Three - are they any good?

AARRRGH

Hey

I just signed up with three (bill pay phone). Someone in their call centre (India?) just told me I can't change my pricing plan for 6 months, and recommended I cancel my contract and go elsewhere.

Is this initial bad experience they way they normally do business, or is it worth my while sticking with them?

Thanks

krudler

If they meant you cant change down to a lower tariff for 6 months then this would be true for most if not all networks, when you buy a phone on a high tariff you get the handset cheaper, if you could change down to a lower one everyone would take out the highest tarriff they could find and get the phone for half nothing then switch down immediately, 3s customer care is awful though

eth0_

I think Three are great, I certainly like them a lot more than o2. They are much cheaper.

x in the city

wow

eth0_ you must be one of the 1% of the population who like 3. either that or i never read the post right.

I am cancelling my dealings after a horrendous two year with them in 2 weeks.

Bluefrog

I think it all depends on what you want from your phone company.

1. 3 are cheap for calls and cheapest at this point for 'unlimited' (2gb per month) data so if you use your phone a lot to access the internet or use other network applications then they're without serious competition in the price range.

2 Its fair to say that customer service is worse than non-existent. If you have an issue expect nothing but somebody reading from a script to you without any real understanding of the technical issues involved. It is next to nigh impossible to get a technical issue escalated to anyone who could actually do anything about it. I've found confining them to written correspondence, while it takes longer initially speeds up the journey to a resolution.

3. Voice coverage is at least as good if not better than O2 as they fall back on Vodafone's network when you're outside their 3G network.

4. International texting seems very hit and miss but if you get a data addon there are alternatives for texting.

apollodjs

No MMS no internet this weekend for me can't even check balance reported the issue but may as well be talking to the wall its all been said before so im not going to get into a rant about it.

@bulfrog who are you sending your mail too do you have any email address?

Terrontress

To be honest, given previous experience with Vodafone, I swore never to give them another penny.
Three are cheap, there's no two ways around that. The call centre staff, while sometimes unable to help, are genuinely helpful and try their hardest to help.
The only thing I want 3 to do, which they don't, is to allow my Radio Ulster stream to last more than 1 min 44.

TinCool

Bluefrog wrote: »

4. International texting seems very hit and miss but if you get a data addon there are alternatives for texting.

Interesting, what alternatives are there ?

robinph

I'm happy with Three and they provide by far the cheapest option for the way that I'm using my mobile.

Terrontress wrote: »

The only thing I want 3 to do, which they don't, is to allow my Radio Ulster stream to last more than 1 min 44.

Not fair, your getting an extra 4 seconds longer on your streams than I can get before they cut off, they must have fixed something for your phone and be ignoring the rest of us. :mad:

Bluefrog

robinph wrote: »

Not fair, your getting an extra 4 seconds longer on your streams than I can get before they cut off, they must have fixed something for your phone and be ignoring the rest of us. :mad:

I'd love to form a group to see if we can get the realplayer streaming issue sorted out - if anyone is up for it, PM me.

With regard to the email I used with Three I originally started using their head of PR's email but I believe she's gone now (and who could blame her). You can use the form on the site but I would advise keeping a record of what you say in the message you leave them. They will respond with a tracking number and you can use this later if you need to with COMREG.

The alternative I use on the texting front is the java client from www.voipbuster.com.

It would seem as though MMS is hosed in Dublin at the moment and has been since the weekend. More stunning technical incompetence from Three - hats off to ye Three techs.

Walkman

I find 3 very good. Save a bundle compared to what I used to have to pay monthly. Never has a problem with coverage

JCDUB

Three are absolutely awful.I've been with them two years now and haven't been able to send/receive international texts all that time.

The last straw came when I was in Thailand over Christmas and couldn't piggy back on any network, access denied on them all!!
Had no phone contact with anyone from home over Christmas and new year, rang them to complain and tell them I wanted to leave and they were ridiculously unhelpful.

Irish coverage fine though.

Still wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy.

catyb20

I havent had any problems with three at all (bill pay) I was even delighted to see i could ring the UK with my free minutes at no extra cost!

The boyfriend had a bad experience with them when he first switched (they took AGES to change over his number) but he finds them grand now.

I was with both vodfone and meteor before. Vodafone are far too expensive compared to the other networks. And with meteor when i went home (donegal) the coverage was transferred over to O2 coverage! Maybe they have bettered themselves now though.

I would defo recommend Three!

Actually just reading the above post there...their Customer Service isnt what it should be but thankfully i havent needed them!

TinCool

I would also recommend 3. I am with them on a UK Contract, any time I am back in Ireland I can use my free minutes to call back to the UK whilst Roaming on their own network in other countries. Also, for a fiver a month I get unlimited internet access which can't be sneezed at.

h57xiucj2z946q

TinCool wrote: »

I would also recommend 3. I am with them on a UK Contract, any time I am back in Ireland I can use my free minutes to call back to the UK whilst Roaming on their own network in other countries. Also, for a fiver a month I get unlimited internet access which can't be sneezed at.

Here we pay €6 Euro for 100MB which includes blocked ports and webpages.

Doctor DooM

dublindude wrote: »

Hey

I just signed up with three (bill pay phone). Someone in their call centre (India?) just told me I can't change my pricing plan for 6 months, and recommended I cancel my contract and go elsewhere.

Is this initial bad experience they way they normally do business, or is it worth my while sticking with them?

Thanks

This is standard on every network or else they're open to some serious abuse by users.

They are the cheap and cheerful option: When they're working right they offer the best value, but its a gamble, because you have the worst customer care in the business if things go wrong.

TerrorFirmer

Was thinking of changing to 3 because I can't use Meteor MMS on my several year old number despite new phones, new sim cards, manual and automatic settings. They dont' really care either so I think it's time to switch. Hard to beat the free meteor-to-meteor texts though, does any other network offer anything remotely similar to this?

I can often send up to 150 messages a day so obviously......not economical if I have to pay 10c or whatever a message.

flywheel

you still no got MMS working on that SP?

have you tried going into a Meteor store and have them call customer support to make sure the MMS Access Point is "re-provisioned" on you account...

TerrorFirmer

Nope! Funny enough, I ditched the SP5, only to discover that MMS did not work on my 6680 anymore, or other phones I tried...I even got a new sim card, no joy. I did ring customer care, who said everything was fine and it should work. Looking at the basic settings manually, they're fine - nothing wrong with them.They pretty much told me tough, nothing we can do, to be honest. So I was/am a little peeved.

TerrorFirmer

Actually, the girl I was originally talking to was obviously a bit clueless. I just rang there again - and a guy told me he's forwarding the info to their technical department who will get back to me. Bit better then last night, all I got was 'Try a new sim card, nothing else we can do.'...

foggy_lad

Terrontress wrote: »

Three are cheap, there's no two ways around that. The call centre staff, while sometimes unable to help, are genuinely helpful and try their hardest to help.
The only thing I want 3 to do, which they don't, is to allow my Radio Ulster stream to last more than 1 min 44.

three have their own "radio" service now possibly this is why people cant stream realplayer radio services?

Bluefrog

Where are you seeing that Foggy_Lad?

foggy_lad

sorry should have said its in the music section of planet three. several "stations" on a 4hour loop which gets changed weekly and this costs 99cent for 24hours use

Bluefrog

Breaks the contract of X-Series Gold to prevent access on that basis if it is the case that they are blocking streams because of this service. I suspect it's more to do with technical incompetence as this hasn't worked since the August Upgrade properly

Terrontress

The customer service staff have no idea it is happening though. I tried to explain it to them and they just don't get it.

Bluefrog is right. We should get everyone on 3 to try to stream, see what happens and then if it fails around the 1.40 mark phone 3. Do it all on the same day.

I might call into 3 shop in Swords at the weekend and see what they say.