Desperate, please help

[AlanGG]

Hi there. I no longer have a signal worth speaking of and nobody seems able or willing to help. This means that I can no longer reliably communicate with my parent's live in carer as my father, who is 88, approaches his final days. When she calls me it goes to answer machine and calls out simply can't be made or drop out. Texts take forever to send, if they go at all.

I'm a Tesco customer, they piggy back on O2. I live in a semi rural area to the west of York. Since their massive outage on 8th February the service has dropped of a cliff. It's almost unusable now. I've rung up their Customer Care and got every ****** and bull story under the sun and have asked when my service will be restored 14 times. Literally 14 times!! All I get is "sorry, we don't know".

Knowing that O2 provide the masts that Tesco use I go to the local O2 shop where the assistants says "yes they are O2 masts. Your nearest one is down, the second one is not at full capacity and is scheduled for maintenance, there are no other masts close, that's why your service is so awful". He shows me a map on a computer and yes, he's right, 2 malfunctioning masts and then a circle of empty space, no other masts at all. Thinking I'm finally getting somewhere I ask when they will be up and running again. He replies "I don't know."

I'm desperate. My father could pass away any day now and there's every chance my parent's live in carer won't be able to get through to me to call me to his bedside before he slips away. EE say they can't provide a reliable signal, 3 have no signal at all. Tesco, I assume, won't do anything as they don't own the masts. According to the O2 shop they have been problems since 8th February. Over a month and yet nothing has been done!

Do I take my chance with Vodafone? They are all that's left to try but will they use the same masts? All I want is a phone signal. That's all I'm asking for. So that when the dreaded call does come through the phone will actually ring and not silently go to answer machine. I have tried, and tried and TRIED to resolve this for weeks. I'm getting nowhere, it's like banging my head against a wall.

Can somebody please tell me what I should do?

[Bambino]

@AlanGG Sorry about your troubles. It's never easy when your parents are elderly. 

As far as your phone issues go, your contract is with Tesco, so you have to deal with them. Yes O2 provides the masts, and if one is down and one is being worked on you really can't do anything until they're repaired. O2 rarely if ever gives timelines as there are so many different factors that could be affecting the repairs.

The only thing I can suggest is for you to look into your availability for WiFi calling. You can see if you can get it here: Support With Wi-Fi And 4G Calling (tescomobile.com)

As far as Vodafone is concerned, get a Pay & Go sim from them to see if you can get a signal. If you can't, there's no point switching providers.

Best of luck.

[AlanGG]

Thanks for the reply it's appreciated. 

This is the problem I'm having though, no matter who I ask I cannot get even a estimated time of resolution.

I really, really don't want to go to Vodafone. But I'm truly shocked at the attitude of these companies. It's literally "tough luck pal, you might get your service back sometime or you might not". For all I know they might be making no attempt whatsoever to fix it.

As far as Tesco are concerned it's not their masts.

As far as O2 are concerned it's not their customer.

I literally can't win.

Nobody seems willing to help other than yourself of course. Meanwhile my dad slips closer to passing away daily and for all I know I have no way of being contacted.

I will try to get Wi-Fi calling set up. There's a totally unrelated minor problem with my own phone which is currently off being fixed. I'm not having much luck am I but I will try and get Wi-Fi set up on this borrowed phone.

It's a dreadful situation and these two companies are just making it worse.

[Enlli]

As to the suggestion of WiFi Calling from my reading Tesco Mobile don't yet support this.

You can check but I would not want you wasting time on something that does not work

[Bambino]

@Enlli The link I provided above indicates that Tesco are rolling WiFi and 4G calling out. Whether it's available to the OP at this time is another question.

[AlanGG]

The service has been completely unusable for the past couple of days constant call dropouts, phone going to answer machine when it's on and sat beside me.

I went to the O2 shop in my local city centre. They were very helpful and explained I was in catch-22 because Tesco's don't own the masts so they can't help and I'm not an O2 customer so they won't help. 

They also very kindly looked at the service map for me and explained that one mast nearest to me is completely down and the two next nearest are both having maintenance. So I can expect a very poor service for an indefinite period. It was also explained to me that O2 will prioritise their own customers so I will in effect be shoved to the back of the queue when it comes to calls etc. I have very little chance of getting a resolution date.

With Three and EE providing poor coverage the only alternative would seem to be Vodafone and fingers crossed they don't use the same masts.

I found out yesterday that my father has at the most a month to live and I have to spend the time now trying to sort out my mobile phone signal so that his carers can call me. I need this like a hole in the head and I will not forget the way I have been treated as a customer who has asked now literally 16 times for his signal to work or for a resolution to the problem. This has been going on since the 8th of February for crying out loud.

Absolute disgrace. Shameful.

[Enlli]

ASDA use Vodafone, has to be a shot to get one of their PAYG SIM cards to check.

At the end of the day if you can get just calls and text messages you will at least be contactable 

https://mobile.asda.com/pay-as-you-go?origin=paid&https://mobile.asda.com/?p1=abc&p2=123&gclid=Cj0KC...

[Enlli]

I can only suggest you try Vodafone.

ASDA do PAYG SIM cards which run on Vodafone. Has to be worth a shot

https://mobile.asda.com/pay-as-you-go?origin=paid&https://mobile.asda.com/?p1=abc&p2=123&gclid=Cj0KC...

[madasaf1sh]

@AlanGG 

A lot of the masts are shared across o2 and Vodafone through a company called CornerStone, so I would nip to a local shop and grab a Vodafone Simcard, do not rely on an MVNO, and Asda is not great, and they get pushed right to the back as well. 

Tesco Mobile cant give you a resolution as they can't do anything to fix the issue, and o2 wont give you a time for resolution, as they are so many factors at work in order to resolve issues. Masts take time to fix, and no one will ever give you a time frame.. 

And as much as I emphasise with your situation what did you expect Tesco to do for you to resolve it?

[AlanGG]

Hi, thanks call taking the time to reply. What would I like Tesco to do?

Ask O2 when it's going to be fixed would be a start. Then tell me.

Or maybe think about giving me a phone service after over a month of problems. That'd be nice.

Or perhaps not out and out lie to me. That'd be quite wonderful.

Or perhaps O2 might like to do something radical......like fix it!! I assume Tesco give them money to use the masts and they get that money from, yep that's right, customers!

As it is I'm just the poor mug trapped between 02 and Tesco.