Mobile phone advice.

[Keith Scarfe]

Hi.

Knowing the broad wealth of knowledge of everyone on here I thought I would ask for some advice on mobile phones. I have done loads of research and have some conclusions but I thought I would see what you guys think.

Currently I have a t-mobile pay as you go and am using around £30 a month. I am thinking it must be time to switch to a monthly pay contract. Or is it? Should I stay with PAYG? Plus my handset is a bit of an antique.

First off, O2 looks the best value but I have read about very poor customer relations if you need to contact them. Any Experience?

T-Mobile looks the next cheapest / best. As I use the phone mostly in the evening I think the best option is their off-peak cross net 500 with the additions of some texts. This would be about £25-30 a month. Dose anyone have an off-peak tariff? Does it really screw you if you start making on-peak calls?

Vodaphone looks more expensive for everything. The rest I was told to avoid (orange, 3, BT).

Then there is the question of buying on line or in a high street store, network provider or independent dealer (Carphone warehouse etc.). There seems to be various offers and I need to consider these. Has anyone had any problems doing everything on line? Is insurance a waste of time (like extended warranties)?

I am not too bothered about sexy hand sets. I will prob go for the Nokia 6230, quite plain looking but lots of functions. Any opinions?

Thanks for any help given. Its really the different networks and tariff's I could do with some advice on. At the moment I have decided to stick with t-mobile. After any introductory offer has finished will a monthly pay still be more cost effective than my current PAYG?

Cheers.

Keith.

[adhawkins]

I'm with Orange, not sure why you've been told to avoid them. Never had any real problems, and you can get some fantastic handsets 'free' from them atm (some of the SmartPhones for example)

The only way to know if it'll be more cost effective is to work out how much you use your phone each month and do the sums I'm afraid...

Andy

[Rob Navin]

I moved from O2 to  t-mobile a while ago now.

The three resons for this were.

Better coverage for my area on T-mobile

A better handset than O2 were offering.

But the biggest thing that made me move was the very bad customer service that O2 offer.  I have had a very good experience with T-mobile though.

Rob

[studbuckle]

My experience Based on actual useage not hearsay:

O2, service OK, Price OK, Customer realtions abismal

Orange, Service apalling, Price good, CR ok

Vodafone, Service 1st class, price not cheap, CR good

Hate to say it but you do get what you pay for. No offence to Andy but free good handsets are no use if the calls are dropped between cells as they haven't got capacity and signal that's almost line of site only are no use to me. 02 i still use but cringe every time I have to contact them as it's a headache.

Vodafone we used to sue before we swapped to Orange (for financial reasons) and we're now trying to get out of the contract to go back to Vodafone

[adhawkins]

Well, I'm only a relatively light phone user, so probably don't run into as many problems as a heavy user (like Si) would. And Si, if I took offence every time you disagreed with me, I wouldn't have spoken to you for about 10 years...

Andy

[studbuckle]

And Si, if I took offence every time you disagreed with me, I wouldn't have spoken to you for about 10 years...

ROFL

[Blatman]

I agree with Si

Vodfafone are pricey but excellent.

Blatgirl has recently added 02 to her service providers for work, and signal coverage is not as good as Vodafone, which is quite a statement to make considering we're in London. Suffice to say thaty she swears at her phone more than she used to when she used Vodafone.

Vodafones joint venture networks abroad are also excellent, for France, Spain, Holland, the Canaries, Singapore and America at least...

My brother is on T-Mobile, and apart from not being able to get some handsets, he's had no problems either at home or abroad.

[Frau Vesty]

My experience Based on actual useage not hearsay:

O2, service OK, Price OK, Customer realtions abismal

Orange, Service apalling, Price good, CR ok

Vodafone, Service 1st class, price not cheap, CR good

I think they're all as good/bad as each other depending on your own personal experience.  My experience with vodafone "customer care" was laughable.  For some unknown reason, my direct debit setup didn't process properly.  Still don't know why, the details I gave them were correct and managed to process ok second time round.  

Anyhow, instead of contact me about the problem they encountered with setting up the DD, they decided to switch me onto cash payment, only they omitted to tell me this vital piece of information.  Unfortunately, my crystal ball was away for a service so they cut me off for not paying my bill, you know, the one I had set up to pay by DD...

After a long rant to their "customer care" department, they agreed it was their mistake and I got a written apology, only they managed to get my first name wrong on the letter        

[neilwillis]

The only advice I would offer is yes, get a contract, but do it through an independent outlet such as The Link.   I signed a new contract a couple of months ago, with an XDA2 - it cost £140.00 for the phone as opposed to £300 I was quoted at O2.

I would also swap providers every 12 months because you will always get a more attractive package by doing so.

As for the service - in the Midlands the cover is pretty well blanket with all of the providers I have used, and they have been O2, Orange, and T-Mobile - It was Mercury when I signed up with them.   I've had problems with the customer service provided by O2, and Orange, but I suspect none of them are any better.

With a contract, you will get a phone thrown in every 12 months too, and if you don't want anything fancy, it'll not cost a penny apart from the monthly fees, and as long as you know what usage you need, you can usually get enough free calls a month so you should only ever pay the basic contract costs too.

It's cheaper to do it that way simply because they throw in a free phone.

[JonnyBoy]

look at 3.. they are doing some amazing deals.. people say their coverag eis bad, but thats only for the video stuff i think.

orange are doing a 30quid contract now. 200 x net anytime mins, plus 1000 off peak minutes + 1000 texts. 1/2 price for first 6 months i think too. + bluetooth headset

good phone too free with it

[Flat Eric]

I have just renewed my contract with vodafone for 12 months.

Because I did not want an upgrade (ie still using old phone) they are giving me  9 months line rental at half price (£30 / 2 x 9months = saving £135)

Don't know if they would offer that to a 'new' customer?

[Mike]

im with orange, been with them for 4 years. always good coverage were i am, customer service is good and can get some good deals on fones. i found with orange best deals to have were off there website. Insurance for £5 a month is pretty much a must, next day delivery to were ever you are in the uk.

girlfriend used to be with o2. Took her 3 weeks to try and cancel her contract because everytime she foned , she stayed on the line for about 30 mins and no one answered.

friend is with 3, coverage is appaling as they dont have many masts. he can never get signal in our area. but he got told not to worry because there will be a mast goin up in our area by 2006  

mike

[neilwillis]

Why bother contacting them yourself?   Just go to a phone shop and get them to do the dirty work for you.   I wouldn't bother with an Orange, or O2 shop either, the queues there are awful this time of year!

[Darrell O'Neill]

Always found best deal to be through Vodafone direct on their website.

By going direct you get to deal with their customer services instead of the shop that you buy it from.

Vodafone has always been good to me.....

[scruffythefirst]

Orange for me, No problems since i started using a mobile phone.  When contract negotiation time comes every year orange always manage to give me a better phone and a better contract than the other networks.  Just ask for a better deal come negotiation time