New phone network, no signal at home!

Grifferish

Hi,

Wondered if anyone had any experience in dealing with this problem... My girlfriend has just ordered an iPhone 4S on 24 month contract from three. It arrived this morning, so she unwrapped it, put the SIM card in and fired it up.

The problem is there is no signal at all in our flat.

We checked the three website which tells us there is excellent reception where we live in Hove for their standard and fast broadband services. She went down the street and the signal picks up enough to make calls, but that is no good when we are at home. She often has to be on-call for work at the local hospital, so it important that we have good consistent signal at home.

I have read the conditions on the 7 day cooling off period, but they stipulate that the phone must be unopened and unused. She has now opened it, put the sim in it, received welcome texts from three, and made some test calls from the street. However she had to do this for us to realised that we were not satisfied with the service we are being provided with.

Haven't yet gone in to battle with customer services over this, but wondered if any one has had a similar experience? Do we stand any chance in getting the contract cancelled and phone returned under the cooling off period regs? Or will we have to put up with it for two years?

At this rate will need a second PAYG phone as a backup... Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Netwizard

Good luck having that battle with 3 customer services. I assume they will say you should have checked this out before hand, and/or got a pay and go sim first just to check coverage was adequate.

Hopefully you will get to cancel.

jayu619

I had a similar issue when I moved - POOR signal from Three in the home, and had a long way to go on the contract.

I kept ringing up and telling them to help, and was told about the "Home Signal" box, which is a box you connect to your router, and it boosts your signal. They tried to give it to me for £50, but after some more talking, I managed to get it waived (You can get it loaned from them too). They go for about £30-50 on eBay also if you want to go down that route, but the box sure did fix my reception issues!

Hope this helps

Jamie_Carter

This same issue was brought up on Watchdog recently. If you have problems with their customer services, then threated them with Watchdog.

Also if it was ordered on line or over the phone, then it may come under distance selling regulations. I'm sure there will be someone on here soon who knows for sure.

wiogs

Mobile phone companies cannot, and do not, guarantee coverage, especially indoors.

If you are lucky they may be sympathetic and allow you to cancel or as mentioned you may be covered by DSR.

Otherwise you have a perfectly good mobile phone which just doesn't happen to work where you live.

Blackpool_Saver

this is the EE company isn't it, sounds like a right mess up all round

Jamie_Carter

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

this is the EE company isn't it, sounds like a right mess up all round

The OP said it was 3, not EE.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought EE was Orange and T-Mobile.

Blackpool_Saver

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

The OP said it was 3, not EE.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought EE was Orange and T-Mobile.

It is yes, sorry, got mixed up

Richard_T_

Before singing up to a long term contract, its usually best to check the phone network out wuing a pay as you go sim card+old phone for a few weeks beforehand.
As for the OP, if the pone was bought online they may have some fall back on the distance selling regs.
if it was bought in a shop then there's no such luck.
One glimmer of hope is that most mobile networks offer up a little box that plugs into your home internet and improves the signal/provides a mobile signal for your phone at home.

Buzby

She should have tried the network using PAYG first to ensure service - coverage maps shoe external coverage only, even then it is a prediction. DSR will apply if supplied by mail order, but not otherwise.

As to the placing the SIM in the handset invalidating return - Voda try this on too. The bottom line is you won't know it works unless you try it - so an unfair (and unreasonable) condition.

gjchester

Buzby wrote: »

She should have tried the network using PAYG first to ensure service - coverage maps shoe external coverage only, even then it is a prediction. DSR will apply if supplied by mail order, but not otherwise.

As to the placing the SIM in the handset invalidating return - Voda try this on too. The bottom line is you won't know it works unless you try it - so an unfair (and unreasonable) condition.

Three take the view that by using the SIM you have unsealed the software and the DSR terms are voided, its a narrow view but that's threes view.

The fact it works outside may point to the construction of the OP's house, or something nearby blocking the signal, something Three would have no control over at all.