 26th and this is my last day! It was 7-30pm when I called 202, was told there is a 50min queue and I've waited for 1 hour and 40 minutes listening to some bad music. It was 9-15pm when I hung up, obviously nobody was working after they close (lines close at 9).

* when i heard about the 50min queue I actually asked the support if it is possible to cancel contract via chat or any other option as I'll probably not get through, but the reply was negative. Only via 202 he said.

and what really gets me is that even though i made the order on 26th february i only got it on 3rd of march! lost 4 days right on the spot.

I dont know what to do, probably will go to the store tomorrow and try to get this settled the civilized way.

Maybe there are people on the forum who can help me too? 

Please understand that I chose O2 for a reason after lots of research, but, unfortunately, my phone doesnt work with its LTE band. Therefore I want to cancel, wanted to, but couldn't because of the huge waiting times, delays, and many misleading advices.

Best Regards,

D

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Understand all the above but you can still use the same tariff but just connect to 3G. Later on if you get a UK spec phone you will be able to use 4G.

[Anonymous]

Hi MI5, appreciate your reply.

From my standpoint obviously I don't want to pay for something that I wanted and can't have.

I need 4G to work and I do require the speed.

And my phone is able to work in the UK 4G, unfortunately just not on O2 baseband. What adds more to the frustration are the delays and the misunderstanding that my phone will work with O2 4G in the first place.

[Anonymous]

They should be able to check and see you were on the phone for such a long time and honour the cancellation I would hope so anyway let us know how you get on

[anticpated]

What bands do o2 use?

I think have 4 or 5 bands enabled on my handset alas don't use 4g as yet. 

[Anonymous]

Just cancel the contract (cooling off period). I tried joining but they messed me about with my order. Waited two days had enough of all this non sense misleading info one min in stock, next min out of stock then email saying delivery will be despatched soon then out of stock. Cost me money on telephone bills (numerous times I had to call). O2 don't give a crap what ever happens. 

So I cancelled my contract deal, yet no confirmation or any sort of email saying order cancelled. Talked to the live chat guys they confirmed it cancelled and I won't be charge.

The amount of faffing about I went through is ridiculous. If this how you run a business then shut it down. Simple as that.

One of the community member is dealing with my problem (better than the other staff who don't even bother helping). However was told someone will contact me but so far nobody has called me back today. Will wait until tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

its a sim-only contract.

fortunately, after posting on the forum and within the hour i've decided to talk to O2 chat again (haha, miss me?). and by some amazing granted power the support told me that its no big deal, they cancelled my contract (told me to wait 24hrs), and i wont be charged anything.

the amount of misleading and contradicting information is over the roof!

i just hope that it does get cancelled. i got a referrance number and just in case i saved the chat transcript.

ps: O2 LTE uses 800mhz band 20

[Bambino]

As long as you have a reference number and a copy of the chat transcript your contract will be cancelled. Why you think that O2 should have known that you have an Australian phone is beyond me. If you had told them that at the outset you probably wouldn't have gone through that whole palaver.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous and Welcome to the O2 Community Forum.

I had the same frustration when I was using an iPhone 5 although the difference was I was aware it would not operate on o2's 4G service , but it would work on ee's 4G Network.

I elected to sell the iPhone 5 and use the accumulated funds to purchase the iPhone 5s ,which is compliant to work with O2's faster internet.

Maybe it's something you could also consider to do.

As said you could stay on the new tariff/ contract and use the data on 3G ,or indeed cancel and start again.

O2's systems should have your phone call in your account notes as mentioned.

[Anonymous]

i thought the cooling off period starts on the day you receive it, not the day of purchase.