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

[Purrfecttune]

I was with 1p for a while but their data offerings for the cost isn't the best, 50gb for £15 pcm works out more than £9.95 pcm for 40gb which is sufficient for my needs (and of course half price for 3 months).


See above.

I appreciate that the cost of data via boosts might not be as cheap as some fixed plans but it suits me as I only buy a boost when I am away in the Motorhome and don’t want to be tied to regular payments.

 

[ambulancekidd]

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!)

Whilst 3 were upgrading to 5g in our area, the service was very poor & the phones or internet would drop out with no warning, this happened constantly when moving from a 4g to a 5g signal & was a proper pain as our village is covered by two masts, one a 4g & one a 5g.
Now that everything has been completed, it all seems fine & service is better, faster than ever.

 

[The Wino]

Personally I don't understand why people tie themselves into contracts when there are so many good payg deals out there. We use 1p mobile for general use, which works out at about £30 a year. (That's their minimum charge) 1p does what it says 1p per minute calls, 1p per text, 1p per mb. Then when we need data we get what suits for that situation - general use at home (which is small) or traveling UK or Europe. Smarty works nicely in UK and abroad we tend to go with local data sims.

Just tying yourself into a contract to 1, 2 or 3 years seems bonkers to me.

Not all deals are for that length of time. Mine is a 1 month notice plan it's £6 a month unlimited calls and texts and 5g data. We don't have a landline anymore but I suspect the monthly cost of both our phones is less than we were paying for a landline

 

[Lenny HB]

Stupid girl you should have known better.
Biggest problem I found with Three is that it is a right pain in the arse when roaming.
We use Plusnet which is on EE, no roaming charges. I get 17GB for £8 the boss gets 7GB for £6 so does mean we sometimes need to buy a local sim when roaming as we don't have much data.

 

[Minxy]

Personally I don't understand why people tie themselves into contracts when there are so many good payg deals out there. We use 1p mobile for general use, which works out at about £30 a year. (That's their minimum charge) 1p does what it says 1p per minute calls, 1p per text, 1p per mb. Then when we need data we get what suits for that situation - general use at home (which is small) or traveling UK or Europe. Smarty works nicely in UK and abroad we tend to go with local data sims.

Just tying yourself into a contract to 1, 2 or 3 years seems bonkers to me.

Not to us, we only have our phones, no landline, fibre/broadband etc, that's it, so all our data use is via our phones. If we had other ways to get internet then obviously we wouldn't need to have contracts but to do it as PAYG is a fair bit more expensive.

I appreciate that the cost of data via boosts might not be as cheap as some fixed plans but it suits me as I only buy a boost when I am away in the Motorhome and don’t want to be tied to regular payments.

As above, we need it all the time, not just when away.

Stupid girl you should have known better.
Biggest problem I found with Three is that it is a right pain in the arse when roaming.
We use Plusnet which is on EE, no roaming charges. I get 17GB for £8 the boss gets 7GB for £6 so does mean we sometimes need to buy a local sim when roaming as we don't have much data.

I assume you have another means of getting data at home though, we don't.

Unfortunately we are in the 'black hole' when it comes to landline/fibre based providers, it's Kingston Communications or mobiles, nothing else - we can't get BT or any of the other networks that use their lines as it doesn't exist here.

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[Lenny HB]

Have you thought about fitting a router with external aerial connections and decent external aerial, then if your nearest mast is down you maybe able to connect to another one.

 

[DumfriesDik]

Minxy you are now the goto person for all things mobile! I read this thread with interest, sorry to hear you have had so much grief.

 

[Minxy]

Have you thought about fitting a router with external aerial connections and decent external aerial, then if your nearest mast is down you maybe able to connect to another one.

At present we're using our Talkmobile sims which are working well, hubby has put his in his main phone in place of his Three sim which he has now put in a 4G MIFI which doesn't take an aerial. I've got my Talkmobile sim in my Redmi 9 phone (the one I've just replaced) and am tethering to that - as I use both my existing sims (ID and RWG) for banking stuff the apps are now registered on my new Redmi Note 10 Pro so I can't remove them thus putting my ID sim in the MIFI is a no-no.

I'm loathed to go down having a MIFI and aerial as a solution simply because when I'm in the bedroom at one end of the bungalow and hubby's in the study at the other end, some 40ft away where the MIFI will be then I'll struggle to connect to it at times just as I used to do when we used a MIFI previously. We could try doing a 'Jim' I suppose by sticking it in a Tupperware tub and hoisting it above the bungalow on a flag pole (aka the TV aerial pole) to get a better signal!

If Three get the issue sorted then obviously hubby's Three sim in the MIFI will start working properly but he's just told me it's 'worser' than it was before (English never was his strong point! )

 

[big map]

Minxy Hi Mel
May I ask what dual sim phone you have please? My husband is after one but the only phone we can find is a Samsung, he would like to explore other options before committing to purchase.

 

[Vanderek]

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.

Strangely, my 3 contract was up for renewal, price has risen by £2....but they now have hidden in the details that roaming is £2 a day, so started a chat to tell them I am leaving, they suggested go buy a local sim, Second chat they want £200 for leaving my contract, then agreed there is no charge in cooling off period. They offered a free roaming sim, but never emailed confirmation of that offer, so third chat and they agreed roaming is an issue....I have a PAC so I'm off. ...good job I'm on a site with free wifi

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[Minxy]

Minxy Hi Mel
May I ask what dual sim phone you have please? My husband is after one but the only phone we can find is a Samsung, he would like to explore other options before committing to purchase.

This thread tells all, the deal we got has ended but if you keep your eye on the site the do come up with other offers.

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/xiaomi-note-10-pro-phone-half-price-£129-less-£15-as-new-account-member-£114-delivered.270580/

 

[Clangers]

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.

Totally agree with you. I'm with BT or whatever company they picky back. Been with them since '77 and don't have any problems.
Their customer service seems good so why change for a couple of farthings a day!

 

[Lenny HB]

This thread tells all, the deal we got has ended but if you keep your eye on the site the do come up with other offers.

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/xiaomi-note-10-pro-phone-half-price-£129-less-£15-as-new-account-member-£114-delivered.270580/

After the first time it came back the following week I got one for the boss.
When you go to the site it shows up full price but reduces after clicking Buy.

 

[Lenny HB]

I'm loathed to go down having a MIFI and aerial as a solution simply because when I'm in the bedroom at one end of the bungalow and hubby's in the study at the other end, some 40ft away where the MIFI will be then I'll struggle to connect to it at times just as I used to do when we used a MIFI previously.

A Mesh system will get over that, you will need a router with ethernet sockets to connect to the Mesh.

 

[Dorwyn]

I have been with EE for donkeys years, a few years with Orange before that. The deal for the last three years is 100gb for £20 pm, no reduction of data when we travel abroad. It’s proved to be sufficient for work stuff, listening to the radio through the internet, internet browsing and occasional tv from Netflix.
My wife pays around £10 pm to 3 for 8gb which I think is halved when we are away, as we are now in France. She is out of data right now, won’t buy any more data, and seems happy to use my phone until month end when hetr package resets.
Once in a blue moon my phone has insufficient signal, and the 3 phone saves the day though.

Well wife's Voda was not receiving any signal in Panjas France whereas my Smarty was good. Odd

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[The Wino]

Well wife's Voda was not receiving any signal in Panjas France whereas my Smarty was good. Odd

I think it depends on the network they partner with in the country you're in. I think on their own networks in the UK 3 and the others that use the 3 network tend to have less good coverage

 

[Minxy]

A Mesh system will get over that, you will need a router with ethernet sockets to connect to the Mesh.

By the time I've paid for all of that I might as well get two fully inclusive EU roaming Vodafone contracts!

 

[Lenny HB]

By the time I've paid for all of that I might as well get two fully inclusive EU roaming Vodafone contracts!

Only a one off cost, with your method you can't very easily connect to all the devices around the house far easier with a central WiFi system.

 

[Bucket]

We had the same for many years but it was silly to have phones with data included and a separate mifi too so we just have phones now and tether to them.

Agree in principle, however I find this drains the phone battery quickly. It's OK if I can keep the charger connected of course but that's often not the case when out and about .

 

[Minxy]

Agree in principle, however I find this drains the phone battery quickly. It's OK if I can keep the charger connected of course but that's often not the case when out and about .

You must have a lot of drain on your phone then, I always have mine in battery saver (BS) mode and when not using it switch it to ultra battery saver (UBS) which extends the time a heck of a lot, it's something I do even when at home so if I'm not using it for a while the UBS is on as well as when I'm off to bed until morning then the BS goes on if I want to use it. Our phones will easily last over a day without being charged up if left without any battery saver running, if we put it on they can last 2 days although we tend to top them up everyday to ensure they don't get too low.

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[pwilmo]

Big money blooper by the govt, they should never have granted licences to proceed with 5G until 100% 4G was attained.
Obviously 5G now gets all the money and resources, leaving 4G behind.

 

[Minxy]

Had a chat with nice lady at ID on Tuesday, told her still not usable which she could see from my account as there's been no 'traffic' going through, she said she'd recommend allowing the contract to be terminated as I clearly am paying for something I cannot use, just waiting now for them to confirm this has been done and give me a PAC number so I can go elsewhere ... where that will be I haven't a clue!

 

[uzsnowdrop]

I was with three for many years and mostly happy with reception.
I moved to 02 this June because of the £2 a day Three roaming charges
Three and O2 must use the same mast at my house because the phone signal is no better.
I'm in Europe at the moment using O2 with no problems or roaming charges
I pay £8 for 20gb a month which is plenty for me.

Wish I’d done this, 3 has been really crap over the roaming charges abroad. Just back from a 30 day jaunt in Europe spent too much time on the phone to 3 trying to sort out roaming charges that were applied in error , theres also no easy refund system , they still charge your existing bill before crediting your next bill which means you have to increase your spend cap in order to use your phone and if you dont you obv cant use your phone. Its a Catch 22 situation. It was really painful dealing with this , good move to O2 , cant wait to jump ship from 3 .
Was this a Brexit thing?

 

[Stealaway]

Wish I’d done this, 3 has been really crap over the roaming charges abroad. Just back from a 30 day jaunt in Europe spent too much time on the phone to 3 trying to sort out roaming charges that were applied in error , theres also no easy refund system , they still charge your existing bill before crediting your next bill which means you have to increase your spend cap in order to use your phone and if you dont you obv cant use your phone. Its a Catch 22 situation. It was really painful dealing with this , good move to O2 , cant wait to jump ship from 3 .
Was this a Brexit thing?

Possibly a bit of Brex----t. But more I suspect it is simply profiteering by the phone companies

 

[Pausim]

I wonder whether things will improve if Three merge with Vodafone. One of the reasons given for the talks was the huge cost setting up and maintaining 5g. I think the money would have been better spent getting 4g working properly all over the country.

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[Minxy]

Update: Rang ID again as hadn't heard anything and was told my situation was still being 'considered' as they were checking usage etc however the chap offered to ring the upper echelons to see if he could get a decision whilst I hung on. A few minutes later the good news is that they agreed to release me from the contract with immediate effect, no early termination fee, and they'll credit me with anything that's on my account so I might just get £4 back from them. He gave me my PAC number so I've just set it up to transfer to my new Lebara sim tomorrow.

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/lebara-15gb-sim-eu-roaming-unlimited-texts-calls-100-international-minutes-£1-34-for-6-months.272040/#post-5283638

The Lebara sim, runs on Vodafone, is lightening speed compared to ID ... 21mbp download compared with 50kbs if I was lucky!

 

[Pausim]

The Lebara sim, runs on Vodafone, is lightening speed compared to ID ... 21mbp download compared with 50kbs if I was lucky!

Much better. Hopefully when Three merge with Vodafone their performance will improve.

 

[Minxy]

Much better. Hopefully when Three merge with Vodafone their performance will improve.

Not sure as the issue is Three messing about with their masts which will still be part of the overall network I suspect. Unfortunately when Three do this it cuts us off completely some of the time, at best we can still make calls but over a week ago I couldn't even do that for days on end. If we didn't live in our particular place we are unlikely to have such issues and would have a better choice of mobile and landline/fibre systems but being in the 'monopoly' telecoms area of Kingston Communications (KC) there's no BT here as it doesn't make it economically viable for the likes of Virgin etc to offer media/landline etc deals due to KC charging them an arm and a leg to use their lines - we are always onto a loser.