# Tesco Mobile



## koby (13 Oct 2008)

Recently I made the move from Vodafone to Tesco Mobile, thinking that Tesco Mobile (prepay) were offering the best and most transparent deal.

i.e. 20c per minute at all times to all networks, 9c texts to all networks

However, I'm now rethinking for the following reasons:

1) Calls to both voicemail and customer service are NOT free (they're also 20c per minute)
2) There is a flat charge of 20c for a call, even if it's only a few seconds long
3) There's no 'webtext' service
4) You can't top up online
5) The free credit offer isn't as great as it sounded - '125 euro free credit' means: 10 euro on your sim, 20 euro once you move your old number (which expires after a month), 10 euro for registering.. then 8.50 everytime you top up by 20 euro in a calendar month - lasting 10 months (this credit also expires after a month)

Just thought I'd share my opinion. I think when my 10 months are up, I might switch back to Vodafone or try out another operator, unless Tesco Mobile change a few things...


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## Master Timmy (15 Oct 2008)

Everything you say is true. I too am a disgruntled new customer with Tesco mobile. I'll be switching back to Meteor at my earliest opportunity.

However, you can use your free credit (the credit which expires after 1 month) to purchase Tesco's Talk & Text bundles. At least this way you get to hand on to your credit - these bundles do not have any expiry date.


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## koby (15 Oct 2008)

Good thinking


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## Omega (15 Oct 2008)

Master Timmy said:


> .....I'll be switching back to Meteor at my earliest opportunity.....


I'm in the same position - which Meteor plan are you considering and why? Thanks.....


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## koby (17 Oct 2008)

I've taken your advice MT and bought some talk and text bundles with my free credit. Great advice cuz it sorts the expiry date of free credit issue.

Weirdly it makes more sense to buy 2 xTalk and Text 10 bundles rather than 1 x Talk and Text 20 bundle (you get 5 extra txt messages this way).

Also, I mentioned above that calls to customer service are 20c a min, I was wrong, they're actually 30c a min! And while I'm on a rant, I might aswell continue - the 'website' that you login to (for account info etc) is a total joke.. it shouldn't even be live in my opinion, it looks like an under-construction type website. Rant over  I'm gonna write to tesco about it now instead of moaning further!


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## koby (20 Feb 2009)

Four months on, and I'm still with Tesco Mobile. I have to admit, even though I still have issues with their service, the savings I'm making outweigh the disadvantages. 

Because of their current on-going 'buy one get one free' promotion (e.g. top up by 10euro, get 10euro credit free), my top-up bill has been reduced from over 30euro per month (with Vodafone) to 10euro a month. Note: I'm a pretty light phone user.

So I'm sticking with them! I feel that they're the best value for money pay as you go phone provider at the moment.


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## lebide (24 Mar 2009)

Don't think you can buy the Talk & Text bundles with free credit anymore - I tried buying a bundle with free credit with no success.  They may have tightened it up so that you can only buy them with paid-for credit?  So, free credit may not be as attractive as it sounds when it expires after 30 days...


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## Lightning (24 Mar 2009)

lebide said:


> Don't think you can buy the Talk & Text bundles with free credit anymore



Yeah. Exactly - Tesco have stopped this.


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## bond-007 (24 Mar 2009)

Tesco is fine so long as nothing goes wrong. 

I had an issue where no one could call my number. I could call people as normal. I called Tesco and they hadn't a notion what was wrong. After a week I was still not getting any calls. I called again and still no news or any timescale to fix the issue. I told them I was going to Meteor and all they said was fine. 

Went to Meteor and no problems so far. Still using the same phone too.


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## 808 STATE (27 May 2009)

Its a call routing issue, tell them to get in touch with O2 and update the SRF so all the other networks know which network your number is on. Tesco need to brush up on their network skills before they decide to make one!!!


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## 808 STATE (27 May 2009)

Actually that may have been a little unfair, they are an MVNO (reseller) so they dont really have much access to the technical aspects but you should bear that in mind when buying into one of these providers, and that goes for landlines too!


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## smiley (11 Jul 2009)

I have been an 02 billpay customer for a few years now and pay about €33 per month for my bill. In effect i use only a fraction of my call time per month and use almost all of my text bundle.

Most people at this stage are totally confused as regards comparing mobile phone charges.
I recommend people to use the 'Comreg' compare mobile phone charges section of their website.

Im off to switch to Tesco mobile tomorrow. Its much much better value than what im paying at the moment.

This is the regulators website. Its highly recommended.

[broken link removed]


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## irishpancake (22 Jul 2009)

Just one other annoying thing about Tesco Mobile.

Can't send Multi-Media(pics, etc) outside their network.

They say:



> You can send picture messages to other Tesco Mobile customers, or to a friend's email address, via the multimedia messages function on your phone. Over time you'll be able to send picture messages to customers on other networks too – we'll let you know when this service is available to all networks.



Anyone know when this will be available?


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## hearthway (30 Jul 2009)

Yes when we transferred to Tesco a few months ago our house alarm stopped sending text to our phone when our alarm went off because the type of message the alarm sent out was only allowed on Tesco to Tesco it cost me an €80 call out charge to find this out I have called Tesco about this they promised to call back but as yet I've not heard from them


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## paddyd (30 Jul 2009)

not sure if its been mentioned, but Tesco and O2 are one and the same.


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## bond-007 (30 Jul 2009)

Not really now. They use the same infrastructure but they have their own billing and management systems.


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## paddyd (30 Jul 2009)

the regulator made O2 move the employee's that were actually tesco move from O2's premises and they're out in sandyford i think now.
The regulator also made them outsource the billing and messaging to fujitsu, so there was some clean air between both companies.

Its all run by O2 personnel, and they split revenue with tesco

its just O2's discount brand, nothing more


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