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The UK's worst mobile phone provider

lovemoney staff
by Lovemoney Staff lovemoney staff on 02 April 2013  |  Comments 25 comments

We take a look at the worst (and best) mobile network operators.

The UK's worst mobile phone provider

The mobile phone has evolved substantially since the days it resembled a brick. And likewise, the amount we rely on our cellular friends has changed. Indeed, for many people, if their mobile stops working, so do they.

Which is why receiving good customer service from your mobile operator is now more important than ever.

Ofcom complaint figures

Ofcom publishes data on the number of complaints it receives about each of the big telecoms providers, including mobile phone networks, each quarter.

It's now reporting complaints separately for Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go providers.

These are its results for Pay Monthly mobile phone providers from the most recent report, covering October to December 2012 (Q4).

Provider

Complaints per 1,000 customers (Q1 Jan-Mar 2012)

Complaints per 1,000 customers (Q2 Apr-Jun 2012)

Complaints per 1,000 customers (Q3 Jul-Sep 2012)

Complaints per 1,000 customers (Q4 Oct-Dec 2012)

Orange

0.16

0.14

0.16

0.21

T-Mobile

0.18

0.18

0.18

0.20

Three

0.19

0.19

0.16

0.13

Vodafone

0.18

0.15

0.14

0.12

Virgin Mobile

0.13

0.10

0.10

0.08

O2

0.05

0.05

0.05

0.06

As you can see, Orange has taken over this quarter from T-Mobile as the most complained-about pay monthly provider.

The jump from last year’s figures is down to Orange breaking its promise to provide “free broadband for life”. Customers now have to pay £14 for an Orange landline.

Orange customers told Ofcom that they would not have renewed their contract if they had known the offer was to be withdrawn.

Both Orange and T-Mobile have generated above-average complaint numbers over the past three months. Ofcom says the complaints about T-Mobile are mainly due to billing and how issues were handled.

But it could also have something to do with the fact that both providers are part of superfast network Everything Everywhere which recently announced mid-contract price rises.  Read: EE announces 3.3% mid-contract price hike for Orange and T-Mobile customers for more.

By contrast, O2 and Virgin Mobile have consistently enjoyed lower numbers of complaints over the past three months and throughout 2012. However, O2's squeaky-clean record might take a knock once the Q1 data for January to March comes out later this year as customers might have a lot to say about their mid-contract price rises which took effect in February. Read more about it in: O2 bumps up mobile costs by 3.2%.

As Ofcom receives very few complaints about Pay As You Go providers (which, by their nature, are far easier to switch), it doesn't provide a company-by-company breakdown. It says it receives fewer than 30 complaints per month per provider, which means the statistics are subject to small fluctuations and, as such, could be rendered meaningless.

Which? research

Last year the consumer group Which? carried out its own research into mobile phone operators by speaking to 8,000 customers. These stats not only took into account the handsets, costs and clarity of bills offered by providers, but also included a wider range of operators.

Here are the results for contract and SIM-only phones:

Network

Customer service

Aftersales care

UK call costs

Network coverage

Handset range

Incentives

Customer Score

O2

4/5

4/5

3/5

4/5

4/5

4/5

66%

Tesco Mobile

4/5

4/5

5/5

4/5

4/5

2/5

66%

Virgin Mobile

3/5

3/5

4/5

3/5

3/5

2/5

60%

Orange

3/5

3/5

3/5

2/5

4/5

4/5

58%

T-Mobile

3/5

3/5

3/5

2/5

4/5

2/5

57%

Three

2/5

3/5

4/5

2/5

4/5

2/5

55%

Vodafone

3/5

3/5

3/5

3/5

4/5

2/5

55%

Talkmobile

2/5

3/5

3.5

3/5

3/5

2/5

54%

Here are the results for Pay As You Go:

Network

Customer service

Aftersales care

UK call costs

Network coverage

Handset range

Incentives

Customer Score

Asda Mobile

4/5

n/a

4/5

4/5

3/5

1/5

72%

Tesco Mobile

4/5

4/5

4/5

4/5

4/5

3/5

70%

O2

4/5

4/5

3/5

4/5

4/5

3/5

64%

Three

3/5

4/5

4/5

3/5

4/5

3/5

59%

Talkmobile

n/a

n/a

3/5

3/5

n/a

n/a

58%

Orange

3/5

3/5

2/5

3/5

4/5

4/5

57%

Virgin Mobile

3/5

3/5

3/5

3/5

3/5

2/5

56%

Vodafone

3/5

3/5

2/5

4/5

4/5

3/5

56%

T-Mobile

3/5

3/5

3/5

3/5

3/5

2/5

53%

So Tesco and O2 are both very consistent performers at the top end, while Vodafone struggles in both areas.

The survey also shows that pay as you go operators emerged slightly better than their contract counterparts when it comes to customer service.

But customer service and price aren’t the only factors you should keep in mind when shopping around for a new mobile phone.

Mobile coverage

Practically speaking, the most important thing to keep in mind when buying any mobile phone is the coverage and reception of the handset and operator. However, when it comes to comparing the best networks for this, the answer gets a little tricky as so much of signal strength depends on location.

The links below take you to each network’s coverage map or coverage checker so you can get a decent idea of what coverage you can expect.

O2

Orange 

Three

T-Mobile

Talkmobile

Virgin Mobile

Vodafone

This is a lovemoney.com classic article which is regularly updated

Compare mobile phone deals at Recombu

More on mobile phones and broadband:

The best broadband dongle

The UK’s worst broadband provider

How to make cheap mobile phone calls home from abroad

In-app purchases: how your kids could leave you with a giant mobile phone bill

 

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Comments (25)

  • yocoxy
    Love rating 132
    yocoxy said

    John provides a link to johns computer supplies? From there he merely provides a link to Gifgaff. I didn't follow the giffgaff link and assume that it wasn't posted directly here because John would lose his click commission.

    Interesting article. It does seem that Three has customer service (and I've heard coverage) problems but is at least trying to be innovative with it's pricing and services. When I was looking recently, they were the only provider allowing Skype over 3G and thier monthly packages were cheaper than all their compeitors. In the end I contracted with Tesco (for my wife) only because a short term special offer on the handset she wanted made them competitive with Three.

    I commute to a European country every week where I use my Orange mobile as little as possible. I get 2-3 sms's per day telling me that I can browse the Internet for £3.07 per Mb. I appreciate them warning me that they plan to extort this sum but I prefer to use a local sim for local calls and my wifi-only iPad at the office, hotel and multiple free hotspots for email.

    If only there was a thrifty blog that would help me save money.. Maybe someone could post a link here later..

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    Skype with a Three phone works extremely well, but in the standard (albeit free) version you are not able to call UK numbers with your SkypeOut account. If you run Skype as an application on your smartphone it is possible to have full functionality, so all things being equal a smartphone on GiffGaff with unlimited internet will enable cheapest full use of your Skype pretty much anywhere in the UK. I don't see how we can rate any operator overall as best or worst due to discrepancies in coverage. In my immediate neighbourhood standard phones suffer terribly from dropped calls with O2 and Giffgaff, but I use a high-powered GSM desktop phone with O2 and a cellular gateway with GiffGaff which has a good aerial and enables a standard home phone to be plugged in.

    I do wish every Billy-no-mates on GiffGaff would stop posting links to their accounts, ditto with the saddos promoting Utility Warehouse. We all need to make money - but if you want your advice to have any credibility, then please leave the personal links off here.

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • lasnog
    Love rating 6
    lasnog said

    I have just terminated a broadband contract with 3 and I am considering whether I should terminate the mobile phone contract with 3 when it expires next month. The broadband contract was an absolute disaster. Despite the hype I was rarely able to get a signal even in central London. For anyone considering a contract with 3 my advice would be look elswhere - but if you are determined to proceed make sure that you tie up ALL the hype they give you about the service in writing!

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • Talent
    Love rating 77
    Talent said

    It's pretty obvious really that lower charges mean lower coverage 'cos having masts everywhere costs money. Our son-in-law was installing Orange masts 20 years ago and he was given a Vodaphone mobile to use. Obvious but funny.

    We tried and gave up on the 3 Skype, dreadful coverage in the Northwest. No signal at all in the house, had to walk a hundred yards down the road!

    O2 was hit and miss in Blackpool. I phoned in a complaint from a landline near the airport once. Within a hundred yards of their mast and no signal! "We'll look into it".... a bit like the police investigating a hole in the road, hey! Orange were better but not by much.

    I reckon the mobile phones themselves also have something to do with the problem of coverage. I've never seen a comparison of various phones ability to get a signal. Is there one??

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • CuNNaXXa
    Love rating 362
    CuNNaXXa said

    On the subject of the last comment by Talent, I have to agree. When working in our freezer, my Samsung was able to get a signal, and hence send and receive calls, while other phones in our collection did not, even though the telecommunications mast was 100 yards to our rear.

    I am sure that different phones have different capabilities, and maybe a review of how well a phone can handle weak signals or signals through solid objects should be paramount.

    All too often, phones are sold based on the operating system (Android or iPhone) or features (10 mega pixel camera), and not on how well they interact with the network. Surely phones should be rated as to how well they do?

    I have a BlueTooth earpiece which I use because my HTC starts losing signal strength when it is placed next to a solid object (my skull), and I have actually lost calls before. Also, if I am on the phone for any length of time, my head starts to sweat where the phone is placed. If something as simple as your skull can affect signal strength, then we really do need a comparison score for all current mobiles. Does anyone, such as Which!, do such a comparison? Is there a website out there? If not, why not?

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Meanmachine2
    Love rating 37
    Meanmachine2 said

    I thought that Tesco mobile used the 02 system.

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • culluding-fool
    Love rating 49
    culluding-fool said

    GiffGaff without the referral link is http://www.giffgaff.com. Utility Warehouse also provide excellent pay-as-you-go pricing at http://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk. I'm thinking about changing to one of them (without the referral link!) if the coverage is any good around here. I'm currently with Vodafone & find it quite pricey at 10p per text message, plus the coverage isn't very good here. Ok for messages but not for calls, but that's what I have the home phone for :-)

    I would also like to see a comparison site for the way phones handle weak signals. Signals used to be so much better in the analogue days...

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    Where the THREE broadband works well, it is an excellent alternative to a landline and I have a 15Gb per month contract and no problems whatsoever. Some of the latest generation phones are indeed pretty useless when it comes to maintaining a connection - look at the problems Apple had with the Iphone dropping calls. O2/Tesco/Giffgaff are utterly reliable except where they aren't. I don't believe even the network providers are able to provide accurate and up to date coverage down to specific buildings and locations because there are so many variables which can block signals. If you want reliable service at home or a fixed location then consider either a high power desktop phone or a GSM gateway which is basically a switchboard gizmo which lets you use a normal phone on one of the mobile networks. Also means you could set your granny up with an easy to use phone system to dial right to your mobile. On GiffGaff with the free calls to others on the network you could have three months of unlimited communication for £5 and all without a landline.

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • sludgeguts
    Love rating 54
    sludgeguts said

    I used to work in a nursing home & my virgin signal went from max to zero three feet inside the building - 100% all round the outside but zero inside! The staff there advised me to change to o2 - and 100% signal inside as well - even in the lift!

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Lovelyjoolz
    Love rating 7
    Lovelyjoolz said

    I was with T-Mobile when they were one-2-one way back in 1995 (with my own version of "the brick" :). I moved away from them in 2007 to Three because they had the phone I wanted with an exceptionally good tariff. I've regretted few things as much as this move. The phone never worked from day one and their customer service was diabollical. The call centres are based abroad and the people there seem to only be able to read from a script. If your query or problem doesn't fit into their script, they simply give up and terminate the call. Yes, they actually say "I'm sorry, I cannot deal with your query" and hang up! The staff in their stores are, believe it or not, even worse. Rude, unhelpful and completely uninterested. As soon as the contract was up, I went back to T-Mobile. T-Mobile's customer service is exceptional.

    Report on 20 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    Sorry - but you can't draw conclusions based on how customer service may or may not have been a couple of years or more ago. Three used to be unhelpful and arrogant and their top up for broadband was a joke - you had to know their system from the outset or your broadband credit would be eaten away in a few minutes. When you topped up your newly bought dongle you still had to tell the system that it was a dongle not a phone and 'convert' your credit to a broadband top-up using a tortuous menu. Three customer service is still based abroad but now very friendly and helpful. O2 have always been friendly and helpful, but in my recent experiences the promises are never kept from one call centre worker to another and even when they compensate you for some issue with free minutes, the compensation rarely works as promised until several more complaint calls.

    Report on 21 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Marcia9
    Love rating 5
    Marcia9 said

    Thanks to all the avid commission promoting Giffgaff referrals. Just about to end my Tesco/02 year contract where I got an iphone 4 and had excellent service throughout the year for £20 Now just received my fee iphone giffgaff sim and will be managing quite well on £10 per month, particularly when I get my husband one; as we like to dial in many time during the working day. So, useful piece as I am pretty well informed but had not heard of giffgaff to my conscious memory.

    Report on 23 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Marcia9
    Love rating 5
    Marcia9 said

    And to cunnaxxa, if your mobile is losing calls when near your skull, god knows what it is doing to the grey matter. I expect the younger generation will find out about this when they reach middle age.

    Report on 23 August 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • superjmo666
    Love rating 1
    superjmo666 said

    really interesting polls,we all have a mobile phone. ime sick to death of my provider allthough everyone seems to think they are the best, they clearly are not,my friends anyway all are with VODAPHONE ime seriously reconsidering vodaphone have had enough of my money....................................................

    Report on 06 September 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    Why would there be a correlation between a phone losing a signal near your skull and it having any physical effect on you? The human body is mostly water, have none of you noticed how an FM radio can change tuning as you hold it near or walk past?

    Marcia9, please leave the worrying to those who actually have some grey matter......

    Report on 06 September 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • jamiecfc1
    Love rating 39
    jamiecfc1 said

    I've been with Three ever since Orange attempted to overcharge & double charge me on several occasions and up to now the signal quality has generally been acceptable at worst, since moving to the new house however the signal dies in the middle of the downstairs so if I want to make or receive calls I have to go outside or upstairs! Their customer service however is truly awful, to my knowledge they have always used overseas call centres and I avoid them unless I am truly desperate. They are so bad there's only one company I can think of which is worse and that is Bangladeshi Telecom (otherwise known as BT), they are useless in the extreme.

    Report on 06 September 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • leah AKA global leah
    Love rating 21
    leah AKA global leah said

    I think it is really down to the phone that you have, because when I was on Orange PAYG, the signal were the most excellent, even though the phone was a Sony, but when that died a horrible death, I changed the phone to a Samsung, but the signal were pretty poor, and when I eventually changed it to a Nokia, it went fine again.

    Since I have been with o2, I had no trouble at all with the signal with the Motorola that my partner now has, I've got myself a contract phone, which isn't top of the range, but it's good enough for me, and the signal, again, hasn't lost its intensity, if anything, it's better than the Motorola one,

    But I have got to say this to superjmo666, leave Vodafone as soon as you can, they've ripped us off after the contract ran out, kept trying to take money out of our account even though we ended up going to the bank to make sure they block vodafone from taking any payment. We owed them nothing, but they did manage to take a payment of £78, even though our contracts costs just £25 a month for 2 phones.

    Report on 10 September 2011  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • markwall
    Love rating 10
    markwall said

    Orange are fraudsters. I cancelled a contract after the tie in period had ended and got a letter saying they were sorry I was leaving and it confirmed the last day of service. A few months later I discovered they had carried on taking money from my account. I called them and they apologised and promised to sort it out. After a couple of weeks and no refund I called my bank who reimbursed the payments under the direct debit guarantee scheme. Orange then sent a threatening letter for the money! I called to explain I had written confirmation of the cancellation of the contract and once again they apologised and said they would sort it out. A couple of weeks later I got a threatening letter from a debt collection agency demanding the money. I called to explain and they said they didn't care what the circumstances were, I have to pay. I once again informed them I'd cancelled exactly as required by the contract and had a letter from Orange themselves confirming cancellation. They responded by credit blacklisted me. None of them are prepared to accept it is their mistake, nor will they take any notice of the fact I have written proof of cancellation. I have a good career and have never been in debt. I pay my credit cards in full every month yet I am being hounded when they are at fault. What can I do about this?

    Report on 11 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Tujags
    Love rating 1
    Tujags said

    Debt collection agencies are not immune threaten court action & then see what they do!

    Report on 20 December 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • gecko2
    Love rating 0
    gecko2 said

    T-Mobile are also operating illegally. I bought a cheap mobile and they kept deducting £1 per week off my pay as you balance for ringtones which I had not asked for or ordered. After numerous emails to their so called customer service department they refused to refund me for the weeks they had charged me. They are saying the service is opt-out, which is illegal. I am taking them to court.

    Report on 20 December 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • NS1980
    Love rating 0
    NS1980 said

    I have had contracts with the top five mobile telecoms providers. My experience is as follows:

    THREE is probably the WORST company that I have ever dealt with, and this is primarily due to the utter incompetence of the staff in its Indian call-centres. Even the thought of ever having to deal with Three again, makes me shudder. To top things off, reception is atrocious. AVOID.

    O2 has always provided reasonable service and good coverage, and has a GOOD RANGE of handsets. Choosing O2 is a reasonable option, however, do not use 3rd-party providers like Carphone Warehouse - deal DIRECTLY with O2 if you decide to choose a phone on O2.

    ORANGE's customer service is EXCELLENT. Yes, various billing mistakes have been made over the years, but the resolution of matters has ALWAYS been prompt and very satisfactory. I am VERY HAPPY with this company, but wish that more handsets were offered.

    Both Vodafone and T-Mobile have been satisfactory, and nothing more. Owing to unjustifiably high prices, I would NOT opt for Vodafone again, however.

    Report on 20 December 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Donna71
    Love rating 0
    Donna71 said

    How is it 3 isnt the worst, I have had no service from the 3 network since sept last year. I have had 8 phone calls a day from them and their debt agency - I am classing this as harassment. They were supposed to have cancelled the accounts in Dec at no cost to myself - they havent. they were supposed to put credits on the accounts they didnt. I had to put one of the phones in to see if it would fix the issue - it didnt. So after months of trying to get service at significant costs to myself it was finally decided to cancel all the accounts i have with them. They have ignored what i have said on calls. called me a liar, been aggressive, telling me they are going to put a black mark on my credit history (and i wouldnt want that would I was the exact comment) and they are beyond rude. This company has no customer service and I have called the ombudsman on the company - and even thats not stopped the company from calling me. I warn the person who thinks taking on 3 as a mobile service provider is a good idea - its not, stay well away from them.

    Report on 03 February 2013  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • easygoing
    Love rating 156
    easygoing said

    Orange has gone downhill since it changed to EE. Coverage and reliability of calling has deteriorated sharply.

    Report on 04 April 2013  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Justkeepgoing
    Love rating 28
    Justkeepgoing said

    The issues over coverage depend mainly on where you are and which phone you use.

    I would suggest that you try PAYG to check coverage where you are and where you are likely to use your phone. The coverage maps provided by the suppliers are more optimistic than reliable. Don't dive into a contract until you know the coverage is acceptable.

    As far as your choice of phone is concerned try reading some of the detailed reviews after that the choice is yours but if it doesn't work then complain, demand a replacement and take them to the small claims procedure if they refuse to replace it with something that does work.

    Most of the mobile companies seem to have useless customer service and use overseas call centres probably to grind you into submission. Try googling to find who are the UK senior staff and send them an email until you get sense. After all it is your money and they don't like the hassle.

    Report on 04 April 2013  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • planetzog
    Love rating 1
    planetzog said

    As a consumer, I accept that organizations will makes mistakes. It's how they deal with them that counts, and can win and retain loyal customers. Orange have failed miserably. I wrote two complaint letters in two months about no mobile service (it was working but has deteriorated) and their best (and only) response? A text message asking me to call them - which I did, and was a complete waste of time. They have no idea how to deal with complaints and fail to even meet a minimum, basic standard of customer care. If Orange treats customers with contempt, they can expect to lose business.

    Report on 05 April 2013  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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