Tesco Mobile pay-as-you-go customer? Be prepared: it may push you to buy a bundle

PHK

MindEcho said:

Not saying you're wrong; it's impossible to know given the conflicting information.

Also on Tesco's website:

That is to do with the 3G switch off and not the migration to Essentials. Because it predates Essentials. 

 (But even that says that it will be for connecting emergency calls and machine to machine)

Edit:

If you look at the official Tesco FAQ

https://www.tescomobile.com/help/usage-and-top-up/pay-as-you-go/pay-as-you-go-tariffs#accordion-a7fbe92d85-item-24de7af70c

Under "Will any phone work" It clearly states that a 4g or 5G phone will be needed. 

Detail_Merchant

squidgysponge said:

Which in my view means to use your mobile on Essential you need to top up every 30 days.

Incorrect.

The Tesco mobile website says "Without an active bundle, any calls you make, texts you send or data you use will be charged at our standard rates.""

MindEcho

@PHK thanks for that!  I've gone back to Tesco, as the response I posted before was to a direct Essentials question. Their customer service (if you can call it that) is worse than useless and I had to raise a new "complaint" via the hidden PAYG complaint form as they'd decided to close the earlier one.

I'm on Essentials now so will run a few tests and post back anything interesting.

MindEcho

Unsurprisingly no response has been forthcoming from Tesco - every little helps,eh.

Instead I took my essentials SIM and put it into a 3G Nokia dumb-phone. Calls and texts work as expected, at least for now, so I won't be rusing out to buy anything at this stage.

To touch on a remark made earlier, you do need to be careful as 2/3G phones are still being sold. As well as Argos, I've found them at Asda.  Check the connectivity thoroughly and beware of overly cheap offers.

whattochoose

I've now been moved from the Lite tariff to the Essentials bundle - £2.50 a month.
I'm advised I've got 30 days free.
However, when I try to check my balance I get the message, "Request not Completed"
4455 appears to be the careline number so I shall ring them.
I'm wondering if anybody else is having problems checking their balance after being moved over?
Thank you.

MindEcho

I didn't have any issue checking the balance by calling 4488 and following the automated instructions.

whattochoose

MindEcho said:

I didn't have any issue checking the balance by calling 4488 and following the automated instructions.

Yes, that worked. 
Thank you.

Fishbikes

If you have been awarded the special £2.50 bundle (100MB data + 100 mins & 100 texts), there is some confusion at Tesco about whether you can auto-renew this. 

In short, you can - but from my experience the process is 'hit and miss', so you may have mistakenly thought that you can't. 

However, you have to set this up at least a few days before the 'free' bundle runs out. If you miss the deadline you can't get the £2.50 bundle back. 

If you're having a problem setting up the auto-renewal, I'd recommend sending 'YES' to 26464. It worked for me. 

As background, here is my experience with the issue: 

• I received a couple of text messages from Tesco explaining that I needed to set up auto-renew in order to keep the £2.50 bundle.
• I tried to set up the auto-renewal in the App. I got an error message: 'Sorry, we weren't able to turn on auto-renew. Please try later.' I tried this a few times with the same result.
• I called Tesco's helpline and was told that the £2.50 bundle was a one-off and could not be auto-renewed. This is not true.
• I saw the text messages from Tesco say that it is possible to set up the auto-renewal by sending 'YES' to 26464. I did this and got a confirmation almost straight away. The auto-renewal is now showing in the Tesco App.
• I've submitted a complaint to Tesco so that they can deal with the bad advice from their helpline.

I hope that this is helpful to anyone else in the same situation.

crumpet_man

Why would anyone want that bundle?  £2.50 per month for 100MB data, 100 mins and texts is terrible value.

Right now you can get Sky pay monthly SIM 1GB data, unlimited mins and texts for £2 per month, plus some freebies as part of Sky VIP.

MindEcho

Shouldn't think anyone moved to Essentials from classic PAYG would be interested in a bundle. Even on the Lite tariff, data was 10p/MB