Mobile Phone Companies - Good / Bad ?

[cdd]

Indeed, and toward that end, I find there is a lot to be said if you get someone who can't do what you want for just calling back and hoping for someone different.

The tariffs, I am sure, are all pretty much the same... new customers get special introductory deals and loyal customers get loyal customer deals, mobile phone companies make them all so confusing anyway with different types of phone/country/etc that it's a pointless waste of time to even think about it really.

[Alexia]

I've been with O² since December 31st 1999, when it was U / BTCellnet, and have no complaints. In fact, just by topping up today, I could have won an iPhone. I don't know yet, I might've.

The main reason O² outstrips Orange in my family at least is I have to be a very long way underground or in the middle of nowhere before I lose signal. In the South Wales valleys, this is essential. Even on my annual holiday to Center Parcs, Orange and Vodafone both lose signal, so me and my dad are the only ones who can talk to each other.

[Cache]

I've never had any problems with O2 in the past, that's why I would rather stay with them. But is there any way to negotiate with O2 and get them to match Orange's deal? I've been with them errm, 5 / 6 years now.

[marksi]

Only slightly OT - telecoms related - having changed from BT Broadband to O2 Broadband because it was twice the speed for less than half the price (£9.70 per month, getting 9-10MB consistently ), I am not surprised to find that BT were happily planning to continue taking a direct debit from my account each month that still included the price of the broadband. Thieving bastards. I've fixed that now so they can't.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

I've never had any problems with O2 in the past, that's why I would rather stay with them. But is there any way to negotiate with O2 and get them to match Orange's deal? I've been with them errm, 5 / 6 years now.

I'm surprised you didn't try that initially - never go for an upgrade on the company's website, always do some research to find what deals are elsewhere and then phone up and say you are moving.

Mrs Scrooge did just that at the end of her contract and she was offered a £30 deal for £25 including brand new phone. She called back a few hours later and asked if they could do the deal for £20 or she'd leave and they said they would on the basis of her having a refurbished phone (and threw 4 months free line rental into the equation too!).

Unfortunately, they messed her about with the new phone a bit, which just confirmed to me their stinking attitude to their loyal customers and meant I moved back to orange.

But whenever you are looking for a new contract, as long as you know the market, ring and tell them you are going.
Oh, and never accept the £50 credit (or what ever it is now) in lieu of a new phone. It's a scam where you do very badly out of missing an upgrade and the phone company profit nicely.

[cwathen]

AVOID 3 LIKE THE PLAGUE!!

I had an 18 months contract with them and although they were by far the most tempting with the packages and plans, their customer service is absolute shite. I have never known such a difficult and dismissive operator in my life, and this is not very patriotic of me considering their HQ is in my home town.

I happily went back with Orange, and paid to have my 18 month sentence reduced and cancelled the contract. This alone took a month, upteen letters sent recorded mail, and speaking to people who hadn't a fucking clue half way around the world.

I've actually had the reverse experience (even though my current and previous contracts are on Orange because that was the only way to get the phone I wanted at a reasonable price). I joined their PAYG service in June 1999 (still have the same phone number from that time).

Back then Orange's 'Just Talk' PAYG tarriff was somewhat unconventional - all calls were charged at a flat fee of 25p / min (it was slightly cheaper if you put a £50 top up on) regardless of whether that was to a landline, same network mobile, other network mobile or international. 0800/0500 freephone numbers WERE ACTUALLY FREE(something which I don't think anyone does now), and whilst you could receive text messages, you couldn't send them from a PAYG phone. Calling your balance didn't give the monetary value, but the number of minutes and seconds worth of calls you could still make.

Their PAYG tarriff was brought into line with something more conventional in March 2000, and there it stayed. Whilst they did bring in added benefits and extras for new customers, I never got anything despite being a long standing, and stayed on exactly the same (now piss poor) tarriff until September 2005 (over 6 years since I joined) when I finally ditched Orange PAYG and went contract...

...and over to 3. Who had better reception than Orange (even if it was often only a 2G connection provided by O2), and much better customer service. On the inevitable occasions when as a student I overspent and my bill didn't clear, then I was simply redirected to customer services when trying to make a call and upon paying it up my full service was instantly restored.

I was really happy with my 3 service, and it was at a brilliant price.

Sadly, being a geek I wanted phone upgrades beyond what 3 would offer, so left them when the contract expired and ended up on Orange, then got a buyout from that onto another Orange contract. Reception frequently fails me in places it didn't with 3, and the few times I've had to deal with their customer services I've found them to be either incompetent or just plain rude, and once had a serious issue when they almost refused to discuss my account believing me to have failed a security check - until I discovered that because I hadn't given a landline contact number someone made up (01209) 000000 as a number instead - and the numpty on the other end of the line couldn't see that this was not a real number.

Also, a couple of months ago when the direct debit instruction failed to clear (admittedly my fault, but anyway) I discovered that Orange aren't as slick as 3 when it comes to barring. When a bar goes on your phone, it's so complete that you can't even call Orange to offer payment to fix it! You must ring from another phone instead. Once that's done instead of instantly restoring your service as 3 did, they instead give you a vague timeframe of 'up to 24 hours' (it took about 7).

Although I've been with Orange for the majority of my mobile life, I can't actually say that I find them that good. This time I'm going to sit out my contract to the end, then see what's else is out there.

[all new Phil]

I find T-Mobile to be pretty good, not had any problems with them. My contract is £30 a month with an extra £7 for unlimited WAP usage, and for that I got the very nice Prada phone for free. I was originally on PAYG with them but was spending upwards of £80 a month topping it up, so this deal has worked out pretty well for me.

Not really had much need to speak to customer services so can't pass any sort of judgement on that, although it was a bit of a faff setting up the contract initially with them. I went into their shop and had to go through some bizarre ritual of phoning up the cancellation department several times, as recommended by the guy working in the shop, to get the deal I was after with the phone I wanted. Why he couldn't just have sorted this for me, I don't know, it felt a bit underhand. Soon as I'd hung up, he popped into the back and handed me the new phone straight away, despite the fact I had made no mention to them on the phone that I was in the shop. Very surreal and slightly unnerving, I did at one point (between about 5 different calls) suggest to the guy that I couldn't be bothered going through with it, but he was pretty insistent. You'd think that somebody working in the shop would have the same capabilities as someone sat in a call centre, but hey ho.

[Chie]

I'm on pay as you go with Vodafone and this month they've given me 100 free minutes - no strings attached - as a Christmas present.

[Stuart*]

I joined their PAYG service in June 1999 (still have the same phone number from that time).

Are you sure it's *exactly* the same number? Most 07x mobile numbers didn't come into existence until April 2001. Orange numbers were generally in the 09xx range before that date.

[marksi]

I've never had any problems with O2 in the past, that's why I would rather stay with them. But is there any way to negotiate with O2 and get them to match Orange's deal? I've been with them errm, 5 / 6 years now.

I'm surprised you didn't try that initially - never go for an upgrade on the company's website, always do some research to find what deals are elsewhere and then phone up and say you are moving.

I'm with O2 through Carphone Warehouse. If your contract is coming to an end the department you need to talk to is "Customer Retention". You can easily get there by making sure the first words you use to the first person you talk to are "I would like to talk to someone about cancelling my contract".

In June I got a £30 contract for £25 (with double texts - 1000 - and 500 minutes), a brand new Nokia N78 and 200MB of web access.

[cwathen]

Are you sure it's *exactly* the same number? Most 07x mobile numbers didn't come into existence until April 2001. Orange numbers were generally in the 09xx range before that date.

Yep, exactly the same number. Orange were issuing 07xxx numbers to new accounts at that time - my dialling code is 07967 which you will find is an old Orange code. My dad who got a mobile just before me on Cellnet ended up with 0402 until that became 07702 after everything was standardised.