who's happy with 3?

AdMMM

I changed over to them recently and have been very impressed so far. I'm spending far less now on credit than I was on O2 - withdrawing their 1c weekend texts was the final straw. I'm also very happy with their 3G services and price plans (although the Mobile Broadband does seem to be a bit selective in what it will allow you to see).

Thusfar I can't fault them. Porting my number was a breeze (was switched over and fully operational within an hour), my texts are being delivered instantly and my phone calls are crisp and clear. Maybe when I have problems I'll be singing a different tune but until then they get my thumbs up!

Oh and for those who have selected the "thinking of changing but read thread" option, may I warn you that you don't typically see many threads ANYWHERE praising a certain good or service for the simple fact that when people buy something, they expect it to work whereas when something goes wrong, they'll tell everybody they know about it. This used to happen all the time on the broadband forum and some people's decisions on who to go with were based on secluded issues in secluded areas which would have no bearing on the service that they would have received themselves!

rogue-entity

I am a happy 3 customer, had a few problems, but with the exception of one recent one, they have all been solved quickly.

Reasons I am staying with 3.
1. They are not Vodafone, shower of rip-off artists.
2. They are the cheapest Bill Pay 3G network, call wise, for what I use.
3. They have sensible data charges compared to O2 and Voda.
4. "Local" calls to UK numbers, I call the UK regularly, so me likes.
5. Their portal is free and has some good content.

There is, however, one persistant problem, nothing big, but on occasion its a pain. I cannot place any calls to 15xx numbers. Any attempt to call them results in the '3 beeps' and disconnected comes up on my phone's screen.
Customer care are useless, and keep insisting the problem is not with 3, and must be with my handset, dispite the fact that I can call other numbers just fine. Its not big enough a deal for me to persue, because I rarely ring those numbers, but it just shows that since 3's customer care was outsourced to India, they have gone down-hill.

Sam Vimes

rogue-entity wrote:

There is, however, one persistant problem, nothing big, but on occasion its a pain. I cannot place any calls to 15xx numbers. Any attempt to call them results in the '3 beeps' and disconnected comes up on my phone's screen.
Customer care are useless, and keep insisting the problem is not with 3, and must be with my handset, dispite the fact that I can call other numbers just fine. Its not big enough a deal for me to persue, because I rarely ring those numbers, but it just shows that since 3's customer care was outsourced to India, they have gone down-hill.

i can't call them either. they're passing the buck

WarZoneBrother

There customer support is terrible and hard to understand oh i wonder will there ever be a english person on the other side. I got a phone last year it wouldnt charge about 7 months ago so decided i would ring them. They booked me for repairs and a few months ago it wasn't working so rang again and they just talked crap so rang again and they said ring back monday but i didnt then about 2 weeks later and they said to go into a 3 store and see if its the charger. I didn't bother doing this as i knew it wasnt the battery or charger cause i tried another battery that was full battery and it still didn't work. I told them this and they said nothing, never bothered ringing again.

neilled

WarZoneBrother wrote:

There customer support is terrible and hard to understand oh i wonder will there ever be a english person

English person? Thats haa always been a rarity as their previous call centre was in scotland:D !

jimmycrackcorm

RikD wrote:

Am very happy with them despite some negatives

1. No US roaming for 3pay - how stupid is that
2. No internal ports, i.e. from 3pay to pay monthly :mad:
3. Stupid policies for unlock codes
4. Bloody slow at getting decent phones out there - no Nokia E-series phones

On the plus side
1. Mobile BB is fantastic :cool:
2. 3 portal has really good content, and is free.:)
3. Roaming on 3 in UK/Italy is so easy and cheap

As for x-series
Why bother... For €19 + €6 a month I get 100mins Voice, and 100MB BB.
I use fring for skype, msn and google talk, and a SIP based VOIP client
I can use orb for streaming music and/or video (don't get much of this in the 100MB a month ) from my PC at home.

They originally advertised X-series on three.ie then they took it off and obviously decided to do mobile broadband instead. The 3Pay Broadband is crap. I wanted to go to 3 to watch orb on my bus commute but not a chance. While Orb might work if you are on billpay, it won't on 3Pay and you can't put a billpay sim in a non-three phone such as my nice N95. What's the logic in that when every other operator allows it?

3 customer support is a customer answering service only.

But for now there is no equivalent alternative - it's like being back to the days when Eircom were the only DSL provider. Oh well - roll on O2's HSDPA, I'll be jumping ship at the first chance, and no matter how attractive any packages they bring out will be, I'll remember my disappointment

storka

So essentially you're all with 3 and enjoy their services but aren't totally happy with them!! I really want their services plus a N73, its so confusing!!

Sam Vimes

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

you can't put a billpay sim in a non-three phone such as my nice N95.

culabula's done it so yes you can. you're just not allowed

paulm17781

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

you can't put a billpay sim in a non-three phone such as my nice N95. What's the logic in that when every other operator allows it?

One of my friends did. It seems you can't but others can.

jimmycrackcorm

Commander Vimes wrote:

culabula's done it so yes you can. you're just not allowed

One of my friends did. It seems you can't but others can.

All well and good but have you taken into consideration the changes in terms and conditions?

If you go in to a three store or CPW for example and sign up for billpay then you will not be able to stick that sim ini another non-3 phone - Period.

However if you are an existing Three customer for sometime then the chances are you will have that ability under your original terms and conditions.

I have a friend on three billpay who could put her three billpay sim in my N95 ok but then she has been on three for quite a while...

I doubt that they singled out me.

culabula

Commander Vimes wrote:

culabula's done it so yes you can. you're just not allowed

I've tried three(!) different ones: my own dataSIM and two ordinary voice billpay SIMs. No problem.

Tony_ire

I've had my k800 sinces last august on 3pay and i'm very happy with them.

Push email, gmail app, google maps/earth, RSS feeds, opera mini, for €6 per month!!! Then theres the free prem ship highlights etc. and 5c txts and pic msgs. My only complaint re cost would be not bein able to hav long conversations at the weekends because there is no peak/off peak.

Sam Vimes

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

If you go in to a three store or CPW for example and sign up for billpay then you will not be able to stick that sim ini another non-3 phone - Period.

what happens when you put the sim in a non-3 phone?

Tony_ire

My phone was dropped and had to send for repair, just used an unlocked vodafone 6680. no probs

caster

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

All well and good but have you taken into consideration the changes in terms and conditions?

If you go in to a three store or CPW for example and sign up for billpay then you will not be able to stick that sim ini another non-3 phone - Period.

However if you are an existing Three customer for sometime then the chances are you will have that ability under your original terms and conditions.
.

Can anyone verify this i.e. someone who has joined 3 recently on bill pay?

Solair

I have just had relatively decent response and feedback from '3' Customer Services. I e-mailed them my horror story and it seems to have actually been taken on board. Took them a few days to get back to me, but the phone call from c/s was apologetic and seemed to be very genuinely concerned.

I would suggest that if anyone needs to make a serious complaint to them, or provide important feedback, that you send them an email. I don't honestly think you get very far by talking to the front end call centre staff if you have a serious issue with their service/products.

I think if you have any customer service issues, e-mail their c/s team :
customer(dot)services(dot)ie(at)threemail(dot)com
and cc to customer(dot)services(dot)ie(at)3mail(dot)com

Quote your '3' number (and billing account if you're on billpay) in the email!!

(dot) = .

Inserted to prevent address being harvested by spammers.

Also, the more of us e-mail in the specific issues that are giving us grief, the more likely they'll be resolved.

So, if you are an dissatisified 3 customer, send a detailed email a.s.a.p.

Also, don't post their c/s email address online without taking anti-spam precautions. It's a useful resource for customers!

1huge1

well jimmycrackcorn I joined 3 bill pay way back in 2005 and have only ever been able to put my sim into 3 phones

mkennedy

1huge1 wrote:

well jimmycrackcorn I joined 3 bill pay way back in 2005 and have only ever been able to put my sim into 3 phones

do you mean your sim wouldn't work in a 3G-ENABLED non-three phone. (ie did you try the sim in both gprs AND 3g-enabled non-three handsets).

tbh I thought this was not an issue ie it was generally agreed by posters here in a thread a couple of months ago that there'd be no problems using three sims in 3g-enabled non-three handsets (even though cs say you can't)

jimmycrackcorm

mkennedy wrote:

do you mean your sim wouldn't work in a 3G-ENABLED non-three phone. (ie did you try the sim in both gprs AND 3g-enabled non-three handsets).

tbh I thought this was not an issue ie it was generally agreed by posters here in a thread a couple of months ago that there'd be no problems using three sims in 3g-enabled non-three handsets (even though cs say you can't)

I got a new billpay 6280 3 phone last month but the 3 sim wouldn't work in my N95 ( which is 3G ). I returned the 6280 and cancelled the contract. I then got a 3Pay 610i and that sim works ok in my N95 except for the crippled broadband.

Who knows what the logic is? Perhaps it is dependent on the subsidy level of the phone you get or whether is the past the billpay sims were not as restrictive. Why for example does 1huge1's sim not work either in a non-3 phone but culabulas does?

mkennedy

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

I got a new billpay 6280 3 phone last month but the 3 sim wouldn't work in my N95 ( which is 3G ). I returned the 6280 and cancelled the contract. I then got a 3Pay 610i and that sim works ok in my N95 except for the crippled broadband.

Who knows what the logic is? Perhaps it is dependent on the subsidy level of the phone you get or whether is the past the billpay sims were not as restrictive. Why for example does 1huge1's sim not work either in a non-3 phone but culabulas does?

interesting.
I actually initially thought that there would be problems using three sims in 3g-enabled non-three phones.

I posted a query here about this a couple of months ago after reading about people in the uk having problems but the responses quickly disabused me of any such notion.

a fair few people here were adamant that there should be no reason it wouldn't work saying they had no problems themselves- quintron definitely makes this assertion.

don't really know what to think now.

jahalpin

I have been with 3 Ireland for almost 16 months and I am very happy with them.

I'm currently getting 200 anytime, any network minutes (inc UK landline and mobiles) for only €25 per month, this is far cheaper than any other network. I've ported between all the networks on billpay and I find 3 to be the best.

The only problem I have with them is that they have absolutely no signal in the Jervis Centre.

I have only had to ring them once about a fault with my Motorola V3x and I had a pre-paid envelope delivered to my door within 2 days and the phone was returned repaired with 5 days, the call centre I got through to seemed to be based in Scotland

Sam Vimes

3g signals dont penetrate as far as 2g because theyre a higher frequency so it can be hard to get a signal in a big building.

The other thing you said explains it all. Youre happy with them and youve only had to call them once. Those two things are not independent. Theyre great when everythings working

Sam Vimes

And theyre customer cares not in scotland anymore. Its in india and they dont even know what country you live in

godskitchen

Commander Vimes wrote:

they dont even know what country you live in

Of course they do! We all live in the UK...................

Smiley012

I'm on three and I have had a few issues with them:

1. I like to download games and it has happened numerous times that I have been charged twice, and then the game didn't even work in the end! It's taken them 3 months to refund me 10euro.

2. Their customer care service cannot work out the difference between England and Ireland, which is infuriating when asking a question about prices of calls to England from Ireland. (BTW does anyone know if you can call England on the new prices plans, and are the calls to England included in your minutes? Because on the old price plans half of my minutes are included to call England, which is fantastic for me!)

3. They charged me twice for one bill, however, they did fix it straight away when I brought it to their attention.

4. The unlocking policy is just criminal.


On the plus side, they're so cheap, and I will stick with them if I can work out if calls to England are included in your minutes if you join up with one of the new pay monthly plans!

Mobile broadband is cool too! Love it, well handy.

Handsets aren't too bad, but would prefer a wider selection perhaps!

culabula

And yet many people on this forum constantly refer to 'England' instead of the United Kingdom and/or Great Britain........

culabula

godskitchen wrote:

Of course they do! We all live in the UK...................

We all live in a Yellow Submarine.

culabula

[QUOTE=jahalpin.

The only problem I have with them is that they have absolutely no signal in the Jervis Centre.
[/QUOTE]

Strange, I get (or rather, got) a perfect signal in the Jervis centre on my dataSIM. I will check again in the morning. It has always worked around the Sony Centre there.

Sam Vimes

i got two customer care agents to swear to me that there's no difference between the internet on 3pay and bill pay. i even mentioned a proxy called iethree.widerweb.net and they said it didn't exist.

on this basis i went out and bought €10 credit for a 3pay sim that i have to test it and lowe and behold opera mini doesn't work because the internet is being routed through a proxy called iethree.widerweb.net.

i phoned up again and got a third agent to confirm that the proxy didn't exist and then asked for his manger. he wouldn't let me talk to the manager until i explained so i did then he went and asked someone

i explained that i had wasted ten euro because their customer care had given me the wrong information twice and that i wanted the credit to be taken off my 3pay account and put onto my bill pay account. not so much moving it as removing credit from and and adding credit to the other. possible and easily done.


the guy came back and said he'd have to transfer me to the pre pay department. i said that i thought he was trying to fob me off but agreed to be transferred.

the first thing the pre pay guy did was tell me he'd have to transfer me to the bill pay department and i wouldn't let him. then he went and asked someone and came back saying he had explained the situation to the manager and he was going to transfer me to her.


the "manager" asked me to explain again and then went and asked someone else. it turns out she was in the bill pay dept after me telling the guy not to transfer me back and she tried to transfer me back to the pre pay dept. i wouldn't let her of course

then she said that i hadn't added the bb add-on to my account. she noticed that my credit had dropped by exactly €5.99 when i got a premium text from 3 (it confirmed billing) but said that nonetheless the add-on wasn't active.

apparently she has no idea of the procedure for buying add-ons because they all confirm in a text.

she told me to wait 8 hours and try again when it was active. i explained that i had already used it and it was active so there was no point waiting 8 hours. she wouldn't budge so i thanked her and hung up.

i've cancelled my contract and my last dealings with 3 will be on the 17th of june. thank fcuking god

edit:
also, i went to use the net to see what exactly could be done on it and it turns out that they lost the record of me verifying my age. they say i have to go back into the city centre and show my passport again (this will be the third copy they have of it including my bill pay account). they say faxing it isn't good enough even though i've already done it.

well i've no intention of doing it because i'm finally getting rid of this sh*te network.


anyone want to buy a 3pay sim with about €3 credit and an active mobile bb add-on?

culabula

Commander Vimes wrote:

i explained that i had wasted ten euro because their customer care had given me the wrong information twice and that i wanted the credit to be taken off my 3pay account and put onto my bill pay account. not so much moving it as removing credit from and and adding credit to the other. possible and easily done.


the guy came back and said he'd have to transfer me to the pre pay department. i said that i thought he was trying to fob me off but agreed to be transferred.

the first thing the pre pay guy did was tell me he'd have to transfer me to the bill pay department and i wouldn't let him. then he went and asked someone and came back saying he had explained the situation to the manager and he was going to transfer me to her.


the "manager" asked me to explain again and then went and asked someone else. it turns out she was in the bill pay dept after me telling the guy not to transfer me back and she tried to transfer me back to the pre pay dept. i wouldn't let her of course

then she said that i hadn't added the bb add-on to my account. she noticed that my credit had dropped by exactly €5.99 when i got a premium text from 3 (it confirmed billing) but said that nonetheless the add-on wasn't active.

apparently she has no idea of the procedure for buying add-ons because they all confirm in a text.

she told me to wait 8 hours and try again when it was active. i explained that i had already used it and it was active so there was no point waiting 8 hours. she wouldn't budge so i thanked her and hung up.




anyone want to buy a 3pay sim with about €3 credit and an active mobile bb add-on?

Christ! My brain hurts.....