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Anybody prepared to recommend their supplier
CABINET
13-06-2016
I have been with Virgin mobile for years but am at the end of my tether.

Last year, despite being assured that my phone would work abroad, when I got there I had no service for the duration. This caused considerable anxiety because my husband had to go to hospital during the holiday and having no phone coverage just added to the stress.

On my return their system was still showing me that I was good to go abroad and it took a call to their technical team to fix the problem.

This year I was advised to purchase a data roaming plan for use during the hols. To my relief I was able to make calls this time but the data roaming did not work for the whole holiday and, on my return, I found data roaming was working just fine here in the UK so the problem is unlikely to be my phone. I did contact them while I was there and followed their advice about what to try but they never bothered to call me an hour later to see if all was well as they promised they would.

Back home I have been trying to make contact to get my money refunded but I keep being cut off before having spoken to somebody and then on the one occasion I did get through to a rep they were (a) very difficult to understand and (b) I got cut off in mid-sentence and returned to the automated menu selection.

I have about two months left until the end of my contract and think I would like to leave Virgin behind. They are just very bad for my blood pressure.

Sorry for the long rant but I do feel better for sharing.

Can anybody recommend who I should move to?
DevonBloke
13-06-2016
You don't actually mention what you want voice/data usage/roaming wise. So hard to say.
What I would say is that if you have been with Virgin for years and you want the same UK coverage then it would be EE since Virgin use the EE network.
You'll also get to use 4G as well which I don't think current Virgin consumer customers can at the moment (someone correct me?).
CABINET
13-06-2016
I suppose what I want is a phone that works when I am abroad.

Virgin customer service is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. They used to be brilliant.

I don't have any problems with my phone here in the UK.

My OH is with Vodaphone who seem to have a poor reputation but at least his phone works in Europe,

I thought it might be better to be on a different network to him to maximise the chances of one of us being able to get a signal here or abroad.

Interesting about the 4G. I am technically illiterate which doesn't help I know hence the rather pathetic plea "I just want my phone to work".

I have to say that I was really disgusted with Virgin telling people who made the effort to check before going away that their phones would work when they don't. It's not a lot of fun in a foreign hospital relying on the generosity of the local people to allow you to make a call.
peterson
13-06-2016
You could look at 3. Other than an apparent lack of coverage when I landed at Manchester last year I've not had any coverage problems abroad.
I turn off data roaming as I don't need it and I'm on PAYG.
You might find their "feel at home" plan helps depending on which countries you go to.

I don't understand why you needed data though to "stay in touch" ?
CABINET
13-06-2016
Originally Posted by peterson:
“You could look at 3. Other than an apparent lack of coverage when I landed at Manchester last year I've not had any coverage problems abroad.
I turn off data roaming as I don't need it and I'm on PAYG.
You might find their "feel at home" plan helps depending on which countries you go to.

I don't understand why you needed data though to "stay in touch" ?”

Sorry I didn't need data to stay in touch I just wanted to be able to use my phone in Europe in the same way as I do in the UK. In other words if I want to access the internet while on the move. Every time I tried my phone just informed me that it wasn't connected to wi-fi. Hardly surprising when standing in the middle of Seville.

The real point of my post though is to find out if people are happy with their phone service suppliers. I have had it with Virgin and want to go to somebody else.

Virgin promise you a service and don't deliver and when you try to contact them to talk about it it sends your blood pressure through the roof as they can't even run a customer service department efficiently.
blueisthecolour
13-06-2016
I'm on 3 and it's seemed to work ok in all the European countries i've visited. A bit slow at times but then it's slow in parts of Berkshire!
Stig
13-06-2016
At least 2 other friends of mine are fed up with Virgin as their phones didn't work while abroad. I'm more than happy to recommend EE.
preecey
13-06-2016
In my opinion, EE is the best network but their plans are expensive.

Three is second best and is cheap (at the moment, thanks to their six month half price offers on phone plans and SIM only plans).

Three shares their 3G network with EE and vice versa. They don't share each other's 4G networks however, which is why EE has 4G in far more places than Three.

Three does not have a 2G network, except in selected rural areas where they piggyback on EE for calls and texts only.

Vodafone is horrific. They don't cap data, have terrible customer service and are quite expensive. Avoid.

O2 is average. They have decent prices at the moment but really poor 3G coverage overall. Great 2G, though, if that's anything to write home about.

I'm with Three. Best combination of price and service and love the many different caps you can apply on your account to avoid extra charges. Data is automatically capped.
CABINET
13-06-2016
Thanks for the recommendations - much appreciated.
Michael09
13-06-2016
Another vote for Three overall good prices and a decent network. The other week we drove from London to Edinburgh which takes around 6 1/2 hours and the amount of time without a signal was 4 minutes. Pretty impressive results there. Yes they may not have the widest or fastest 4G coverage but if that is what your looking for then take a look at EE.
nigelbb
14-06-2016
Another vote for Three here. I have been with them for over five years. At various times I have had a contract phone & others like now I have SIM free. The big attraction initially was the One Plan & loads of data with tethering is still a big incentive but also 'Feel At Home' is great for my occasional visits to the Continent. The coverage in the UK is great. I see 4G quite a lot but the consumer doesn't really care whether it's 4G or 3G as long as the speed is fast enough to read email, browse the web watch iPlayer etc
All the networks have the odd place where coverage is poor so before you change get a PAYG SIM to check that you have coverage at home, at work & any other place you visit regularly.
Thine Wonk
14-06-2016
Three, you get personal hotspot of up to 30GB, many packages with unlimited data and included EU + other countries and I like the controls in MyThree like not letting you go over your call allowance or turning off roaming data from the website / app to stop accidental charges, allowance updates very quickly so you know what you've got left. The InTouch app is handy for any blackspots you do encounter if you can connect to wifi you can send / receive texts or calls.
Playamonte
14-06-2016
IMO Tesco !
Pucky
15-06-2016
I would also recommend Three. I was thinking of switching to EE when I got the S7 Edge but I've been quite happy with Three. Apart from a disagreement about a repair on my old S5 I have no complaints about them - I usually contact them via social media and they've been very helpful. I'm about to go in and see if I can up my data allowance (as they told me I could when I upgraded) so we'll see.
Coverage is pretty good, there's a couple of dead spots in Nottingham city centre but they're small, and I've pretty much always had a good signal - apart from on the Norfolk Broads, but there's often no mobile signal in Norfolk anyway!
natbike
18-06-2016
If you are talking purely about roaming, then Vodafone is well ahead of the others globally and has more roaming partners available in Europe and access to better services (4G) in more places.

In the UK they seem adequate in urban areas but don't provide fast data in as many places as EE.

I use both EE and Vodafone and would choose EE if I had to choose just one.

That said if you travel outside Europe much Vodafone is really the only simple choice.
cyrillic_guy
21-06-2016
Originally Posted by CABINET:
“I have been with Virgin mobile for years but am at the end of my tether.

Last year, despite being assured that my phone would work abroad, when I got there I had no service for the duration. This caused considerable anxiety because my husband had to go to hospital during the holiday and having no phone coverage just added to the stress.

On my return their system was still showing me that I was good to go abroad and it took a call to their technical team to fix the problem.

This year I was advised to purchase a data roaming plan for use during the hols. To my relief I was able to make calls this time but the data roaming did not work for the whole holiday and, on my return, I found data roaming was working just fine here in the UK so the problem is unlikely to be my phone. I did contact them while I was there and followed their advice about what to try but they never bothered to call me an hour later to see if all was well as they promised they would.

Back home I have been trying to make contact to get my money refunded but I keep being cut off before having spoken to somebody and then on the one occasion I did get through to a rep they were (a) very difficult to understand and (b) I got cut off in mid-sentence and returned to the automated menu selection.

I have about two months left until the end of my contract and think I would like to leave Virgin behind. They are just very bad for my blood pressure.

Sorry for the long rant but I do feel better for sharing.

Can anybody recommend who I should move to?”

I have sim-only contracts with O2, Three, and Vodafone.

If I had to choose just one of them, that would be Vodafone. Primarily because of excellent roaming options (good data allowances with unlimited mins/texts in the EU + being able to use your UK allowances for £5/day in another 50 or so countries + 4G roaming in many destinations without any traffic management and possibility to tether).

Customer service wise it would be something like that:

Three - Customer service? Yeah, right...
O2 and Vodafone -not really 5 star ones any of them 2, but not that bad either, especially comparing to Three. I know that Vodafone meant to be the most complained about UK network according to some recent Ofcom's figures but I must've been lucky as I really didn't have any problems with them so far.

UK coverage wise - depends where you work/live/travel I guess. The worst one, to my experience, would be Three's, especially indoors. O2's and Vodafone's coverage looks pretty decent for phone calls, as for data - your mileage may vary.
Gaz82
21-06-2016
There are so many variables that it's impossible to recommend the best network operator to suit your needs. It also totally depends on your location.

My experiences:

Vodafone: I'm currently with them and can't fault them. I get fast 4G speeds where I live and at work and their roaming options are the best out there IMO in terms of price and speed. Their customer service is UK based and has always been good for me (but I am on a business contract so this might make a difference).

Three: Was with them before and it was a nightmare! Their sales team lied to me and after an internal investigation they agreed that I was mis-sold so let me terminate my contract 6 weeks in penalty free. Coverage was OK in my area - no 4G available but 3G was adequate. Roaming was rubbish, speeds were terrible when I was in the US on business.

EE: Previously with them and again can't fault them. Their network in my area is 4G and the fastest. Good extras such as Visual Voicemail and Wi-Fi calling. The only downside was they are expensive and were not willing to try and price match which unfortunately was the only reason I moved on.

O2: I haven't been on O2 myself personally for years but my wife was with them until recently. Coverage is roughly the same as Vodafone (due to cornerstone) but we found even though the phone had 4G signal the actual speed was rubbish. Voice quality was not that good either.

Hope this helps. I would recommend the best thing to do is grab yourself a pay as you go sim card from each network and do some testing in your area.
Grayburn
21-06-2016
As Gaz82 suggested above, get an O2, EE & Three PAYG sims, seeing as you've wrote Voda and Virgin off, and test out what's best in your area.

Listening to recommendations is pointless unless that person lives in the same area as you.
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