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Tesco Mobile
by eskimo
I've had an Orange Phone for a long time now (I reviewed this some time ago) using Orange's value promise. I recently decided that it was time for a change, and found that I could get a brand new phone from Tesco with a tariff of £7.50/ month (admittedly that's dearer than I usually paid monthly with Orange), however for this price I ... got a Samsung Galaxy Mini, 5000 texts, 250 minutes and 500 Mb data Every Month. A comparable tariff on Orange is at least £10 with much less minutes and texts. For me (who usually sends about 10 texts a month, and talks for perhaps 20 minutes) this is a bit of an overkill, however the phone itself also has Wi-Fi (I've got BT Broadband, so get free BTFON / Openzone / FON as well) so can use this in many parts of the world.
This phone also has GPS as well, so I am able to use it for SAT-NAV purposes as well. Main drawback of the phone is that GPS and / or Wi-Fi runs the battery down very quickly. However this phone can charge via USB and can plug into my cars USB connection which means I can use it for Sat-Nav in the car without bothering if the battery runs out.
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Tesco Mobile
by karlsm93
This summer my phone contract was coming to an end and so I started hunting around for a new deal. Now, in the past I have went for a cashback deal which usually results in a pretty good phone deal, however with a baby now, I was worried that this would be too much hassle and I wanted something straightforward. My old phone was never ... one that I particularly warmed to and so I was determined to get a new phone as well - something basic that allows me to phone and text (I really am not high tech at all!!).
It was only after talking to a colleague that I found out about Tesco mobile and he told me that he was with them though on a pay as you go tariff. I wanted a pay monthly tariff and so looked their Tesco mobile website to see what they had. In the end I opted for a £7.50 monthly contract although I had to buy the handset as well. This contract gave me 150 minutes and 5000 texts a month, which is ample for my usage. There was also the deal at the time that you would get triple clubcard points which was obviously an extra bonus. At the time this was only available until September, but they have now extended the triple points until next Spring.
Everything was going well at that point. I ordered my new phone through their website (and actually through Topcashback to get an extra £35 back), got right to the completion, when their website froze and I was unsure as to whether my payment details had went through and whether I had actually conpleted the order. I had to phone Tesco mobile, who assured me that their system had just crashed and that he order had not went through. I was told I could set up a new contract over the phone or by going online again once their website was up and running again. I chose the latter since I wanted my cashback points as well.
This time the order went through and I simply awaited my new phone which arrived within two days via courier, which I was very impressed by. After trying to charge the phone for a good 16 hours, with no light appearing on it or anything to say it was charged, I came to the conclusion that it was a faulty phone. Cue another phone call to Tesco. A very helpful man apologised, explained that it was rather strange, and that he would send out a pre paid envelope for me to send back the phone, where it would then be checked and replaced or fixed. He also assured me that I was be compensated for the loss of the phone whilst I was paying my monthly tariff, by Tesco putting money back on my account, but I was to ring to do this when everything got sorted.
BY this point, I had had a crashed website and a faulty phone and I thought that was it. I then noticed on my credit card bill, two payments for the phone and monthly tariff, which meant I had obviously been charged for the order that I had been told originally didn't go through. Well, at that point I was getting rather cross and frustrated and had to make another call to Tesco mobile, where I was told that I would have to wait up to 7 to 10 days to get a refund. 10 days past, I had sent my phone back to Tesco but had no refund on the card. So I was without my phone (the contract was literally days from finishing on my old phone) and had a bill for two orders. I had to make a further phone call where I was then told by the same girl who I had spoken to before that I would get a phone call from the refund department before the refund would be issued - something I was never told before. At this point, I wrote a lengthy email to Tesco mobile complaints department, and I don't know if it was because of this or things were simply getting sorted, I received my new phone and I received a phone call from a manager at TEsco mobile who was apologetic and said a refund would be issued (although again I was told this would be up to 10 days!).
I have now been with Tesco mobile for two months, and although I am happy with the phone and the network itself, I really am not sure whether I was terribly unlucky in having a run of problems with the, or whether there is generally a very bad service with a distinct lack of communication within Tesco mobile, since I got told one thing by one person and then a different thing by someone else. If it weren't that it was a good deal for a low usage phone owner like me I would have told Tesco where to go, but as I was happy with the price and tariff, I kept it, and certainly things have been okay so far. When my contract expires in a year, if it keeps going well I will probably stay, but if I encounter any more problems, I will definitely be moving elsewhere.
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