3 mobile - not as cheap as they make out (3 Mobile Phone Network)

Member Name: kate2009

Product:	3 Mobile Phone Network
Date:	13/06/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: some competitively priced deals

Disadvantages: a change in pricing policy has made 3 more expensive

Until recently I had been a customer for 3 years with 3 Mobile.

Why did I originally sign up with 3 mobile? I did so because they offered many cheap deals and at the time, mine was one of them.

***Phones***

You can get a large selection of phones from this company in with your contract deal, including all of the newest and leading phones. However, in the case of the two phones I have ordered through the company, they have arrived with the '3' logo engraved on them. I don't speak from personal experience here, but a friend of mine who was also a 3 customer, was advised by a 3 mobile customer representative, that if you were to leave the company and try to put a different sim card in your 3 mobile phone, you could damage the phone. Now I have no idea if this is true as I have never tried this out - but the information came from a customer advisor. It would be interesting to know if anyone else has experienced any issues in relation to this - feel free to comment if you have.

***Coverage***

Overall, throughout the 3 years I had my contract with the company, it's fair to say that I had few problems with the coverage. I could nearly always get a signal, although there were sometimes problems whereby I would have a signal one moment whilst at home, and then suddenly I had none. Although I found this odd, it did not happen often enough to warrant it being a major issue.

***Why did I leave 3 mobile?***

I took out a contract with 3 mobile because of their competitive prices. Mine was a 750 deal - which was 400 minutes and 350 texts per month. This was at a cost of £35 per month.

This went fine for the first year of the deal. However, into the second year, I recieved a letter from the company, telling me that they were introducing a new pricing policy. I was informed that I would no longer be charged per minute, instead I would be charged 'per unit.' So what does this mean in practice? I soon found out! For instance, if you make a phone call, and don't stay on for a full minute, you will still have used up your unit. So lets say you try to ring someone, and you just get their answering machine. As soon as you hear the start of the answering machine, you hang up, you don't leave a message. But because you have hit the answering machine, you are charged a unit. Whereas if you were priced on the original 'minute pricing policy' as opposed to units, you would have used up only a second or two out of your minute.

So effectively, I no longer had 400 inclusive minutes in my contract -I had 400 units. To put this into perspective, my mobile bill shot up over the months. After rarely going over £35 per month for over a year, my mobile bills were reguarly hitting £50 and £60. My highest bill was £95!

Initially, I couldn't understand why my bills were so high, after being so consistent for so long. I rang the company to complain. After speaking to several different people, one advisor finally let slip that it could be because of the units. I asked to leave the company and was put through to another person, who denied this was the reason. However, by that time it all made sense, as I had been doing nothing different yet my bills were sky high.

I was offered a new deal, which I trialled for a week, and then I sent the phone and contract back because it appeared my bill was still high. I blame the new pricing system. I have now left 3 because I fancy a change and want to look around for a new deal with a different company.

***Trying to leave 3 mobile***

Good luck!! These guys are VERY persistent. What typically follows is this: You go through the usual automated process ' press 1 to get to option 2', 'press 2 if you have nothing better to do', press 3 if you have been on here for so long you are starting to hallucinate..' etc etc.

Then EVENTUALLY you might get to speak to a real live person. From India. Their English is usually good, but occassionally some of the accents are hard to understand and you will have to speak slowly to make sure you are understood.

Now, as soon as you tell them that you want to leave the company, you will be transferred to another 'specialist.' This basically means someone who will do anything and everything they can to stop you from leaving, including selling their soul to the devil. This is great if you are just playing hardball yourself and are angling to do a bit of bribery and get a better deal. However, if like me, your mind is made up and you do actually want to sever ties with the company, that is another matter altogether!!

My experience went along these lines - on 3 occassions I was bizarely 'cut off' mid conversation. On another occassion I actually caved in and accepted a 'trial one week deal' which I later sent back (see above). And on the final occassion I almost made the customer service rep cry - or at least it felt like that! He even asked me to ring him back if I changed my mind! But the deals I was being offered were not good enough and I was scarred by the pricing policy change. Finally, I managed to escape. But it takes some willpower to get away from 3 mobile!!

***would I recommend 3?**

It depends. Overall, they are not a bad company. Usually customer service is good, and at least superficially they seem to have good deals. However their pricing policy has changed and it worked out very expensive for me. They could also do with having a little more courtesy and shall we say, 'dignity' when a customer wants to move on. After all if it wasn't for the changes they made, I wouldn't have left.

If you want to find out more about 3 mobile, see their website:

www.threestore.three.co.uk

I never used the internet on my mobile, however it's worth noting that 3 mobile have recently launched some competitive broadband deals.

I would also recommend that you check out competitively priced websites such as Dialaphone and Carphone warehouse to compare deals.

Summary: read the small print and compare with other company deals