Tesco Mobile

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 15-03-2012 10:38pm

byrnefm wrote: »

Hi,

I moved over to Tesco Mobile last weekend and am slowly getting used to the small differences between them and O2. I have a few questions though on things I couldn't work out or find on this (long!) thread:

1) What UK networks do I have access to? I tried roaming on Orange yesterday but my phone reported 'No Access'. It was the only UK network available to me during the few brief minutes in question.

2) How do you call your voicemail when abroad and how can you tell if it has been activated?

3) I tried sending an MMS to a UK mobile number but was not able to. Can MMSes only be sent to Irish mobiles?

Btw - am very happy with the service so far, especially the pricing in comparison with O2!

Thanks in advance!

Sorry, missed this last night.

1. Our preferred partner is O2 UK. But if you go into our SIM Menu there is an option to switch to "Belgacom IMSI" which will allow you to access other operators through our roaming partner. This normally happens by default without you having to do anything but in the UK O2 UK is embedded in the SIM as preferred partner.

2. Activate your voicemail though 172. Access through 171. This will work when abroad.

3. Yes, we dont offer international MMS yet.

regards
Paul

byrnefm · 15-03-2012 11:48pm

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply to my questions above!

Tesco Mobile: Paul wrote: »

1. Our preferred partner is O2 UK. But if you go into our SIM Menu there is an option to switch to "Belgacom IMSI" which will allow you to access other operators through our roaming partner. This normally happens by default without you having to do anything but in the UK O2 UK is embedded in the SIM as preferred partner.

I hadn't seen this sort of feature before in a SIM - I checked and found the Belgacom option. I noticed that if I select that while in Ireland, I end up with no network at all

TBH being able to roam on O2 UK by default should be fine for the majority of any time I'm roaming in the UK.

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 9:42am

byrnefm wrote: »

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply to my questions above!

I hadn't seen this sort of feature before in a SIM - I checked and found the Belgacom option. I noticed that if I select that while in Ireland, I end up with no network at all TBH being able to roam on O2 UK by default should be fine for the majority of any time I'm roaming in the UK.

Yes, its handy on older phones as we can put USSD and Text based apps in a menu format for customers e.g. voucher topup, balance check, customer care call etc.

Yes, the IMSI switch wont work in Ireland - the Belgacom IMSI thing is a roaming feature only. The SIM automatically does this switch normally if it cant find a preferred direct partner when roaming but in the UK its doesnt (we are looking to fix this in future SIM profiles)

cheers
Paul

mathepac · 16-03-2012 9:51am

Since May of last year when I became a Tescomobile customer, I've been trying to get the unlock codes for two Nokia phones from my previous supplier. Despite promises, (and threats from me) they have never been supplied. I have now been forced to use an alternative (and costly) method of making the handsets SIM free. Does Tescomobile have any objection to these phones being connected to your network?

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 9:55am

mathepac wrote: »

Since May of last year when I became a Tescomobile customer, I've been trying to get the unlock codes for two Nokia phones from my previous supplier. Despite promises, (and threats from me) they have never been supplied. I have now been forced to use an alternative (and costly) method of making the handsets SIM free. Does Tescomobile have any objection to these phones being connected to your network?

No we don't, as long as its unlocked all should be fine.

You can apply our data and MMS settigns here automatically once you have a Tesco Mobile SIM in the phone.

http://www.tescomobile.ie/helpandsupport/phone-settings.aspx

regards
Paul

vicM · 16-03-2012 10:03am

Good morning Paul,
My wife recently moved to Tesco. about 2 Weeks ago she got a data bundle for a week and everything was grand, after that though she noticed her credit being wiped out and on investigation data usage sends to be the culprit.now I know smartphones use up data in the background but we thought there would be no data access if there is no bundle,a fact as there seems to be no out of bundle pricing on your website
Kindly advice

Cyril706 · 16-03-2012 11:30am

tesco should really work on their wap connection. I bought i 1g bundle, but it's just unstable. like this morning, it was okey at beginning, but then i just lost my wap connection with out any reason

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 11:32am

Cyril706 wrote: »

tesco should really work on their wap connection. I bought i 1g bundle, but it's just unstable. like this morning, it was okey at beginning, but then i just lost my wap connection with out any reason

There are data issues on the network at the moment. More info to come shortly..

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 11:34am

vicM wrote: »

Good morning Paul,
My wife recently moved to Tesco. about 2 Weeks ago she got a data bundle for a week and everything was grand, after that though she noticed her credit being wiped out and on investigation data usage sends to be the culprit.now I know smartphones use up data in the background but we thought there would be no data access if there is no bundle,a fact as there seems to be no out of bundle pricing on your website
Kindly advice

Hi there

Yes there is data access outside bundle. Pricing is here.

http://www.tescomobile.ie/other-call-charges.aspx

regards
Paul

Cyril706 · 16-03-2012 11:37am

OMG, what happened, I coundn't even make a call at this moment.

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 11:38am

Cyril706 wrote: »

OMG, what happened, I coundn't even make a call at this moment.

There are issues at the moment...more info shortly

regards
Paul

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 11:54am

Hi All

We have experienced a major failure at our data center widely affecting all of our services. Many apologies for the inconvenience this is causing.

We have all resources working to resovle ASAP. I will update more shortly.

regards
Paul

du Maurier · 16-03-2012 11:58am

Still down. Any idea when this might be sorted out, at an estimate?

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 12:03pm

du Maurier wrote: »

Still down. Any idea when this might be sorted out, at an estimate?

Not yet, but hoping not long now, some services seem to be coming back

regards
Paul

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 12:34pm

Hi All

All services are still affected. All resources are deployed on restoring service. Again, many apologies for the inconvenience of this. As soon as I have some information related to time to restore service I will inform.

regards
Paul

Merch · 16-03-2012 12:38pm

Well a brief search (here in boards) has answered what I was going to ask,
It seems the tesco Network is down, I cant make calls/send texts.

You would think Tesco network would display this issue prominently/obviously on their website as that was my first port of call, then by trying to ring them from a landline which was also unsuccessful.

Although i didnt have too much issue finding this thread, you would think the tesco Network would also have its own sub forum? like the other networks so Network issues could be asked about there and not just in a thread under pda's/mobiles.

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 1:05pm

Merch wrote: »

Well a brief search (here in boards) has answered what I was going to ask,
It seems the tesco Network is down, I cant make calls/send texts.

You would think Tesco network would display this issue prominently/obviously on their website as that was my first port of call, then by trying to ring them from a landline which was also unsuccessful.

Although i didnt have too much issue finding this thread, you would think the tesco Network would also have its own sub forum? like the other networks so Network issues could be asked about there and not just in a thread under pda's/mobiles.

Yes sorry about that. Our website is being updated now and we are opening a talk to forum and Twitter account very shortly. Wish I had it today!

Apologies for the inconvenience of this.

regrads
Paul

Merch · 16-03-2012 1:33pm

I'd say primarily the best place to have info on outages is on the website, and in/near the title of the first page that presents itself upon accessing the website, possibly linking to further details in the help and support tab (as the help and support tab doesnt open initially).
After that
I think boards is a good place too,

While Im sure loads of others do, I dont use twitter myself, dont really plan to either, I'm sure it has its advantages in case the website was also affected, (although if the mobile network is down but not the website, how will people be able to access it (Twitter) if they are not at a computer anyway??).

As there isn't much of an update about the issue (ie whats affected) or how long it will be,

I seem to be able to receive calls (called myself from the landline) but cannot make an outgoing call or send a text, I dont know if anyone else has attempted to call me or send me a text and been successful.

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 1:38pm

Thanks all for your patience so far. The issue is caused by a water leak in the data centre. No ETA yet on full restoration of services but engineers are going thorugh the kit node by node and we are hopeful of some services coming back shortly. regards Paul

shamwari · 16-03-2012 1:39pm

My first week with Tesco and I've had more problems in that time than I had with O2 in the last few years.

I'll give the benefit of the doubt for the mo, but as I'm on sim-only, rest assured I'll be moving elsewhere if things don't improve.

Cyril706 · 16-03-2012 1:39pm

Merch wrote: »

I'd say primarily the best place to have info on outages is on the website, and in/near the title of the first page that presents itself upon accessing the website, possibly linking to further details in the help and support tab (as the help and support tab doesnt open initially).
After that
I think boards is a good place too,

While Im sure loads of others do, I dont use twitter myself, dont really plan to either, I'm sure it has its advantages in case the website was also affected, (although if the mobile network is down but not the website, how will people be able to access it (Twitter) if they are not at a computer anyway??).

As there isn't much of an update about the issue (ie whats affected) or how long it will be,

I seem to be able to receive calls (called myself from the landline) but cannot make an outgoing call or send a text, I dont know if anyone else has attempted to call me or send me a text and been successful.

I agree with you

lir6777 · 16-03-2012 1:40pm

I can get texts from others so that's something.

deisedevil · 16-03-2012 2:09pm

shamwari wrote: »

My first week with Tesco and I've had more problems in that time than I had with O2 in the last few years.

I'll give the benefit of the doubt for the mo, but as I'm on sim-only, rest assured I'll be moving elsewhere if things don't improve.

I'm practically the same myself but i think they deserve the benefit of the doubt, these things can happen to any provider at any time.

oneteu · 16-03-2012 2:10pm

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 2:23pm

Hi All,

We are really sorry for the inconvenience and the length of this outage. It is a freak event with a roof leak and water damage to our kit that has caused the issue. All the required people are on site assessing damage and working out solutions. We are hopeful of a workaround for outbound and inbound voice and text shortly.

regards Paul

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 3:10pm

Hi All,

calls are at least partially working again. Will update more when I have confirmation from the technical folks.

regards Paul

shamwari · 16-03-2012 3:10pm

I can now make voice calls but can't send texts. Recieving calls seems to be ok too. As disappointing as the outage is, all credit to those toiling behind the scenes as they are clearly working in a difficult situation and under a fair degree pressure.

SMI · 16-03-2012 3:17pm

Tesco Mobile: Paul wrote: »

Hi All,

We are really sorry for the inconvenience and the length of this outage. It is a freak event with a roof leak and water damage to our kit that has caused the issue. All the required people are on site assessing damage and working out solutions. We are hopeful of a workaround for outbound and inbound voice and text shortly.

regards Paul

Hi Paul,

Could you please throw down a few links to your facebook page and homepage while you are at it.

The outage is extremely disappointing, especially against the backdrop of the issues that my sister is having with your service too (being informed that she is wrongly running up a bill of €400 and it not being resolved yet).
I have my suspicions that you are having more ongoing problems with your setup that you are letting on, forgive me if I sound cynical but the reason you give that there was a freak leak that damaged your equipment has a whiff of a 'the dog ate my homework' excuse.
I was debating moving off my rolling monthly contract after the issues my sister was having, this outage could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
You can't expect people to go about their day properly without the use of a phone never mind doing a bit of work or business. Once the issue is resolved will there be any gesture of good faith to your customers? Some sort of discount or offer?
I know you are here to liase with us and are fulfilling the message that your boss's want us to hear, be it genuine or not, so I don't have any issue with you per sé but I'm not quite buying the water leak excuse at the moment.
Could someone at the location take a quick picture of the water damage and workers attempting to fix it and upload it here or on your facebook page. It would help instill some bit of faith in what you are saying.

16-03-2012 3:21pm

i cannot sen txtr or make call ouch

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 3:26pm

SMI wrote: »

Hi Paul,

Could you please throw down a few links to your facebook page and homepage while you are at it.

The outage is extremely disappointing, especially against the backdrop of the issues that my sister is having with your service too (being informed that she is wrongly running up a bill of €400 and it not being resolved yet).
I have my suspicions that you are having more ongoing problems with your setup that you are letting on, forgive me if I sound cynical but the reason you give that there was a freak leak that damaged your equipment has a whiff of a 'the dog ate my homework' excuse.
I was debating moving off my rolling monthly contract after the issues my sister was having, this outage could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
You can't expect people to go about their day properly without the use of a phone never mind doing a bit of work or business. Once the issue is resolved will there be any gesture of good faith to your customers? Some sort of discount or offer?
I know you are here to liase with us and are fulfilling the message that your boss's want us to hear, be it genuine or not, so I don't have any issue with you per sé but I'm not quite buying the water leak excuse at the moment.
Could someone at the location take a quick picture of the water damage and workers attempting to fix it and upload it here or on your facebook page. It would help instill some bit of faith in what you are saying.

Hi SMI

As unbelievable a reason as it may seem its absolutely true. There was some roof work being performed at the data centre and the roof was pierced and water flooded in over our cage in the data centre. There are engineers from our managed service partners out there presently doing 2 things - 1 trying to restore service ASAP for customers and 2 trying to assess the damage and medium term work needed.

Obviously we are not happy that this could happen at all but post mortems and lessons are for later. For now we are focussed on minimising impact to our customers and getting service in place.

regards
Paul

BuzzG · 16-03-2012 3:32pm

As a previous poster said have been with Tesco Mobile about a month and this is the 2nd outage in that time with similar end user impact so there must be a very leaky roof in that data centre. Will give the benefit of the doubt for now but if these occurrences continue happening I for one will be taking my business else where rather sharpish. Don't have a bill pay account to have this level of service.

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 3:36pm

BuzzG wrote: »

As a previous poster said have been with Tesco Mobile about a month and this is the 2nd outage in that time with similar end user impact so there must be a very leaky roof in that data centre. Will give the benefit of the doubt for now but if these occurrences continue happening I for one will be taking my business else where rather sharpish. Don't have a bill pay account to have this level of service.

Hi there

This is not good I agree but just to be clear, the previous outage was totally unrelated - that was a hardware failure.

regards
Paul

SMI · 16-03-2012 3:45pm

Tesco Mobile: Paul wrote: »

Hi SMI

As unbelievable a reason as it may seem its absolutely true. There was some roof work being performed at the data centre and the roof was pierced and water flooded in over our cage in the data centre. There are engineers from our managed service partners out there presently doing 2 things - 1 trying to restore service ASAP for customers and 2 trying to assess the damage and medium term work needed.

Obviously we are not happy that this could happen at all but post mortems and lessons are for later. For now we are focussed on minimising impact to our customers and getting service in place.

regards
Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I don't want to bang the drum, but any chance of a bit of evidence i.e. pictures?
Do you think there will be some sort of concessions offered to customers affected once you get the problems sorted?
Still no service for me at the moment, couldn't make work related calls and it is pretty inconvenient when you want to be making plans for paddy's weekend also...

manutd83 · 16-03-2012 3:47pm

This is not good and i cannot get picture messaging working either with my phone,the picture messaging is a problem since i joined this network

Merch · 16-03-2012 3:52pm

Can receive calls now, its from a tesco number so thats something, i could not send a text up till a few mins ago, so that appears to be still down.

While I was a bit unhappy about the communication of their being an issue initially, it did seem tesco were doing what was needed to fix the issue, some people are going a bit mad about something that could happen to any network.

shamwari · 16-03-2012 3:52pm

SMI wrote: »

Hi Paul,

I don't want to bang the drum, but any chance of a bit of evidence i.e. pictures?

That's a bit OTT, is it not? Do you not accept / trust what they are saying?

du Maurier · 16-03-2012 3:59pm

shamwari wrote: »

That's a bit OTT, is it not? Do you not accept / trust what they are saying?

It really is indeed. Interminable and stuffy-natured. Real Meldrew stuff:pac:

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 4:02pm

SMI wrote: »

Hi Paul,

Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I don't want to bang the drum, but any chance of a bit of evidence i.e. pictures?
Do you think there will be some sort of concessions offered to customers affected once you get the problems sorted?
Still no service for me at the moment, couldn't make work related calls and it is pretty inconvenient when you want to be making plans for paddy's weekend also...

Hi SMI

Yes, I apologise for the incovenience this causes.You should now be able to make calls at least most of the time - retry if you are having issues. I wont be asking the engineers to take pictures as they have more important activties underway.

Focus is still on getting service in place. I have no information beyond this.

regards
Paul

SMI · 16-03-2012 4:08pm

shamwari wrote: »

That's a bit OTT, is it not? Do you not accept / trust what they are saying?

Not to offend Paul but I can't say I fully do. My sister is also on their rolling monthly bill pay service, with a bigger collective bundle than I have. It would take her a Herculean effort to get near or even surpass her normal bundle but she has been getting some very strange estimates (as I mentioned in a previous post, when my sister rang up to inquire about it she was told that her bill for that month had reached €400...). I have my concerns that the issues they have may be ongoing teething problems, I am sorry to say that I do not fully accept/trust what they are saying.

I'm not angry or looking to vent my frustration at an individual, I just want to have my mind set at ease.
I need the phone for business, I've been put out today. I would like to know that I can rely on Tesco mobile in the future. Thats why I thought it would be a good idea for them to take a quick pic of the damage with a phone and upload it here or on facebook, a fairly easy task and not time consuming.
It would put my mind at ease and potentially save the operator losing 2 customers.
I have no shame in putting that out there, no offense to anyone connected with the operator but I'm paying for a service that has let me, and someone else I know, down badly. Asking for the above under that context doesn't hit me as OTT at all.
You should demand the best out of what you pay for.

SMI · 16-03-2012 4:12pm

And it still isn't working for me....

16-03-2012 4:17pm

i can make calls now yeah but not txts

shamwari · 16-03-2012 4:23pm

SMI wrote: »

Not to offend Paul but I can't say I fully do. My sister is also on their rolling monthly bill pay service, with a bigger collective bundle than I have. It would take her a Herculean effort to get near or even surpass her normal bundle but she has been getting some very strange estimates (as I mentioned in a previous post, when my sister rang up to inquire about it she was told that her bill for that month had reached €400...). I have my concerns that the issues they have may be ongoing teething problems, I am sorry to say that I do not fully accept/trust what they are saying.

I'm not angry or looking to vent my frustration at an individual, I just want to have my mind set at ease.
I need the phone for business, I've been put out today. I would like to know that I can rely on Tesco mobile in the future. Thats why I thought it would be a good idea for them to take a quick pic of the damage with a phone and upload it here or on facebook, a fairly easy task and not time consuming.
It would put my mind at ease and potentially save the operator losing 2 customers.
I have no shame in putting that out there, no offense to anyone connected with the operator but I'm paying for a service that has let me, and someone else I know, down badly. Asking for the above under that context doesn't hit me as OTT at all.
You should demand the best out of what you pay for.

I don't doubt for one minute that gravity of the situation that you and your sister find yourselves in with Tesco's service here. Certainly with regard to your own plight and the frustration and annoyance this outages are causing, I empathise fully with you because I'm more or less in the same boat. I've got a very ill family member in hospital at the mo and I need to be able to make and receive calls.

However if Tesco are saying that they had a leak, then they had a leak. Sight or otherwise of photo's top prove it or the scale of damage thereof makes no difference to me. I accept their word.

mathepac · 16-03-2012 4:32pm

Paul, thanks for the timely updates. I can make and receive calls and receive texts but not send them.

Best of luck to the guys / gals cleaning up the mess at the data-centre.

rougerie · 16-03-2012 4:47pm

Joined tescomobile yesterday, just as well I didn't bet on Cheltenham today!

Waiting to see how this develops. Must say I was impressed yesterday by TM customer service staff and by Paul's heroic efforts to communicate via Boards.ie.e.

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 4:56pm

Hi All

Just to give you a further update.

The team are reporting that outbound and inbound calls should work 100% now. If you are still having an issue with this please restart your phone.

Texting is still not working outbound and is working inbound

Data and MMS are not working yet either.

Topup and My Tesco Mobile account access should be working now also.

Will update more shortly.

regards
Paul

manutd83 · 16-03-2012 5:04pm

my calls still isnt working

Mowgli597 · 16-03-2012 5:05pm

I too am a new customer of Tesco Mobile, having migrated from O2.

I have to say the migration was not the easiest exercie - I have an iPhone4 and require a microSIM. Although Tesco Mobile mailed me two of these I ended up having to cut down a full-size SIM in order to get connected. Anyone want a spare microSIM

As regards the current frustrating outage, I agree totally with the posters who found difficulty in finding out what was going on - until I discovered this thread. Initially I thought it was part of the problems I had when migrating until a call to a colleague who is also on Tesco Mobile confirmed it was a general fault.

Having managed a data centre for a major mainframe manufacturer many, many moons ago I have to say that this outage is totally unacceptable. Any data centre worth its salt has a disaster recovery plan - and a flooded data centre is one of the standard contingencies that a good manager has to consider (along with an aircraft landing on the centre if you're located near an airport, or, my favourite, a mad axeman getting through security and starting to smash up everything!).

There was (is) a standard time in which you must get the centre back up and running, and there are companies out there who specialise in doing this.

Add to that that any work on a roof over any equipment is an obvious risk and so steps should be taken to relocate the equipment or, failing that, protect it from exactly what Paul is saying happened (it's not hard - sheets of plywood and plastic sheeting).

Having had to deal with a flooded data centre in Ohio one Christmas when a plant shut down but didn't consider the fact that the (water based) sprinkler system was liable to freeze and burst (which it did, covering their mainframe in dissolved plaster ceiling tiles), the golden rule is if you think it can't happen then it will.

Sorry - rant over :eek:

shamwari · 16-03-2012 5:11pm

Mowgli597 wrote: »

I too am a new customer of Tesco Mobile, having migrated from O2.

I have to say the migration was not the easiest exercie - I have an iPhone4 and require a microSIM. Although Tesco Mobile mailed me two of these I ended up having to cut down a full-size SIM in order to get connected. Anyone want a spare microSIM

As regards the current frustrating outage, I agree totally with the posters who found difficulty in finding out what was going on - until I discovered this thread. Initially I thought it was part of the problems I had when migrating until a call to a colleague who is also on Tesco Mobile confirmed it was a general fault.

Having managed a data centre for a major mainframe manufacturer many, many moons ago I have to say that this outage is totally unacceptable. Any data centre worth its salt has a disaster recovery plan - and a flooded data centre is one of the standard contingencies that a good manager has to consider (along with an aircraft landing on the centre if you're located near an airport, or, my favourite, a mad axeman getting through security and starting to smash up everything!).

There was (is) a standard time in which you must get the centre back up and running, and there are companies out there who specialise in doing this.

Add to that that any work on a roof over any equipment is an obvious risk and so steps should be taken to relocate the equipment or, failing that, protect it from exactly what Paul is saying happened (it's not hard - sheets of plywood and plastic sheeting).

Having had to deal with a flooded data centre in Ohio one Christmas when a plant shut down but didn't consider the fact that the (water based) sprinkler system was liable to freeze and burst (which it did, covering their mainframe in dissolved plaster ceiling tiles), the golden rule is if you think it can't happen then it will.

Sorry - rant over :eek:

There was also the story about the firm that had its production data centre in the North Tower at the World Trade centre. The disaster recovery site was in the south tower.....:eek:

Your comment above about the "golden rule" is quite correct..

chris2008x · 16-03-2012 5:12pm

I just thought it was a regional thing in my area because our phones couldn't make/receive calls earlier. I'm billpay and my mum is prepay and my dad who was in Thurles at the time is prepay and he could receive calls when I phoned him on the landline which we couldn't from.

I was just talking to Comreg they said they were never notified about the service disruption. I wasn't complaining about it btw, I just called to try get a landline number off them for customer care and they said you don't have one and were shocked to hear about the outage.

Tesco Mobile: Paul · 16-03-2012 6:15pm

Hi All

Just in case you are trying to topup by our topup IVR 1740 it is rediecting to O2 presently (one of the side effects of the workarounds to get calls working).

If you need to topup a voucher you can do so by using *101*Voucher No# and press call

regards
Paul

Tesco Mobile

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