3 is the cheapest, but is it best

Tony5101

AidynPeter wrote: »

Thanks for the post Poohbear.. I am planning to buy Motorola A835. thanks for your review on it

An 8 year old handset....yeah...sure you are. Or maybe you're trying to build up your post count to post some :spam: links?

SacreVert

I was really worried about taking out a 2 year contract for my daughter's iPhone 4S with 3 but so far, after nearly a year I have been so pleased with the signal coverage and data rate that we have seen that I have now got three phones all on the One Plan (2 daughters + Wife).

We were previously all on Orange and had reasonable coverage although on our commuting routes (Herefordshire/Worcestershire/Gloucestershire borders) there were dead zones with no coverage. Since changing to 3 the dead zones have all but disappeared and the connection speed is always fast.

The real highlight of the service that we had recently was being able to facetime Phone to Phone from the cliff top footpath at Abereiddi near St Davids, Pembrokeshire and show live video of people jumping off the old quarry wall into the harbour.

I also have an unlimited data plan on Vodafone which would be wonderful if they actually provided more than GPRS anywhere within 5 miles of my home. Actually seeing 3G service of any form on the Vodafone network is extremely rare. When this contract is up I will not be back.

buscape

cinereus wrote: »

Three are an absolute disgrace.

I pay £25/month for unlimited data on the One Plan. Unfortunately it has never been usable. I get constant timeouts. I get constant disconnections. When I try to ping google.com, bbc.co.uk or even 8.8.8.8 I get consistent ping times over 3000ms and between 20%-50% packet loss rates. Sometimes as high as 80%! Obviously this is completely unusable.

I have called 3 every day for the last week spending over an hour on the phone each time. Every time I have explained the problem. I have asked them to do something about it. They keep making me go through pointless troubleshooting questions as though I don't have a connection. I have a strong connection through HSDPA in a city centre! My internet settings are correct! The issue is the internet connection. When I eventually get them to admit this, they "reset" the internet (whatever this means) and it works again for approx five minutes before breaking against.

Nothing I can say can get them to fix this or make any effort to do anything. The issue is the same no matter which city I am in, which phone I use the SIM in, etc. Nobody will admit there is an issue with the network.

I'm banging my head against the wall. I don't even want compensation for all the wasted time, effort and missed appointments, etc. I just want the service I pay for!

Anyone know how the hell to get 3 to do anything?

Have you been able to speak to someone higher up in their technical support team?

cinereus

Can anyone else on 3 run ping tests and report back what they get? I was getting over 17,000ms today!

cinereus

buscape wrote: »

Have you been able to speak to someone higher up in their technical support team?

I've got to the highest level they admit exists. One person recently understood what a ping is but was unwilling to do anything about it.

This is driving me up the wall!

amk515

cinereus wrote: »

Can anyone else on 3 run ping tests and report back what they get? I was getting over 17,000ms today!

Speedtest.net results whilst in Manchester:

129ms
59ms
70ms

marlow

At what point in a two year contract can you lower your tariff?

cheers

buscape

cinereus wrote: »

I've got to the highest level they admit exists. One person recently understood what a ping is but was unwilling to do anything about it.

This is driving me up the wall!

Doesn't sound right to me.

When I had problems with slow internet, I went through their procedures with the first technical support guy, when that didn't work they escalated it and I got a call 2 days later from someone higher up who went who did some checks and told me there was a network issue, credited me £10 on my next bill (I was on a £15 sim only), gave me a date for the issue to be fixed, and rang me the day after to check it was sorted.

Try ringing them again and once you've gone through their first technical support person procedures (which won't make a difference) ask them to get someone higher up to call you back to look at your problems.

buscape

cinereus wrote: »

Can anyone else on 3 run ping tests and report back what they get? I was getting over 17,000ms today!

Just got a 114ms ping.

cinereus

buscape wrote: »

Doesn't sound right to me.

When I had problems with slow internet, I went through their procedures with the first technical support guy, when that didn't work they escalated it and I got a call 2 days later from someone higher up who went who did some checks and told me there was a network issue, credited me £10 on my next bill (I was on a £15 sim only), gave me a date for the issue to be fixed, and rang me the day after to check it was sorted.

Try ringing them again and once you've gone through their first technical support person procedures (which won't make a difference) ask them to get someone higher up to call you back to look at your problems.

They keep wasting my time with things like checking handset, OS and settings. I made it very clear when I first start the call that all the problems are independent of this. Also, what use is it asking to check my settings are correct when they obviously are in order for me to get a HSPDA signal?!?! When the people I'm speaking to don't even understand what a ping time is yet they ask me these types of questions it makes me despair. Last time they still wouldn't admit what the issue is but offered maximum of £5 one off. Given I'm paying £25/month for a non-existent service I declined!

Will call them back today and report how I get on.