The Great Tethering Debacle by O2

philiporeilly

Showing what a joke O2 "Customer Support" are with the iPhone. Majority of quotes below made by O2 staff from O2 forums below...

THE GREAT TETHERING DEBACLE by O2

7th November 2008

colmisainmdom wrote: »

The cynic in me says that it'll mean that O2 will find a way to make sure that tethering data doesn't come out of our 1024MB.

Daryll wrote: »

Don't be such a cynic

18th March 2009

Daryll wrote: »

It is too early to comment on tethering but you have to look and see that we do this for other handsets and so will probably do it for the iPhone also.

8th June 2009

Daryll wrote: »

I will have news on tethering and MMS probably tomorrow morning.

17th June 2009

Daryll wrote: »

Tethering will not be the new VV and we will have it. It just won't be available for the drop of 3.0 tonight that's the only reason.

Daryll wrote: »

We are working closely with Apple to have this finalised very soon.

Daryll wrote: »

I did not say that. You have no details on tethering yet guys other than we are going to have it in place very soon. I have not said anything about pricing yet so I don't know whether there will be a charge for it or not. I am only asking that you bear with us on this one feature for a little bit.

29th June 2009

Daryll wrote: »

We will have word on tethering in the coming weeks. Please bear with us during time.

3rd July 2009

Daryll wrote: »

The policy is that we do not currently support tethering. We are working on the feature presently and are due to make it available soon.

Paddy wrote: »

The iphone was only released last friday. As Daryll said, we will make it available soon. We would rather go out with a service that works than a quick one.

24th July 2009

Daryll wrote: »

I will just check in with you guys and let you know that the issue of Tethering has not been forgotten. I am following up with this next week and I will update you all when I get the news.

4th August 2009 BTW THIS IS PURE BULL! TETHERING ALREADY WORKS BY JUST UPDATING CARRIER FILE.

Rod head of customer support wrote: »

Just sweeping up and noticed your post. To be clear, the requirement is not for a price plan, the requirement is for network functionality which Apple require for Tethering to work. This essentially allows Voice, Tethering and MMS to work simultaneously. We are deploying technology to deliver this but have to do so in a tested manner to a set of release windows that make these timelines a requirement unfortunately.
Hope this clarifies, please let me know if you'd like more info.
Regards Rod

11th September 2009

Paddy wrote: »

Guys, Rod has told you that this feature will be delivered in Q1 of next year.

End of Q1 2010

Psychic Phil wrote:

31st March 2010....Tethering, Visual Voicemail and 4G delivered. Vodafone customers happy with new 3GSX iPhones. O2 customers still awaiting response to posts here...."

banquo

Win

Red Alert

The rather insane fact about all this is that tethering does actually work if you install the alternative carrier settings file; surely O2's engineering staff are as smart with routing as other major carriers around the world who can get MMS and tethering (cough cough, how do we screw more money, cough cough) to work concurrently. I'm quite happy to forego MMS to have the tethering ability anyway.

super_furry

O2 are just awful. Switched to them for the 3GS and after weeks of chasing around dead-ends, false stock delivery reports, unhelpful and ignorant staff and shops that just don't answer their phones - ever - I finally got one in Carphone Warhouse. Have had nothing but problems with O2 since then from reception, to bills, to add-ons and already can't wait until my contract is up.

jd83

I got 3gs from o2 on there online store. Ported my vodafone over to o2. Nothing worked for me. I couldnt top the phone up it wouldnt let me. After around a week of having no credit they fixed it. Then when i enquired about my free credit your supposed to get, think it was 60 euros they told me that they were not doing that anymore that it would only be 5 euros. Even though when i bought the phone it said 60.

I jailbroke it unlocked and went straight back to vodafone who then gave me 105 euros for changing back to vodafone and talked me through getting everythnig working for the iphone (internet and mms)

I also tried to change to 02 a few years back and had a similar distaster of an experience and ended up going to vodafone.

Absolute joke of a company the sooner they lose the iphone contract and let a decent service provider take it the better. I would like to own the iphone without having to jailbreak and all that and without spending a fortune.

There even incapable having the phone in stock and there the only ones selling over here. Its been 2 or 3 months since it came out and a lot of people still havent got it. I feel sorry for the guys quoted above, there is obviously no communications in the company and there on the front line. A lot of people higher up the food chain in o2 should look for a new career choice as there incapable of doing their current job.

/rant about hate of o2

Gauge

And a warning to anyone who's upgrading to 3.1 firmware- stay the HELL away from it if you use the tethering hack as this update kills it. I'm kicking myself. :mad:

Edit: somehow missed the thread about this... Sorry!

philiporeilly

apparently if you downgrade back to 3.01 after 3.1 tethering wont reinstall either

Gauge

That sucks I don't use tethering that often, but it was a lifesaver on my bi-monthly train trips from Dublin to Cork. Was using about 200mb out of my 1gb allowance. Wonder will 02 ever sort out tethering for their customers?

philiporeilly

Tethering will be sorted when vodafone gets the iPhone too!

Red Alert

To be honest I'm unimpressed by the attitude of their customer service staff on the O2 forums. They think that by making false promises, like tethering "should have something in a week" or similar that they can get away with it. Very unhappy customer.