iPhone 4 on 3mobile

Hugbubble

Hi all

I want an iPhone 4. 3mobile looks like the best balance of upfront costs versus monthly payment, but I've read some very bad reviews about their customer service.

Can anyone confirm?

Thanks all

S0litaire

Their Customer service is not the best...
Thankfully I've hardly ever needed to use it.

liubeliu

I have been on Three for 3 years. On the whole I found CS ok, apart from one occasion where I was charged excessive data charges. Got nowhere with CS in India. Posted a rant on the Three official blog, got contacted by the Executive team in Glasgow and all was resolved.

serious_saver

Three customer service is either one extreme or the other. As long as nothing goes too wrong they're fine BUT if they make a mistake they will do anything to avoid admitting liability.

My sister had debt collection companies harrassing her over a supposed debt with Three from about 7 years ago. In fact Three owed her money and had admitted it in writing but never paid up.

klown_2

I've been with Three for about 6 years and have had several issues with theyre customer services in India but its always been someone from Glasgow who sorts it out, even though I've had these problems i don't think i'll be leaving them. I'm getting an Iphone4 from them this week, be sure to use Quidco for upto £100 cashback ;-)

cwep2

One observation - the data coverage is not great.
I had been on O2 for an 18m contract and thought I'd try the other networs on PAYG before locking into any contract to see what coverage was like. O2 was OK most of the time but in large crowds (eg football match/concert) it could not connect at all, also in Northern Ireland it was also poor.
I tried 3 and while sometimes it is fine when there's a strong 3G signal, as soon as you don't it's awful. Whereas on O2 it would use 2G for data, and it would be slow but still get through a lot of the time, with 3 when you don't have 3G they do not allow their 2G back up carrier to transmit data, only calls. So at my office, about 50% of my route home I have no data coverage. And I am travelling from zone 1 to zone 2 in London so hardly the middle of nowhere!
The other point is that when the iPhone doesn't have a data connection it slows it down as it 'tries' to connect and then pops up with an error message, even when using things like SMS which is a real pain.

So having used O2's not ideal service and 3 I would rather pay more for O2 than live with the experience I've had on 3 for any length of time.

This is all my own experience using an iPhone 3G in central London - of course if my office wasn't in a dead zone for 3 then maybe I wouldn't notice it as much. I am also going to try Orange and Vodafone when my credit gets down low enough.

Anyway I'd at the very least get a 3 PAYG sim, even without topping up you should be able to see the signal at home/work and see what it's like. As far as I know the rest of the 3G/2G networks flip between data and calls on both depending on signal so this is less of an issue. I have also heard of issues on T-Mobile because of their lack of their own 3G network, but not tried it myself.

Hope this helps.

planetf1

Am on contract, but can use data on 2G and 3G ok -- data speeds are excellent, and there's a lot of 3G coverage around. Not perfect though (is any network)

Customer Service is ok - I've had a few issues since 2003 but they've always been reasonably sorted out in the end after either escalating in Customer Service, or contacting the executive office/blog etc.

I've used O2, Orange, Voda too (though less) and aren't convinced there's a lot of difference. Probably the other nets have gone down a bit, 3 has definately improved since the early days

O2 CPW (not O2 direct) were very awkward though. I would never want a contract with CPW again.

mynameisdave

Only experience of 3 customer service was returning a Nokia 6280 that had a known fault where card would not be read in the expansion slot.

I sent it off to them in the post Thursday lunchtime and it was back at my door on Saturday, fixed.

I asked what would happen to the billing period where I could not use my phone and they gave me £10 account credit.

They can be quite irritating on the upgrade front though. I got several calls offering my a C903 because it was the 'best phone I could ever want or need'

john987

Three have actually been reasonably helpful whenever I have phoned them up. However you do have to deal with a call centre in India and there can be a bit of a language barrier. They can also be a bit of a nightmare when you try and leave, keep offering you various "deals" you don't need although I must admit they will do everything they can to offer you the best deal to keep you. Having said that o2 customer service is based is better (and based in the UK).

On the other hand coverage and data speeds are excellent even on 2g. Not sure about the person who said o2 would transmit on 2g but not 3. I found in my house when i lose my o2 3g signal my phone just says no connection (when wi fi is off).

3 also gives you 1gb of data (twice that of Tesco and o2) if you think you will be using a lot of data.

Hugbubble

Thanks for all these useful replies- I guess it will be a case of suck it and see.

I'm in central Manchester so would hope that there isn't a covergae problem. My mobile broadband- also with 3- works fine at home, although I don't tend to use elsewhere.

Anyway, cheers all.