3 is the cheapest, but is it best

A question about : 3 is the cheapest, but is it best

Update 7 September 2012.

Please bear in mind this discussion was originally started in 2004 so earlier comments may be out of date.

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To try and help others - please report your experiences with the mobile phone company 3. !We already know it is cheapest in many occasions, but is the coverage and connection so dire it's not worth it?

Please click reply to briefly detail the following

Handset:

Overall service and rating (out of 10):

Best answers:

• Handset Motorola A925
  Location West Yorkshire
  Ease and reliability and connection Easy to use handset. Too bulky to carry around, so used at home as the main phone for outgoing calls. Reliability is very poor, constantly drops calls, that is if you have managed to get a signal to make a call. No chance of ever making a video call and 3 services are available on an ad hoc basis.
  When I first bought it I was put on the wrong tariff. Trying to speak to customer services to sort it out was a waste of time and effort. Tried writing to them, sent letters recorded delivery, but never got a response, sent faxes but still no response and telephoning them is a joke…going through their menu takes an eternity and you still end up in the wrong department and rather than the person trying to transfer you I have just been cut off on several occasions.
  So whilst the tariff is good value the overall experience is very poor and once the 12 months is up I am finished with them.
  Rating 1/10
• i have a motorola A920. by manually setting the network to O2 there is no additional charge and the network is more reliable. it does mean that you cant use the video call facility but i didnt really get the phone for that reason, more for the cheap calls.
• been on 3 since october last year had no problems with coverage and i travel all over uk on regular basis, havnt bothered with video but bought it for the minutes tarrif and you cant go wrong, had no problems with customer services yet and hopefully never will..husband signed up in november and had no problems either.
• I mainly use my Motorola A835 in South Somerset near Yeovil and up to Bristol.
  The coverage is good, but there is always a small dead area when the phone changes from 3g to 2.5g areas. i.e. when travelling in the car to Yeovil and back.
  When not in the 3g area the reception and transmission is also very good too.
  The coverage is good elsewhere, when I've travelled around too. The only snags are when right on the edge of a 3g area where the signal can break in and out.
  The A835 will give 3-4 days of standby with light to moderate voice calling, but alot less when using the video features. It looks a bit of a brick, but has some very good features and screen.
  Changing to 3 has saved me a small fortune!
• Motorola A920
  Used in Newcastle upon Tyne
  3 mobile is hopeless - it takes usually 2 or 3 calls to complete a short conversation & I often can't make a call at all.
  Customer services is a waste of time, they are clueless. Every person you speak to gives you different reasons for the lack of service - the only one I haven't had yet is fairies in the garden.
  The 3 signal here is very strong, if it wasn't I would be diverted to O2 which would give me a more reliable service. I haven't been able to switch it manually to O2 - any advice gratefully accepted.
  It is very cheap - if only I could make phone calls!
• :'(
  Dont bother with 3, I've had my NEC 606 (well 3 of them) since last Septmber and the service is poor, yes its cheap but not worth the bother. The signal around Blackpool and the Fylde area is very patchy, customer services (India > ) are next to useless they fob you off wiyh try this try that to get the handset to work proprly but its no good. I had sent 4 corraspondences of to 3 to rty and resolve my problem, they have just got intouch with me now after 1 month.
  DON'T BOTHER I have had mobile for 6 years now and this is the worst...... :'(
• Three G is the worst network i have ever experienced.
  I have to keep an orange phone for incoming calls to ensure they don't get dropped. In fact I also need the orange phone to make sure the outgoing calls don't get dropped which is on assuming i can get a line.
  My phone worked better on desert islands in Thailand than it does in London. Surely London should have the best service?
  I have had 4 Nec 606e phones, they keep replacing them with broken phones, and never logged my insurance claim when i lost one, Causing me no end of trouble as I apparently hadn't reported in within 24 hours. In the end I Complained so much that I had an emergency phone was sent out and another one arrived a week later, so now I have two !!!! phones.
  I would not recomend 3G to anyone who would like to keep their sanity, they are truely frustraiting.
  You cannot even complain to customer services as the calls drop and they now refuse to call you back!
• (my partner's phone since mid-Feb)
  Handset: A835
  Most commonly used location: M20 corridor from Swanley to Dover
  Ease and reliability and connection: Not too bad. Get a decent signal whenever used on the motorway. Only 2.5g around M25 area, but 3g all the way from Maidstone down, amazingly.
  Any other problems: Customer support ("support" should be removed as misleading advertising). Recently all the calls seem to have gone through to Glasgow and it is refreshing to only have to explain things once and have some initiative shown on the other end of the line. Initially the CS in Feb was awful, trying, timeconsuming and frustrating. But then, they have to get savings from somewhere . In Feb we got into the habit of choosing option 6 when on the CS line to get put through to the disconnections dept - people who seemed more knowledgeable.
  Overall service and rating (out of 10): 5/10 and improving, but then we've not really had many problems. YMMV
  Stuart
• I would advise people to not be too quick to say that it is the network that was bad. I have been with 3 for about 9 months now, and until recently I would agree with everyone else that 3 are hopeless, but as a last ditch attempt I decided to change my handset. I had the infamous NEC e606 which had the following problems:
  Poor reception,
  Regularly drops calls,
  Regularly turned itself off,
  Often didn't actually ring when people phoned (even when it had reception).
  Some of which I put down to the handset, but others I put down to the network... Anyway, I recently bought a Nokia 7600 on 3 as a pay as you go phone for Ј150 and swith my contract sim into the new phone, on the assumption that I could always sell it on ebay if it was no better than the e606. The outcome shocked me: The phone, and the network now seem fine. After 2 weeks with one it has not dropped a call, and I'm told allways gets through on the first attempt when people call me. I have tested it in both the Manchester and Bedfordshire areas, and it seems fine in both... If it stays this way I will be staying with three after my first year is up.
• I had real problems with my NEC606, and vowed to leave the company as soon as my 12 months were up.
  I complained to the chairman, emailed him direct etc etc etc...
  I now have a motorola A835 - which is fantastic. I have now had no problems at all with the network, and will be staying with them and saving much more money!!
• Handset: !nec616
  !
  Most commonly used location: canterbury
  !
  Ease and reliability and connection: poor
  !
  Any other problems: re-initialising
  !
  Overall service and rating (out of 10):2
• Handset nec e606 not bad really a bit chunky.
  Most commonly usedin my town of chelmsford but have travelled all around essex and get ok signal
  Ease and reliability very little signal in north norfolk when visiting the family, also my flat is right on top of a 3G area which means i can video call, BUT it only has one bar so the phone calls always wave in and out, if it had one less bar i would have 2G which is O2 roaming - if that makes sence
  Other problems - LOADS had the phone stolen ( in other words dropped in a river when drunk ) had to wait 3 months for their next day replacement as they lost my claim over and over for the first week and then when they finaly processed my claim they tolp me it had been too long since i reported it even though i had reprted it and they had lost the claim a week earlier!!!! it months of shouting histerically to sort it out.
  oh and also i have only ever had one bill from them !so everymonth i ring and they appologise and say they will e-mail the billing dept as they cant put me through because they only have internal contact by email and i never get them!
  Oh and their call center is in india which is fine until they triple charge your card by mistake because they didnt understand what you said and that they never repeat the same letters when you tell them your post code over and over.
  the only good thing is the fact that they sent me two replacement phones so after informing them and waiting for 6months for them to collect it i sent it back return to sender ( via a Ј70 bid on ebay!!!!! JUSTICE)
  NOT BITTER! - JUST DONT BOTHER REALLY, THERE SHOULD BE A WHOLE THREAD ON THIS COMPANY IN THE CRAP CUSTOMER SERVICE SECTION
  rating 0/10
• I lost my NEC e606 on the 13th Feb and was offered a replacement. I asked how much it would be to buy myself out of my contract instead of replacing one pile of rubbish with another ...
  apparently for just Ј75 I can restore my sanity, my friends & family will be able to reach me, and frankly if someone with dishonest intent found my phone and thought they had got lucky, any attempt to make a call would convince them otherwise and they would provbably just dump it !!
  Me ?! ... I'm spending the money to dump 'em 'Nuff Said!!
• Handset: Motorola A835 - a bit chunky but fine for me
  Most commonly used location: Staffordshire/Birmigham but used all over UK
  Ease and reliability and connection: No problems about connectivity. Excellent service. Have used the Customer Service line and had very lopite and efficient Scottish people everytime
  Any other problems: None at all.
  Overall service and rating (out of 10): Very good value and excellent service 9/10 [never give anyone 10/10 as there must always be room for improvement
  PoohBear supports 3
• HANDSET - NEW NOKIA 7600
  MOST COMMONLY USED LOCATION - Leeds & Wakefield area
  EASE AND RELIABILITY AND CONNECTION - The phone was great, had it for all of 5 days, didn't want to part with the handset but the network was shocking!!
  I love 100 miles away from my family and am a full time mum so make most of my calls during the day, and I use a lot of minutes! so i thought the 3 tariff - talk 500 would be best for me - 500 anytime xnet mins and 50 texts for Ј25 a month, bonus was line rental was half price for 3 months, but for the 5 days i had the phone, my calls were forever being dropped, the signal was shocking, even though was told would be great in big city areas.
  All i can say is thank god carphone warehouse give you a 14 day peace of mind thing! If your not happy, you can take it back, no questions asked, contract cancelled.
  I then took out another contract with my old network, O2, but was disappointed I couldn't have the Nokia 7600, I really liked that phone!
  Network rating (out of 10) - 1
• Handset:
  Motorola A835
  Most commonly used location:
  North London (N13/N22)
  Ease and reliability and connection:
  Near 99% of calls connect first time and no line drops - ie. 3 line drops since i got it at end of Jan and 2 "unable to connect". Seems as good as any other mobile i've had - bit big but right size for talking (if you know what I mean).
  Any other problems:
  3G Services not loading up properly (to read email) but I can use the phones inbuilt email client to read mail if i wanted to. No probs with customer support. I get billed correctly - ie Ј12.50 for first 3 months for 500mins!! The Ј100 cashback from The Link would reduce the total bill for the 12months to the equivalent of Ј13.50/month for 500mins.
  Overall service and rating (out of 10):
  7 (and improving)
• Handset:
  2 x NEC e606 (Mine and Partners).
  Phone is a bit bulky, but otherwise full-featured.
  Most commonly used location:
  Nottingham, Sheffield & Edinburgh
  Ease and reliability and connection:
  The phone is easy to use and the quality of the call is good. The reliability of the service though is questionable. Having access to phone, it is intriguing why the two phones do not behave in the same way. Sometimes one could be on 3G and the other has no signal in the the same location.
  I use the video function a lot, whilst on the road, saying goodnight to my little girl and it is very impressive anmd good qaulity.
  Text messaging response sometime leaves a lot to be desired. I could send a message and it not be recieved for a day (similar to the vodafone voicemail service ;D).
  The extras button provides a good range of free content, unlike other providers.
  The only thing missing is the ability to access world-wide information sources. The contect that you can access on the 3UK is provided by 3 only. You cannot access external Web/WAP sites. This would be nice (But has saved me money, as I cannot get to my bookmaker)
  Any other problems:
  Quality of the signal is sometimes a problem. For example I have had problems with handover between base stations, if I am talking, whilst on the move and even though a base station is close (under a mile), I have a strong signal in the Car Park but, I do not have one at my desk.
  Overall service and rating (out of 10):
  7/10
  BTW, I am on the 3togo tariff (not available anymore). I brought both phones for Ј300 and have a monthly bill of under Ј10 for each phone. A lot cheaper then the current ThreePay tariff. You can see why they dropped this tariff.
• :-/
  Ok .. currently using a motorola A835 .. the phone is very much a brick , but has got some great features . Looked the deal of the decade when i got it . however it does have problems .. Ј network says it covers at least 70 percent of the country . It doesnt! .. I use it in the west midlands mainly and the distance from J17M6 to J4 it drops calls like a bad case of "ouchies" .
  additionally the help desk is based in India which does cause some communication problems , they are polite but damn hard to undestand . Even harder to get any probplems resolved . Regularly get charged "included" minutes for no apparent reason . So far 4 out of 4 bills have had errors on them .Currently cant access the browser for the last 6 days "they are working on it" .
  In all honesty i would give it back tomorrow if i could , but with luck they will improve the service , just be careful when you sign up to 3 as its not all its cracked up to be .
• Handset: Motorola A835
  Most commonly used location: Wembley
  Ease and reliability and connection: when there's a signal - good but I too often see no service or emergency calls only
  Any other problems: First Bill Ј78.24 >
  It seems I have been put onto 750 videotext instead of Videotalk, three initial reaction was to blame the supplier (their agent) despite pointing this out and the fact that my invoice from the supplier clearly states Videotalk 750 it had to be their fault, anyway I relented and phoned the supplier who checked their system and stated I was on Videotalk 750 - back to three - having to relate the whole story again I was told to fax the invoice to a number I was given - I had added the 'extra' information that I had on several times as an answer to their security question what plan are you on that I was on Videotalk 750 why wasn't that questioned? - no response!
  this game of ping pong is still on going, even when they sort that out, there is the matter of pro rata billing which they insist is 'normal' but there is no mention of this on my invoice or in three's term's and conditions or in the 'Before you do anything' leaflet so because I heavily used the phone in the first couple of days they reckon I owe them for the excess.
  I threatened to stop the direct debit they said they would cut me off.
  not a happy bunny
  -------
  Well after a copying my complaint to oftel, they came back and credited my account with Ј46.85, I replied to this stating that they couldn't add up, and they have now credited a further Ј6.85,
  which bring there calculation of my first bill to the same as mine, however
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