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Leaving o2 after 9 years. Any suggestions as to who to go wi

Anonymous
Not applicable
I've been with o2 for 9 years as a contract customer. It's been 9 unhappy years on the whole. The customer service has always been substandard, I'm sorry to say.

The fact that they no longer care about retaining existing customers who aren't on iPhone tariffs was just the excuse I was looking for so I want to switch to a new provider. They used to fight to keep customers but they were happy to give me my PAK code without making any effort to hold onto my custom.

I've been paying £35 a month for 600 minutes, 1000 texts and unlimited internet on a contract with a Nokia E90. I've always liked the larger handsets that can do more and I definitely like Qwerty keyboards so I might go for a Blackberry this time as I don't see anything else Qwerty on the market. I had numerous HTC/XDA phones for about 5 years but they had awful sound quality and the Windows Mobile software was a real car crash so I definitely don't want to go for those again.

Any suggestions for handsets and tariffs with other providers that are cheaper and will offer the same level of inclusive minutes and texts? I'd even consider going with o2 through a third party provider so long as I don't have to directly deal with o2 customer services anymore.
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Anonymous
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...how about the N97 Mini? That has a proper pullout qwerty keypad. Its probably a lot smaller to what your used to but a good phone all round anyway..... slight_smile
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Anonymous
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Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not sure about opting for a downgrade of a phone that's been around for more than a year, especially if I'm expected to use it for 2-3 years to come.
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Anonymous
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H, I'm sorry to hear that u feel the need to leave O2...I've been with 02 for about..umm, a hundred years, via Carphone Warehouse. Thinkin of dumpin CPW, & dealing with O2 direct..

Man in CPW yesterday felt I might do better dealin direct with O2 - I'm thinkin of tryin to get an early udgrade; not due till Feb 10, but fella thought O2 might be more flexible.

So u have never had an iPhone??

Tinks
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Anonymous
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I'd stick with Carphone Warehouse. My ex was with them and the customer service was better. I had numerous problems and o2 staff were useless, verging on the point of rudeness, most of the time.

For instance, around 3 years ago I started receiving premium rate texts at one point. o2 insisted I must have registered for them. They were gay horoscopes. I'm not gay, I don't believe in horoscopes and I certainly don't believe in paying money to receive text messages of any sort.

o2 refused to assist in any way to stop me getting and being charged £1.50 a time for the messages. It took me months to track down the company as there was no company information on the texts or any details of how to stop them. When I finally found out who they were, under threat of legal action the company released the registration details to me and the premium texts had not been registered from my handset.

o2 in the end offered me £5 compensation after months and endless phone calls trying to get somewhere. Nothing short of obstruction followed by insult.

My ex, on the other hand, when she has issues with problem handsets Carphone Warehouse really bent over backwards to deal with them.

I've never had an iPhone. I can't stand Apple products and the limitations they impose. My father has one and constantly has problems with it.

Putting aside how well they work, owning an iPhone seems to have a detrimental affect on the owners mental wellbeing. Like some comedian said:

"To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!"
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Anonymous
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I can honestly say that I have always received excellent customer service from O2. Incidentally they were correct about premium rate texts. If you receive an unsolicited text, you just enter the number on the regulators website and it will give you the name, address and phone number to contact for a refund. The regulator can also fine the offending company and give you compensation. At the time you had the problem, they were called ICSTIS but they are now called phonepayplus.

I think you would be sorely disappointed with the customer service you would receive from other networks. In my experience O2 are significantly better than Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange.
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Anonymous
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Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not sure about opting for a downgrade of a phone that's been around for more than a year, especially if I'm expected to use it for 2-3 years to come.


.....the N97 Mini certainly has not been around for a year!!!! In fact, it's really only been around for a few months. So new, that o2 have refused to stock it!!

Maybe you're thinking of the original N97 which was plagued with problems and HAS been around for a while, however, the N97 Mini is definately quite a new handset.......
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Anonymous
Not applicable
I can honestly say that I have always received excellent customer service from O2. Incidentally they were correct about premium rate texts. If you receive an unsolicited text, you just enter the number on the regulators website and it will give you the name, address and phone number to contact for a refund. The regulator can also fine the offending company and give you compensation. At the time you had the problem, they were called ICSTIS but they are now called phonepayplus.
I think you would be sorely disappointed with the customer service you would receive from other networks. In my experience O2 are significantly better than Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange.

How were they correct about the premium rate texts? They were completely unhelpful and didn't even suggest to me that I go to ICSTIS. I had to find all that out for myself.
Also, I don't know about T-mobile and Orange, but I have a business account with Vodafone and have relatives using Vodafone and their customer service is leaps and bounds ahead of that which o2 provides. If it had been a one off with the text messages then that would be one thing, but it wasn't. Every time I'd speak to an o2 customer services representative they'd contradict what the previous one had told me.
When I first got my Nokia E90 the firmware was so faulty that the phone was practically unusable. It was unstable so kept crashing and had no A-GPS which meant it took at least 10 minutes to find a satellite fix on the SatNav. Firmware fixes had been applied to all other models and even a range of o2 models too, but not the ones with my serial number range. o2 told me they hadn't had an update, Nokia told me that o2 had it but were withholding releasing it and they didn't know why. o2 continually denied having it until I finally spoke to someone who half knew what they were talking about and they admitted they did have it and it was an oversight that it had not been released. Every time with o2 it was like this, having to repeat yourself over and over again to staff who were poorly trained. I haven't had to deal with o2 customer services for a good few months now so maybe things have changed, but I doubt it somehow.
Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not sure about opting for a downgrade of a phone that's been around for more than a year, especially if I'm expected to use it for 2-3 years to come.

.....the N97 Mini certainly has not been around for a year!!!! In fact, it's really only been around for a few months. So new, that o2 have refused to stock it!!
Maybe you're thinking of the original N97 which was plagued with problems and HAS been around for a while, however, the N97 Mini is definately quite a new handset.......


Yes, but essentially it's a slimmed down version of a phone that's been around for quite some time now. It's not new technology. I'm thinking of going for the Nokia N900 on Vodafone, but buying it directly through the Nokia store as Vodafone don't seem to have it on their website.
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Anonymous
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I've been with o2 for 9 years as a contract customer. It's been 9 unhappy years on the whole. The customer service has always been substandard, I'm sorry to say.


And it's taken you 9 years to come to a decision?

Obviously, you don't rush into things do you lol.
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Anonymous
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I've been with o2 for 9 years as a contract customer. It's been 9 unhappy years on the whole. The customer service has always been substandard, I'm sorry to say.

And it's taken you 9 years to come to a decision?
Obviously, you don't rush into things do you lol.


Even longer than 9 years if you count BT Cellnet.

Every time my contract came up for renewal I decided to leave and then didn't because o2 always had the best selection of mobile phones and the best deals on tariffs. That was always enough to make me decide to stay put and put up with the bad service. Now they've got the worst selection of phones and tariffs (let's not even get started on their reception problems in London) that are poor value for money compared to what they used to be so there's no reason to stay with them.

Got my PAC code this morning. slight_smile
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