Confusion after attempt to switch to O2

[brianhu]

My switch-over from VM to O2 has got into a right mess.  I was given a switch date last week and followed the instructions.  I then started getting messages from O2 and was given details of the MyO2 web site and saw that the financials have been switched. Last week, I got a note to say that I would be getting a new O2 SIM and it arrived a couple of days ago.  As the SIM package said wait until the VM signal drops and then switch the SIMs.  I did that yesterday and I started getting more odd messages and my mobile was having a few problems so I waited until today to give it a bit of time to sort itself out.

Today I tried again and the phone was no better.  Basically, the SMS texts were not working in either direction and worse still, whenever anyone rang my mobile number, it transferred them direct to my old VM voice mail rather than ring my mobile.  That meant that I couldn't send or get any texts, nobody could ring my phone and I couldn't get the recorded messages because I was then connected to O2 - so apart from being able to make calls out, the phone was pretty useless.

I rang the O2 service desk and and after the mandatory 30 minute wait explained what had happened.  By then end of that call I was more confused and I am sure that the foreigner at the other end was even more confused than me and I was told she would hand the problem over to some other department and they would get in touch in no more than 5 DAYS!!!  She struggled a bit when I asked her how they would get in touch when I could not get any voice calls or text messages on my phone and I ended up given her my landline number.

I tried again about an hour later and after that 30 minute mandatory wait got someone else from somewhere that was many hours ahead (greeted politely with Good Evening before I had even got to lunchtime!!!)  and apart from suggesting I swap to another phone or put the VM SIM back in could do no more than offer the 5-day wait again and a sales pitch to move over completely to O2 rather than stay with the joint account could not sort anything out.

I have now got the VM SIM back in the phone.  The delayed text messages came through and my phone was ale to receive calls fine, so I can only wait now and see if anyone in either company wants to either sort it out or try again before I give up and switch to a competent provider.  Not only being the only one affected by this shambles, doesn't actually help, but that is all I have got at the moment.

[Robert_P · Accepted solution]

Hello brianhu

Sorry to hear of the many issues regarding the migration to O2 and the problems getting support in regards to this, we appreciate you raising this via the forums and welcome to the community.

You mentioned that your 'switchover' date to O2 was last week, when you spoke to the O2 team did they advise that this had completed and you were now on their system? If so, it's confusing as to why you would still be able to get service via the VM SIM as once the migration takes place the number is no longer active.

What did O2 advise during the calls? What checks did they complete? We're limited as to the support we can offer due to no O2 systems access.

Rob

[brianhu]

Hi Rob

The service call people did not seem terribly in touch with what was happening.  I was advised to keep my phone on last Monday while the switchover was completed, and I did.  The coverage here is very poor (I use wi-Fi calling all the time in the house), so that might have screwed the system up a bit.   I did not get any ID specific messages pre the switch over but I did get an advice note that the SIM I had ordered (NOT) would arrive in the next few days and that I should put the new SIM in once the VM service went off.  I thought it had gone off yesterday (Thursday) so went ahead with the change and it seemed to go OK until I started checking up what was working post the apparent changeover so it is possible that the VM/O2 signal had dropped below threshold rather than been closed.  That was when I found out that something was wrong.  After the virtually useless service call this morning I did some more checking and realised that although I could make outgoing calls on the O2 SIM, the incoming ones were giving my old VM voice mail message as if the call response was sending out an NU and was transferring the call to voicemail.  This looked like it had somehow split the account with outgoing on O2 and incoming still on VM to a closed account.  In the meantime, SMS was dead both ways on O2.  To me, it looks like the account has got spit up or cross-lnked somewhere in the data tables and now has data network entries in both systems.

I have no idea what checks O2 did because I was put on hold when they were "looking" into the problem.  However, the idea that the two companies support staff cannot talk at a direct system level when making such a big changeover as they seem to be fills me with disbelief.  I am retired now, but in my days quite a while ago, I project managed a changeover of about  25% of the live NHS data systems from X.25 to IP and was also involved in the contingency planning for all NHS mobiles across the millennium bug period so I do understand how complicated these things can get.  However, I also realise how important it is for the techies to be able to sort problems at the working level when the higher-ups come up with some of these bright ideas (and timescales!).

[Travis_M]

Hi @brianhu 

Thanks for your response and my apologies for the inconvenience with this.

We'll need you to contact O2 regarding this as unfortunately we cannot run diagnostics via here now the SIM has been delivered - I do understand this may not be ideal but it is only O2 who can run faults diagnostics alongside this to get you up and running.

My apologies again

[brianhu]

Thanks for letting me know this bizarre situation. I tried contacting O2 and got nowhere because their fallback contact if you are not able or willing to sit on the phone for hours listening to their rubbish music is to drop them a line via Facebook/Twiter/Instagram and not being on any of these platforms, I am shafted - what is wrong with them using email or What's App - that last one was suggested for me to use for my replacement normal messaging in the email I got from VM in case this exact problem happened..  I will keep trying to sort things out, but if I can't get it sorted out soon I will take my phone elsewhere and leave this sorry mess behind forever as my first drop from part of the VM machine.

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us brianhu and I'm sorry to hear of the issues that you're having trying to get in touch with O2, the other methods including the online assistant can be found here. I hope that you can get through to the team at O2 and they can resolve your issues. 

Kind Regards,

Steven_L