The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Comments on: 3UK still haemorrhaging money

its a dead duck unless 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 12:25 GMT

it gets its finger on the new emerging mobile data market, at a sensible price, its made moves in the right direction, but problem is its offering faster connections at silly prices, in my mind it would win if it offered slower connections with more data per buck..

I dont think anyone on the move wants oodles of data, but we do need to pay a sensible price for reading our email etc on a laptop, not on a 2''phone screen with all the formatting shafted.

with all the spam and imbedded images on simple pages, (ohh look at you screen now....) the data transferred is about 80% of static 10% of signal and 10% of useless headers, why should I pay a fortune for that!

Just reading my mail on a morning after a night of spam can zap half my monthly allowance.

3 service is very good 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 12:39 GMT

I switched to 3 a couple of weeks ago, from being a long-term Orange customer. There were two reasons for the switch, Orange "customer services" being about as helpful as a chocolate fireguard, and the fact that I went from paying £10 / month for 10MB of data to £10 / month for 1GB (you can get 1GB for £5 / month, but aren't allowed to use your 'phone as a roaming connection from your laptop).

So far, 3 has been great, apart from a few coverage issues which I'm sure will be resolved in due course. Not only do I get a better service, more minutes, more text and more data, but I also pay less per month, and I got an N95 for only £50!

I say: Long live 3!

OOps 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 13:12 GMT

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"I say: Long live 3!"

Not had to deal with customer services yet then?

Or Have Roaming Enabled? (they enabled it about 3 months after I came back from the US)

Or Upgrade your Phone?

Or use it with a laptop?

BWHAHAHAHAHA!

Title 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 14:20 GMT

Coat

Or use it outside a metropolitan area.... nearest 3G coverage (of any network) to here is 40 miles away

Useless customer services 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 14:27 GMT

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I for one moved off 3, took my number with me, as they were just useless in the customer services division they could not understand me, and in the end it took a few words with a CEO office, to get a special arrangement set up to send an email and someone from their UK based team would call me back as the Indian staff could not understand me.

The same problem goes with my bank now, but I must deal more with their disability services team, they are UK based and understand me, the same for my new mobile network T-Mobile who are superb and I can not fault them, and anyone thinking of joining three, I would say don't and go for T Mobile instead, they are the best provider around in my eyes especially in the customer services front.

No problems 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 14:58 GMT

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Been with 3 for I think 4 years now, just after they went live.

Yes I have dealt with customer services and they are helpful and do as much as they can to keep/help you. No problems with upgrades. I just walk in to the shop every year and say I want a new phone. Last one was a Sony Ericsson k800i which is great phone. Due for a new one now.

But I use mine for basic stuff. I am not a phoneaholic who has to park up on a lay by just so they can answer the phone.

For cost/services 3 are pretty good. On my current contract after walking in to the store I get:

30mb per month download, yes there are better now but I dont use half that. Using Opera Mobile cuts bandwidth down amazingly.

£5 worth of downloads/month which includes downloading music tracks which I wouldnt ordinarily do. This can count towards games, tv, video clips, etc.

25 minutes/month of video calls which is great for my kids to talk to their mother when she is at work at bedtime

I had tv at one point which was great when waiting around in the car.

and more.

It's a shame as they are ahead of the game but this country is full of moronic, technophobic, labour voting sheep with no sense of adventure and will probably flock (harhar) to the nearest outlet selling an iphone.

I was thinking of changing due to some minor reception issues, at my desk for instance, but the other operators cannot match my plan.

3 Customer services 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 15:08 GMT

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I went from 3 to Orange, after being with them for 2 years. I wanted a N95, and they told me they didn't do it, then they did. I was TOLD what phone I should have for upgrade, normally a Sony Ericsson K800i, they even sent me out the phone and I told them not to just refused delivery. They changed my contracted tariff and didn't change it back, without my permission.The last straw came when they had the N95 in and I had £70 credit on my account. I was told to pay £50, asked them to take it off my cedit and they said no. When I phoned up to say bye they were not bothered to do anything to keep an existing customer. Good riddence to them.....

@Oops / Anonymous Coward 

Posted Tuesday 9th October 2007 16:04 GMT

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"Not had to deal with customer services yet then?"

Yes - they could have done with being native English speakers, but otherwise no problems. Orange on the other hand, while speaking English fluently, couldn't undertake even the most basic of contract changes, and didn't seem to know their own products and tariffs.

"Or Have Roaming Enabled?"

Yes - it was enabled from minute 1 in the shop. Orange took nearly a year to enable roaming.

"Or Upgrade your Phone?"

No - but then, I'm quite happy with the N95 for the time being! Despite having been a long-term Orange customer, they wanted £250 for the N95, I got it for £50 at 3 on a better contract.

"Or use it with a laptop?"

Yes - works just fine thanks :) That's why I took the £10 / month for 1GB data option rather than the £5 / month option.

Another thumbs up for 3 here too. 

Posted Monday 15th October 2007 16:54 GMT

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I think the packages they are offering are putting the likes of Orange to shame too - I left Orange after being with them for 3 years and went to 3 and i have been perfectly happy with their service AND customer services too!

I'm sure most people can relate horror stories with customer service in most businesses, in fact I'd go so far as to say on here you seem to get more people who love to whine about companies than give praise where it is due!

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