I was an Eircel/Vodafone customer for 12 years. In that 12 years, I never received any incentive to stay with them, no special price reduction, no free upgrade.

I switched to 3 last year and used the number portability to keep the same number.

I got a call from 3 a couple of weeks ago. They told me I was due an upgrade, I told them I knew this and was looking at phones. They offered me a choice of 3 different phones, I settled on the Nokia 6280, not an amzing phone, but not a bad phone either. They also gave me a €10 prepaid sim for my exisiting phone (why I don't know...) and then reduced the cost of my Talktime 200 contract from €25 a month to €22.50 a month.

In general, 3 have offered a very good service. The only time I hit problems was when I was in Switzerland. There is no roaming agreement there for 3 yet, so I diverted from my 3 phone to a Vodafone ready to go phone. I got a call from a 3 rep whilst in Switzerland, told him the issues I was having and lo and behold, they credited my account for a few €.

Due to the service I got from 3, and the fact that as long as I stay on a 3 network when I go abroad, all calls come out of my minutes, texts are at standard rate and there is no charge for receiving calls I was going to stay with them anyway. It should also be noted that I can also call any phone or mobile in the UK and it also comes out of my minutes, not an extra charge (while I still have minutes left). These incentives were only the icing on the cake!

Anyway, before it sounds like an advert, I'll stop!

mj

I have considered using three for data, but not yet.

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