Skype on 3 billpay NOT FREE

Dave Roe

I know this issue has been highlighted on boards a couple of times, but my recent experiences made me realise that there are still people being fooled by 3's advertising and sales people.

Here's my experience.

I wanted to get a new bill-pay phone. I'd heard a lot of advertising on the radio about skype on 3 and thought that sounded great. I went intot he 3 store on Grafton St. and asked about their skype phones. The sales guy told me that while their skype phones were all ready-to-go (3pay) there were other phones available under bill pay which could also use skype. The ONLY difference was that the skype-branded 3pay phones were easier to use with skypoe in that they hada special 'skype' button and had the skype app already downloaded. On any other phoen I'd have todownload it myself, sigh up to skype and to access it I'd have to go to a couple of menus. "But otherwise, I can use skype on these phones?" "Yes, but obviously you'll pay for the data, depending on what price plan you go with, different packages have different amounts for free per month, and then you pay if you go over that."

This wasn't true.

I didnt buy there and then - I needed a bill and bank details etc. I bought a Nokia on Mary St. at the 3G store the next day. I went through the same questions with the guy there, was happy and went through the sign-up rigmarole. During that he offered me various add-ons, non of which I wanted. IO signed up on the 29euro.month service. I then asked about their unlimited data service which I'd hreard about. He said there were two options there, 15 euros extra per month, or 20 euros extra and came woth over services too. I decided I could always get one of those if I found I used a lot of data.

Downloaded skype client. Tried to use it. When you dial out with Skype, a voice says that you need to talk to customer support to activate it. Rang the 3 shop on Grafton St.
"Ah, yes, you need to sign up to Xseries to use skype. A lot of people have complained about that."

Now, at that stage, I was furious, since this was the one reason I'd gone to 3 and got that specific phone.

Since then, I've sent of a letter of complaint to 3 regarding their misselling of the phone and had a look at other options for what I want. However, gritting my teeth I have realised that my best option may well be to drop myself down to the cheaper price plan and go with Xseries silver.

BUT now, I resarch on boards a little I see a whole slew of problems posted by people with XSeries not being able to skype out or use fring or access web sites. Still deciding what to do, but I feel I've fallen into mobile phone hell.

I can't help but feel that all our current mobile providers need to be swept away by a company that actually has some tech savvy and treats their customers as customers rather than morons.

Sam Vimes

i think there's a bit of confusion here. well i'm confused anyway. you seem to have signed up to the standard unlimited package for €20 a month. what you want is the x-series packages which is also €20 a month. BUT, you don't pay both. you get rid of the original one and activate the x-series one, which is essentially the original one with skype etc. is that the problem?

eth0_

Don't forget Three have a 14 day money back guarantee.

I was under the impression Skype was free only on the phones it was pre-installed on?

And you can't Skypeout at the moment, that is coming in the next few months, apparently Three are looking for a new Skype partner.

colsku

The employees who work in mobile phone shops are generally very stupid.

I went into a Three shop interested in the skype aspects. I also had a question for them re text messages to Finland.

i was almost 100% sure that you can't text Finland on the 3 network, but thought I'd ask anyway... Yer man gets on the phone to his boss and asks about texts to ICELAND! Twice!

He then tells me it is possible... Even though i now know for sure it is not.

Meteor are the very same. These people get absolutely zero training

Bluefrog

eth0_ wrote:

And you can't Skypeout at the moment, that is coming in the next few months, apparently Three are looking for a new Skype partner.

Where did you come by that nugget? I'll believe it when I see it. As far as I know ISkoot are the only ones doing what they are doing in this area so finding an alternative won't be easy.

Right now unless you have the dedicated 3 Skype phone you can not have text chats on Skype - do the employees at the various phone stores tell you that?

Sam Vimes

colsku wrote: »

The employees who work in mobile phone shops are generally very stupid.

I went into a Three shop interested in the skype aspects. I also had a question for them re text messages to Finland.

i was almost 100% sure that you can't text Finland on the 3 network, but thought I'd ask anyway... Yer man gets on the phone to his boss and asks about texts to ICELAND! Twice!

He then tells me it is possible... Even though i now know for sure it is not.

http://three.ie/international/band_2_1.htm

what makes you think that?

pajodublin

AFAIK you can call Finland but not text with Three
Ive been with Three since Day One (1st 3 ireland customer ahem!!!)
and i've never had a problem with them
(apart from them telling me on day 1 i can have any phone i want in their range for free everytime i upgrade each year because of being 1st customer, they backed out of that deal after getting phones free for 2 years...blasterds)

dpower

Count me as one of the duped...

My wonderful GF bought me a pay-as-you-go 3 mobile phone- she'd heard me talking about Skype and thought it would make a lovely Christmas present. She took her time and asked the assistant for a Skype phone- he pointed out the 3 own-brand skype phones but told her what she really wanted was one of the other phones that are capable of using the Skype client. Mistake number 1.

She chose a lovely Sony-Ericsson model. They gave her a Sony Ericsson phone- but as it turns out it was the wrong one- it was the K610i, which is not capable of running the Skype app. No bother, gave them a ring and they said they would exchange it, which they did. At this stage I knew the Skype client on the Sony phone wasn't capable of sending chat messages, but it was a nicer phone- and what the heck- I asked the guy behind the counter if I could switch to a pay monthly service. I specifically asked him if I could still use Skype at no extra cost. He said yes.

So I get home and download the skype client- try to call someone and I get a recorded message to call customer care as this service was not activated. I ring them and she says 'no problem sir- that will be an extra 14.99'. Needless to say I declined.

The advertising is extremely misleading.

From their website:
Make free unlimited Skype calls to anywhere in the world*

Yes, I see the asterisk, but look at the Skype terms and conditions...



* Free calls and chatting between Skype members.
* Cash top-up required every 30 days.
* Service limitations and fair usage policy apply. Fair use policy is 4000 Skype to Skype calls and 10,000 Skype message per 30 day period.
* Available on selected mobiles.


So for pay as you go customers, as long as you top up now and again you get skype free. But we'll screw our monthly customers? Not good. Not happy.

The add-ons section does mention data, but not Skype. Time to go to the advertising commission...
I'll be writing a letter too.

"

testicle

Commander Vimes wrote: »

http://three.ie/international/band_2_1.htm

what makes you think that?

http://three.ie/international/sms-interwork.htm

Sam Vimes

testicle wrote: »

http://three.ie/international/sms-interwork.htm

they have a text price for a country you can't text. typical 3 :rolleyes:

and of course its much more important to get and agreement with Anguilla (where?) than finland

Dave Roe

Commander Vimes wrote: »

i think there's a bit of confusion here. well i'm confused anyway. you seem to have signed up to the standard unlimited package for €20 a month. what you want is the x-series packages which is also €20 a month. BUT, you don't pay both. you get rid of the original one and activate the x-series one, which is essentially the original one with skype etc. is that the problem?

Thats certainly not what they told me - I was told I had to have the X-series silver package IN ADDITION TO my monthly bill. They were pretty clear about that. If you are correct, then while it's not what I understood when I bought the phone, its still a lot better. What makes you think that? I spoke to th emanager at the shop after I discovered the problem and twice to 3 CS - they all said X-Series "In addition to" my monthly bill.

Also, you say X-series is 20 euros a month - I understood silver was 15/month and gold 20/month - is that correct?

Dave

neilled

Dave Roe wrote: »

Thats certainly not what they told me - I was told I had to have the X-series silver package IN ADDITION TO my monthly bill. They were pretty clear about that. If you are correct, then while it's not what I understood when I bought the phone, its still a lot better. What makes you think that? I spoke to th emanager at the shop after I discovered the problem and twice to 3 CS - they all said X-Series "In addition to" my monthly bill.

Also, you say X-series is 20 euros a month - I understood silver was 15/month and gold 20/month - is that correct?

Dave

What commander vimes means is that he suspects that you have a mobile broadband add on and is saying that you don't have to have mobile broadband package X, just get xseries silver instead. This will give you the skype functionality that you desire plus a few gigs of data per month which you can use for other applications.

culabula

Commander Vimes wrote: »

they have a text price for a country you can't text. typical 3 :rolleyes:

and of course its much more important to get and agreement with Anguilla (where?) than finland

Small Caribbean island just next door to St Martin (NL/F) and north of Antigua. Still a British Crown territory. Been four times. No income tax and lots of beaches. Means 'eel' in Spanish/Latin and so named because of its shape).

(© Pointless Information PLC 2008)

allen175

testicle wrote: »

http://three.ie/international/sms-interwork.htm

according to that we can't text Vodafone UK..... and that spain have at least 10 vodafone networks:rolleyes:

BostonB

I was looking at a 3 phone for Skype but reading this thread it doesn't do what I needed. Which was to Skype out to UK and Irish landlands/mobiles. Does it not do that?

It only does Skype to Skype only and to do that you need the Pay As You Go phone, monthly topup, and an xseries addon. Is that correct.

So whats your minimum spend per month to get Skype to Skype?

foggy_lad

on pay as you go you just top-up by at least €10 every 30 days and skype is free! on bill pay you need to buy an expensive x-series package to use skype

BostonB

Personally I think that advertising it as free when you have to top up to get it is false advertising.

dpower

Well I sent an email to three yesterday and got a phonecall from their call centre today. Basically I have to go back to the pay as you go or pay the extra add-on charge if I wish to use Skype on the pay monthly price plan.

All a bit of a mess really. Don't understand why they screw their pay monthly customers.