Rant Who's the best mobile operator?

[Scouse]

I'm currently on hold to Orange. Been with 'em for donkeys years.

Last year I lost my rag over how much I was paying and got through to their retentions team - and got unlimited everything to all mobiles + a new (at the time) Samsung Galaxy S2 for ~£28/month, including next-day insurance in (the inevitable) case I dropped a glass of water on it.

Which I have done.


So, I ring 'em up. They tell me that I'm not actually paying for the insurance. The cunts. Apparently I should have been checking my bills (for something that isn't on them) - which go straight in the bin anyway.

I tell them to go and check the recording of the call made to retentions when I moved over to the new contract - they say it could take weeks and if I want to leave they want me to pay up the remainder of my contract. Which they can get fucked with. I can get my PAC off them, but until I set something up I'd be sans phone.

I'd also have, I presume, a load of shitty legal action off debt collection companies on behalf of orange?


What are my options, O mobile-phonery geeks?

 

[Ch3tan]

3 are the best for data, but they don't understand the concept of customer service.

TBH, there isn't a lot to choose between, go for the price and the phone that suits you best. However it may be offering it. o2 I never had any issues with from a customer service POV, but their data speeds where slow and their prices high.

Haven't been with voda, tmobile or orange in years now, so my opinion on them isn't worth much.

 

[Scouse]

TBH they're all the same. Big corporates. They have the same IT systems, the same calibre of staff and the same mistakes happen at all of them.

I'm gonna have to bitch-up and take it in the ass like a good little citizen tbfh. It'll cheeze me off but wtf can I realistically do when computer says "No".

 

[Raven]

Never had a problem with O2.

 

[Lamp]

There ain't much to choose between them. Just gotta pick the right usage for you I guess and go with a company where you can actually speak to a human if something goes tits up.

Giffgaff (o2) suffers from the odd service outage, but 99.8% of the time I have zero issues. I can always get a good signal / reception, infinite texts, infinite data, more calling time then I need, the internet is pretty fast, £12 a month. The only extras you have to pay separately for are international calls and MMS. The odd MMS I send gets paid for out of my free credits which you amass from being a GG customer anyway. Works for me

 

[Scouse]

Switching to GiffGaff next time contract is up tbfh.

 

[rynnor]

Switching to GiffGaff next time contract is up tbfh.

Dont do it! I'm about to dump them - not being able to send texts on New Years eve was the final straw but I just find the coverage in general to be shite and the data speeds awful.

I'm going to move ours to 3.

 

[Lamp]

Get a GG SIM. Try it for a month. If you don't like it, choose another carrier. Worse case scenario: you waste £12. The SIM is free.

 

[Scouse]

Dont do it! I'm about to dump them - not being able to send texts on New Years eve was the final straw but I just find the coverage in general to be shite and the data speeds awful.

Can you phone people?

That's pretty much all I care about. Fuck data.

I'll try Lamp's idea to check on coverage...


Edit: An inability to wang an 's after a @user... without deselecting what you're trying to do is making me not use that feature very much.

 

[rynnor]

Can you phone people?

Sometimes but even that I find dicey - aside from the regular unscheduled outages I find mobile signal coverage to be pretty poor.

You have to remember that Lamp lives in central london so hes probably well covered by all networks.

 

[Lamp]

You have to remember that Lamp lives in central london so hes probably well covered by all networks.

This is true

 

[Zenith.UK]

I want to mention Tesco Mobile. You can get a capped contract SIM with them starting from £10 and going up through the tiers.
They piggyback on the O2 network. I've got my daughter on a £10/month capped contract for 12 months. I don't have to worry about her going over her minutes, texts or data and running up additional charges

I'm not entirely happy with O2 for a number of reasons. The biggest one being that they've decided to bump the price of the tariff mid-contract which has pissed me off no-end.
You used to be able to drop a tariff level each month after 9 months, but they've changed that recently. You can now only drop 1 tariff level ONCE after 12 months.

I'll be honest. I've never liked this move towards 2 year contracts. I've already started planning how to get my new phone at full market price and get a service only SIM. They at least last 12 months at a time. The nice thing is that you get a new shiny when YOU want, not when your contract is up. Buy new phone (network unlocked), sell old phone on eBay. Works out nicely.

 

[old.Osy]

Vodafone. Oh and you guys are on the slow bus when it comes to mobile operators, you would not believe the quality of service and prices we get in Romania. Same as with broadband and internet services quality/speed.

Yes, I know, not relevant. So's your face.

 

[Bigmac]

Vodafone is the most expensive and their internet coverage is crap, along with very slow phone software updates. Shame I am locked with them for another year but once it's run out i'm gone.

 

[Poag]

Three for value for money.

O2 for CS.


Been with 3 for 2 years now and had to ring them once due to Vodafone refusing to port my number.

 

[Ceixah]

All depends what you're after really, take it from a guy that works in sales for mobile phones, there's no "better" network.
Problem with majority of people they have absolutely no idea about what they're talking about when it comes to mobile phones, I saw somebody mention 3 is best for data.....

May I ask why?

and I swear if you say "cuz they offer all you can eat data" I'll probably vomit!

Each customer has a different experience with the network to be honest so there's no such thing about the best network...

What I'd say scouse is how long do you have left on your contract and have you been given a termination fee?

 

[Nate]

They're all a bit steep imo, best have no friends and go payg.

 

[Poag]

All depends what you're after really, take it from a guy that works in sales for mobile phones, there's no "better" network.
Problem with majority of people they have absolutely no idea about what they're talking about when it comes to mobile phones, I saw somebody mention 3 is best for data.....

May I ask why?

and I swear if you say "cuz they offer all you can eat data" I'll probably vomit!

Over the past year I usually use about 8-10GB a month. I get decent speeds at work and at home. The coverage is good at home, work, at the misses and between.

Lots of minutes which i dont really need, lots of txts which i do use. Tether my tablet so i dont need a second data plan, also tether my PC when BT decide we dont need a phone line

 

[Wazzerphuk]

O2 for customer service.

Oh how you make me laugh Freddies, oh how.

O2's customer service is fucking appalling. Only 3 are worse in that regard.

 

[Poag]

When i've rung O2 i got a person in the UK. Everyone else...Indian call center.

But thats just my experience

Noones ever beaten Be* CS for me tbh.

 

[Ceixah]

Why on gods green earth are you using 8gb of data? quite literally not got wifi at home/work/ and download all your midget porn on it?

 

[Poag]

Youtube. I watch lots on the train back and forth. When i'm at the GFs my phone still downloads podcasts (fairly long 2 hour episodes)

Also iPlayer and 4od, Spotify streaming music for when i fancy some thing not on my playlists i hit up the spotify radio. I also sometimes listen to streamed radio via TuneIN


All adds up!

 

[Scouse]

What I'd say scouse is how long do you have left on your contract and have you been given a termination fee?

Got about 13 months left. They want the whole thing.

I'm bitching-up, bending over and taking it. Then I'm going to get a phone insurance + giffgaff deal as soon as it's done.

Why on gods green earth are you using 8gb of data? quite literally not got wifi at home/work/ and download all your midget porn on it?

This also.

Why the fuck people do more than just check their mail or the footie scores when out of the house I've no idea.

My sisters kids use the internet on the go constantly. I'm like - I'M FUCKING HERE YOU KNOW.

If my mates did it, they wouldn't be mates vey long.

Youtube. I watch lots on the train back and forth

Man, read a book Poag

 

[Poag]

Man, read a book Poag

My kindle has ~16 read books in the last 10 months or so.


Three Game of Thrones books, Only Easy Day, couple of WW2 historical and now for a bit of fun, some Star Wars books judge me if you will, but i read alot

Alot of it goes that i listen to podcasts while working. And I play youtube videos with the screen down and just listen to the commentary...so its effectively a podcast again but has the video bandwidth requirement.

 

[Ceixah]

I'd be very wary regarding things like giffgaff, the amount of customers I get a day that are on giffgaff that can't pass a credit check these days are ridiculous and they all want a full contract because in the long run giff gaff is pretty awful.

What i'd possible suggest is messaging me exactly what you want/need and how much your termination fee is and i'll have a good gander through our systems (i'm at work atm) and will see if I can arrange a buyout for you or something like that and get you a good deal with a phone you want on an alternative network.

Pay as you go is NEVER a good idea, giffgaff may seem fantastic with the prices but O2 do not give them the full signal coverage etc as they only rent space, then you have to shell £500 for the phone everytime you want one

 

[Job]

I've still got my original Cellnet sim, number 08509101**, and that's from memory.
It became an MM02 sim, the an 02 sim and they forgot to charge everyone on the old sims for GPRS for about two years.

 

[DaGaffer]

Both here and when I lived in the UK I settled with O2 as the "least worst". The only network I've not really spent much time on is Voda (about six months ten years ago), although I'm told they always have the best roaming deals.

 

[Ceixah]

I've personally been with vodafone for 7 years and never had a problem, however when it comes to upgrading I never go through the network directly as their deals are ALWAYS significantly more expensive than I can obtain myself.

But then i've got friends that have had an awful experience with vodafone etc.

What I would say is that with working for Phones4u I get 50% discount with orange and 40% with O2 on line rentals but I choose to stay with vodafone based on their customer service and coverage etc, think of that what you will cuz I think that says alot about the network!

 

[Tom]

I've been with Voda for years. Data at football matches etc is crap. Data roaming is excellent though, you get a basic allowance for a couple of quid and they warn you if you go over. Pretty cheap.

If you can wait Scouse, I'd get the Nexus 4. Dirt cheap and super-powerful. Also super-popular, which is why they're out of stock on the Google Play store.

 

[Bigmac]

If you do go with Vodafone never buy direct from them, always go through Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u or some other provider as they use their commission or something to bring down the price, where as Vodafone just rape your wallet.