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This the reply from Vodophone after a recent complaint to them. Thankyou for your e-mail. We are trialling a few options currently to help with signal in rural areas.We currently have a trial in West Berkshire using smaller antennas placed in public places rather than antennas to boost signal and we offer similar devices for the home. There`s more information here www.vodophone.co,uk/suresignal.We don`t have an antenna planned for Steeple Aston at the moment unfortunately but we are hoping if our trials are successful we can roll out similar setups to places such as Steeple Aston. Best Wishes Paul Vodophone Customer Relations

Thank you for all the efforts. Here’s a summary of Operator responses to date:
Vodafone: admit the signal is variable. Their solutions are a manual reset or to invest in a Sure Signal Box. This begs the question that if you’ve made a contract/PAYG with Vodafone, you have the right to expect that the goods and service will be fit for purpose and match their description.
TMobile:sent their apologies to Mike and suggested logging on manually and/or checking his SIM card and phone. So the same  Consumer Credit Act issues as with Vodafone.
O2: have told me that they don’t have a 3G service . Steeple is apparently  ‘right on the edge of a black spot that only offers outdoor coverage which may explain why it’s inadequate indoors. Due to the rural location and the lack of demand for the service, it’s unlikely any new masts will be installed in the area.’ And yet, O2 is probably the best signal in Steeple!
Three: wrote that ‘It seems you’re on the edge of a 3G cell. This means that you may have service limitations’.
Orange: admitted to an ‘out of service site’ which they were waiting for BT to repair. This can take days or even weeks. We’re clearly low on the priority list.

So we’re gathering evidence. And we know that some people have complained without reporting to the Forum. But, as Peter says, it’s the number of complaints, preferably repeated, which have any effect. Can we all undertake to alert at least 5 other people to complain? For those who can’t face expensive long delays in phoning their Operators, here are easier ways to complain ( also published in December SAL).


O2
Email: complaintreviewservice@02.com
Landline: 0844 8090222   
Vodafone
Email: http://campaigns.vodafone.co.uk/complaints
Landline: 08700 700191
T-Mobile
Email: www.t-mobile.co.uk/contactus
Landline: 0845 4125000   3/HutchinsonG
Email: www.three.co.uk/Support/Contact_us/Complaints_code_form
Landline: 0800 3584916
Orange
Email: customer.services@orange.co.uk
Landline: 07973 100450   

Keep going! Thank you from the Parish Council.

I wrote to O2 complaining about the service I was getting on my mobile.  They wrote back today saying "we have no 3G signal around the area and the 2G signal is fine.  I would suggest you turn off your 3G and switch on your 2G signal and see if this improves your service".   I have no idea how to do this so I will back to ask how to do it.  But if I change from 3G to 2G does anyone know what the consequences are?  Are there apps/services etc which wont then work?    I will ask that of O2 as well.

Julia

I have emailed my complaint twice aleady and received only automated replies!  I have had a go on 'Vodafone Chat' and am awaiting a response, apart from a nice apology from the contact in India I presume.   
I shall now start a flurry of complaints as actually my reception has deteriorated recently - with full battery and 2/3 blibs of reception I can not even retrieve voicemail messages I get the message - emergency calls only.  Strangely an hour later I did manage to retrieve the messages - curious!

In reply to Yoni Kinory - It seems to me that good mobile phone signal reception has become a social necessity because of the ubiquity of mobile phones in our society.

I had a call from O2 today in response to my emailed complaint. The young man was very talkative and very apologetic, first for the delay in getting back to me and then for the lack of signal in my house, which he accepted. Unfortunately he said there was very little that could be done about it – and he apologised again!
The nearest mast is apparently at Lower Heyford station with another at North Aston. He said there was unlikely to be a business case for putting one in between in a rural area like this, and they may not be able to find an acceptable place to put it in any case.
He said my best hope in the long term was the trials they are doing with an internet solution (similar to Skype) which they might be able to use to fill in the gaps in coverage where it’s not cost effective to put up an extra mast.
He said in view of my complaint he would advise me to move to another mobile phone provider, and he was prepared to let me out of my two-year contract to do so. When I explained the others were just as bad if not worse he sympathised – and gave me a discount of £5 a month for the remaining 18 months of my contract!
So a result of sorts, but not the one we wanted.

It would be interesting to have a look at the contracts which accompany your phone.  It seems to me that if your contract specifies a 3G service, the supplier or network is automatically breaking the contract by suggesting you switch to a lesser service when they cannot supply what they have contracted to do.  The offer of a reduction in rental is an implicit acknowledgment of an inability to supply the service you, and they, have signed up for.

John Coley

[0845 301 4455]

I've contacted Tesco Mobile and, just as expected, they have said that I can only expect 'outside coverage' at best and that they have no plans to improve the service in this area.

Tesco use O2 for their coverage, so I'm not sure whether this will be logged as a Tesco complaint or O2. So I have emailed a complaint via the Tesco Mobile website and they will apparently forward that on to O2. This may be a way to kill two birds with one stone...

I did as John suggested and said that they were breaking our agreement by providing a lesser service. The customer services rep agreed but still said that they had no plans to improve it.

The Tesco mobile customer services number is  0845 301 4455, although they charge 20p a minute for the privilege!

Just to repeat a note I put on the website earlier, the way round the charge calls is to use www.saynoto0870.com which will often give you a BT landline number on which the 0870, etc., number is based.  that, at least will be less per minute than a "special" number.  Often it will be a switchboard who will transfer you.

Once again I have e-mailed Vodophone re lack of signal strength. They are now suggesting that my sim card is rather old so perhaps a new one would improve the reception. Perhaps we could pool the excuses that the Mobile Companies make and give an award for the Best One. Not much chance of any improvements now if Vodophone have to cough up all the Unpaid Tax ?

Here's another response from Orange: 'Turn off the handset, remove the battery, wait 10 seconds, replace and try again.' ! They also told this same customer that : 'We are attempting to improve the signal in your area.' Any improvements noticed by any Orange users?
T-Mobile advised Mike to do a manual check for the signal and/or to try another sim card.
To take up John's point, my Orange contract says: 'We will use reasonable efforts to make the services available to you at all times...within the range of the base stations.' That does beg the question of there being sufficient base stations/boosters.

Thanks for all the complaints so far and for logging the responses on the Forum. We know other complaints have been made which have not been logged. January is the last month of the campaign, so let's continue complaining, and remind friends and neighbours to go for one final push in January. ,

After that , the Parish Council will take the complaints to the Network Operators.

Is it possible to team up with other local villages who are having the same problem. Lower Heyford, Certain locations in Deddington , Middle Barton etc

Mel, we did contact Lower Heyford and Middle Barton last autumn before we started the campaign. Middle Barton said they don't have significant problems and Lower Heyford PC were ambivalent. At least, not concerned enough to lobby the operators with us. So Steeple PC decided to go it alone as we thought other villages such as Deddington probably don't  share the same masts. Anyone know different? 

Thankyou Clare, I`m surprised at Lower Heyford because the signal along the towpath is non existant perhaps they think it`s  the  Waterways  problem.

I wrote to O2 complaining about the service I was getting on my mobile.  They wrote back today saying "we have no 3G signal around the area and the 2G signal is fine.  I would suggest you turn off your 3G and switch on your 2G signal and see if this improves your service".   I have no idea how to do this so I will back to ask how to do it.  But if I change from 3G to 2G does anyone know what the consequences are?  Are there apps/services etc which wont then work?    I will ask that of O2 as well.

Julia

...Tesco use O2 for their coverage, so I'm not sure whether this will be logged as a Tesco complaint or O2. So I have emailed a complaint via the Tesco Mobile website and they will apparently forward that on to O2. This may be a way to kill two birds with one stone...
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If your looking to do this than complain to either Orange or T-Mobile as they share mobile cells. They are, in essence, working as one.