I bought a "Three" phone A835 approx 2 years ago, then upgraded to NEC e616 (bought off line). The phones always run out of battery power, the connection to services is un-reliable, the call clarity was intermittent and you could never be sure you would even be able to connect to the number you were dialling.

When I cancelled my contract after 12 months, they subsequently charged me for line rental (by direct debit) for a further 2 months, then sent me a confirmation bill of 2 months line rental refund and never bloody paid it!!! The customer service call centre might as well be on the moon let alone India (I always asked to be transferred to Scotland) and the staff in India are obviously not trained in the overall workings of their company, it's like speaking to someone who only knows 3 phrases of English.

The network itself is "walled garden" so you cannot visit urls outside of "Three's" domain, and you cannot easily upload content via your pc.

However you do get a ridiculous amount of inclusive minutes (although you can never connect to use them!!!) and the cheapest football downloads (but only the Premiership).

I am now with Orange, who are vastly more hi-tech, the staff are infinitely more knowledgeable and , get this, I now have a phone that you can actually make reliable calls on!!!(Also it's a p910i, "Three" customers won't see a phone like this in their lifetimes!!!)

Avoid "three" like the plague.

I used to work indirectly for this company and believe me people tried hard to get it ready and to launch successfully. But what is cutting edge technology when you have the VERY WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE experience ever! Mumbai India, I'd love to visit the place and call centre, I'd chuck my handset through the window. But at least they are not going to sell your details to the highest bidder!!

I got rid of 3 after being with them for 2 years. I live in South East London in Zone 4 and generally travel from Zone 4 to Zone 1 in London. The signal strength has improved over my time with 3 (after upgrading to the LG U 8110) but I have weak spots near my home where the network switches to 2G. Its not so much the signal strength that is the problem it is the call reliability. I'm sure that at least once in a day I will have to call a number more than once for the call to go through. On a bad day you have to switch your phone off then on and you can end up dialing 5-10 times to actually get your phone to go through.

Customer Services is in India and you have to speak slowly and clearly to speak to them. When you have a problem they just read from their script in an attempt to placate you which is really annoying. The whole Customer service experience is painful and requires a lot of patience.

Now the Good points:
I subscribed to the original kit service which gives you 1,000 free minutes and 150 text messages and free content for £60 a month. I loved the video clips and used ITN news and MTV music videos. I didn't use video calling much as my friends stopped using it.

The main reason that I stuck with 3 for so long is that it is cheap I can control my costs without having to worry about who I'm calling and how many minutes I have left (I generally use 800 a month) other providers equivalent services are more expensive but of course the service is better. I am leaving 3 now because I am willing to pay a bit more for service reliability. The only thing I will really miss is the content.

I had problems with my a1000, no reception at all some day's good and other days complete waste of time £35 pounds a month for noting. Now my bill's high to hell with them I aint paying for what I don't get. They were on TV on Watchdog, very bad. Please go with Orange and T-Mobile Vodafone and even O2 is better then this lot and any other mobile except 3.

Absolutely awful service. Can't call when you want to can't text when you want to and can't receive anything most of the time. Glad my contract is up!!! Avoid at all costs.

Ok, take any review place like this with a pinch of salt. Most people only write a review to complain, most people don't think to write a review on something good, although there are exceptions. But I am here to moan a little, like most people I guess. The network coverage was better than expected. I live a little in the sticks and I get a good reception, In the city where I work, it's excellent. My mates three phone though gets a poor reception. Strange? According to the shop, the newer phones are picking up better signals and three's coverage IS improving. Quite honestly it needs to, especially if you take into consideration their customer services. It truely is the worst I have experienced ever. Take a pinch of salt on what I say? No, throw the salt out the window. I am speaking the truth. The guy who wrote an earlier review was right. The call center is in India, they find the English language hard to comprehend at times, making it impossible to get your point across when making a complaint. Oh one more thing, if you buy a phone, and within the 14 day cooling off period you decide you want to change the tariff, well, You can do this, only if you go back to the store you purchased the phone from, cancel the number and contract, and open an identical contract with a new number and your preferred tariff. Ok, you should be asking, well if I can do that anyway, can't 3 just change your tariff to save you the hastle? No! They can only change your tariff to a more expensive one, their systems don't allow them to change it to a lower one. I took my phone back, got the tariff changed, but as a new customers 3 could have made our lives that much easier. Could they do it? No. Where is the logic. Did the bloke in India care? No. Naff service but a good content and an improving signal. What's more important to you? That's the question you have to ask.

Asked the Three call centre to cancel account when bill paid in December 04. They said okay arranged. Phone not used since then. New bill came, then letter saying they will terminate service. Said okay wasn't using service - they said they could see that as no calls made. Month later another bill. Like before - took a lot time to get call centre staff to understand. They were not helpful, incoherent, babbled, didn't listen to what was said and could not understand ENGLISH. Found out call centre was in India. Still, told them to cancel account - they said it is done. April another bill comes !!!!!! Useless describes Three's service & customer care, and complaint response. I had a call from a 3 guy called "Robert", he had seen a email from me and would look into the problem, and call me back, but that at the moment he could not work it out. Well, that sums them up. That was two weeks ago and he has not called me back. (31/05/05-still unresolved).

Three is the worst network ever, bar none. You are better off using payphones, at least you know they will work. Never, ever use this network; it will only bring you grief. I thought O2 customer services were bad. They are perfect in comparison to 3. Expect over inflated bills, and then long, long waits on the non-help line, only for nothing to be done. You have been warned.

Had a three phone for a year, at end of contract cancelled my direct debit and wanted to pay final bill...after two calls was told couldn't take payment using credit card! OK first time for everything!...after being passed from operator to operator, finally managed to pay using credit card... or at least I hope I have, wait and see I guess!... Got to be the worst netwrok I have ever been with, virgin mobile is so much better!! :)

Three is without a doubt the worst network I have ever been on having been with O2, Orange and T-Mobile over the last 5 years. There is always coverage problems, which is annoying when you are expecting important calls and no-one can contact you. The customer services are useless and very rude. My handest broke after just 4 months of having it, and two months on I am still having major issues with customer services. Avoid this network at all costs.

I took no notice of the sensible people on here and ordered a pay as you go from 3 direct with next day delivery. One week later got a letter with my new number. Four weeks later still no phone so I called the number I was given and got someones answerphone! Called to cancel but told you have to get phone before you can cancel. After giving Hours of English lessons to Indians and being hung up on by stroppy Jock`s I eventualy cancelled the order but the refund?? Still waiting! Please don't get caught like I did.

OK the conditions of use are pathetic when you top up your phone the minimum to top up is £15, you don't always want to top up your phone for £15 and quite frankly you don't need to unless you have are a compulsive talker. The reason I am placing my interests elsewhere are because I dont have much choice but to top up for £15 when I dont want to or even need to but this makes them richer so what do they care? Also and I quote 'all top-up vouchers and "add-ons" have a 30 day validity period' in English this means if you dont use your texts or talk time up within the 30 days you lose everything you have paid for then when you need credit you have to pay £15 again and it's a non-stop cycle of a we lose they win situation.

I live in central London and couldn't even talk to friends, family in my living room, at work, on the road, - where ever, when ever. Really poor service but lovely phones!

I am on my second 3 phone, having had my first one for 12 months, and both my phones have been very reliable. I have never suffered from poor coverage or dropped calls and, in fact, this is the only network that gives me coverage at home. I'm not interested in video calls or anything like that, I just wanted a phone for voice calls and texts. I have recommended 3 to several friends who, like me, have been delighted with the value for money package they received. When I obtained my most recent contract in Jan 05 I got a bargain as I'm am paying (via cashback) £11 per month for 500 minutes and 100 texts cross network, anytime. In my opinion no-one can beat 3 for value for money.

If you ever try and speak to someone with a complaint you will know it is very hard as nobody can understand a word you are saying! and neither can you as the call centre must be in Indian as I have never spoke to someone who speaks in English and you can not understand what is being said to you when you ask them to repeat them selves they then assume you're being rude. Nothing is explained and you are then just left to sort it out yourself. This is the worst network I have ever been with and I am absolutely disgusted with the network and would not recommend it to anybody to use. The company needs to listen to customer complaints and deal with them correctly.

This is the worst network ever. I too was seduced by Three's cheap prices and when I asked about the network coverage as I had heard it was poor was told "It's much better now, you won't have any problems." Ha, ha, ha. The network is shoddy. A lot of the time is spent turning the phone on and off trying to pick up a signal. Even when there is a signal there are problems, calls don't connect. Sometimes it takes 5 attempts just to connect a call.
Their customer service is appalling. I was told something by one of them and when I relayed this to someone else they told me that I hadn't been told that and was lying! They don't know what they are talking about half the time and that's when you can understand what they are saying.
I've tried to get out of my contract with them and they said I would have to pay £250 for the privilege!!! So I'm stuck with a poor service until my complaint has been dealt with by the ombudsman.

Steer well clear of these charlatans. They are absoulute rubbish.

3 are aware that they have network coverage issues and that at least 2 of the handsets that they provide have significant problems and yet they have no procedures to deal with these. Their customer service agents are clearly briefed to admit nothing and offer a repair which they know wont work.

My phone was stolen and I received a replacement from my insurer who neglected to tell me I needed a new SIM card from Three. I waited 3 weeks for this and when it arrived it didn't work. I was told there were 'network problems'. I was promised this would be fixed within the next 3-5 working days. This went on for a further 5 weeks before I was actually reconnected. They offered me £5 in compensation! Laughable when you consider the amount of stress, time (an average of 45 minutes for each call)and money I spent calling from my landline to India. I will never, ever deal with this company again and strongly recommend no-one else does either.

The cheap prices offered by Three make it almost impossible to ignore when buying a new mobile. I had one of the first mobiles (NEC e606) in 2003 and had my contract ended early as the network just didn't hold calls. I have read a lot of comment about how much better newer models were and took the plunge again in October 2004 with a £5/month deal for 500 minutes and 100 texts contract. Great value!!! Sadly the network is much the same as it was in 2003. Calls drop, fail to connect and the customer service (Indian call centre usually) is pathetic. The 3G phone (Motorola) is OK but eats batteries and often runs out of power before a full day has ended.

Three don't seem to have improved much in my experience and I'll be getting a new phone soon on a network that is actually useable.

Sum-Up: A bargain ain't a bargain if you can't use it. Steer clear of Three.

My phone packed up after 3 months. It was sent for repair after 2 days. came back on time.. so far so good... phone beyond repair liquid or physical damage they said. Well it is now that I've stamped on it and flushed it down the loo. The Indian man said I need to buy a new handset if I don't have insurance.. now I see how they make their money back! Mugs like me agreeing to change from Vodafone who are exceptionally decent. Now I'm using a pay as u go with Vodafone and still paying £30.00 per month with this contract. I will not be beaten and I will pay whatever it takes to cancel this poor contract.