O2

tsinc80697 · 26 Oct 2006 at 18:03

Been an online customer for 4years with O2, on average spending £30-£35 a month. My contract is up in 3 weeks and the only phone i have seen that i liked is the new BlackBerry pearl. O2 has this for £49.99, which is fine.
When i phoned up they offered me 500minutes and 1000texts for £25, which is another £5 off my current monthly bill.
But when they went to offer this contract to me they said its not possible as the GPRS on the phone will not work if i am an online customer?!
They have told me that if i want this phone i will have to go instore and start a new contract with O2 store, which means paying £45/month for what i have now, which is a joke as i have been a customer for 4 years. I know their online and offline is seperate but it is just silly saying the GPRS wouldn't work, why wouldn't it if i can use the internet on my current phone?
The other option i have is to change operator, T-Mobile seem to have the best offers at the moment with their Flex tarrifs, i can get 500minutes and 1000texts for £30 a month and the Blackberry is free.
But what are T Mobile like for customer service and helping, and would the phone come with any branding on it, if so is it possible to get rid of it?

Thanks!

ps Another option could be going through online stores such as onestopphoneshop, but what are these stores like? a lot of them offer cash back but some people have said this is dodgy as they try anything to stop giving you it back

StevenG · 26 Oct 2006 at 19:09

Stick with O2 as the GRPS WILL work. you just need the settings.. which are available on the net.. you just need some IP addresses and passwords

Connection Settings

In the ‘Access Point Name’ field enter ‘wap.o2.co.uk’
In the ‘Username’ field enter ‘o2wap’
In the ‘Password’ field enter ‘password’
Use Server assigned IP

Proxy Settings

In the 'Server’ field enter ‘193.113.200.195’
In the ‘Port’ field enter ‘9201’

thats the WAP settigns for O2 Online. which you can put into any blackberry/pocket pc.

tsinc80697 · 26 Oct 2006 at 19:19

so by them saying it wont work, they are doing what? Trying to get more money out of me by making a new contract?
Just cant make sense of why they would say i wont work unless i am an instore customer

StevenG · 26 Oct 2006 at 19:28

online and instore are Theoretically the same company, but say have 2 seperate sectors. one sector has to pay for all the shops and staff (hence higher prices) and online is cheaper because they have to employ less people and have less running costs e.g. rent of shops all over the country..

so basically yeah. they want more money out of you. because the O2 network is the same all over the uk, its not different for online and instore clients.. they just use different IP's as far as i know for the GPRS.

Greedy People. just go online order the phone and if it doesnt come with the settings.. there available online.