Best alternatives to escape the continuing Three nightmare

cb1959

There seems to be no hope of any immediate solution to the chronic problems on the Three network. The Customer Care reps on Talk-to-Three are now saying that it will take at least 2 years to merge the O2 & Three networks, so I decided to find alternatives for my family, and I have since helped a few other friends escape Three also over the past couple of months.

There is no point going to Tesco, 48, Lyca etc as they are all piggybacking on the Three network. While their customers may not have to endure the horrendous Three back-office support in India, they appear to suffer from exactly the same network and coverage problems.

I found the best alternatives to be eMobile and Meteor. While Vodafone probably works fine, it is generally expensive.

From my research, I found these deals best fitted the requirements of my family - just in case anyone finds this useful.

KIDS: Meteor PAYG - (400 Texts, 7.5GB Data) - €10 per month
PARENTS: eMobile 4G Billpay - (Unlimited Voice & Text, 5GB 4G Data) - €24 per month
GRANDPARENTS: eMobile150 Billpay - (150Mins, 150Text, 150MB Data, Free to landlines,eMob & Meteor) - €15 per month
STUDENT IN COLLEGE: Meteor 4G PAYG - (Unlimited Voice, 400 Texts, 7.5GB Data) - €20 per month
SELF-EMPLOYED SISTER:(Travels a lot). eMobile Small Business Plan (Unlimited Voice, Text, 15GB 4G Data, Free Roaming in Europe & US) - €35 per month (ex VAT)

I found that the eMobile plans work best within a bundle with Broadband/Landline/TV, whereas the Meteor plans seem to work best for standalone mobile users such as kids & students. Note that you get 400 free texts on all the Meteor plans using the MyMeteor Smartphone app - so there is no need to buy a plan with texts unless you need more than 400.

Really happy to to have found these good value alternatives on a better network, so I hope this is of some use to others.

TheDriver

I find Tesco great. No coverage issues, good bb speeds and very very cheap.....and their CS excellent

garhjw

cb1959 wrote: »

There seems to be no hope of any immediate solution to the chronic problems on the Three network. The Customer Care reps on Talk-to-Three are now saying that it will take at least 2 years to merge the O2 & Three networks, so I decided to find alternatives for my family, and I have since helped a few other friends escape Three also over the past couple of months.

There is no point going to Tesco, 48, Lyca etc as they are all piggybacking on the Three network. While their customers may not have to endure the horrendous Three back-office support in India, they appear to suffer from exactly the same network and coverage problems.

I found the best alternatives to be eMobile and Meteor. While Vodafone probably works fine, it is generally expensive.

From my research, I found these deals best fitted the requirements of my family - just in case anyone finds this useful.

KIDS: Meteor PAYG - (400 Texts, 7.5GB Data) - €10 per month
PARENTS: eMobile 4G Billpay - (Unlimited Voice & Text, 5GB 4G Data) - €24 per month
GRANDPARENTS: eMobile150 Billpay - (150Mins, 150Text, 150MB Data, Free to landlines,eMob & Meteor) - €15 per month
STUDENT IN COLLEGE: Meteor 4G PAYG - (Unlimited Voice, 400 Texts, 7.5GB Data) - €20 per month
SELF-EMPLOYED SISTER:(Travels a lot). eMobile Small Business Plan (Unlimited Voice, Text, 15GB 4G Data, Free Roaming in Europe & US) - €35 per month (ex VAT)

I found that the eMobile plans work best within a bundle with Broadband/Landline/TV, whereas the Meteor plans seem to work best for standalone mobile users such as kids & students. Note that you get 400 free texts on all the Meteor plans using the MyMeteor Smartphone app - so there is no need to buy a plan with texts unless you need more than 400.

Really happy to to have found these good value alternatives on a better network, so I hope this is of some use to others.

Tesco 48 and Lyca use the O2 RAN. BY the end of August all customer care for three will be run out of the O2 care in limerick as well as a new care dept in Waterford.

From my experience of using eMobile it was a disaster for roaming, I had a lot of issues and ended up switching to vodafone.

Bear in mind with meteor/eMobile their national roaming agreement with voda end in late June meaning there will be coverage issues west of the Shannon until Eircom roll out new 3G/4g sites

dudara

Moved to Mobiles.

Have you tried the Killbiller app? It analyses your usage to come up with recommendations. Personally, I've been with Three for over 5 years now and very pleased with their service & value.

GIMP

garhjw wrote: »

Bear in mind with meteor/eMobile their national roaming agreement with voda end in late June meaning there will be coverage issues west of the Shannon until Eircom roll out new 3G/4g sites

Out of interest where did you hear this?

cb1959

dudara wrote: »

Moved to Mobiles.

Have you tried the Killbiller app? It analyses your usage to come up with recommendations. Personally, I've been with Three for over 5 years now and very pleased with their service & value.

I tried Killbiller. It seems like a fantastic idea - but gave me totally incorrect recommendations. I couldnt get over how expensive most of the plans it recommended were! I did much better doing my own research and using the excellent experiences documented on Boards.

As far as I can see there are a number of serious ommisions in Killbiller and other comparison sites I found.

For example,
- No allowance for the significant savings possible by bundling broadband/TV with eMobile
- No mention of the 400 free texts available with MyMeteor app.
- Comparisons are based on price alone - no recognition of the disastrous service on the Three networks or the fact that some networks have 4G and others dont.

I would recommend that everyone does their own research and takes into account full household bundled requirements for mobile and broadband in particular and not mobile alone.

Niemoj

Three's coverage has deteriorated over the last few months imo which is a shame and as for their customer care.... Better of using Google and doing it yourself.

In fairness if I was getting paid €0.25 an hour I wouldn't be too fussed with the customers myself but there ya go.

jimmynokia

GIMP wrote: »

Out of interest where did you hear this?

Link?

Trojan

Three's coverage is fine if you were on them before the o2 merger. It was completely unusable for many who were on o2 and moved onto Three service. For me it was 80% or 90% of incoming calls missed due to No Service, very poor reception on calls that manage to connect. I've moved to Vodafone, my girlfriend the same, other family members in process of moving.

With Vodafone, what works for me is using apps like Skype, WhatsApp and Viber over the data network. With that the bills are very manageable.

garhjw

GIMP wrote: »

Out of interest where did you hear this?

I Work in the telecoms industry. Eircom coverage won't go completely to shi* but they have a problem In that they can't roll out new sites quickly enough to compensate for end of NR agreement.

GIMP

garhjw wrote: »

I Work in the telecoms industry. Eircom coverage won't go completely to shi* but they have a problem In that they can't roll out new sites quickly enough to compensate for end of NR agreement.

By now they should have enough sites operational you would think! Why are s the agreement ending then?

Kristopherus

@ CB 1959 - the self-employed sister could also avail of the eMobile/Eircom SME sim-only tarriff - unlimited Voice, Text, 15GB 4G Data, Free Roaming in Europe & US for €20.00 + vat. Cracking value for less than €25.00 per month.

cb1959

Kristopherus wrote: »

@ CB 1959 - the self-employed sister could also avail of the eMobile/Eircom SME sim-only tarriff - unlimited Voice, Text, 15GB 4G Data, Free Roaming in Europe & US for €20.00 + vat. Cracking value for less than €25.00 per month.

Thanks Kristopherus - that's a good point! My sister needed a new phone and hence went for the dearer bundled price - but I agree - the SIM only price is excellent value.