(UK) mobile phone operator?

November 21, 2009 7:22 PM

Is their a "decent" UK mobile phone operator?

The problem with internet in general is that people only ever post a forum post, tweet a tweet, etc, etc about mobile phone operators when something goes bad.

So which network have you been pleased with? I'm talking in terms of price, coverage and customer service.

I've been with Orange, T-Mobile and o2, the worst probably being T-Mobile and the best probably o2.

I would consider 3 but their network coverage isn't that great where I live.

posted by nam3d to technology (10 comments total)

Virtual Network Operators (VNOs) welcome.
posted by nam3d at 7:23 PM on November 21, 2009

I've been with T-Mobile & o2 and definitely prefer o2 out of those.
I've heard people be pleased with vodafone as well, but this is purely anecdotal.
I'd steer clear of 3 tho, apparently they have terrible customer service.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 11:19 PM on November 21, 2009

Never had a problem with orange and O2
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:54 AM on November 22, 2009

I've been on Orange, T-Mobile, and O2, and I have been pleased with the customer service of all three.
posted by Magnakai at 3:10 AM on November 22, 2009

I'm heavily biased against Orange.
They offered me a free upgrade at the end of my contract, I agreed. They sent me a rubbish Samsung phone and charged me £25 for the privilege. I wasn't happy, told then to terminate the contract, refund my £25 and collect the phone. They ignored me, then eventually sold a supposed £550 debt to a debt collection agency.
I eventually settled for the amount of used airtime owed (£89- after 2.5 years I had no way of proving what it was, but am certain it was no more than £35).
Their blatant disregard for EU contract law means I will *never* use any Orange product ever.

I'd recommend O2 as the best of a bad bunch. Signal is always good wherever I am, and because I have the SIM-only plan I pay under £15pm for more minutes and text messages than I was paying Orange (£35pm).
posted by sid.tv at 5:25 AM on November 22, 2009

It depends entirely on your usage. You need to let us know to get a decent recommendation. We can't help you with covage in your particular area and customer service doesn't really vary enough between most operators to be a decisive factor.

Personally, I use ASDA Mobile pay as you go as it has by far the best rates and data is very cheap (and only £5/month for unlimited). I rarely pay more than £5/month in total for calls, texts and data.
posted by turkeyphant at 6:40 AM on November 22, 2009

only £5/month for unlimited

The word on the net (October 2009) is that the cheapest unlimited UK plan is £30, and that one's pretty limited too when you dig into the details. ASDA offers no unlimited plan on their website; internet access is 20p per MB according to the site, and they then reserve the right to filter your access unless you register a credit card with them. Got a pointer to the unlimited plan?
posted by effbot at 9:52 AM on November 22, 2009

effbot: "only £5/month for unlimited

The word on the net (October 2009) is that the cheapest unlimited UK plan is £30, and that one's pretty limited too when you dig into the details. ASDA offers no unlimited plan on their website; internet access is 20p per MB according to the site, and they then reserve the right to filter your access unless you register a credit card with them. Got a pointer to the unlimited plan?"

I apologise - I can't find any information about that plan any more. I suspect I read it online somewhere or was told it by one of their customer services team. Perhaps it has since been discontinued. The T Mobile £5/month unlimited data offer also seems to have ended recently and they now want £15/month. I blame the iPhone.

You can still do much better than £30/month though. Tesco offer unlimited data for £2/7days which ~£8.75/month. I'm sure a quick google will reveal similar offers from other carriers. 3 seems to have unlimited data for £5/month.

Of course, in the UK, people can still get away with false advertising around the word "unlimited" so buyer beware.
posted by turkeyphant at 7:53 AM on November 23, 2009

I've been with Orange for some time and have to say I'm very impressed with their customer service. I don't know how their prices compare with other operators at the moment but I feel like I get value for money, they let me know pretty quickly if they can offer me the same or similar services for less than I'm already paying, and I'd imagine the competition keeps the prices of all operators pretty low.

I also found Virgin Mobile's customer service to be excellent, although it's been about 3 years since I last used them.
posted by kumonoi at 2:11 PM on November 23, 2009

I've worked for these companies on customer satisfaction. I can tell you that currently customer satisfaction in the UK (based on thousands of opinions) is:

O2 (1st)
Vodafone
Orange
3
Virgin Mobile
T-Mobile (last)

Hope that helps.
posted by Flamingoroad at 2:56 PM on November 25, 2009