O2 Network

[UncleEbenezer]

<sigh>
In the good old days people were amazed when they could get coverage outside major cities

At the time you wrote that, I had no signal.

I was on a train, much of whose route is without signal!

[XFool]

"Sorry, we're carrying out some upgrade work in this area.

Everything should be back to normal by 8pm on Saturday 28th August 2021."

All the scaffolding was taken down this morning. Two days early?

[bungeejumper]

All the scaffolding was taken down this morning. Two days early?

Naaaah, they gave up and went home for the long weekend.

BJ

[XFool]

I don't believe it!

"Sorry, we're carrying out some upgrade work in this area.

We’re carrying out some upgrade work to help improve our network. While we do this, you might have some trouble with your calls, texts and data but we're working as fast as we can to get things sorted.

Everything should be back to normal by 8pm on Wednesday 8th June 2022."

"8th June"? After all the work that has already been expended on this base station over the last 3 or 4 years how can it possibly need even more work?
It seems to be like the painting of the old Forth Rail bridge. No sooner have they finished 'upgrading' or whatever than it's time to start all over again.

Should I offer to lend them a hand this time? I'm not good with heights but surely, every little helps...

[XFool]

I don't believe it!

I do!

"Sorry, we're carrying out some upgrade work in this area.

We’re carrying out some upgrade work to help improve our network. While we do this, you might have some trouble with your calls, texts and data but we're working as fast as we can to get things sorted.

Everything should be back to normal by 8pm on Wednesday 8th June 2022."

Well, 8th June has come and gone.

"Sorry, a phone mast close to you isn't working as well as we would expect

Our engineers are carrying out some checks to investigate issues in this area. While we do this, you might have some trouble with your calls, texts and data, sorry. We will update you by Friday 24th June 2022."

Uh, huh...

(This time around I've not seen any sign of any physical work being carried out on this mast so far.)

[UncleEbenezer]

XFool, that'll be the influence of the tie-up with Virgin Media. I expect it'll only get worse.

[AleisterCrowley]

Pretty unlikely as Virgin are broadband only, and this is all RAN work
Virgin Mobile is actually carried on ..other networks

[UncleEbenezer]

Pretty unlikely as Virgin are broadband only, and this is all RAN work
Virgin Mobile is actually carried on ..other networks

The long and moving timescales. The paucity of information.

And, erm, the difficulty of contact with them - like a supposed customer support number that hangs up on me after going through a bunch of menu options, and a complaints email address that doesn't bother to reply. All smells of Virgin's Kafka-inspired approach to customers.

[AleisterCrowley]

Pretty unlikely as Virgin are broadband only, and this is all RAN work
Virgin Mobile is actually carried on ..other networks

The long and moving timescales. The paucity of information.

And, erm, the difficulty of contact with them - like a supposed customer support number that hangs up on me after going through a bunch of menu options, and a complaints email address that doesn't bother to reply. All smells of Virgin's Kafka-inspired approach to customers.

I couldn't possibly comment !

[UncleEbenezer]

Pretty unlikely as Virgin are broadband only, and this is all RAN work
Virgin Mobile is actually carried on ..other networks

The long and moving timescales. The paucity of information.

And, erm, the difficulty of contact with them - like a supposed customer support number that hangs up on me after going through a bunch of menu options, and a complaints email address that doesn't bother to reply. All smells of Virgin's Kafka-inspired approach to customers.

I take it back!

Just had a call back from them this morning, following my email of May 30th to complaints. A response in just over two weeks, and the lady was entirely helpful, too. Not at all Virgin-like.

[UncleEbenezer]

Pretty unlikely as Virgin are broadband only, and this is all RAN work
Virgin Mobile is actually carried on ..other networks

The long and moving timescales. The paucity of information.

And, erm, the difficulty of contact with them - like a supposed customer support number that hangs up on me after going through a bunch of menu options, and a complaints email address that doesn't bother to reply. All smells of Virgin's Kafka-inspired approach to customers.

I take it back!

Just had a call back from them this morning, following my email of May 30th to complaints. A response in just over two weeks, and the lady was entirely helpful, too. Not at all Virgin-like.

Seems I spoke too soon. The immediate problem I complained of hasn't been fixed: I still can't log in to their broken system. In today's O2-land, that means that despite having set up a direct debit, I can't pay the last bill they sent, and they've now cut off most of my services.

Not quite at Virgin's level yet, given that I had a response from complaints. But heading that way.

[UncleEbenezer]

And I got a text from O2 apologising for the outage and promising a credit to my account in compensation. A very pleasant contrast to certain others.

Hmmm ... I didn't get anything like that. Or anything at all in fact. Did you register a complaint or something?

Having since that exchange moved from being a small-biz customer to a personal customer, I can see the difference. O2 are (or at least were) a decent provider to small biz - I was with them (or originally cellnet) for over 20 years. But their domestic operation is pure nightmare. Not at all recognisable as the same company.

[XFool]

It would be too, too boring if I detailed every drop out at my local mast! But I can't help pointing out that the scafolding has been up and down more than once since my last missive.

The latest: My trusty old 2G Nokia dropped out again late on Tuesday evening. Absolutely nothing. This time it started to look ominous. I could still see all the networks, including O2-UK, on my phone but absolutely no sign of a signal and zero ability to log on to the Tesco network. "No network access". Could my old phone finally be on the blink?

Still, when I checked the O2 status site last night I noticed, despite "All our services are working", that they "had been working on this site in the last 24 hours".
Uh, huh!

I reported the fault along with my phone number and email address. Later reporting also via the official Tesco Mobile site. A trip out to the shops early this morning didn't provide any solace, still absolutely no sign of the Tesco network. Then, this morning at 11.55am... Bingo! My trusty Nokia 1100 lives to fight another day. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to send somebody round to plug a connector back in or something, after yesterday's "working".

[XFool]

...Oh no!

I swear, one day I'm going around there armed with a hammer.

Loud rumble! Perhaps with a bit of luck, it's just been struck by lightening...

Later: Lightening seems to have knocked some sense back into it. For now...

[XFool]

"Recently, lots of 'stuff' seems broken." - Very first line in my OP on this thread.
(Don't get me started on postal delivery)

Next Tuesday, 5th September, is BT STOP SELL WLR (PTSN, ISDN, FTTC) day. OK, that leaves us until 31 December 2025 until they actually pull the entire existing UK PTSN system. Thinks: How many of the general public know anything at all about any of this?

I was hoping to eventually simply let my landline go (I am with Plusnet) and just stick with my trusty Nokia 1100 (!) - but, with the local base station I depend on at home about as dependable as a third hand Sinclair C5....

Looks like a nearby phone mast isn’t working as it should, sorry.

Our engineers will be on the case already, and your service might come and go until we fix it.