generally speaking all corporations are poo, they’re interested in money, not how you feel, and depending on your needs every company will have things that serve you well and things that you want to complain about… when you complain you will sometimes get helpful cooperative people and sometimes you’ll get moody turds who’ve had a bad day and don’t give two monkeys about your circumstances… there’s NO SUCH THING as a good phone company, or broadband provider, or anything else for that matter… they’re just companies… get past the need for ego-massage, or “your rights” and just accept that you’ll run into arseholes and badly organised systems, as often as you’ll get good service and systems that work.
This tbh ^^
I’ve been with Orange for around 17 years, ever since they were Rabbit. I’ve only twice in that time had a problem with their customer service. I usually got through pretty quick and they were usually pretty helpful.
In this day and age of data though, I realised far too often I was left with no connection, and these are places within the M25, well, within the Circular even. How can I be in Covent Garden and not have data!?! This isn’t acceptable.
Given that (as Toby days) customer service is generally the luck of the drawer with who you get, I thought coverage and speed was more important. With this in mind, I did some testing and roped in others to help.
http://hemorrdroids.net/uk-data-speeds-survey/
It’s mainly from around London. Three has the fastest network, without doubt. It is built with data in mind. All the others are trying to adapt to the new age of data, Three even let you tether.
Second are GiffGaff. Great speeds, good coverage (they use O2) and it would appear you can effectively run a SIM for free by inviting others and simply participating and helping others in their forum. I’ve done next to nothing and earnt £15 credit with them. (Just checked now, £20…)
Vodafone are patchy. Great in some places, terrible in others.
Orange and T-Mobile, I couldn’t recommend to anyone that holds data speeds as anything important. When testing, I couldn’t believe how many times my Orange SIM simply didn’t have a data connection, when the others coped fine. Even with their strongest connection, it wouldn’t go above 2meg. Three and GiffGaff usually didn’t drop below 3mbps.
So, if you really can’t stand to use O2 (they score very well in testing) I would recommend either GiffGaff or Three.
If you want to try GiffGaff, feel free to use my link - http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/andycr15 
Best thing is get a few free SIM’s, put £5 and do some speed testing yourself.
Out of interest, what phone do you have and do you use data much? if you don’t, ignore everything I just said 
what you say is largely true Andy. T-Mobile and Orange are on different frequencies to o2/vodafone and as such suffer more from the things that can effect coverage like buildings, interference etc.
The mobile networks have been carrying data for years before 3G, and in fact this puts them in a much better place as you then have what is called a multi layer network. 3 is the fastest due to having no where near the amount of people using it, hence they can afford offers such as unlimited data and tethering etc as they do not have the congestion issues the other networks face. If 3 had the customers o2 had and tried to just run it on a 3G only network it would either collapse or they would go bust trying to build enough 3G infrastructure to cope. Thankfully 4G is coming, which will change the way it all works!
Be aware that any MVNO such as Tesco/GiffGaff do not connect to the o2 network with equal rights that an o2 customer does. The network is adaptable down to each cell site to cater for o2 customers as priority. Vodafone do exactly the same thing if you buy via Virgin or BT etc.
They still have pay phones.
There is one of the old skool looking ones opposite the Tea Hut which was oddly pink for a while.
Although GiffGaff offer better data allowance and arguably faster speeds…?
The one thing that gets me is Vodafone not having any data signal in any of the buildings I’ve worked in at Canary Wharf. It’s been atrocious every time over the last few years I’ve been there.
Most other places in London I’ve found Vodafone to be OK but if you’ll ever need data near Canary Wharf…
I used to be with T Mobile, until I had my phone nicked in China and was then stuck paying for the rest of the contract with very little assistance.
I changed to Vodafone. Their coverage is very good - I have rarely had signal problems - so that is a plus. Their customer service is absolute pants - really appalling. I had terrible problems until I got hold of the the UK Chief Executive’s e mail address and wrote to him personally stating the problems and what action I wanted to happen. He sorted the problems out the very next day!! So on the positive side - if you go to the top, it seems Vodafone can actually deal with a situation pretty quickly.
However, they are not in the game to be nice but to make a profit - it’s a lottery whichever one you choose;)
It’s not just o2 customer services that are bad, it’s all mobile service providers.
I stick with o2 because I have a pretty decent package for cheap and they have just about the best coverage, but it’s a bit like comparing Japanese motorcycle makes.
Scrub that, more like comparing different makes of porridge. All sh*te.