Minxy
LIFE MEMBER
- Aug 22, 2007
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- Since 1996, had Elddis/Swift/Rapido/Rimor/Chausson MHs. Autocruise/Globecar PVCs/Compactline i-138
... after breaking out from Three mobile!
We've found Three okay for our needs but about a month or so ago started having issues with it cutting off and going slow at times but that was just a taste of what was to come ... yesterday morning we had NO Three mobile signal at all, not for phone, internet, or even emergency calls from what we could tell! After messing about for ages checking what the issue was, ie was it the phone, the sim, or the network, we finally deducted it was the network. As we knew they were doing work upgrading masts etc to 5G which tends to be done on a weekend we left it for a while but by 4.30 pm we'd had enough ... the only way we could hope to make a call was to stand outside in the rain and even then it kept cutting out. Eventually I spoke to the customer services technical section and they confirmed they were doing work in our area which was scheduled to continue until 30th July although they hoped it would be done sooner (yeah, right!!!).
I explained that this was not good enough as we had NO other phone we could use as all we had were our Three phones (1 PAYG & 1 contract), consequently I made a formal complaint and was told that, even though the technical section officially closed at 5.00 pm (which it nearly was) due to the issue we had, a manager would ring us back (there's a manager on duty all the time). Seeing as we mostly had no reception, and even when it did work it was very bad, we didn't hold out much hope however true to their work someone rang about a hour later but the connection dropped within 2 seconds of us answering it. We assume they couldn't get us again as we had no more calls. Hubby received a text which had obviously been sent shortly after the call but didn't arrive until 3.00 am when it woke him up!
No signal again today so after having a mooch round the car boot sale (where our phones worked perfectly!) we popped into the 'Three' shop in town and spoke to the lady there who checked the coverage for our area and found we were only 'good' for outdoor (light pink) whereas previously we were on the 'good' for both indoor and outdoor (dark pink). This probably explains why we've been having a few problems anyway as it certainly wasn't light pink when we took the contract out last October otherwise we wouldn't have done so. Not happy as you can appreciate but unfortunately she couldn't do anything to end our contract without us having to pay to get out of it so the only solution was to ring the Tech section again as they were the only people who could waive the penalty. So that we could have a working phone we popped into the Vodafone shop and the chap suggested that we take out a contract for £23 a month (12 month contract) for unlimited everything in order to check whether it worked at home as, even though their coverage checker said it should, it couldn't be guaranteed - as they have a 14 day 'get out' clause we thought it wise to do this to ensure it would work which it does ... hence why I'm able to post this!
To cut a long story short, as we still didn't have a Three signal inside at all and very little outside, I rang them this afternoon and after a lot of time explaining the situation and the fact that we MUST have a usable phone and internet for one day, never mind until the 30th (I have a 94 year old Mum that needs to be able to contact me, and me her plus we need to do email, online banking etc). I was also not willing to wait and hope it was working to the usual 'good' indoor provision especially since we've been down this road before* so eventually they agreed to cancel the contract and waive the penalty, turning the existing sim into a PAYG one so that we didn't lose the number, I was then given a PAC code so I can transfer it to another provider in due course. (*I ended up having email correspondence and phone calls from the Three UK MD's PA to try to resolve it, which, even though we got free months etc, it was never sorted and there's no point in having it free if you can't use it so we ended up cancelling it then.)
Ultimately we've taken out a Vodafone sim contract via https://www.mobiles.co.uk/vodafone-sim-only-deals on which there were 2 options suitable for us, namely unlimited with data speeds up to 2mbs for £23 (£14 after cashback) and unlimited with data speeds up to 10mbs for £26 (£15 after cashback), consequently we chose to go for the second one so that once 5G is rolled out hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of it and we though it better to 'future proof' by paying the extra £1 a month so we can download stuff more easily.
So at least I can now use my phone and internet again ... how I've missed you lot, even though it was only for a short period of time!!!
We've found Three okay for our needs but about a month or so ago started having issues with it cutting off and going slow at times but that was just a taste of what was to come ... yesterday morning we had NO Three mobile signal at all, not for phone, internet, or even emergency calls from what we could tell! After messing about for ages checking what the issue was, ie was it the phone, the sim, or the network, we finally deducted it was the network. As we knew they were doing work upgrading masts etc to 5G which tends to be done on a weekend we left it for a while but by 4.30 pm we'd had enough ... the only way we could hope to make a call was to stand outside in the rain and even then it kept cutting out. Eventually I spoke to the customer services technical section and they confirmed they were doing work in our area which was scheduled to continue until 30th July although they hoped it would be done sooner (yeah, right!!!).
I explained that this was not good enough as we had NO other phone we could use as all we had were our Three phones (1 PAYG & 1 contract), consequently I made a formal complaint and was told that, even though the technical section officially closed at 5.00 pm (which it nearly was) due to the issue we had, a manager would ring us back (there's a manager on duty all the time). Seeing as we mostly had no reception, and even when it did work it was very bad, we didn't hold out much hope however true to their work someone rang about a hour later but the connection dropped within 2 seconds of us answering it. We assume they couldn't get us again as we had no more calls. Hubby received a text which had obviously been sent shortly after the call but didn't arrive until 3.00 am when it woke him up!
No signal again today so after having a mooch round the car boot sale (where our phones worked perfectly!) we popped into the 'Three' shop in town and spoke to the lady there who checked the coverage for our area and found we were only 'good' for outdoor (light pink) whereas previously we were on the 'good' for both indoor and outdoor (dark pink). This probably explains why we've been having a few problems anyway as it certainly wasn't light pink when we took the contract out last October otherwise we wouldn't have done so. Not happy as you can appreciate but unfortunately she couldn't do anything to end our contract without us having to pay to get out of it so the only solution was to ring the Tech section again as they were the only people who could waive the penalty. So that we could have a working phone we popped into the Vodafone shop and the chap suggested that we take out a contract for £23 a month (12 month contract) for unlimited everything in order to check whether it worked at home as, even though their coverage checker said it should, it couldn't be guaranteed - as they have a 14 day 'get out' clause we thought it wise to do this to ensure it would work which it does ... hence why I'm able to post this!
To cut a long story short, as we still didn't have a Three signal inside at all and very little outside, I rang them this afternoon and after a lot of time explaining the situation and the fact that we MUST have a usable phone and internet for one day, never mind until the 30th (I have a 94 year old Mum that needs to be able to contact me, and me her plus we need to do email, online banking etc). I was also not willing to wait and hope it was working to the usual 'good' indoor provision especially since we've been down this road before* so eventually they agreed to cancel the contract and waive the penalty, turning the existing sim into a PAYG one so that we didn't lose the number, I was then given a PAC code so I can transfer it to another provider in due course. (*I ended up having email correspondence and phone calls from the Three UK MD's PA to try to resolve it, which, even though we got free months etc, it was never sorted and there's no point in having it free if you can't use it so we ended up cancelling it then.)
Ultimately we've taken out a Vodafone sim contract via https://www.mobiles.co.uk/vodafone-sim-only-deals on which there were 2 options suitable for us, namely unlimited with data speeds up to 2mbs for £23 (£14 after cashback) and unlimited with data speeds up to 10mbs for £26 (£15 after cashback), consequently we chose to go for the second one so that once 5G is rolled out hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of it and we though it better to 'future proof' by paying the extra £1 a month so we can download stuff more easily.
So at least I can now use my phone and internet again ... how I've missed you lot, even though it was only for a short period of time!!!
