No reception on mobile phone - any way to get out of contract?

Former Member

I'm moving to a new house this week and have discovered there is pretty much zero coverage for the whole street and surrounding area on my network, Three. This is within a built up area in London, so I'm confused. I'm also worried that I'll have to get a new SIM card while paying my existing line rental so I can actually make calls.

Is there anything I can do with Three, such as cancellation of my contract? Is there a get out clause for if you cannot actually use the service you are paying for, or is the customer stuck in this situation? I would be less surprised if this was in a rural area, but I would expect decent coverage within the city. And I know it's not just a case of limited cells being used up by a high density of phones, as there is literally never a signal registered in this area.

Any help or advice would be very welcome!

Edit: just had a look on three's websites and I happen to be in a black spot. It says "Outdoor coverage: You can use your mobile to make calls, send texts and use the internet in most outdoor locations. If you’re inside you may struggle to get a signal." There is no option for "no coverage" though, which is obviously a lie, since I couldn't even get a signal walking the streets.

Former Member

:chin: I don't think you can get out of contracts.... I'm sure in the small print it says something about coverage. Have a look at the terms and conditions of your contract... sorry I'm not much use- I'm on tesco pay as you go
http://www.three.co.uk/Home
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Former Member

Thanks LaLaLa.

I just spoke to three support, they said if there is no coverage I can try and connect to Orange, as they piggy back on Orange for extra coverage. This will involve me manually selecting Orange every time the signal is lost though, which is a massive pain!

JsT

Sadly they will insist on your piggybacking onto Orange, which is only 2G usually too. Three pay a fortune to Orange to piggyback so its unlikely they'll let you cancel. If your phone will let you do manual network selection you should be able to force it to stick on Orange full time.

Former Member

JsT wrote: »

Sadly they will insist on your piggybacking onto Orange, which is only 2G usually too. Three pay a fortune to Orange to piggyback so its unlikely they'll let you cancel. If your phone will let you do manual network selection you should be able to force it to stick on Orange full time.

I asked the support guy that and he said it wouldn't be possible. I'll try anyway and see, though. Can also try setting the phone to GSM only, not dual mode or UMTS, to try and force it to connect to Orange.

Former Member

wooooooooah wrote: »

Thanks LaLaLa.

I just spoke to three support, they said if there is no coverage I can try and connect to Orange, as they piggy back on Orange for extra coverage. This will involve me manually selecting Orange every time the signal is lost though, which is a massive pain!

Mobile phone networks will just scam you out of as much as they can! Every time I send a text to my dad, he'll tell that "there is some rich businessman sitting in an office rubbing his greedy little hands and laughing at your money wasting." You see, my dad gets five free texts a day for life as long as he has at least a penny on his phone. Those five texts are all he ever uses... and I'd love to do that! But you just get sucked in to the whole top up-text-top up routine... So, if they can stop you leaving their network- especially if you have to spend money each month, and aren't able to use it, they will keep you there as long as they possibly can!

Sorry about my rant there!
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