3

I have found the '3' experience utterly dumb founding.

I have been with many mobile phone companies before (vodafone, orange, t-mobile) and had got used to their most common practises and stumbled into '3' thinking I was a fairly savvy consumer. It turns out '3' isn't a normal mobile phone company.

Everything started OK when I got the phone quickly and my number was transferred over without a hitch.

Then things started to go wrong.

Sometimes my landline would ring and people would say 'Haven't you got your mobile switched on?'. The phone line seems to be intermittent at best. Regularly when attempting to make or receive calls the line is not functioning. When dialling '333' however it works fine and the operator says 'Well if you can dial me there can't be a problem, can there?'.

The web browser only seems to have coverage when you are close to the centre of cities. Forget using on a train or in a car (the only places I ever used to use WAP).

All my Motorola phones have had bluetooth as standard since years ago. I assumed (wrongly) that the V975 would have bluetooth - why shouldn't it? When I tried to connect it to my friend's car bluetooth system I found out it didn't. Turns out '3' doesn't like bluetooth as they don't want anyone getting hold of their 'secrets' inside the phone!

Most mobile operators offer international calling at the time of setting up the contract. I found out to my peril that '3' does not. When I arrived in Poland I called '3' to activate my international roaming (you would have thought it was simple in this day and age) I was told it was not allowed to be activated while I was abroad.

I activated the international roaming when I returned from Poland and was soon off again to Spain. I am always wary of making too many calls while abroad when I don't know the operator. When I was with Orange I knew the calls were relatively OK and could judge my phone bill. I made 2-3 calls from Spain to England, short calls too. My bill was £103. Explain that!

The other day I lost my telephone at the gym. I called '3' to report it lost and was told that I would not get another handset as I was not insured. At no point was I offered insurance by '3' and usually I am used to getting a years free insurance from my mobile company. After the fact I went to '3's website and found a small footnote saying 'Sorry, but if you've only just joined us, we can't offer you phone insurance at the moment. We are working on it though, so watch this space for details.'. Thanks for being so polite! Nice to know I missed the boat on that one, I guess I will have to suffer then!

When I had finally had enough a friend said: "Why not reduce to line rental and pay them off in one go? It is usually only about £7 a month". I have 6 1/2 months to go so that would equate to about £40. Fine. But don't forget '3' isn't a normal phone company. Apparently their minimum 'line rental' is £20 a month which is extortionate. That leaves me paying £120+ to be rid of them.