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?

[madasaf1sh]

@AlanGG 

Sorry but read your terms and conditions especially around service, which is not 100% guaranteed, and faults do occur, and their is no SLA to fix them, as like all technology hardware, parts are in short supply, and also maybe some landowner wont allow access to the mast to fix it.. 

Tesco wont ask o2, as o2 wont tell them, and they certainly don't tell consumers... The only people who have network SLA's are those paying in excess of 6 figures a year to VMo2

Tesco basically only buy data, and airtime in bulk from o2, they don't contribute to the infrastructure roll out, unfortuantely like their food Tesco do things on the cheap and nasty... hence the  new T&C's where you have to give your personal data to them to get the cheaper rates.. 

You could try and ask Tesco to release you from your contract and then move to Vodafone, after testing first, or get them to move you to use WiFi Calling 

https://www.tescomobile.com/help/device-help/network-and-troubleshooting/support-with-wi-fi-and-4g-c...

And you are NOT a customer of o2 and o2 have no contractual obligation to you, 

Sorry if all that sounds harsh, but that is the truth of the matter

[Enlli]

As much as we sympathise with your position there is nothing we as customers here can do but give you advice, which may or may not be useful as we are not there.

As I see it the advice was

1. Check if Tesco have enabled WiFi Calling for your account. If that is possible then at least you will be able to make and receive calls.

2. Try a Vodafone SIM which may work. Definitely worth a try.

I would add a 3rd. Ask your neighbours what network they are using and what reception is like. It is better to get real world examples than work on hearsay.

Nobody from O2 will read your posts, and even if they did they have no influence over the situation in hand.

You will have to be pro active on this, I'm sorry to say.

I lost my father some years back, I know what it is like. I only found out when a policeman knocked on my door. 

Try what's suggested and you will be in a better position than the one I found myself.

[AlanGG]

I've gone onto the internet and Googled how to enable Wi-Fi calling but it isn't there when I go to Settings then Connections so I can only assume that I don't have it.

Vodafone is my next stop. I simply can't go on like this. If my father passes away in the next couple of weeks and the carer cannot get hold of me to let me know I'll never forgive myself.

Next door neighbour has giffgaff. He has no problems but the people in the O2 shop say as O2 own giffgaff that data will get prioritised along with their own as opposed to Tesco's data which won't.

Another neighbour is on EE and can only get a signal in his back bedroom!! When I went to the EE shop the other day they did warn me the signal would be patchy so that adds up.

The signal here has never been the same since the massive outage of February 8th. 

Basically I'm stuck. Two big organisations one of which is happy to take my money but has no obligation to provide even a minimum service. There's nothing more I can do, I have tried everything. I've been a Tesco customer for more than a decade and all I wanted was just a little help.

I'm sorry to hear about your father. That can't have been very pleasant. Having to deal with this it's just making a very bad situation that little bit worse. I'm not asking for the moon and stars, just for a mobile signal so I can be contacted when my father dies. I didn't think that was too much to ask for.

[madasaf1sh]

@AlanGG 

As I said you need to ring Tesco, and ask them to move you to the new infrastructure, as otherwise you won't get WiFi calling, I even gave you a link to the Tesco Services Page..

I know what you are going through, as I was away with work a plane ride away from home, when I got the new my mum was put in End of Life care, so was totally lost with no signal for 3hrs.. 

But I am afraid there is nothing any of us can do, its all in the hands of Tesco, give them a call, and see if they can move things for you, be polite and courteous to them and then they will be more willing to move heaven and earth to help..