3 is the cheapest, but is it best

Amanda_Wills

I have an NEC e606 and mostly use it in Cornwall.

I hate my handset. It's too big and I have to recharge it every day, or more often if I've been using it a lot. Also, it is very random, I get a lot of calls that don't ring and go straight to answer phone even though I have plenty of reception.

I don't mind the fact that I can't use the 3G services as I got it for the tariff, and never expected them to cover Cornwall anyway (we're last for everything, I still can't get Channel 5 or use a digibox, sigh).

As for customer services, they've worn me out so much that I can hardly bear to talk about it. You've probably got the gist of it by reading the previous posts, but briefly, I needed a replacement battery and it took 4 months for them to send it me. Yes, 4 months with no phone (and I'm self-employed) and no compensation despite numerous emails and phone calls (on a landline).
What got me to boiling point was the obvious lies I was told by customer services in India, I only got my battery when I got through to the Glasgow call centre.

I'm not kidding when I tell you that those 4 months were hell on earth for me, I even lost out on my dream house because of it. I wouldn't recommend 3 to anybody and as soon as my contract ends I'm going back to Orange and Nokia.

Rating: 0/10

System

This has to go down as one of the worst purchasing decisions I have made in a long time. Having ported the number I held with Orange for 5 years, I have recieved diabolical service from this half-arsed service provider. I am now on sim card number three. And last week their man In Glasgow reliably informed me that the reason I needed sim number three was that they had deleted me from their systems- he put this down to a static data cleanup in......can you guess....India!!! These guys has clearly recived the absoulte bare minimum of training, and demonstrate absouletely no notion of thinking for themselves. When Sim card number one needed replacing I was told to turn the phone off for 48 hours. This is despite my having hiked to the Carphone warehouse (at 3's request) to test their sim in my phone and vice versa. They categorically would not assist me in any way until I had turned the phone off You can imagine the conversation I was having with this Indian Lady, having ruled out, at all, categorically, any fault in the handset!!! Especially as she told me she would call me on my (not working) 3 phone after 48 hours...Madness!! And after all that I didn't get sim number two.....for a month!!

Smartass PLEASE tell me you've seen a loophole in the three contract....!?

System

Handset: " X |NeC 808

Most commonly used location: West Midlands and Cumbria

Ease and reliability and connection: Fairly good with occasionaly dropped calls. No 3 service in Cumbria/lakes but "G so that was not a problem

Any other problems: Occasional Sim error requires a reboot

Overall service and rating (out of 10): 7/10 Generally happy with the experience. India call services can be a bit Basil Fawltyish tho.

ioscorpio

How much do you think Anna Friel was paid to do the TV adverts?

sdtesciuba

My dads got a 3 phone on contract. He says the phones rubbish it always cuts out during calls. And then when he sends text messages in an area of low coverage the phone crashes and he has to take the battery out to restart it.

This maybe because he got a brand new NEC e616, which just came out a few days ago, but even If this is the reason another problem is that there is hardly ever any coverage. This is a big problem for businessmen like my dad because he needs to make calls all the time. And you get 750 free minutes so it is very hard to use them if you CANT call people. My dad and I have come to the conclusion that if any one is thinking of buying a 3 phone whether on pay as you go or on contract DONT. The phones very big.....

Westy

Handset: Nokia 7600,(Three Pay), and Moto A835,(Video Talk 750)

Most commonly used location: Cardiff

Ease and reliability and connection: No issues whatsoever, it seems a vast majority of the problems are either with the appaling NEC handsets, (yes, they really are THAT bad - the whole reason people are dissing the 3 netwrok is purely because of these phones. Look back through the annuals of Mobile history and see if you can stretch to 2 hands to count the phone models...). The Moto is a bit bulky, and is a bit thirsty on battery, but is otherwise chock full of excellent technology. Ditto for the 7600 - save for the wacky key layout, this is a tried and trusted Nokia through and through, operationg on the foolproof and rock solid Series 40 OS,(which has been upgraded for this handset and other S40 models to follow). Connection was painless for both tarriffs. I popped the sims in, it took a 10 second activation procedure to get me connected and i was done.

None of my calls in 2 months have dropped, call quality is excellent, (easily on par with my T Mobile and Orange lines), signal has at worst gone to 1 bar, but never disappeared. The 3 specific services are fine too. I've not tried video calling, (who'd want to - a gimmick that'd wear off in about a week), but the video streaming is superb given the technology involved, (I.E. a mobile phone!), the download times stupidly quick, and the content itself seenms to have at least some thought in it.

Billing has never been an issue, both bills correctly charged, and the half price subsidy correctly deducted. Before joining i made a few dummy calls to 3's CS in both Scotland and India, and though the India call centre just reeked of poor training, the Scottish lass i spoke to, (and the three guys after her), were all very helpful with my enquiry. So far, so happy...

Any other problems: My only snag is with 3's, (admittedly justified), insistence on flashing the firmware of the phones with 3 software. It means even if you unlock, you can't use other providers GPRS or MMS settings. However, i managed to flash and unlock the Nokia from 3's restriction and i can use it with any network i choose - the Moto remains stuck. However, i use the Moto at home as the main voice calls phone - leaving it in the dock charger and using a Bluetooth headset to wander about the house and talk ;D

Obviously they're doing this to protect a certain amount of revenue, but i can see it being lifted in time.

Overall service and rating (out of 10): I'm going to be brave and go for 7 out of 10. I've had far worse Customer Service from both Orange and 02, so i've no complaints here. The only thing stopping them from scoring higher is that the overall package doesn't quite seem complete as yet - the CS issues have to be resolved before 3 can really beat the big boys.

As an aside, i reviewed the Nokia 7600 in my column at DVD Reviewer, you can read it http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/news/columns.asp?columnist=6574&Section=163

Hope that doesn't get me into trouble, feel free to slap me if it does mods!!

Cheers

Westy

Site Tech Help Editor and Moderator, DVD Reviewer

Amanda_Wills

Andrew Taylor - I also had the customer services guy offer to call me back on my phone which didn't work, and even after I pointed this out to him he took about 5 mins to understand what the problem was!
Needless to say, even after giving him my landline, he never called me.

System

Most commonly used location: Manchester

Ease and reliability and connection: Poor beyond belief

Any other problems: POP 3 doesn't work, No web access

Overall service and rating (out of 10): 3 (cheap x-net minutes the only reason).

I have never known such poorly integrated garbage in a technical product. My BT Cellnet (also Hutchison) Motorola brick in the late the 80's was better than 3G for call reliability.

We are in the video business (encoding) and would love 3G to work - we make all kinds of adverts/promos etc including 3gp videos. NOBODY on Three UK can download, see, view or email them.............so what's the point?

If they wanted to give away lots of x-net minutes they could have done it without 3G on phones that actually work.

System

I tried my 3 USIM in a Nokia 8210 and it worked , I don't now if it was unlocked I think it was. There also is a new Samung, 3 USIM's will work in, but i don't now the model.

System

Can you switch between 3 and O2?

How does it work? When a call is dropped does it switch onto the O2 network?

I think that O2 has good coverage where i live. Perhaps it might be worth me looking at 3??