I hate O2 and want to change

frobisher

I have an incredible catalouge of errors with O2 and have found their service to be appalling. I know Vodafone are similarish but what about the other providers? As someone who know little about this stuff, are they good enough these days?

krudler

any examples?

patrickc

I'm with meteor since 1999, (A few minor breaks in between) they have gone from strength to strength and after trying other networks at the same time I really find meteor the best. (my current work phone is with 02) and I regularly lose signal, calls drop etc with o2

Malteaser!

i have both an o2 and a meteor phone...don't ask! never had any real problems with either(i have noticed the signal being a bit worse on the o2 though) but i'm thinking of just using meteor from now coz of the free meteor to meteor texts!

JTMan

frobisher wrote:

I have an incredible catalouge of errors with O2 and have found their service to be appalling. I know Vodafone are similarish but what about the other providers? As someone who know little about this stuff, are they good enough these days?

If it is value you are after you will save a lot by switching to Meteor

frobisher

krudler wrote:

any examples?

Ok, for what ever it's worth I'll put my rant hat on; My phone is my life. I work as a freelancer and might only get one big job every few months but that's enough to keep me going. About a year ago clients started telling me they were having big problems getting through to me. Not good. I complained to o2 and they said it was nothing on their end so I told them I'm leaving. At that stage my monthly bills were about €400 on the top bracket so they said they'd give me a new sim, a choice of any phone I want free and do a full service on my line. Sweet I thought. My brand new PDA didn't work out of the box, it took weeks to fix while I had a crappy stand in set. When I eventually got it back I opened it and the exact same problem was still there. I was furious. They offered to replace it, but only with a lesser phone or repair it. I had no faith in their offered repair though but I gave in and I have to say it came back working 100% fine. And it only took about 4 1/2 months to repair it second time round!!! I was incredibly frustrated but releived. Then I call a UK based client, he siad: "Oh, you are still in business? I've been trying to call you for months. I thought you'd gone under. I've hired someone else." Major, major, major bad news that cost me about €10k a year. So I sent a huge group text asking if anyone has problems getting me on the mobile. I had a deluge of people saying that they have to try three or four times to get me and that sometimes even then they couldn't. I even have rented landlines in the UK and Ireland routed to my mobile. To me this is a massive deal. I will tell everyone who will listen this story, O2 deserve it.

I need rock solid reliability. Is Vodafone the ticket?

frobisher

Fungus wrote:

If it is value you are after you will save a lot by switching to Meteor

Value matters alot because I can't keep paying so much. But I need reliability. Will Meteor offer this?

nick23

Whatever you do do not move to three. They are just as bad if not worse than what you've described with o2. Their aftersale service is a joke and their reliability in terms of reception and recieving calls and texts is even worse. Nothing but bad experiences and problem after problem with me! I dont know if its the same for other people i would definitely advise against moving to three

Urban Weigl

frobisher wrote:

Value matters alot because I can't keep paying so much. But I need reliability. Will Meteor offer this?

I was with Meteor for a year. Reliability seemed fine, however customer service was not as good as O2, and forget about roaming with Meteor: you will be paying several times what you've been paying with O2. For example, whereas O2 charge 59 cents with per second billing in most countries, Meteor charge 1 euro or even several euros a minute, plus they don't do per second billing while roaming. So for example a call that only lasts a couple of seconds will cost you €1.50 with Meteor, but only 5 cents with O2. It really adds up. And beware about them charging you for calls you don't answer while abroad without them telling you or it being mentioned anywhere on their web site or price lists, apparently it's only on an "internal price list" that they don't give their customers access to.

krudler

frobisher wrote:

Ok, for what ever it's worth I'll put my rant hat on; My phone is my life. I work as a freelancer and might only get one big job every few months but that's enough to keep me going. About a year ago clients started telling me they were having big problems getting through to me. Not good. I complained to o2 and they said it was nothing on their end so I told them I'm leaving. At that stage my monthly bills were about €400 on the top bracket so they said they'd give me a new sim, a choice of any phone I want free and do a full service on my line. Sweet I thought. My brand new PDA didn't work out of the box, it took weeks to fix while I had a crappy stand in set. When I eventually got it back I opened it and the exact same problem was still there. I was furious. They offered to replace it, but only with a lesser phone or repair it. I had no faith in their offered repair though but I gave in and I have to say it came back working 100% fine. And it only took about 4 1/2 months to repair it second time round!!! I was incredibly frustrated but releived. Then I call a UK based client, he siad: "Oh, you are still in business? I've been trying to call you for months. I thought you'd gone under. I've hired someone else." Major, major, major bad news that cost me about €10k a year. So I sent a huge group text asking if anyone has problems getting me on the mobile. I had a deluge of people saying that they have to try three or four times to get me and that sometimes even then they couldn't. I even have rented landlines in the UK and Ireland routed to my mobile. To me this is a massive deal. I will tell everyone who will listen this story, O2 deserve it.

I need rock solid reliability. Is Vodafone the ticket?

that seems to be a handset fault though o2 dont make phones they just provide the network service,you might have been in an area with bad coverage as well

frobisher

krudler wrote:

that seems to be a handset fault though o2 dont make phones they just provide the network service,you might have been in an area with bad coverage as well

The problem persisted over three handsets and in two locations. Dublin 1 and Dun laoghaire. I think there's more to it than that. They couldn't get it right and they couldn't handle how to keep me happy. The only saving grace is that they have agreed to release me from my contract.

what_car

frobisher wrote:

Ok, for what ever it's worth I'll put my rant hat on; My phone is my life. I work as a freelancer and might only get one big job every few months but that's enough to keep me going. About a year ago clients started telling me they were having big problems getting through to me. Not good. I complained to o2 and they said it was nothing on their end so I told them I'm leaving. At that stage my monthly bills were about €400 on the top bracket so they said they'd give me a new sim, a choice of any phone I want free and do a full service on my line. Sweet I thought. My brand new PDA didn't work out of the box, it took weeks to fix while I had a crappy stand in set. When I eventually got it back I opened it and the exact same problem was still there. I was furious. They offered to replace it, but only with a lesser phone or repair it. I had no faith in their offered repair though but I gave in and I have to say it came back working 100% fine. And it only took about 4 1/2 months to repair it second time round!!! I was incredibly frustrated but releived. Then I call a UK based client, he siad: "Oh, you are still in business? I've been trying to call you for months. I thought you'd gone under. I've hired someone else." Major, major, major bad news that cost me about €10k a year. So I sent a huge group text asking if anyone has problems getting me on the mobile. I had a deluge of people saying that they have to try three or four times to get me and that sometimes even then they couldn't. I even have rented landlines in the UK and Ireland routed to my mobile. To me this is a massive deal. I will tell everyone who will listen this story, O2 deserve it.

I need rock solid reliability. Is Vodafone the ticket?

vodafone are ok never had any problems with them, service in my opinion is rock solid and a good roaming service too... my bills used to be round 50-70 yoyos per month, used to read some news on their voda fone live portal before i went to bed....

anyways i deleted the settings from the phone so i couldnt browse the voda portal and now my bills are around 20 yoyos! great savings.

voda seem more expensive but i rekon service is better!

hosi

what_car wrote:

vodafone are ok never had any problems with them, service in my opinion is rock solid and a good roaming service too... my bills used to be round 50-70 yoyos per month, used to read some news on their voda fone live portal before i went to bed....

anyways i deleted the settings from the phone so i couldnt browse the voda portal and now my bills are around 20 yoyos! great savings.

voda seem more expensive but i rekon service is better!

I can confirm that! Voda is undoubtedly most expensive network but also most reliable one in my opinion. So if your business depends on your mobile phone in some way switch to Voda.

rogue-entity

I was with O2 for about 4 years, and I never had the problems you experienced, my dad was with Eircell (back in the day) and he switched to O2 because at the time, Eircell had sh1te reception. I switched to 3 myself and I havent had a problem with them, dispite what everyone else is saying here, they are a fantastic network, their customer service have been as good as O2, and O2 had pretty good CS.

I would not recommend 3 to a business customer, certainly not to someone like you who depends on your mobile, they are a good network, but they are not without their faults, and they dont have the reliability of O2 and Vodafone just yet, but they are improving. I would suggest that you move to Vodafone, since Meteor, like 3, are better suited for consumers and other users who dont require rock-solid reliability. And Vodafone has a better roaming service then 3 and Meteor, they are rediculously expensive, but they are reliable from what I have been told.

rebel.ranter

Just as a matter of interest you say you had lots of people trying to contact you but couldn't get you. Can I ask a couple of questions:

- Did you have your Voicemail enabled, if so why didn't they leave a message?
- Did you receive other calls from other people?
- Did the problems start when you changed to a particular device/handset?

Sounds like a very unusual problem. I would imagine D1 & Dun Laoghaire would have adequate coverage.

frobisher

rebel.ranter wrote:

Just as a matter of interest you say you had lots of people trying to contact you but couldn't get you. Can I ask a couple of questions:

- Did you have your Voicemail enabled, if so why didn't they leave a message?
- Did you receive other calls from other people?
- Did the problems start when you changed to a particular device/handset?

Sounds like a very unusual problem. I would imagine D1 & Dun Laoghaire would have adequate coverage.

Yes, voicemail was enabled. People either got a constant rining when I actually heard nothing, a beep or an echo of the sound of their own voice. Yes I did receive other calls. They started after I lost a handest and tried different ones after that.

jesus_thats_gre

You should stick your usage habits in that tool that Comreg have for comparing what your bills might be over different networks. You might be surprised, especially if you are on the high end with spend.

frobisher

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

You should stick your usage habits in that tool that Comreg have for comparing what your bills might be over different networks. You might be surprised, especially if you are on the high end with spend.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I did! And I ca get my bill to less than half on another supplier. I'm doing it on Monday.

BostonB

If it was that important to you, and worth 10k or more, why would you not just have two phones, one O2 and one Vodafone as a backup?

krudler

BostonB wrote:

If it was that important to you, and worth 10k or more, why would you not just have two phones, one O2 and one Vodafone as a backup?

same reason people dont buy 2 cars in case one breaks down

Urban Weigl

frobisher wrote:

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I did! And I ca get my bill to less than half on another supplier. I'm doing it on Monday.

Out of interest, what's the other supplier? 3?

jesus_thats_gre

krudler wrote:

same reason people dont buy 2 cars in case one breaks down

One is possibly the second biggest purchase you will make in your life time, the other could be as little as 20 euro a month.. Bet you thought you were a real genius..

jesus_thats_gre

frobisher wrote:

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I did! And I ca get my bill to less than half on another supplier. I'm doing it on Monday.

As much as I would like to know the other supplier, I would also like to know what your usage is like - or what you entered anyway.

frobisher

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

As much as I would like to know the other supplier, I would also like to know what your usage is like - or what you entered anyway.

My bill is usually around €400 per month, the cheapest when I entered in comreg was Meteor but there was a Vodafone with and add 40o package that was near enough that I'm happy to pay the extra for what I hope will be more solid performance.

BostonB: I know what you mean but it's easy to know these things with hindsight. To be honest, at this stage in the development of the technology I should be able to sign up with a top provider, use a quality phone and not expect the kind of problems I had.

krudler

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

One is possibly the second biggest purchase you will make in your life time, the other could be as little as 20 euro a month.. Bet you thought you were a real genius..

my point was you shouldnt need a backup of anything,one should do what its intended to

jesus_thats_gre

krudler wrote:

my point was you shouldnt need a backup of anything,one should do what its intended to

So you don't agree in having a contingency for anything that is very important? If a persons career and finances are dependent on them being contactable, I do not see how having a second means of being contactable is such a big deal.