Posted on March 8, 2007 - by John
Three Mobile Ireland: If you move to Three what will you miss
This is not really me having a go at three mobile. But here is a list of things about the mobile network that I really dislike and things you will miss if you move to that network, I’m doing this also because of the launch of their new advertising campaign.
1. The Internet – it’s like being at work - Three Mobile decides what sites you can and cannot use.
2. Topping Up- Only way to do it is in your local shop/supermarket – and usually they have never heard of Three Mobile so they have to get the manager.
3. On Screen top-up balance – can’t do it – you have to call the automated line.
4. TV - notice that in their recent campaign - which I understand is an expensive one – they mention TV there is NO TV service, apart from clips from three shows Little Britain, Father Ted and the Office.
5. Music & Games – They want 2 euro per tune (99 cent on itunes) and 7 euro upwards for games!
Having said all this there are advantages such as cheap roaming costs, 5c text messages, cool phones, their coverage is pretty good mostly due to their Vodafone agreement. But I have noticed my phone loses coverage sometimes for up to five minutes while it tries to switch from one network to the other.
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December 3, 2007
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Declan C said:
I have a N73 and Data card from 3 and am based in Co. Mayo. Lots of problems when the new tarriff was rolled out with slow speed. After 6 months of improvement now we have lost all coverage for 3G and 2.5G is also down 90% of the time. After 2 weeks of calls to indian call centre and no promised call backs I am very fustrated mostly by the fact that they first said it was fixed and it wasnt and now saying they have no timescale for when the basestation cells in the Mayo area will be fixed. It is now Dec 2nd, do I wait for Xmas or give up and find another ntwork provider? 3 strikes and they should be out..
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December 3, 2007
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Denise said:
Hi,
am thinking of changing from Vodafone to Three…mainly cos I don’t like any of the phones that vodafone has…the one phone that I really like can only be purchased on Three…I have no interest in broadband so my only concern is if the coverage for making calls is good?? has anyone ever travelled to Malaysia/Indonesia with the Three network and if so how was the coverage???
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December 3, 2007
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John said:
Denise – Your best bet is to check out their coverage map to see what the National Coverage is like, also ask around to see what its like in your area, 3 tends to ok, but customer service is awful.
With regards to roaming, what usually happens is the network has roaming agreements to use other networks in the country you are visiting, call them to see if they have such an agreement in Malaysia. I visited Malaysia this year on O2 Ireland – coverage was fine in KL but varied elsewhere, i found buying a cheap SIM card and topping up over there the best option.
Best of luck and enjoy your trip.
P.S http://forum.irishmobilephone.com is the best place to ask these questions ^_^
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December 20, 2007
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Padraic said:
the really annoying thing about Three is their customer service. i have an issue where sometimes I cannot send text messages to certain numbers. It seems random , i.e i could send a text to one friend but not another. next day the problem might affect the first person but not the second. every time I rang up I was given the same spiel and the problem has never been resolved. once my contract is up i’m defo moving to meteor.
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September 5, 2008
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oldrocker said:
Hi guys I am having trouble with a hand set that I bought off 3 , go to the following link http://www.consumerconnect.ie and look up your rights under law, you can also make a complaint to them and you can also go to the small claims court it only casts €15
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January 5, 2009
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Elaine said:
Just thought I’d throw in my 2 cents and say that, by law, your Internet Service Provider is required to give you internet speeds of at least 60% of the advertised speed. Anything under that is violating your consumer rights. I’d head straight back to the shop and ask for my money back.
On a side-note, NOBODY get clearwire broadband, it’s dreadful.
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January 20, 2009
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david said:
hi every body i must say i originaly started out with 3 mobile 2 years ago as a prepay subscriber with which i had no issue with, i swaped over 6 months ago to bill pay with 3 as it.s cheaper on bill than it is on prepay for calls.
2 months ago i started to have problems with calls been droped loss of signal interference during conversation and having to move around to ensure i didnt loose my call droped calls are a every day occurance on both outbound calls and recieved calls somtimes i have had to recall the same person 3 times to finish the same call.i hate calling their call center as their lack of knowledge of the english accent is inadaquate.
i was told a month ago that one of their transmitters in my area was down and it was been repaired but no specified time given to me a month later the transmitter is fixed but my service issue and network issue still continues. i have canceled my direct debit with my bank because while i was speaking to a rep of 3 mobile resently the rep placed me on mute 5 times in the space of 7 minutes which totaly p***d me off so i sat down and wrote a very long email to them informing them the steps i have taken andwhat i want before resumeing any agreement with 3.
3 mobile may say you are on contract with them but unless you sighned a paper contract then you are not bound to stay with them at all.if the wave a contract or agreement at you just remind them that they are allso tied to an agreement with you which is to provide you with a mobile service that you deserve or better than none. if thy fail to do this then legaly they are in breech of their service agreement with you which leaves any other agreement that you have with them null in void.
i have emailed them 4 times outlineing my terms before i will reenter any future agreement with them. i have allso told them that i will no longer wish to discuss the matter with agents over the phone that all contact is to be undertaken in writeing.
they have a month to sort there mess out with me if not then i will take the matter trough the court and i will ensure that the public media are informed. if i pay for a service then i want what i pay for which is a first class service i didnt opt for a billing account to pay for 3rd class service and to have people who do not understand a word i say to tell me that they can not do anything for me. 3 always seem to pass the buck around when it comes to sorting out a network issue. the staff in the 3 stores leave a lot to show as unless you are wearing a suit when entering their stores your treated like royalty if you enter their store with your work clothes on your are treated like an out cast or a vagrent which realy dose quite leave you feeling quite insulted.
so my gloves are on and it’s up to 3 if i dont get a satisfied result then i will drag 3 the full 10 rounds.
any way ive ranted on so im going to leave now. by the way dose anyone know where or how a person can obtain a network unlock code for a SEk610i which is locked to 3 i do not want to pay 3 for a code that they get for free in the first place.
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January 21, 2009
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Chris said:
David,
wow, 3 are still as bad as ever. lol.
I would say, get the telecoms reg. involved. The only way for 3 to get their finger out.
I had major problems some months back and even email Rachel Channing (Head of PR and Comms) and Robert Finnegan (to be the best of my knowledge the MD of 3 Eire) and accused their 3 sales staff and marketing material of misleading customers. Guess what, no response from either of them, even though I know that their email address works as I had previously received a reply from them. So, I guess, if their top management team is not willing (competent?) in order to respond to customers, I guess, what can you expect then from their staff?
Hope all goes well,
Chris
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January 22, 2009
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Chris said:
Oh, just one more thing….
I have worked in India with various supports and their employees are hard workinkg individuals!
I honestly think ppl are doing them wrong.
Its not their fault that they have to follow scripts and do not have the autonomy to provide excellect customer service.
Its a shame that top management at 3 still has not realized that Tayloristic Support Centres do not work and cause damage to their own organization in the long run.
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March 6, 2009
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Michael said:
I have had an awful time with three mobile. I had an issue with my calls constantly dropping all the time when people were ringing me. The only way that I could remedy this was to ring the other person back. Of course then my mobile bills were nearly triple from what they normally were. I contacted them and they said it was a handset issue. So after the ordeal of 2 different handsets along with the original one I felt it was time for more action. Got not joy by contacting them through mail or phone. So I finally bit the bullet and contacted the communication regulator. They were fairly quick to get on then. Anyways, they were hell bent on not accepting any blame and they said it was the area I lived in. I live in the middle of a large town in the midlands.Also I was refusing to pay my bills as it was their problem that had lead to this issue. So, I finally had to pay some of the overdue money in order to cancel my contract and get my number from them to port it over to another network.Oh ye also, the bills that they send out were always late and sometimes never arrives. When I rang up about this they had the cheek to try and charge me for an additional bill. Also they were ringing me to see why I didn’t pay the bill eventhough I didn’t receive it in the first place. What a shower of idiots? Absolute rubbish! Forget about the phone business, just keep spending money on sport sponsorship
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March 9, 2009
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Fergal said:
the latest from three is now they are taking away the 5cent messages they gave “FOREVER” to customers that joined three on prepay before april 2007.
they are introducing a new prepay plan that is mandatory for all customers even those on their “for life” messaging plan! this has yet to be challenged in the courts but is most definetly illegal going by their own terms and conditions.
just another sign that the recession is hitting them very hard indeed!
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March 19, 2009
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Dankoozy said:
I changed to meteor as soon as they said they were bringing in the mandatory price increase. They have been trying everything they can to get people on their new, more expensive tariff.
i feel sorry for the muppets who actually bought a phone through them. Some of these phones are fairly heavily branded and hard/expensive to unlock
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October 2, 2009
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Rachel Channing said:
Hi John
Could you drop me an email (as above) or give me a call on 08300 28518. I’ve just stumbled across your thread about not getting a reply from me – which I am surprised by as I take great pride in following up with anyone who contacts me. I just wanted to touch base to see if there was anything more i could do at this stage.
Bests
Rachel
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October 3, 2009
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Fergal said:
well after several weeks and a formal complaint to three about how they were defrauding customers by removing them from the 5cent messaging for life tarrif i made a complaint to the national consumer agency and their commercial practices division that deals with unfair contracts and terms and conditions etc deemed it unfair and illegal to remove customers from an affer that was advertised as being for life!
of course then after the regulatry bnodies got involved three backtracked on what they had done!
it seems three will steal from customers and only return your credit/offers when forced to do so by the regulatory bodies!
they also stole the same offer from two relatives who are both minors so they illegally changed their price plans without informing them!
forget the call centre it is nothing more than a whine line for us poor customers to rant over things which three have no intention of fixing.
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October 4, 2009
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peter ross said:
Well its been a long time since I commented about 3irelands service. I am now expert in 3 modem settings after spending 100s hours carrying out procedures and talking on phone since signing up to 3. to date I have got 3 months free rental from them but the problem is that its like giving you a bike with no pedals lol. It only works 25% of the time.
When I asked to end the contract they told me I would incurr a penalty to which I replied “surely the goods are not fit for purpose purchased” and covered under sale of goods act, they replied ” we will forego the penalty charge” please bear with us as we are upgrading our service.This was 2 months ago and things have worsened since then. What a rip off farce as they say congestion is the problem with so many signing up to 3ireland they have to build more masts.
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October 4, 2009
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peter ross said:
I had great difficulty in sending last message about 3ireland took me best part half an hour to post this comment due to internet connection being so bad they told me Its not good to expect service at “PEAK TIMES” who can ?
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October 5, 2009
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Joe Molloy said:
3 Ireland have been using the congestion due to the huge volume of new signups excuse since September 2007. Two years later isn’t it really time they got their act together if the will was there to do so?
One might have thought when Minister Ryan gave them the national broadband contact that they would make some effort to improve but judging by the recent comments here it is just the same old story.
When I was having issues with their service back in 2007 I contacted Ms Channing and got an initial response but no more. It is a little rich to see her make an appearance here and claim she follows up.
Anyway, happily my services from 3 are behaving at the moment but I do feel for people going through the extremely frustrating process of getting satisfaction from them.