When I called Three to cancel my contract¹ one of the things I mentioned was my bad reception: not being able to receive or make calls; getting cut of midway through conversation and requiring three attempts to send a message.  The guy² told me that the problem wasn’t with Three as my area has a strong signal.  Apparently my mobile was the problem, something to do with it being a tri-band, which I thought was strange as I live in the UK and tri-band should work in Europe right?

Coincidentally after that call things started working slightly better but my reception still wasn’t great.   At the places I go most I kept getting “Emergency calls only”.  I bought a new mobile anyway because I’m not making full use of my contract (£15/month 300 minutes call and unlimited texts).  Although the guy did offer to give me 10% but that’s not much and with the VAT increase next year it wouldn’t be worth it.

My new phone is working great.  Calls are crystal clear, reception is good and my texts send first time ’round.  Maybe the guy was right and it was my mobile in question³…

I’ll be glad when this contract is over as I’m looking forward to just keep this mobile for a long time – not a big fan mobile shopping – and not wasting away my money on contracts which don’t meet my social status (read: a loner who barely uses phone.  Just kidding…I prefer using the Internet to keep contact and would prefer calling without worrying at how many minutes I have left.)

1. Silly didn’t realise that the three months before contract ends doesn’t actually apply to cancelling.  Almost coughed up £70 to cancel due to infuriation of bad reception. [↩]
2. Who kept apologising for things that were out of his control.  It’s nice but he really didn’t need to. [↩]
3. Admittedly I’m not mobile savvy so naivety may also play a part. [↩]