Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

UK - TESCO iPhone users/customers

K

karansaraf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 18, 2010
231
8
In the UK iPhone thread a couple of people posted their bad experiences with Tesco.

I wanted to start a new thread so that I could get some more feedback. I've been really looking forward to getting the Tesco iPhone because of how great value for money it is but if everyone says its terrible then I won't.

Please tell me your experiences with the Tesco iPhone and give details. The more the better! Their signal strength, their data network, etc etc.
 
Very very bad reception - especially at home! Most times if someone calls it goes straight through to vmail!

When some does get through th conversation is barely audible

Very very bad customer service.

No Call Waiting

No Character Count in SMS

I'm sure there are other things but can't think of em right now



No Character Count in SMS
 
I'm on the £20 a month package for 12 months. So far so good. I get good reception and have had no issues with phone calls or data. My wife has an o2 sim in her phone and we seem to get the same reception and data speeds which you would hope considering they use the same network.

Any more specific questions or tests you'd like me to try ?

I tested the wifes O2 simplicity sim and it works in the tesco iPhone.
 
ebony said:
I'm on the £20 a month package for 12 months. So far so good. I get good reception and have had no issues with phone calls or data. My wife has an o2 sim in her phone and we seem to get the same reception and data speeds which you would hope considering they use the same network.

Any more specific questions or tests you'd like me to try ?

I tested the wifes O2 simplicity sim and it works in the tesco iPhone.
Click to expand...

Ebony,

Do you have an SMS Character Count?

When you switch the phone to vibrate, after the BIG bell with a slash appears do you also have a small bell on the top of the screen with the slash through (or anything similar) to indicate the phone is on vibrate/silent mode?

Does the Weather application randomly change your location?

Oh, and what Tesco firmware do you have? Not Apple but Tesco specific. I'm on 7.1.

Thanks
 
I've had no problems with reception on my phone - either with the 3gs or the 4. Customer service, although they are polite I think they are all high school work experience placements - you can call 3 times about the same issue and be told 3 different things. Though in my experience if you email them about a problem and asked to be called back, someone sensible always calls.

My biggest problem with Tesco's is their billing system - completely primeval. I emailed them asking them to explain their online bill system as web usage appears as GPRS volume, not MB used (which is what you want to know). This was their reply to me :

Thank you for e-mailing your query to support@tescomobile.com and providing me with the requested information.

I am sorry that you are unsure of your GPRS usage for last month.

I have looked into your account and I can see the total amount of usage showing on your bill is 75:35. Unfortunately, our system currently shows your internet usage as volume, rather than how much data you have actually used. This will hopefully be resolved shortly, but in the mean time we have a way of working it out.

We take the figure which is shown before the colon, which in this case is 75, multiply this by 60 and then divide this by 1024. Then we add the figure after the colon to work out the number of mb’s you have used this month.

So for this month you have used:

75 x 60 = 4500
4500 / 1024 = 4.39453125
4.39453125 + 35 = 39.39453125

Roughly, you have used around 39MB of data. I do apologise for the current way to work it out, but I assure you that this will soon be changed.

I hope this information helps and if I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to email me.

Alternatively please call our dedicated customer service line on 0845 301 4455.


Yeah right !!! :eek:
 
I dont get it, does Tesco get a 'special' iPhone? One that's different/worse to all others?

Isn't Tesco using O2 backbone? Why would reception be anything different to O2?
 
scouser75 said:
Very very bad reception - especially at home! Most times if someone calls it goes straight through to vmail!

When some does get through th conversation is barely audible

Very very bad customer service.

No Call Waiting

No Character Count in SMS

I'm sure there are other things but can't think of em right now



No Character Count in SMS
Click to expand...


You do realise character count has to be enabled in settings, right?

Settings>Messages>Character Count>ON.
 
Im on the £20 contract with Tesco, havent had any trouble at all, the customer service hasn't been too bad but as always could be better.
 
No problems with Tesco mobile. O2 backbone network is excellent for me in rural Suffolk/Norfolk. Customer service have always been polite and delivered when I've called, even from abroad.
 
i'm on tesco sim only, and not got my iphone yet, but tesco uses o2's network so if you're got ***** reception, blame o2.

As has already been said, character count is an option in the settings on the iPhone 4.

Finally, Tesco customer services are *****, no getting around that. The phone number they give you to activate your sim is WRONG. You have to phone like 3 depts before getting through to the right person. Average call wait was about 15 minutes too, so wasted alot of my time.

Still, they're the cheapest if you want a 1 year iPhone deal, and o2's network is hardly as bad as the 2nd poster made out (maybe he lives in the sewers?).

Why not get a £10 sim only 1 month and give it a try? nothing to loose...
 
Thanks for your responses so far guys. I was leaning away from the Tesco iPhone since a few people gave shockingly bad reviews but you guys are helping to allay these fears. Hopefully others will also chime in.

Ebony, Wetwipes, hodgey87 and Fru T Bunn - what areas do you guys live in? (just for reference).

I've also read that Visual Voicemail, Call Forwarding and Call Holding DO NOT work on Tesco mobile?



Also, do Tesco allow you to unlock the phone after 12 months? I just phoned Orange and they said that they take no part in allowing you to unlock the phone, either after 12 months or after the 24 month contract is over. They said you have to do it via a 3rd party and that would void the warranty, but that they would not send you an unlock code at any time, meaning that if you left Orange after the contract, the iPhone would be useless. That doesn't seem right, I thought the network was OBLIGED to let you unlock it after X period of time?
 
Tesco Mobile has been great for me - but then it's O2.. So if you're in an area where O2 have good coverage, that's what you'll get. I live in Burton Upon Trent, which has excellent O2 coverage.

Customer service wise - they're a little lacking.. But i've had bad experiences customer services with every network, so it's not exactly a big deal.. I was pleased to find that their call centres are UK based, rather than T-Mobile who had shifted allot of their first line support to afganipakistanioogaboogadala land.

Overall - very happy. Chuffed that when the iPhone 5 comes out i can upgrade straight away as i'm on a 12 month contract, also since Tesco are pushing the 12 months quite hard in adverts i expect that they'll repeat the deal next year aswell..

They give the best price, best tariff and best contract length.. Unless you have very bad O2 coverage in your area, i can't see why anyone would want to go with any other network.
 
-MRB said:
You do realise character count has to be enabled in settings, right?

Settings>Messages>Character Count>ON.
Click to expand...

:lol: Yup, I know that :)

I have set it to ON but still nothing.

I'm gonna check if Tesco do unlimited Texts hence there may be no need for character count ;)
 
scouser75 said:
:lol: Yup, I know that :)

I have set it to ON but still nothing.

I'm gonna check if Tesco do unlimited Texts hence there may be no need for character count ;)
Click to expand...

I think there might be a little misunderstanding going on here:

All txt messages are a max of 160 characters in length. It's one of the teleco's little cons - unlimited txt messaging as a "favour"!

160 characyrts is the maximum number of characters that can fit into the control chanel that keeps track of where you are (so the carrier knows which mast to use to send calls, messages etc to your phone).
Text messages cost the company absolutely nothing to send, zilch. So to "give" you unlimited texts, while welcome, isn't a big deal.

I'm currently on an O2 3G waiting for the fallout of the prox sensor to shake down - and phones to become a bit more available, but wil probably go with Tesco. Hopefully they'll have time to shake down their service as well ;-)
 
I'm happy with mine, although I can't get 3G in my house but I use Wifi anyways, SMS counts comes up after 25 characters (you need to enable it in settings)

My number is suppose to be ported over today but still getting "No Service", guess I need to wait a bit longer.
 
karansaraf said:
... Fru T Bunn - what areas do you guys live in? (just for reference).
Click to expand...
Suffolk and Norfolk.

Don't know anything about unlocking after 12 month contract term. Incidentally, the two reasons I chose Tesco are (1) O2 network and (2) 12 month contract.

As far as registering the phone, the guy in Tesco's offered to do it for me there and then. It went through without a hitch.

I also ported my number and that went through without a hitch too.
 
btw how long does it take for the club points to appear in you account? I ordered my last phone on Thursday and still no points.
 
karansaraf said:
Wetwipes, - what areas do you guys live in? (just for reference).
Click to expand...


I'm Norfolk and Suffolk too! :D

Just had another bad experience with them today though. Turns out they are classing my wi-fi useage as 3g useage - jeeeeeeeez!
 
Keats-dk said:
Can i ask how you guys got your phones from tesco? did you wait outside the store or order online or what?
Click to expand...

On launch day i waited until phone lines opened. After engaged tone for an hour and then getting through to be told their systems had crashed and won't be selling any today, i decided ring all stores within 15-20 miles of me. Found one with stock still and reserved it, popped down on my lunch break and picked it up. Easy pezzy
 
I'm looking into getting an iPhone on Tesco, but I've got a couple of questions.
When the 12 month contract runs out and I want to sell it, how will that work, can I unlock it?
Does anyone know if Tesco will get the white iPhone on it's launch and if not when will iPhone 4's come in stock?
Thanks :cool:
 
The character count 'issue' is to do with software, even though it's not an issue.

Once character count is enabled, it won't show the count unless you go onto the second line of a text message. To test it out, just click 'Return' when typing a text message or type a text longer than one line and the character count will be enabled.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back