O2 No Service

Rfm10

I have been with O2 for many years on payg as a low user on their old Classic 123. No problems and very cheap. Now, with no prior notice from O2, my mobile has had No Service for the last few days - cut off. 
I couldn't unblock the phone on-line, so had to phone them ( landline ). I was told that as my SIM card was over 20 years old, and there was an upgraded service in my area, I needed a new SIM card, sent to me in 1 to 5 days. After much discussion, they admitted that the Classic 123 service was not being supported anymore, and that the new SIM would be £5/m !!
As O2 had not sent me any notice of this, and just cut me off, I was livid. O2 customer service is rubbish, so now looking for something better and cheaper.
Has anyone else had similar problems with O2 ? 

Mark_d

If you were generally happy with O2 until now then giffgaff is a great option for a low user.  All you have to do is send a text/make a brief call every 6 months to keep the thing alive

flaneurs_lobster

O2 Classic SIMs are still available on eBay for a quid or so (including p&p), I bought one a few months ago for my spare, spare phone. 

Recent discussion here seems to suggest that a £10 top-up may be required every 6 months to keep the thing alive, or maybe just a "chargeable event" (O2 customer service, the T&Cs and actual experience don't seem to agree).

@Mark_d 's suggestion of giffgaff is good if low use, I've had one with about a fiver credit on it for at least 4 years.

Another cheap option is RWG, uses the EE network.

savergrant

Rfm10 said:

I was told that as my SIM card was over 20 years old, and there was an upgraded service in my area, I needed a new SIM card, sent to me in 1 to 5 days. After much discussion, they admitted that the Classic 123 service was not being supported anymore, and that the new SIM would be £5/m !!...

I understood that there is still 2g coverage nationally so don't see why your sim should not be receiving service due to its age. It seems more likely that o2 have deactivated it due to them not making enough money out of you. When did you last topup and when did you last make a successful outbound call from your sim? What phone have you been using the sim in and has it previously worked for Internet access?

Neil_Jones

flaneurs_lobster said:

O2 Classic SIMs are still available on eBay for a quid or so (including p&p), I bought one a few months ago for my spare, spare phone. 

Recent discussion here seems to suggest that a £10 top-up may be required every 6 months to keep the thing alive, or maybe just a "chargeable event" (O2 customer service, the T&Cs and actual experience don't seem to agree).

I don't think this is a six month top-up requirement thing.

I've gone back through transactions as I'm on that legacy tariff and I last topped up £10 on September 5 last year.  Before that it was January 2023.  Before that, November 2021.

I think this is more about a chargeable activity - so a call, a text or maybe even some data usage (though usually it means calls/texts) .  As per https://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/on-pay-and-go-our-service-terms-are-worth-a-read - "7.1 - If you do not carry out any chargeable activity at least once in any 6 month period your Mobile Phone will be disconnected and you will lose any remaining credits balance on your Account."

So if the OP is a very light user (as in a call once in a blue moon) that's probably why they lost service.

Rfm10

Thanks for all your useful comments. After realizing overnight that the O2 assumption that my SIM card was 20 yrs old was wrong - I had a new Sony Xperia L1 phone and SIM card about 5 years ago, I called O2 again this morning with a more positive result - reconnected with the old existing tariff ! It helps to keep at them.
I had a look at the Giffgaff site, and also the Martin Lewis suggestion of Lebara ( but know little of this ), and can only pull up monthly contracts, little on PAYG, which is all I need for my low usage.
For now, I'll stick with O2, until they try to force me out again. Thanks again. 

Neil_Jones

Rfm10 said:

I had a look at the Giffgaff site, and also the Martin Lewis suggestion of Lebara ( but know little of this ), and can only pull up monthly contracts, little on PAYG, which is all I need for my low usage.
For now, I'll stick with O2, until they try to force me out again. Thanks again. 

The market has moved away from traditional PAYG to an extent in favour of bundles.

Some deal comparisons here:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/best-pay-as-you-go-sim-cards/

1p mobile is the cheapest by far, piggybacking onto EE, but you need to feed it a top-up every 120 days, so that's automatically £30 a year.  After a while if you don't actively use your phone you'll have more credit built up than you know what to do with.

Rfm10

My thanks to Neil_Jones for the links. Some interesting offers there, but sticking with my O2 Classic 123 ( 1p/GB data, 2p/text & 3p/m calls ) still works best for me - usually costs £20/yr ( 2 x £10 ), or even less.
FYI, when I questions O2 today regarding how often I needed to top-up, they say at least once/yr. The chargeable activity at least once every 6 months probably applies too. 

savergrant

Rfm10 said:

My thanks to Neil_Jones for the links. Some interesting offers there, but sticking with my O2 Classic 123 ( 1p/GB data, 2p/text & 3p/m calls ) still works best for me - usually costs £20/yr ( 2 x £10 ), or even less.
FYI, when I questions O2 today regarding how often I needed to top-up, they say at least once/yr. The chargeable activity at least once every 6 months probably applies too. 

If you find you are topping up twice a year on average then you are probably on the best tariff for you, given that your usage is likely to vary from one month to the next. As mentioned 1pmobile have a requirement to topup £30 per year (although cheaper usage rates), and for very light users rwg mobile or tesco lite tariff have no regular topup requirements but higher charges for usage, so in your case you would need to topup more often.

https://www.tescomobile.com/help/payments-and-charges/call-charges/pay-as-you-go-lite

Rwg

Pay-as-you-go 

You can use our service on a simple pay-as-you basis. Just top-up your account and charges will de deducted as and when you use it. Your credit will never expire. 

VOICE: 5p min UK landline/mobile 

SMS: 5p/SMS 

DATA: 1p/MB 

sdduk

Rfm10 said:

Thanks for all your useful comments. After realizing overnight that the O2 assumption that my SIM card was 20 yrs old was wrong - I had a new Sony Xperia L1 phone and SIM card about 5 years ago, I called O2 again this morning with a more positive result - reconnected with the old existing tariff ! It helps to keep at them.
I had a look at the Giffgaff site, and also the Martin Lewis suggestion of Lebara ( but know little of this ), and can only pull up monthly contracts, little on PAYG, which is all I need for my low usage.
For now, I'll stick with O2, until they try to force me out again. Thanks again. 

If it helps i have a O2 classic it was a normal Payg and i switch it over to classic when it started, also i have not topped my sim up since 2021 still have about £15 on it but i do make sure i make a phone call every month just to make sure its not cut off.

December last year i bought another classic sim from eBay and i topped it up and it works fine not that i use them much lol

Kim_13

This seems to have happened to me - noticed no service yesterday, though I received an advertising text the day before. 

Classic PAYG and has actually been used more this year, as it’s now in my dual sim phone since Three removed the free data. Before that it was just in an old phone with a text every 5 months or so to keep it alive, which I obviously never forgot to do. 

Edit: I have also now recovered my number, which O2 confirmed had been disconnected as ‘it hadn’t been used for a while.’ As I had sent a text from it on 24 May, the disconnection wasn’t in accordance with their own terms so I guess that was all they could say without admitting they were wrong. They said they had added back the credit that was on there at the point of disconnection, except that was about half of what there was. I couldn’t prove the exact amount (and have now taken a screenshot of *#10# ouput in case) but could prove the Airtime Rewards addition and replied stating that if the phone hadn’t been used for a while, then by definition that £10 (added 4th July) couldn’t have been touched (initially they were reinstating sub £10 of credit.) Balance now restored to what it was to the penny to my knowledge. 

I was advised to make a call every few months to keep it active - but presumably they’d have to reconnect if a customer had ANY chargeable activity every 6 months since this is what their terms require.