Lycamobile

thisisalwaysmyonlinename

MSE have blagged some exclusive sim-only deals with Lycamobile. Last week I decided to buy one as I was coming to the end of my 12 month sim-only deal with Vodafone.

Boy how I wish I hadn't.

I chose the 15GB 1 month rolling sim for £2.25 for 6 months then £6.99 which includes unlimited texts and calls. Sound's great right, maybe even too good to be true...

For starters, be aware that Lycamobile are only contactable Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm. Yes, that's right an international mobile network provider is not available 24/7. If I'd known this beforehand it would have probably been enough to put me off going with them.

I've tried to contact them using their chat service during those hours but they never seem to be available. Make of that what you will.

So, I've been calling their phone number. Each time I've been waiting for around 10 minutes on hold before getting through to someone and then spending around half an hour on the phone each time (twice so far). Their call centre operatives have not been particularly helpful, I've had to repeat information a number of times before they understood it and likewise I haven't always understood what they were saying.

My issue is that I can make calls, I can use my data that the plan came with and I can receive text messages, but for some reason I can't send text messages (I ported my number from Vodafone, I'm not sure if that's may be a reason why. My phone is an iphone 12 and everything else is working with it).

The first time I called them they said they would get back to me within 24 hours. They didn't, so I called them again.

The second time they said they would "escalate" my issue but that I should wait up to 48 hours before calling them again if they haven't got back to me or solved the problem. That was today, so it looks like I'm waiting 48 hours as I don't hold out much hope that they will be able to fix the issue.

I've made a number of phone calls to people and the quality of the calls have been poor - they keep dropping out for some reason. They're meant to use the O2 network, but I've read that their service won't be quite as good as O2 as they're piggybacking them, but that it should be close. That's not my experience so far - the service has been poor.

Also as a side note I rarely get the 4G symbol on my phone - It's usually LTE instead. I've investigated this and supposedly LTE is pretty much as good as 4G, it's meant to be just slightly below. I'll be honest the mobile internet connection has generally been fine, but it does feel slightly laggier than the 4G I was experiencing with Vodafone.

Lycamobile are currently showing as unrated with MSE because "To be able to give a meaningful score, each provider needed to have got at least 75 votes in our most recent poll. In this case, there weren't enough." Well I hope they do a poll about them soon and that at least 75 people reply, as I've got a feeling that if my experience of them is anything to go by then they won't be getting a high score.

Once they have a score which shows other customers experience of them I hope it will help MSE readers make an informed decision on whether to use them or not. I know I wish I hadn't.

grandadgolfer

Most MSE readers know that Lycamobile are rubbish you should have gone for a Lebara sim instead

oldagetraveller1

grandadgolfer said:

Most MSE readers know that Lycamobile are rubbish you should have gone for a Lebara sim instead

Indeed they are, in my experience. I lasted three days before cutting my losses.

Not because of the phone service but their so-called customer service.

As the O.P. (username too long ) it's impossible to contact them, "chat"and phone, plus limited hours.

flaneurs_lobster

I jumped at their copycat Lebara-like 1p for 6 months deal. Having received the unintelligible activation instructions, read the reviews of their app and taking heed of the comments on this forum and elsewhere, the sim has joined others at the back of the "stuff" drawer. 

I'm down the 1p upfront cost.