[access-uk] Re: UK Mobile Phone Service Providers in 2014: Experiences, suggestions

  • From: "Steve Nutt" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:18:51 +0100

Hi Mo,

Giffgaff is a great option, but be aware that you can't top up without
Internet, unless you buy Giffgaff vouchers.  I found this out the hard way
when I gave a Giffgaff sim to a customer who is not Internet savvy.  She
didn't like it because she couldn't top up with a credit card, you have to
go buy a Giffgaff voucher.  This is silly, considering you can with O2.

The top up number is 43430, but again, you have to buy a voucher before you
can top up.

Otherwise, I love Giffgaff.

All the best

Steve

--
Computer Room Services
77 Exeter Close
Stevenage
Hertfordshire
SG1 4PW
Tel: +44(0)1438-742286
Mob: +44(0)7956-334938
Fax: +44(0)1438-759589
Email: steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.comproom.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mobeen Iqbal
Sent: 25 September 2014 11:01
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: UK Mobile Phone Service Providers in 2014:
Experiences, suggestions

Hello Matt.

The below is just my experience, it'll be interesting to see what others 
come back with. recently, i moved house and the signal in the 
lincolnshire countryside wasn't great at all. i'd been with o2 since the 
90's, and always found them to be fantastic in terms of customer service 
and accessibility, it helps that they have a dedicated accessibility 
team to improve things like the website etc. i've never had any problems 
when administering my account online, and its very easy to administer 
multiple accounts if you have family members with other contracts but 
you're paying the bills. Tesco's website account manager is also ok, my 
brother's contract is with them and i can highly rate their customer 
service response times as well as the level of helpfullness. not to 
mention the fact that you can claim plenty of club card points in 
various ways. Giffgaff could also be an option for you. i've used them 
in the past, and generally found them to be ok but all the support you 
receive is web based. you can't speak to someone and they use the o2 
network, so they weren't an option for me. I proceeded to obtain sim 
cards from all the major networks to find out which had the best 
coverage across the county, as well as looking on the network coverage 
checkers for each provider. I also called customer services for each 
provider and put them through their paces, buying contracts, cancelling 
contracts, etc. O2 came out on top, which i found consistent with online 
surveys they're always winning awards a long with tesco, but 
unfortunately they only cover around 90% of the UK and they weren't an 
option for me. I then tried three. their customer service is based in 
India. they're ok for the most part, but i found that while on pay as 
you go with them, sometimes you'd send texts and they wouldn't arrive 
until days later. that could've been a glitch but this went on for weeks 
as my brother was with them. we tried different phones and different 
message center numbers all to no avail. they're very easy to sign up 
with though and coverage is OK in most areas, i'd double check your area 
before hand. the website account manager is very easy to use and 
displays all your account information in an easy layout.

Vodafone came next. coverage wasn't that great in my area, and i had 
some bad experiences with customer services unfortunately. they'd leave 
me holding for ages if they didn't cut me off, and when i'd try and top 
up my sim card, the card would be fine in terms of funds/expirey etc but 
i'd more often than not get transfered to customer services as the 
automated service would refuse to accept my card details. i also found 
the website not to be fantastic in terms of useability. they were also 
rated worst for customer service in a survey conducted not long ago by 
offcom.

Next i decided to try the last network, EE. on the hole, my experience 
has been pretty good with them. they may not always have the cheapest 
deals, but you can't go wrong in terms of coverage. the network has been 
very good when i've been travelling over the UK, certainly on a 3G 
connection. i haven't been to London so can't comment if the network 
congestion is bad down south, but in terms of customer service they're 
ok. most of its based in the UK, and if you don't mind holding for a bit 
then you eventually get through to someone who can resolve your issue. 
the website account manager is also quite useable, and they're the only 
UK network offering shared plans for families, ideal for me. i'm paying 
£39 a month for unlimited calls and texts, 20GB of data and each extra 
sim costs me £12 and i can have up to 5 on my plan. the others then 
share my data allowance. not bad when you consider the amount of data 
and a motorola moto G 4G thrown in for free. the sims you receive are 
also 4G compatible so no matter what kind of handset you have it'll work 
using the best connection possible in your area. virgin are also worth 
looking at. i haven't used them but they use the EE network and i've 
heard good things about their customer service. This is just my 
opinion/experiences, i hope they help you in making a decision. I dare 
say that others have had bad experiences where i've had good ones, the 
best thing you can do is take them for a spin your self. my priorities 
have always been customer service and coverage. if i can be of any 
further help, please don't hesitate to drop me a note either on or off 
list and i'd be more than happy to go in to more detail on any of the 
above providers. telecoms is always something i've had a keen interest 
in, and whenever a new provider comes a long, i like to take them for a 
spin to see what they're like. i must remember to try out the Co-Op next.

all the best,

Mo.

On 25/09/2014 09:04, MJ Williams wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I am shopping around for a good-value iPhone package. So, your 
> experiences of dealing with mobile phone companies (operating in the 
> UK).  What to look for, what to avoid.  vodafon used to give you a 
> free screen reader with your handset; everything else about them left 
> a lot to be desired.  Is Orange / EE the best or the worst in terms of 
> customer support? You just don't know who to believe, a lot of people 
> on both sides of the divide.  I am hoping that in the relatively 
> collegiate atmosphere of Access-uk we are better able to keep the 
> discussion basically factual and therefore objective *smile*
>
> Over to you folks.
> Cheers, Matt
>
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