Sim Free smartphones give you the freedom to use any mobile provider you want

One of the biggest issues many of us have experienced with Three and other major mobile networks is phones being locked to sims only from those networks. This means that if you decide to go to another provider on a contract only or pay and you go sim (without a phone) then you would need to purchase a new phone anyway. Sometimes getting a phone without a SIM is the better option

Some of you may be thinking what's the point if I can get an good phone on contract?

Well think of it like this, to get a great phone like a Samsung Galaxy S4 or an Iphone5 the network will normally put you on a contract that's at least £30 for 24 months and will possibly charge you a small fee for the phone as well. Now if you take into account that mobile communications have come a long way and cost the networks much less to run, you are paying £720 during this period plus the £30-100 extra you may pay as a premium for the phone so that makes a total of at least £750 if not more. A Galaxy S4 and Iphone range between £400-£550 last time I checked and take into account the networks will get wholesale prices from the phone manufacturers that's a big dent in your budget.

So how does this compare to Sim only? At the time of writing I checked the contracts with Three. To get a Galaxy S4 you need a minimum contract of £33 for 24 months with no premium for the phone so your total costs before additional call charges is £792. With this base level contract you get 500 minutes, 1000 texts and unlimited internet. Sounds great right? Not really because you're tied to the same phone for 24 months so if it's faulty after 1 year and you have no insurance then you're in trouble!

Here is what would have happened on a Sim-only contract. You can get a 12 month contract for £15 that gives you 2000 minutes, 5000 texts, 5000 Three to Three minutes and unlimited data/internet. Already this is sounding better. You can even go on 1 month contracts with them for £18 if you don't want to be tied down to 1 year. So over a 2 year period this now costs you £360.

Now you need a phone, well if you have an existing phone you may be able to do a trade in with some phone stores and get some money off and this is especially good if you're phone is tied to a network. Now you can still go down the Galaxy S4 route and they are currently retailing at around £400-450 so you would be paying as much for it as you would with a contract BUT now you're on a 12 month contract with more minutes and you can now sell your phone at any point and it will retail more value than at the end of a longer contract. But the real way to save is the fact you can get a decent dual core android or windows phone for less than £200 these days.

Help Raise Money for Prostate & Testicular Cancer

We'd like to take your focus away from your mobile phone complaints for a bit to let you know about our good friend has been taking part in Movember this month growing his moustache in aid of Prostate & Testicular Cancer research.

Whether it's only a few pounds or £20 (no donation is too small by the way) we hope you'll spare a bit of cash for this great cause.

Please visit this link to see some silly photos and to make your donation!

www.mobro.co/luay

Your complaint emails

We cannot stress enough, please do NOT send or copy us in on emails directed to the Three network.

They will just get deleted as we do not deal with complaints to the Three network, that is their responsibility.

You are welcome to notify us of an ongoing issue you are having for us to publish on here but that's all we can do.

Three Complaints Address

We've had an email from a Three store stating that one of the addresses we had up was incorrect, the address below is the correct address for writing to Three.

Three
Hutchison 3G UK Ltd.
PO Box 333
Glasgow
G2 9AG

Complaining to Three Network Ireland

After some demand we've researched into the Three and telecommunications complaints process in Ireland and have written this post to assist users resolve their issues.

As with any complaints procedure you must lodge your complaint with Three Customer Services first using the following methods ensuring you keep records of all your communication in case you need to escalate;

Remember be nice in any correspondence and give as much information as possible, rudeness will not get your complaint resolved!

1. by phone by dialling 1913 from your handset
2. By Post to 3 Customer Services, Hutchison 3G Ireland Limited, PO Box 333, Dublin 2. (make sure you use a tracked postal service if posting a letter)
3. By email to customer.services.ie@3mail.com (try and get a read receipt which should be an option with your email client)

Three Ireland claim to handle complaints within 5-10 working days depending on the nature of your claim (i.e. billing, handset etc...) which you can find in their code of practise here: Three Ireland's Code of Practice  (opens a PDF file)

Escalating your complaint with Three

If you feel your complaint has not been handled appropriately, the next step is to escalate with Three in writing to their customer care manager: 3’s Customer Care Manager at Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd, PO Box 333, Dublin 2

If not satisfied with their response then their Customer services director:

3’s Director of Customer Services at Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd, 3rd Floor, One Clarendon Row, Dublin

Escalating your Complaint Further

Hopefully you'd have been resolved and compensated by now but if you have reached a dead end with Three then you can escalate the complaint with ComReg, the Commission for Communication Regulation.

They will only deal with your complaint if it's been within the last 9 months and if you've exhausted all avenues with Three themselves. Visit their website for more information about complaining to networks where they will provide details on submitting complaints to them

AskComreg Website or you can call them on 1890 229 668.

Good luck!