3 is the cheapest, but is it best

Snakeeyes21

hatemoney wrote: »

STEER CLEAR WOULD NEVER EVER EVER USE OR RECOMMEND THIS NETWORK. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
In my experience with 3 its a sham of a network they offer very good tarrifs admittedly, but its all well and good having a zillion minutes, unlimited texts, emails and web browsing if there is no reception any where you go, and to think theyre getting away with this and have been for god knows how long looking at the posts on this site alone is beyond me who is it that rates these networks

I couldn't agree more with robt.

3 have the largest 3g network in the uk, backed up by orange (the largest 2g network in the uk) for their 2g coverage. If you cant get signal you either have a faulty handset or you live in a blackspot where no network works.

I live a good few miles from anywhere and have excellent signal on both my 3 mobile and mobile broadband.

joeypesci

Still hate 3. When in work I get no signal on my E71. The little signal I do get, when I answer the phone I lose. It fluctants when out and about. Walk into a shop and lose all signal. I live about half a mile from the base station that's up the top of the hill and one of my offices is 5 mins from my house. So I should get perfect signal in that office but I don't.

Just spoke to them to unlock the phone as coming to end of my contract soon. They offered to repair the phone but told them legally, when the contract started they should of sent me a replacement. They didn't at the time so told them I'm still moving networks at the end of my contract. To which they told me I have to give them 30 days to end the contract. I don't think that's right as the contract has ended.

Gynd05

Well clearly 3's coverage isn't that great because my reception is shocking and there is nothing wrong with the handset. All my housemates are on O2 and have a great reception in our house in Sheffield, I am lucky to get one bar. My reception at work is also very poor so I have to agree with hatemoney.

Also their customer service is shocking and i will definately be leaving them when my contract is up in May. Do not be tricked into staying with them like I was, they promised me that my reception would improve with the new handset, and it didn't! Then they wouldn't let me back out of the contract within the first 7 days because I had turned the phone on!

I HATE 3!

Crabman

Gynd05 - I've heard of people challenging their contracts where they weren't getting a signal. I think someone took the network to court and won a refund of money paid and/or dissolution of the contract.

Edit - below links should help:

http://www.whichlegalservice.co.uk/members-area/q-and-as

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/03/mobile_charges_but_no_signal.html

Gynd05

Thanks for the advice Crabman, I'll have a read through the articles and see what I can do!

malid

I have been with 3 for three years. I currently have 1100 mix and match for £20 which is really good although I never use them all. Reception has been ok but I have found customer services very unhelpful (and a bit bullish) when trying to negotiate an upgrade new deal. I could have had an upgrade in November (with 3 months left to go on the contract) but really felt I was being hoodwinked into getting a cheap phone. I have opted not to upgrade so that I can give notice this month. I had negotiated a good deal with Orange in November - adding a new number onto an existing contract which I have for my son (something like 600 mins and unlimted text for £20). Hope I will be able to negotiate something similar soon

catriona75_2

Handset: Sony Ericsson

Most commonly used location: London

Ease and reliability and connection: Comparable with other netwroks I've used

Any other problems: Whatever you do, don't get the insurance. They make it sound as if you are simply buying another product from their company - in fact you're buying an (overpriced) product from one of 2 other companies - Homecare is the one they put me with. They sent me a policy which I filed away. Once I'd upgraded my phone with 3 I asked to cancel that insurance and was told that was fine. However, the money kept coming out of my account. When I called 3 they said they would put me through to their 'insurance dpet' to sort this out. I was put through to Homecare who protested that no one else had ever had this problem and anyway, none of it was their fault because 3 should have told me. Also, they think I should have worked out that I needed to contact Homecare myself because they sent me a separate policy - even though 3 implied that it came from 3 and that they would cancel it. 3 I'm sure, will say they won't offer a refund because the insurance came from Homecare. Same old story with companies that outsource parts of their services...

Overall service and rating (out of 10): I can stand a lot of bad service but REALLY don't like being scammed. When my contract comes up I will cancel, so 1 out of 10.

Billy-no-Money

Handset: Nokia E71 - very good

Most commonly used location: Blackpool

Ease and reliability and connection: Pretty good here, including 3G. Comparable to my previous Orange phone.

Any other problems: Used to have a Nokia N95, on which the volume button failed (common fault). Three insist on getting it repaired, they don't do exchange and they don't loan you a phone. A bit irritating when it failed for the third time because it's a design fault.

Overall service and rating (out of 10): 7. Value for money is very good. I've found two golden rules when dealing with Three:
1. Understand the detail of your contract.
2. Learn to haggle. I don't know if it's an Indian cultural thing, but I found negotiating a renewal deal was tough but strangely enjoyable. The staff do seem to know what they're doing but they'll pull the wool over your eyes if they can - you just need to be prepared.

Personally I find 3 CS much better than Orange - I used to be with them, and my wife still is.

S.O.T.V

Handset: Nokia 6220 Classic - Does the job

Most commonly used location: Birmingham

Ease and reliability and connection: Easy to use in most places except for two 'blind spots' in my own house where it'll cut off for no reason. Never used the internet or mapping options though.

Any other problems: When I wanted to leave 3 in Feb '09 as I had poor service for the previous 12 months being charged for tariffs I wasn't on and losing my £10 'loyalty discount' when changing to the package I had specified when I renewed the previous February, I was put through to the customer retention dept. They tried all the usual fast talking but I had luckily decided to tape the conversation myself. I notified them at the start as they do us when we're put on hold at the start of a call to let them know, but one took exception telling me I couldn't do that - and hung up!

I called back and was put through again. This time the man didn't object and offered me 600 mins and unlimited texts for £35 which would be £25 after my loyalty £10 discount. I asked him clearly 4 times to confirm that it was for a 12 month contract and he said yes every time. I had read an article previously that said phone companies cannot legally ask you to sign anything longer than a 12 month contract and that suited me.

The phone came a day or so later and when I checked the paperwork that was with it, it said the contract was for 18 months. I phoned up again and let them know I was recording the call and asked for a returns bag and gave them notification I wanted my pac code again as I knew I had 14 days to return my phone in the condition it arrived in. They said I could have the pac code as soon as the phone arrived back.

Family illness and a change of work meant the next month flew by and I suddenly realised I still had not recieved my returns bag when my bill came. I phoned and re-requested it, again taping the call, and was told it was too late now as the 14 days had passed. I asked for the complaints departments address and was given one. I sent what e-mail information I still had on the computer and the tape of the conversations clearly showing what I had asked for.

I was determined not to use the 6220 Classic I had been sent even though my old E61 was now falling to pieces until it had all been sorted out.

In July though, the inevitable happened and the E61 seemed to spontaniously combust. It dawned on me that 3 weren't going to try and solve it and so I thought I'd just get on with it until my contract was up and so decided to start using the 6220.

I got laid off from work on Friday 13th November and over the following couple of weeks came a barrage of jokes and sympathy texts to try and keep my spirits up. I was forwarding the jokes to all the people in my phone book that shared similar senses of humour but after a couple of weeks they were starting to come up as 'failed'. A week of this happening made me try and log on via the web which I hadn't done for months.

It said my bill was at £100 and as this was my credit limit, it said no more texts were aloud. I clicked a link and a woman phoned from 3 a couple of days later. She said she'd have to wait until the bill was processed on the 8th Dec before she could view it and said she'd ring again on the 9th to discuss it. To be fair to her, she did but the bill never arrived until the following week. I e-mailed again and she called back again a couple of days later.

The bill was for £128. I asked if my credit limit was £100 and I couldn't do anything with my phone except recieve texts and calls, how come the bill had risen by another £28? I also asked her after looking at the bill more closely, how come on page 52 of the 90 odd pages, some texts were going through as included and some were going through as paid for and then included again etc down the page. She said she'd check and get back to me. I asked her to check while she was doing that then, why individual texts were also being charged by the page an dnot by the text itself. (i.e my character allowance is 140 so if I sent a text with 680 characters in, it was 5 pages and therefore classed as 5 seperate texts!) This was why it was saying I had sent over 3900 texts! Apparently, 'Unlimited texts' means 3000, not Unlimited as they say! I only normally do about 600 at an extreme level so they could see I wasn't a text abuser. The 'keep your chin up' jokes were obviously too funny not to share.

Eight days later and after no reply still, I sent another e-mail letting them know I was cancelling my direct debit for the end of December if they didn't respond within 48 hours. They didn't so I did! I had a text from them a week ago saying my direct debit had been cancelled and could I pay an alternative way. Still no phone call until the Sunday!

He said "Hello!" and then asked for my credit card details to pay the bill. I told him that I wasn't paying until they had sorted the bill out and explained why. He said he's go and check and put me on hold for a coupe of minutes - then cut me off!

I missed a call as I was about to collect my wife from her work on Thursday and went to ring the person back as it was from a potential job lead only to find that I was put through to an automated payment call centre. I retried a couple of times and the same thing happened again and again.

I was dropping my kids at school this morning and had a couple of the other dad's asking why I wasn't replying to my texts. I told them I hadn't had any and they tried again in front of me and it's now coming up as number not recognised! I missed two job opportunities at the weekend because 3 have blocked me from sending and recieving texts too!

Can anybody offer me any advice on what to do please?

johnson293

malid wrote: »

I have been with 3 for three years. I currently have 1100 mix and match for £20 which is really good although I never use them all. Reception has been ok but I have found customer services very unhelpful (and a bit bullish) when trying to negotiate an upgrade new deal. I could have had an upgrade in November (with 3 months left to go on the contract) but really felt I was being hoodwinked into getting a cheap phone. I have opted not to upgrade so that I can give notice this month. I had negotiated a good deal with Orange in November - adding a new number onto an existing contract which I have for my son (something like 600 mins and unlimted text for £20). Hope I will be able to negotiate something similar soon

I was in a similar position in November with Three, and opted for an upgrade online. I was changing my tarrif from 300 mix and match, to a £15 unlimted text tarrif which was disclounted to £10/month - I chose a low level handset (as intended to keep using my C902) and the order went through. The order confirmatiom arrived and said my new tariff would begin on 28 February 2010!!

When I rang them to query it, i was told my new 18 month contract couldn't and wouldn't starty until my current one expired on 28/02/10, but they allow customers to use the new tariff and handset straight away - I questioned why they allow you to upgrade if they dont let you end the current contract, and they just repeated the above.

I told them to cancel the upgrade as I'd rather wait until February, and I was told it had been done. I didn't receive the new handset, so assumed it had all been cancelled as requested - I also never received any further emails, or paperwork via post......

I have just checked my bill for Dec - Jan and I am now on the new unlimited text tarrif, instead of the 300 mix and match one. When i clicked on the upgrade button, I was told I couldn't upgrade anymore. So they have actually upgraded my account, and put me on a new 18 month contract, which I requested and was told was cancelled.

I have just come away from a 30 minute call to an indian call centre (about 15 minutes of those on hold), and have been advised that the cancellation is being done now, and they will ring me to confirm it all later - but more imortantly that my contract end date will revert back to 28/02/10.

So - if anyone else has a three contract that they are allowing you to upgrade, despite having 3 months left, BEWARE - you will not begin your new contract until the previous one finishes - so are effectively tying yourself for 21 months, not the 18 you might believe.

Needless to say, I will be ringing Three again on 28/01/10 to give my months notice. I'm looking forward to that call... NOT!!