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Tesco mobile are a really good network with great tariffs and a good choice of phones. If you are looking for a new phone do not rule out tesco mobile, in fact I would give them a go, you have nothing to lose and as I said if you do not see the phone you want on their network get it on another ... Read review
A review by DC-DanielColeflax on Tesco Mobile June 6th, 2007
Author's product rating:
Advantages:
good tariffs, good choice of phones
Disadvantages:
sometimes expensive to call out of the country
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I started using tesco mobile around one and a half years ago, and am now on my second phone with them. It is fair to say that tesco mobile is the best network I have ever used in most respects, well, actually I have only ever used two because most other networks appear awful. I used vodafone for about 2 and a half years and then wanted a new phone, but the phone I wanted was very expensive on vodafone pay as you, and they had virtually no choice of phones unless you went on contract, which is unsuitable for me. I saw the phone I liked on tesco mobile at a reasonable price and decided to give them a go.
The choice of phones... One of the best features of tesco mobile is their wonderful choice of phones on pay as you go. Whereas now many phone companies usually have a choice of hundreds on ontract and two on pay as you go, or loads on pay as you go but at 10 time what they are worth, tesco mobile pay as you go has a very extensive choice from cheap and cheerful to modern and more expensive. They also sell sim swap packs that enable you to unlock your phone and add their sim card, and sell a normal sim pack for phones that do not require unlocking. I believe that the sim cards cost just under £5.
The Prices... As tesco mobile points out "our bread is not more expensive at peak times!" which is true. There is one basic flat rate of 20p per minute for calls and 10p per text message, with half that price to your three favourite numbers. There is one tiny thing they forget to tell you intheir adverts though, which means I think they should change their slogan to: "we won't charge you extra for bread at peak times, but we will charge you extra for a travel toothbrush if you take that set travel toothbrush abroad!!!" Although it is reasonable to charge more for people taking phones abroad this could be highlighted better, as it costs you double standard rate, which is still cheap as far as phoning abroad goes but isn't pointed out and advertised all too well.
Another option... I you like there is another option for your tesco mobile tariffs that you can easily change to, should you wish to from tesco mobile. This is tesco value mobile (who'd of thought it, asda smart price mobile coming soon perhaps). This means that you pay only 15p per minute for calls and 5p per text message. The problem here is that although there is no extra cost there is not as many features, you cannot call abroad and you do not have three favourite numbers.
Another another option... A third option (and the final one) to change to is tesco extra mobile and this costs no extra so long as you top up a minimum of £15 per month. although it costs somewhat of alot of money to top up for people who do not use their phone regularly the savings are immense for those who do. This entitles you to all texts at 5p each and all calls at 10p per minute.
Customer Service... I have only ever dealt with the customer service of tesco mobile once when my phone randomly asked for a PUK code for seemingly no reason. I could not call tesco mobile directly as the number was in my mobiles phonebook that required a PUK code to do anything with the phone so I simply called my nearest tesco store. I spoke to a woman there who said she would help me if she could, she was very very friendly although she could not help me, but then she was not from the mobile department, but she passed me on to them directly. When I spoke to a man on the phone at the mobile department he was very friendly and polite and listened to what had happened and it appeared that I had somehow entered the wrong PUK code when I hadn't asked for it, and he did not understand what had happened if I had not being trying to enter it. He simply told me my PUK code with no problem at all and soon my phone was working fine again.
Extra features... Many of the phones have internet access although I have never actually used the internet on my phone as I am aware the prices are very high. Other than this there are not to many frills on the tesco mobile network but it is very good for being a phone. It does have the ping me a pound service meaning a pound can be transferred from one phone to another if both are on tesco mobile, handy for parents with children running low on credit. It also has built in numbers for bundles, tesco flowers, tesco offers etc, and of course you can collect club card points.
Conclusion... Tesco mobile are a really good network with great tariffs and a good choice of phones. If you are looking for a new phone do not rule out tesco mobile, in fact I would give them a go, you have nothing to lose and as I said if you do not see the phone you want on their network get it on another and change the sim card, easy.
I hope you found this review helpful and if you require any further information please leave me a comment and I will update the review accordingly.
Whilst in Tesco a few months ago with my wife she decided that she wanted to get a new mobile phone and seeing Tesco's deals on mobiles we chose there to buy it. The phone she liked was the Samsung D500 so she picked it up and took it to the desk. Upon paying £120 for the phone she also received a £20 Top Up Voucher (For those that don't know this is credit to put on your phone). We bought from Tesco for the price so to get £20 voucher as well was ... ...Tesco Pay as You Go Tariff. We were very surprised when we realized how good their Tariff's were and the fact that O2 were the providers of the service signal. Within the box we were supplied with a free Tesco standard tariff sim card.
When we got home the phone was set up ready for use and we tried it out, phone worked great and signal and reception on the Tesco tariff was perfect, we have since traveled with the phone and again the signal and ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Reasonable cost and a straightforward range of tariffs Disadvantages: Some underlying network problems
...BE the mobile network with Tesco Mobile (well almost… see below!).
When did Tesco build a mobile network?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The answer, of course, is that they didn't. The Tesco Mobile network is a 'virtual' network, similar to Virgin Mobile, in this case being carried on the O2 network. It is a joint venture between Tesco and O2. Why do these virtual networks exist? On the (physical) network operator's side they use up spare capacity ... ...Tesco's undoubted marketing ability and Tesco add another income stream to their increasingly diverse portfolio.
As Tesco Mobile is actually carried on O2's network then the coverage and performance is determined by O2. O2 has a network coverage of better than 99% - but note that this relates to 'population' coverage rather than geographic. What this means is that there are still plenty of remote (and some not so remote) areas across Britain that ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Simple Tariff, Good Reception, Credit never expires Disadvantages: No features like "stop the clock"
...when they are out.
Tesco have a choice of three tariffs which are as follows
Value which is simply a phone and texting service and all calls are 15p per minute and texts 5p per minute. There are no frills such as Internet or picture messaging. This is great if you just want a phone to be a phone in the UK only. It does not work abroad
Standard Tariff - Calls are 20p per minute and texts 10p but this will call abroad and does most other features. ... ...Messaging etc.
I use Tesco all the time and have three SIM cards as my kids top their mobile phone from mine using the "Ping me a pound" Service. This allows them to dial a number (as long as you have authorised it and they are on Tesco Mobile.) and they will get £1 of credit transferred to their phone). This means that none of our phones ever run out of credit. You get a text message to your phone saying they have done it.
Topping up the phones ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Cheap, easy to get started, good coverage, clubcard points Disadvantages: None so far
...work for but was on Tesco mobile. Dont worry I've not lost it, Tesco mobile and O2 are pretty much the same thing because Tesco buy the 'spare' satellite time from O2 to operate their network. Which means that while the Tesco sell the SIM's and the handsets its O2 that owns and operates the satellites and masts that the network requires. Right so now thats cleared up, I've decided to not invest in a new phone contract as if my pay as you go tesco ... ...lost or dropped call with Tesco mobile, and only once or twice has it not sent texts (and that was in Tenerife because the 02 network is notouriously unreliable in that area).
You can buy 30 day text and call bundles, usually I buy the Text 200 for £10 but don't bother with the call bundles, however should they offer bundles that allow cheaper international calling I would probably buy them. Other bundles avaliable are Text 50 for £2.50, Text 100 ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: O2 coverage (best in the UK), free credits, easy top up, unlatch possible Disadvantages: high call charges (expected with PAYG phone)
...like to talk about the Tesco mobile service rather the phone. For the phone Sony Ericsson T303 please read my other review posted yesterday. First of all, I got the phone and Tesco (always) has an offer of buying a new PAYG phone and credit you £10! This is not a free credit which will expire after a month but 'real' credit that will never expire until you have used it. Good ! The second impressive offer is triple you top up i.e. I have topped up ... ...ATM cash machines with the Tesco mobile top-up logo. Furthermore, you can set up you 5 favourite phone numbers (including landline) to have half-price call charges. The high call charges are expected for PAYG phones anyway. If you want low charges, the ASDA mobile network is very cheap however its Vodafone coverage may not be as good, at least in Oxfordshire. The fourth good thing is the coverage. O2 coverage is still second to none. Instead of buying ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Great bargains to be had with your points Disadvantages: Not all of the restaurants are available in all towns
...The clubcard from Tesco is perhaps one of the best known clubcards available on the high street. Many people will have been using their clubcards for a long time and no doubt, it is one of the main reasons why people remain loyal to the tesco brand.
I usually take the vouchers and enjoy buying something special, like a CD or DVD as a treat, if it is a tight month I will often use my clubcard vouchers to supplement my shopping budget, which is helpful as the points arrive each quarter.
I get quite a lot of points as I use a tescomobile, recycle my bags and also get my electricity with EDF...so I usually get around £20 a quarter.
This time I decided to use the points to purchase clubcard deals as they have a wide range of activities and choices to use your points for.
I chose to use my points to purchase Blockbuster DVD rentals (11...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
...the points and vouchers? You get 1 point for every £1 spent in store. Also if you have TescoMobile, Insurance, Broadband or any tesco product you earn 1 pont for them as well. I got a quote for house insurance and it was a good price. If i signed up I would earn the points and get a £20 voucher just for signing up, So there's plenty of ways to get some points. Yes it wont make you rich, but if you've to buy food and stuff anyway, why don't you get a bit back?
The other incentive Tesco is doing is if you re-use your own carrier bags instore you get 1 point per bag as well. I have to admit in Asda I would never think to re-use my bag, but when it comes down to hard money I will go in the shop with my pockets full of carriers!
You get your points paid out 4 times a year. and with these payouts you usually get some other vouchers. Things like...
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Advantages: FREE TO JOIN POINTS SOON MOUNT UP Disadvantages: NONE
...per pound spent.
4. Powergen give you Tesco points when you use them: 1 point per pound spent.
5. Points for Tescomobile : 1 point per pound spent.
6. Tesco internet access: 1 point per pound spent.
7. Green clubcard points: I have found the green clubcard points excellent and I have made a lot of points with this. Green Clubcard Points means you can top up your points and also help look after the environment.
~Re-using bags~
Earn green clubcard points by re-using bags in store they will give you one point for each bag re-used.
~Mobile phone recycling~
This one is really good again you need to pick up special envelopes in store or apply online( I have recycled 8 phones so far which gave me £40.00 in vouchers). You used to get 500 point, £5.00 for every phone that turned on or 100 points £1.00 if it didn...
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Supermarkets they do everything don't they from baked beans to widescreen televisions and not to forget photo processing.Well having an hectic life and not a lot of free time i decided to give the service a go and here's what i found.
The... more
Grrrrrrrrrrr!! Tesco ads - yes, you know the ones, with those two irritating women - mother and daughter - who need to go and GET A DAMN LIFE!!
Prunella Scales (Mother) and Jane Horrocks (daughter) star in a series of these interminably maddening... more
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