might finally be time to leave o2

[Anonymous]

I have been with o2 since 1994, when they were cellnet. Always compared deals and always been happy to stay. Until now. I love my windows phone, I want to upgrade to a new one. (don't bother giving me your opinions that I am wrong, should change OS etc. I like what I like).If I go to EE I can still upgrade my Lumia, pay less per month and get more data. I would really like to be saying this to o2, but they REALLY don't want us to contact them - clicking "contact us" Leeds to a few dozen options for not doing. I have had excellent customer service for 21 years, been able to get the phone I wanted, deal I wanted and so on. I am a bit nervous about changing to another provider. Will the coverage be as good etc - friends on Orange have to converse from my front garden if they receive a call. My daughter needs a new phone hers won't charge and I just plain want one really, but o2 is now only stocking the 735 and then all the budget low end wp offerings. Maybe they have fallen for all the doom laden crap about wp not being able to compete. The triumph of marketing over functionality! Oh dear, there are only something over 250 000 apps in the windows store! How will I live with so few!? I have just seen that leads got changed to Leeds, oops! Come on o2, climb out of apple/Samsung's backsides and give your customers real actual choices!

[viridis]

Good reasons for wanting to consider leaving imo, however, looking at your post I can't stress enough how you should get an ee payg sim and check your signal strength where you live. You said friends on Orange need to go outside to make calls, EE is orange and t-mobile merged. You may end up with terrible service.

[Anonymous]

Have you considered Carphone Warehouse who may be able to offer a Tariff deal that interests you and a model of phone that you want.

Only downside is this company are not able to offer Refresh.

[Bambino]

Your choice of phone and OS is entirely your own, but as @viridis has said, signal and coverage should be your main concern. I don't think that getting a good deal with EE and having to stand in your garden to make calls would be an ideal situation for you. If O2 can't supply you with the Windows phone you want you'll need to shop around. There's also the option of buying a phone sim free and taking a sim only contract with O2. 

[Anonymous]

I I have also been with O2 since 1994 and until a year ago always had an excellent experience with customer care being a platinum customer. I had a dedicated point of contact. Not anymore. I've had an ongoing problem with my phone ( or the network ). I reported this numerous times until I was in hospital for a few weeks last year. I used PAYG Vodafone sim after O2 said my original complaint was considered closed as I did not reply to their letter and it could not be reopened, I would now have to take the matter up with the telecommunications ombudsman! I've taken out a contract now with Vodafone who, despite some bad press have been excellent. Fast access to customer care, happy to negotiate deals and match one with anyone else. The service in their stores giving technical support is excellent.

[Bambino]

You go where your needs are best suited. People change networks in their thousands on a daily basis. Some to O2, some from O2.  No network is perfect. They all have their own foibles.

[jonsie]

As said, your first concern should certainly be about coverage and testing using free payandgo sims. O2 seem to be in a decline regarding customer service with staff cut backs and proving very difficult to get through to by phone. Live chat? Enough said.

Personally I would be going into my town centre and looking at all the network shops and the independents to see what's available. Tying yourself into a two year contract needs a lot of research.

[MI5]

Carphone Warehouse can offer you a wider choice of handsets either sim free or on contract so you could just buy the phone you want and carry on with your current sim card and account or knock it down to a cheaper sim only deal.

[Anonymous]

O2 are no longer competitive on price. I have literally just left them. Service is faultless. I too have been with them since Cellnet was first formed from BT/Securicor networks and they were the biggest player in their day. These days the other networks have caught up. Its a shame as price is my only reason for leaving.

They tried offering me all sorts of deals (some of which were very good) but they simply cannot offer a decent 'budget' contract in the £10-£15 pcm bracket.

I do hope someone from O2 reads these and does something in future about this; not everyone wants (or is frankly daft enough) to throw £25/£30/£40 per month at a mobile phone regardless of what you give in return. It crosses from the utility bracket into 'luxury' territory.. 😞