Moving to Meteor - a little advice please?

Bri

Got to ask - I'm on Vodafone Wireless office at present but it's not working out and I'm still paying a fortune. I'm well out of contract as I've always been with them. My 6310i is acting up so it's about time I thought about a new phone/operator!

Seeing as 3 don't seem to directly compete (apart from their low monthly rates) I've had a look over at Meteor. Looking at Meteor Talk 200.

Now Meteor seem terrible for roaming. What else is bad about them? I'm based in Dublin/Kildare so surely I can not worry about coverage. Or is dodgy even here?!
I'll presumably lose the e-mail SMS alert feature even though they have a mail account. Also, I see it's no changing down tariffs until after 6 months. The girl on the phone was so clueless last night it was beyond a joke; didn't bode well considering I thought Vodafone was as bad as Customer Service could get.

Basically can you forworn me of anything in particular? I'm going into a Meteor store tomorrow but there's a part of me thinking of just getting a readytogo on Vodafone to avoid starting a new contract with either operator and hopefully I'll only be paying close to 30-50eu more than it would cost me to get the phone repaired.

If that's a bit rambly then you've just seen how confused I am.

Thanks in advance.

eskimo

Meteor now use O2's coverage, so the coverage is pretty fantastic.

Also, you can now roam no problem going to the UK or Spain. The only problem is if you're going anywhere else you have to give them your credit card details and pre-pay them €60 (i.e. €60 credit that you will then spend on calls while you're abroad).

Their texts are the cheapest going - 9c to any network. Yes you can buy bundles of 100 texts with other networks for €7.50 equalling 7.5c per text, but if you do this you're basically signing a contract to send 100 texts in a given period of time. Meteor charge just 9c no matter how many you send.

Also their price plans are cheaper than any other network.

You can check your email with Meteor WAP too. I find it really really handy! Go to www.mymail.ie to register your Hotmail account (I'm not sure what other email providers you can use with it).

And again, the coverage is what I would call perfect.

Go with Meteor! My friends Vodafone and 02 phones cost them an absolute fortune compared to mine and I probably use my phone more! Only a fool would go with Vodafone or 02 in my completely honest opinion. Unless you need to roam a lot.

Sam Vimes

eskimo wrote:

Their texts are the cheapest going - 9c to any network. Yes you can buy bundles of 100 texts with other networks for €7.50 equalling 7.5c per text, but if you do this you're basically signing a contract to send 100 texts in a given period of time. Meteor charge just 9c no matter how many you send.

meteor have the same deal as o2 except you buy 150 texts to any network for 7.50 equalling 5c a text. course thats only for pay as you go. free meteor to meteor texts on bill and others are 9c

setanta5

I live on the Kildare border and work in Dublin. Spend a lot of time travellin in Kildare, wicklow and Dublin. Have O2 phone for work and Meteor phone for myself. The coverage is almost identicle. Can sometimes pick up Meteor signal where i can't get O2 but i think thats more to do with the phones. (Nokia V's SE)

They are the cheapest network by a long way, although probably not offering the wide range of "truely wonderful" WAP access of the other networks!

Had a minor roaming issue about 8 months ago while in the UK but called their Customer care, (who called me back on landline to save cost to me by the way) and found them far more helpful than Vodafone used to be. As it happens the roaming issue was that i could make calls but couldn't send text while roaming on Vodafone abroad. They told me to select O2 or Orange and the problem was solved. All the roaming issues have been fixed since then and i can roam on any network in UK with no problems.

Pythia

Commander Vimes wrote:

meteor have the same deal as o2 except you buy 150 texts to any network for 7.50 equalling 5c a text. course thats only for pay as you go. free meteor to meteor texts on bill and others are 9c

Not true anymore - you get 30 inclusive texts on talk 60, 60 on talk 200, 90 on talk 400, 120 on talk 600, 150 on talk 800, and 180 on talk 1,000.
See http://www.meteor.ie/makethemove/talk.html

Nonoperational

I moved fom vodafone ready to go to meteor billpay about 2 months ago...

Coverage on vodafone is definately better. Meteors is OK but there are still borderline areas where they dont have O2 coverage and their own is poor.

Customer care was very bad both times I rang. Once he couldnt tell me what date I'd get my bill and my account debited, and the other I wasn't let set up roaming over the phone with a laser card. Had no phone for 2 weeks after years of roaming with no problem on ready to go.

The only redeeming thing is the packages are quite good even though talk and text 75 is gone now which I thought was definately the best.

JTMan

eskimo wrote:

Also, you can now roam no problem going to the UK or Spain. The only problem is if you're going anywhere else you have to give them your credit card details and pre-pay them €60 (i.e. €60 credit that you will then spend on calls while you're abroad).

If he is going to change to Meteor Talk then roaming set up is free after been with Meteor for 3 months.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Bri

Pythia wrote:

Not true anymore - you get 30 inclusive texts on talk 60, 60 on talk 200, 90 on talk 400, 120 on talk 600, 150 on talk 800, and 180 on talk 1,000.
See http://www.meteor.ie/makethemove/talk.html

Thanks I'd spotted that. In some ways that suits me fairly well as I know sweet FA people on Meteor compared to O2/VF. Meteor tariffs are by far the best out there that's why I was a little cautious.

Thanks for all the feedback...

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Well from what I've heard (generally) and searched on the web etc. there's been way more complaints about roaming with them over Vodafone. I don't necessarily mean they're more expensive I mean the scope to roam is more restricted (or at least seemed to be) and there were problems even in the UK etc. Tbh I don't really mind if roaming is a little more hassle if most months I'm saving cash directly.

A couple of remaining questions please:
Change to a higher tariff "by giving us at least 30 days advance written notice." What the hell? Can you not just ring up? I understand you can't move down your tariff for 6 months after a new contract.

I can't see any mention of compulsary direct debit - what's the story there? (They're phoneline is automated until the morning at this time of night)

Cheers.

djmarkus

If only you got a free meteor to meteor txt's simcard, that offer rocked.
Tho euphony and meteor have an arrangement going where your eurphony rep will be able to give you a free meteor billphone(Nokia 3220) and free meteor to meteor txt's until the new year. the rental is 20 euro p/m and with that you get 60 minutes talktime to any irish number, after that its 20c p/m anytime.

Patricide

Metor is the work of the devil i say the devil!!!!!, I live down in munster and the reception is pure cack, I had a meteor and i could allways get reception its just that during the middle of a conversation i might get cut off suddenly or i would barely be able to hear someone which is not what you want from a phone.Also the phone that you get on meteor arent exactly the best.
made a switch to vodafone around a year ago after trying meteor for the first time and i must say im never ever going back. Even with meteor using o2 now the coverage is still terrible down here in the south but for anyone living around a city id say itd be good, that is as long as you dont mind not having the best phones.

Sam Vimes

Pythia wrote:

Not true anymore - you get 30 inclusive texts on talk 60, 60 on talk 200, 90 on talk 400, 120 on talk 600, 150 on talk 800, and 180 on talk 1,000.
See http://www.meteor.ie/makethemove/talk.html

god damn eircon

Bri

djmarkus wrote:

If only you got a free meteor to meteor txt's simcard, that offer rocked.
Tho euphony and meteor have an arrangement going where your eurphony rep will be able to give you a free meteor billphone(Nokia 3220) and free meteor to meteor txt's until the new year. the rental is 20 euro p/m and with that you get 60 minutes talktime to any irish number, after that its 20c p/m anytime.

Thanks for the pointer but I don't see any difference in the Euphony offer than that in CPW/Meteor shops etc. http://www.euphony.ie/ire_mob_rates.htm.
AFAIK the free txt thing is completely gone. I know Euphony say you get a free handset but sure the same applies for certain new contracts with Meteor themselves. Maybe I'm missing something?

As regards Meteor not having good phones - they have the 6230i which Vodafone won't have till September. Seems good enough to me.

Pythia

Yeah you can get free bill pay phones on Meteor with CPW and I'm sure Meteor too. Also that euphony page you linked to is wrong. It says Talk 400 is 80e when it's actually 60e.
You have to pay by either direct debit or by direct debit to your credit card.
Roaming with Meteor bill pay is very good, you just have to make sure you pay the deposit if you want to do it within the first 3 months of taking out the contract.
As regards changing to a higher tariff, maybe officially you have to write in but I've never heard of that actually happening. Normally networks are happy to move you onto a higher tariff!

Shrimp

Bri..

I'll try search for an old post of mine.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2570815&postcount=10

Bri

Thanks Pythia.

Shrimp: Any chance you could tell me more seeing as your based in Dublin too? Why?

BuffyBot

I'm based in Dublin/Kildare so surely I can not worry about coverage. Or is dodgy even here?!

I'm based in Kildare, work in Dublin and have been to different parts of the country with my Meteor phone. Rarely have a problem, and very rarely are the problems I do have occuring when I'm in Dublin or Kildare.

paulm17781

My GF is from rural Kildare. Meteor is the only decent signal you can get from her house.

Bri

All good thanks. I guess I'll go with the majority over Shrimp's unsubstantiated comment.

Bri

Bri wrote:

Well from what I've heard (generally) and searched on the web etc. there's been way more complaints about roaming with them over Vodafone. I don't necessarily mean they're more expensive I mean the scope to roam is more restricted (or at least seemed to be) and there were problems even in the UK etc. Tbh I don't really mind if roaming is a little more hassle if most months I'm saving cash directly.

It's a contract phone you wanted isn't it?
Thats what you had with Vodafone.
You can roam all over the world with meteor on a contract phone no problems.

eskimo wrote:

Meteor now use O2's coverage, so the coverage is pretty fantastic.

Thats not the case.
Their roaming agreement with O2 is only active in parts of the west and some other pockets.It's far from being everywhere that there is no meteor mast despite what their customer service bots may say .
Theres a whole section of co wexford with no meteor coverage at all for example even though O2 cover it.The same is through in much of co wicklow.
Your meteor phone in these areas will have no service.
If you manually ask your phone to log onto O2 in those areas, it says disallowed

Also, you can now roam no problem going to the UK or Spain. The only problem is if you're going anywhere else you have to give them your credit card details and pre-pay them €60 (i.e. €60 credit that you will then spend on calls while you're abroad).

Again, You are talking about prepay.
Bri was asking about a contract phone.
I've had a contract meteor phone and it roams on all networks for me across Europe and the U.S.
If you have the contract less than 3 months though, they will still ask you to credit €60 to your account to switch on international roaming.
This will be credited back into your bill after 3 months.