3 is the cheapest, but is it best

skimshandy

Phone: Nokia 6680
Use: South Wales
Deal: 500 minutes 100 Texts, 7 Months Free

Eventually decided to leave Orange after 4 years in September. Joined 3 and got my choice of phone and a good deal. I heard 3 were good from several of my friends and they were not wrong. Never have a problem with a signal or dropped calls which I often did with Orange. Lovely phone if a bit big. Once or twice I have been told by people they have been trying to call or text me and not been able to get through but that is my only real complaint.

Overall - 9/10

StudentSaver_2

I'm shopping around for a mobile at the minute and have been very impressed with the customer service 3 offers instore. I went into their new shop in Eldon Square in Newcastle and they were really friendly and seemed really knowledgable. Anyone else experienced this? I'm gonna buy later this week, and might go for a Motorola RAZR on the £35 per month tarriff. Either that or an O2 Online one.

mdcoach

Having decided to leave 3 because of poor coverage - I recently had to ring my accountant 4 times to complete a call because of dropped signals, and that was around Greater Manchester - and when my contact ended and I looked around, they do offer the poorest handsets, I have had a nightmare with Customer Services.
Be warned - I requested a PAC number and cancelled it before it expired as I had not taken on a contract with a new supplier. Some weeks later I again requested and received a PAC number, confirmed in writing. This set off a sequence of mistakes, impotent phone calls, inept action and broken promises, including a worthless personal guarantee from a Customer Services manager! It is now 32 days since I received this PAC number, which was invalid, and they still cannot resolved their "technical glitch". A second Customer Services manager has promised to do his best to resolve the problem (now no promise of solving the problem!) in 2 days.
This has been the worst and most frustrating experience I have ever had with a Customer Servives department.
When I eventually part ways with 3, there are no circumstances in the known universe that will make me return !!!

kevinalabaster

been on 3 for 15 mths, wife has for 16 mts(I pay both bills) daughter has for 6 mths.best phones are the LGs and nokia's forget NECs and motorolla's coverage may not be perfect we are on the edge of a transmiter's coverage in a Norfolk village but my wife still uses most of her minutes (750) I make calls just to chat now have 400 more minutes than on vodaphone and I save on both phones about £15 per month. so go for the LG or Nokia and save money

Edinburghlass_2

Kevin, welcome to the Telephone Boards and MSE.

Can I ask you to email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com and they will change your user name for you as its never advisable to use your email address as even on MSE spammers will pick up on this.

:xmassign:

jaymee

I live in west London and have been with three for a year now and have been very pleased with the reception of the calls - no drops or problems. However you don't get 3G (for video calls and 3G content) coverage in a lot of the areas in London. Central London is fine for 3G and fortunately so is my area.

Very happy with them - great value.

I would advise against LG phones as my mother has one and the reception can be poor on it. Motorola ones are great - I have the v975 and the reception is super.

djurmann

Had a 3 mobile phone and knew that the connectivity was poor but thought it would improve. A few months later I was so fed up with them I contacted 3, asked to be moved to the lowest tariff and would pay the rest of my contract in advance to be shot of them. Bought a Virgin pay as you go and stuck my 3 phone in a drawer.

They did not disconnect me, and continued to bill me at the higher rate. I wrote, phoned, no response. Asked for their complaints guide so I could take them to Oftel, no response. Wrote again, no response. Cancelled my direct debit and asked for the excess to be repaid.......no response. etc etc.

Later got threatening letters from Moorcroft debt collection agency and settled out of court. I put in some terms and wrote that cashing the cheque showed acceptance of the terms....They cashed the cheque and STILL tried to bill me (end of 2005).

Lessons learned.
1) 3 is great to use as a bartering tool with other companies but touching them with a barge pole is still way too close.

2) I believe it is wise to be wary of companies that have outsourced their customer service depts. I reason that they have an incentive to brush bad news under the carpet. (if anyone has definitive evidence one way or the other I would be interested).

3) Put terms in letters to debt collection agencies and state that paying the cheque constitutes acceptance of the terms. I suspect the agency cashed the cheque and did not read the letter.

Other questions

Hand set: Poor but acceptable. They may be better now

Connectivity etc: Disaster when I used them (over a year ago) but may be better now. I risked losing business because I used 3, as I kept getting cut off in the middle of calls.

Customer service: Absolute disaster, even recently. Even if 3 is working for you (congratulations) their appalling customer service is a reason to look elsewhere.

Neptune

Handset: NEC 313

Most commonly used location: Bristol - Southwest

Ease and reliability and connection: Very poor, never connects for first call of the day, have to always redial the number. Signal is poor in all but cites and major towns. Driving to Exter phone will drop out at least 30-40 times on a call.
However if you want dirt cheap calls you just grin and bear it - and 3 knopw it - hence they will stay the worst provider by far in the UK.

Any other problems: 3 Customer service - just do a search on the web to find out how bad it is!!! You won't believe it until you need to call them.

Overall service and rating (out of 10): 2

DarkAngel1330

Unfortunately i got myself not a contract with 3 in Sept 05 and have so much hassle with them ever since. Customer Service is the worst i've ever come across and the original tariff i got was different than the one 3 is saying i signed up for. I was led to believe it was £15 a month but found out recently its £50 a month. They failed to set up my Direct Debit after i gave them my details on three seperate occasions therefore getting me into debt now because of their mistakes! I am so angry about all this because there is no way i can afford this because i'm only a student. I would not recommend 3 even if i was being paid to!!!

mdcoach

Finally...goobye 3 !!! :mad: :mad:

As a follow on from my earlier message, it finally took 42 days to receive a PAC no from 3 that worked, and51 days to transfer my number.
The problem was finally resolved by the manual intervention of someone in the UK who was only responding because of my complaint to Ofcom.
The outsourced Customer Services, who have driven me to contemplate the most satisfying way to destroy my old 3 phone (watch this space), did absolutely nothing. What a surprise.
I am resolved to never purchase anything that has a similar customer services set up.
3 is cheap.....but the phones are bad, the coverage is bad, and Customer Services is :mad: :mad: :mad: