3 Mobile - how competitive?

[charlesm]

How competitive is the mobile phone service offered by 3?

[Billy_Ray]

i have been on vodafone, ornage, tmobile and 3 and 3 is the worst by far. customer service is *****, coverage is *****. i dont have 1 good thing to say about them. when u talk to people your voice goes all quiet for about 30 secoinds at a time and nobody can hear you. i thought this may have improved but when i call people on 3 i end up hangin up as u cant hear them.

stay away from this network.

[Billy_Ray]

To sum it up, its cheap coz its awful, you pay for what u get.

[AngloScot]

But on the other hand, if you don't have much money then 3 isn't really such a bad only option. The handsets offer a lot of media to make up for the points made by Billy_Ray. I think the signal you get from 3 depends on the area you are in, and their customer service and coverage will most likely improve in the future as 3 is a new network. Remember how bad T Mobile was?

[Potatoman]

Im on three, and iv had no problems at all.

[Beswad]

If you're on pays as you go on 3 the credit expires after 1 month if you haven't used it up. I bought one last month on special offer at �44.99 in major stores now I regret buying it.

[cowboyuser]

Recently had a University lecture from the chap who designed the whole organisation of Hutchinson 3G later changed to 3. He basically described how he and some other consultant mates of his wasted 2 years doing nothing costing �millions to the company and it was the most ineffective and calamatous start up of any company ever! To sum up they totally skimped on infrastructure, will never be able to afford to improve it and 3G phones will soon be replaced by the next generation phone whatever it is to be so don't bother with one....Cold harsh truth.

[k8tkoo]

I agree entirely with all the faults mentioned here. I took out a contract with 3 in feb last year and got a free motorola a835 (worst phone EVER!!!!!)I bought it from the link whose after sales service was so useless on 3 that in order to get a useable phone I was forced to buy another one from ebay. Got an nec e313 which was quite a bit better but still had annoying niggly problems as mentioned by Billy_Ray - quiet speaker, calls cutting out, wouldn't turn on for hours after the battery had run out and then been re-charged etc. I've since bought an nec e228 which is a hell of a lot better than my previous 2, but even that occasionally cuts out. Customer service diverts to either Bombay or New Delhi but I must say coverage in my area is normally quite good - if you go to www.three.co.uk you can look on a GB map and see what it's like where you live. If you're planning on getting a 3 mobile I would strongly recommend getting it from one of the actual 3 outlets (mostly in Superdrug) because they can offer you a loan phone if yours does  go wrong. Ignoring the problems, I would recommend three's tarrifs to anyone. I went from spending �60-�70 a month on Vodafone to spending �35 on 3 and getting lots more minutes and texts for my money. If you're willing to put up with the faults (although I must add, 3 phones are getting better and smaller!) then I would say go with 3 mobile, the other networks have got a long way to go before they catch up with 3's bargain prices. Hope this helps!

[g_maca]

crap

[spk]

Im with O2 carphone warehouse- now they really are horrific. Apparently orange is the way forward now with price matching and good network coverage. Quite a few of my friends are on this and cant fault it.