Why oh why did we go with them again! Grrrrrrr ..... (1 Viewer)

Minxy

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Who am I talking about? Three!!!! :mad: Someone on another thread has asked about issues he's having with his Smarty sim, which uses Three, so I thought I'd post this thread.

Over the last few weeks we've had horrendous problems with the Three mobile phone network (hubby is on Three and I'm on ID (who use Three), this has been getting worse and has now culminated in not being able to get a usable signal for the vast majority of the time and even if we can it is very, very slow and drops out. As I have a dual sim phone I used my PAYG RWG sim (on O2) to get on the internet, albeit quite carefully and only for stuff I really needed to do as once I'd used my free 250mb allowance I started to eat into my £ credit at a fair old rate so I was far from happy so about 2 weeks ago I had an on-line chat with ID and after I complained about it being slow and not really usable - having to wait for 2 minutes for a web page to load, if it did at all, was far from ideal - they credited my account with £20 to make up for the bad service which I was told should improve. Unfortunately it went seriously down the pan within 2 days and became virtually unusable - I couldn't get on the forum a lot of the time! :eek:

As a consequence I’d well and truly had enough, never mind how peed off hubby was, so after a lot of messing about managed to use my ID sim to have another chat with ID (it dropped out at least 4 times whilst I was doing so) and told them how unhappy I was and was asked to provide info to the chat agent and do some stuff to see if it improved the signal, one of which was to remove the sim, give it a wipe, and put it back in the phone … the same phone I was using to chat on! :rolleyes: Despite telling her I couldn't I was told I 'had' to cooperate so she could try to resolve it totally missing the point that I could NOT retrieve the sim whilst I was using the flipping phone! It took a while but she finally realised she was on to a hiding to nothing by insisting especially since I'd told her that I'd swapped it from my old phone to new one a few days earlier and made sure it was 'clean' and that both me and hubby with his Three sim were having the same issues so I knew it was not the sim anyway. Eventually I asked what my options were about getting out the contract so I could go elsewhere which was duly logged and I was told that I would get a call from the complaints team within 48 hours … yeah … of course I will! She wasn't the best chat person I've dealt with and cut me off very quickly once she'd logged the complaint so I wasn't best pleased either.

Well, believe it or not I did get a call within 2 days (Thursday) by a UK based chap who listened to all the problems, what we'd tried to improve it, and how pretty much unusable it was now - I even relayed the issues we'd had a few years ago with Three who cut us off for 3 days (no calls, texts, or date … nowt!) but that we'd decided to give them (Three) another go as we thought they'd have improved by now. He was apologetic and understood totally how unsatisfactory it was but in order to pass the info to Three they had to follow a set procedure which meant the first thing to try was a replacement sim, even though he realised that this is unlikely to sort the issue out due to hubby also having the same problem. In addition he told me that there is some planned maintenance/repair work being undertaken on masts near us which could be what's causing the problems, work to improve the service and install 5G! I told him I was quite happy to stay with ID if they could give me a usable service but that I knew it wasn't them who were causing the problems and appreciated it was down to Three not providing the service so was out of ID's hands. Unfortunately there was nothing that could be done until the sim had been replaced and tried as that is what starts the ball rolling … he therefore requested a new sim be sent to me and it arrived this afternoon so I'm now waiting for it to be 'activated' by ID/Three then I can do some testing, the results of which are needed so the complaint can be triggered with Three.

Due to the worsening issues over the last week we've got a couple of 40gb 30 day 'no contract' Talkmobile sims (half price for 3 months @ £4.95) that use Vodafone's network in order to get online, these came yesterday afternoon and we've been trying to catch up on all the internet etc stuff we hadn't been able to do beforehand so have been a bit busy! What's interesting is that I've since discovered using Talkmobile's site that the 2 masts closest to us are having maintenance done and wonder if these are the same ones that Three uses … if so it could explain the issue with Three. What is daft though is the sheer madness to do work on them at the same time as it's surely obvious it could cause a limited service from them and if they are not usable at times we will then be having to 'link' to masts further away which will already be used by others and thus reduce the usable signal for everyone. The work on one of these masts is due to be done by the end of the month by Vodafone and the other a week later but at least we are able to use our Talkmobile sims which is more than I can say for ID/Three.

If ID/Three can't sort it, or give me a guarantee that the problems will be resolved soon, then I'll be looking to cancel my contract without any repercussions and stick with Talkmobile (EU roaming is permitted) for the time being whilst I decide whether to stick with them or look elsewhere. (The daft thing is that we were with Vodafone before and only changed to Three/ID because of their new roaming policy (ie £2 a day), but this isn't the case with Talkmobile who still allow roaming!)
 
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Minxy

Minxy

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There was a thread about Lebara recently. 1p per month for 6 months. I signed up for this because of travel in Europe. So far it’s been excellent, incredible at the price.
Phil
Unfortunately that offer ended but they are doing others at half price for 3 months however the 40gb one with Talkmobile suits us better for now.
 

Puddleduck

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I changed from ID to Lebara for exactly the same reasons Minxy

ID were unable to solve any of the issues.
 
Oct 20, 2010
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We had a very similar situation with 3, we had been with them for years, when our phones and mifi just wouldn't work at home. It was a mast upgrade issue which lasted 9 months :mad:
We got a few refunds but eventually left.
 
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Minxy

Minxy

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I’ve been with Vodafone for many many years and would never dream of changing networks, why do people want to do this alL the time just to save 37p a month .just saying like.😇
We were more than happy with Vodafone but unfortunately they changed their roaming so it costs £2 a day now which made it untenable for us - I did tell them that's why I was leaving and going elsewhere.
 
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Minxy

Minxy

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We had a very similar situation with 3, we had been with them for years, when our phones and mifi just wouldn't work at home. It was a mast upgrade issue which lasted 9 months :mad:
We got a few refunds but eventually left.
We had that previously ... every time they do work on masts it takes ages and the service is severely disrupted ... we had hoped they'd improved but its as bad as ever, I put the replacement sim in the phone yesterday and am still waiting for it to be activated so at the moment there is not service on it at all, not even calls/texts - good job my main phone number is on my back-up EE sim otherwise no-one would be able to get hold of me if they needed to!
 
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Mar 23, 2012
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I've got similar but not as bad issues with I'd mobile I think it's only inertia that stops me swapping. Liz is on O2 her signal is always better
 

Bobby-gg

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Minxy , RWG use the EE network, not O2 - I'm about to jump to them as my three contract is about to end. I took out the 12 months 8gb cashback contract you linked last year and it's been brilliant locally but have struggled in London recently

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JnJ

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I was on three for a few years but moved to ID for cheaper offer. Left ID for same reason as others.
We live within half a mile of the nearest mast. All networks say we have full coverage ::bigsmile:
I changed from ID to 30 day Plusnet (O2) and am now on the Lebara 1p sim which is Vodaphone, also 30 day. All are as bad as each other. Currently have 1 intermittent bar on signal and woeful data.
 

Riverbankannie

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My neighbour came across for help with his ipad 2 days ago. It has a giff gaff sim using O2 network. I found that lack of signal was the problem.
I came to the conclusion that if any of the “big” names have issues, they are able to throttle the service for customers on the cheaper sims piggy backing on their networks in order to keep a decent service for those on their main tariffs.
Hubby had no signal on his ID phone last night. I am on EE and no problems.
 

BikerGraham

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We were more than happy with Vodafone but unfortunately they changed their roaming so it costs £2 a day now which made it untenable for us - I did tell them that's why I was leaving and going elsewhere.
Am currently looking st replacing both our phones and contracts and have been with Vodafone also for years.
They are now including roaming with a 25GB per month data limit on many of their sim deals deals. One I was looking at is £21and 250gb month days in U.K.
 
May 7, 2016
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Three seems to be in a rush to discontinue 2g and 3g services and perhaps this is pushing up their use of 4g to the point where it is ****. The other networks appear to be phasing out 3g more slowly, perhaps allowing them time to increase their 4g and 5g capacity.

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Steve-N

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Pretty much all UK masts are operated by the big 4 (EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three) so all the other (often cheaper) companies are effectively 'tenants' on those masts.
The issue arises because usage is proritised to the big 4, in other words when there are a lot of connections on any mast the 'tenants' service is constrained by reducing the bandwidth.
I would only ever use a Sim from one of the big 4 for that reason.
Most supermarket Sims such as Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda etc all use O2 as their 'carrier'
I've been with Vodafone for over 30 years now and most of the time I get excellent to good signal, with the occasional dead spots but not bad enough to make me want to change.
You get what you pay for !!!
 
May 11, 2021
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Took advice of the below thread and signed up with Spanish company Tiekom - 300gb monthly for €39.90
Absolutely excellent service with Data Sim sent to U.K. home address and activated when I arrived in France With sim inserted into TP Link mifi M7350. Now into fifth week of faultless operation of signal and speed throughout France and Spain having used 115gb.
The thread is very much worth a read as an option for a data only sim, with means to ’park’ any fees when not needed. Other suppliers are available etc 🙂

 
Oct 5, 2019
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hi ,,i have 3 home mobile broadband 5g,,and i have to say its absolutely brilliant i get on average 300 meg no land line and no other costs it was £11 for the first 6 months then going up to £22 ,the good thing is when i go away in the van i just unplug it and take it with us works in the uk ,,not tried it abroad ,,
 
Apr 17, 2013
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I had such problems with 3 on my HUAWEI mifi in the motorhome - the data limitation in EU meant we had to use another phone on another provider to even top up - which is simply ridiculous - so i now have a Spanish sim, Spanish sim card.es - great service - just topped up (must every 6 months) 20euro - 120 GB data. We seem to use about 4 GB a day - top up with Movistar or via simcardSpain.es using PayPal - only faff is the sim needs to go into a phone first to register - via a text message - then transfer to mifi - and when topping up — use mifi to get text message and pin - HUAWEI app does the job. It’s given us some peace whilst away - and the service from simcardspain
Who am I talking about? Three!!!! :mad: Someone on another thread has asked about issues he's having with his Smarty sim, which uses Three, so I thought I'd post this thread.

Over the last few weeks we've had horrendous problems with the Three mobile phone network (hubby is on Three and I'm on ID (who use Three), this has been getting worse and has now culminated in not being able to get a usable signal for the vast majority of the time and even if we can it is very, very slow and drops out. As I have a dual sim phone I used my PAYG RWG sim (on O2) to get on the internet, albeit quite carefully and only for stuff I really needed to do as once I'd used my free 250mb allowance I started to eat into my £ credit at a fair old rate so I was far from happy so about 2 weeks ago I had an on-line chat with ID and after I complained about it being slow and not really usable - having to wait for 2 minutes for a web page to load, if it did at all, was far from ideal - they credited my account with £20 to make up for the bad service which I was told should improve. Unfortunately it went seriously down the pan within 2 days and became virtually unusable - I couldn't get on the forum a lot of the time! :eek:

As a consequence I’d well and truly had enough, never mind how peed off hubby was, so after a lot of messing about managed to use my ID sim to have another chat with ID (it dropped out at least 4 times whilst I was doing so) and told them how unhappy I was and was asked to provide info to the chat agent and do some stuff to see if it improved the signal, one of which was to remove the sim, give it a wipe, and put it back in the phone … the same phone I was using to chat on! :rolleyes: Despite telling her I couldn't I was told I 'had' to cooperate so she could try to resolve it totally missing the point that I could NOT retrieve the sim whilst I was using the flipping phone! It took a while but she finally realised she was on to a hiding to nothing by insisting especially since I'd told her that I'd swapped it from my old phone to new one a few days earlier and made sure it was 'clean' and that both me and hubby with his Three sim were having the same issues so I knew it was not the sim anyway. Eventually I asked what my options were about getting out the contract so I could go elsewhere which was duly logged and I was told that I would get a call from the complaints team within 48 hours … yeah … of course I will! She wasn't the best chat person I've dealt with and cut me off very quickly once she'd logged the complaint so I wasn't best pleased either.

Well, believe it or not I did get a call within 2 days (Thursday) by a UK based chap who listened to all the problems, what we'd tried to improve it, and how pretty much unusable it was now - I even relayed the issues we'd had a few years ago with Three who cut us off for 3 days (no calls, texts, or date … nowt!) but that we'd decided to give them (Three) another go as we thought they'd have improved by now. He was apologetic and understood totally how unsatisfactory it was but in order to pass the info to Three they had to follow a set procedure which meant the first thing to try was a replacement sim, even though he realised that this is unlikely to sort the issue out due to hubby also having the same problem. In addition he told me that there is some planned maintenance/repair work being undertaken on masts near us which could be what's causing the problems, work to improve the service and install 5G! I told him I was quite happy to stay with ID if they could give me a usable service but that I knew it wasn't them who were causing the problems and appreciated it was down to Three not providing the service so was out of ID's hands. Unfortunately there was nothing that could be done until the sim had been replaced and tried as that is what starts the ball rolling … he therefore requested a new sim be sent to me and it arrived this afternoon so I'm now waiting for it to be 'activated' by ID/Three then I can do some testing, the results of which are needed so the complaint can be triggered with Three.

Due to the worsening issues over the last week we've got a couple of 40gb 30 day 'no contract' Talkmobile sims (half price for 3 months @ £4.95) that use Vodafone's network in order to get online, these came yesterday afternoon and we've been trying to catch up on all the internet etc stuff we hadn't been able to do beforehand so have been a bit busy! What's interesting is that I've since discovered using Talkmobile's site that the 2 masts closest to us are having maintenance done and wonder if these are the same ones that Three uses … if so it could explain the issue with Three. What is daft though is the sheer madness to do work on them at the same time as it's surely obvious it could cause a limited service from them and if they are not usable at times we will then be having to 'link' to masts further away which will already be used by others and thus reduce the usable signal for everyone. The work on one of these masts is due to be done by the end of the month by Vodafone and the other a week later but at least we are able to use our Talkmobile sims which is more than I can say for ID/Three.

If ID/Three can't sort it, or give me a guarantee that the problems will be resolved soon, then I'll be looking to cancel my contract without any repercussions and stick with Talkmobile (EU roaming is permitted) for the time being whilst I decide whether to stick with them or look elsewhere. (The daft thing is that we were with Vodafone before and only changed to Three/ID because of their new roaming policy (ie £2 a day), but this isn't the case with Talkmobile who still allow roaming!)
Spanishsimcard.es did it for us - full roaming, including UK, 120GB date 20 euro, top up Movistar online or via Spanish sim card.es - English service from vendor - and so helpful - top up every 6 months - only faff - sim needs ot be in a phone first to respond to text message registration - then pop it into the HUAWEI mifi and away we go. Seem to use 4 GB a day - no streaming TV - which is a lot, but with cheap data ….

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Bolti

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hi ,,i have 3 home mobile broadband 5g,,and i have to say its absolutely brilliant i get on average 300 meg no land line and no other costs it was £11 for the first 6 months then going up to £22 ,the good thing is when i go away in the van i just unplug it and take it with us works in the uk ,,not tried it abroad ,,
It won't work if you try using it around here.
 
Oct 17, 2021
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I bought a dedicated phone on Amazon mostly to use with my e-bike and signed up with payg 1p mobile.

Never had a problem with signal except where everybody else does, 1p per minute for calls, 1p per text and 1p per MB (however for data it is better to buy boosts and these vary in price up to £15 for 50GB and last for a month). Same costs apply to roaming in 46 European countries.

There is a ‘top up’ requirement (minimum £10 every 120 days) but even though I hardly use it, I have added to it a couple of times long before the top up is required. No credit expiry providing you meet the afore mentioned ‘top up’ requirements, excluding ‘data boosts’.

I have used it as an internet hub on various sites for the past two years and have rarely been disappointed.

I believe that it uses the ee network, which seems to be one of the most popular on the forums.
 
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Minxy

Minxy

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Minxy , RWG use the EE network, not O2 - I'm about to jump to them as my three contract is about to end. I took out the 12 months 8gb cashback contract you linked last year and it's been brilliant locally but have struggled in London recently
Yes you're correct and I've amended my post, I was thinking of my Mum's Classic PAYG sim which is with O2. :rolleyes:
 
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Minxy

Minxy

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Am currently looking st replacing both our phones and contracts and have been with Vodafone also for years.
They are now including roaming with a 25GB per month data limit on many of their sim deals deals. One I was looking at is £21and 250gb month days in U.K.
From looking at their deals previously and again just now the only way you can get EU roaming is if you have one one with 'extras', I can't find one for £21 with 250gb data in the UK plus roaming.
 
Oct 5, 2019
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hi obviously if your in an area with no signal it wont work ,,but i have been on every network in the uk and all of them have areas where you dont get a signal even ee have loads of places i couldn't get a signal .and 3 did ,,,but if you have a 5g in your area its worth a try ,,

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Feb 14, 2021
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19 month year 18000 miles UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy. Campsites and off Grid.
There was a thread about Lebara recently. 1p per month for 6 months. I signed up for this because of travel in Europe. So far it’s been excellent, incredible at the price.
Phil

Using that at the moment in Italy. I got 6 Sims so have 72GB per month for 6p per month!
 
Oct 17, 2021
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From looking at their deals previously and again just now the only way you can get EU roaming is if you have one one with 'extras', I can't find one for £21 with 250gb data in the UK plus roaming.
Have a look at 1p mobile?
 
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To go back to the original posting ... I have a twin sim phone and use Three for personal use and Sky for business. I was recently in the Three shop complaining to the manager and he agreed with me that where Three used to give one of the best UK coverages, it now was one of the worst. He said that it was for a simple reason. Three has been hit very hard by the ban on equipment from Huawei and that was the principle cause of the patchy quality of signal. He did not see any improvement coming in the near future. Fortunately for me, Sky piggybacks on O2, and we can roll over data for three years and share it around the family and mifi. Sadly they now charge £2 per day roaming, but the service has been outstanding.
 

BikerGraham

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From looking at their deals previously and again just now the only way you can get EU roaming is if you have one one with 'extras', I can't find one for £21 with 250gb data in the UK plus roaming.
Yep that’s true you need the one with 4 extras.
The £21 deal was when also buying a new phone. Think they must have discounted it 😳😳
CEE0CCA3-D241-4A89-BF11-80FA3D01DBF1.png
 

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