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3 have terrible service!

Boblister said:
To cancel a contract with Three is like trying to cancel a contract you made with the devil!! They are the last people in the world I would ever have a contract with again. But for PAYG they are actually easier to use than all the other providers.
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Tell me about it they just don't get it. No matter how many times I told them how rubbish there service was and that I wouldn't stay with them even if they paid me they still tried giving me deals to stay. What part of not staying even if you paid me don't they get, let alone staying with them and still paying them.

I was surprised actually that it was an Indian call centre for cancellation most companies only use Indian call centres for customer services and have UK ones for Sales and Cancellations.

They could do with one of the bigger networks (like O2) swallowing them up and using 3's phone masts to improve coverage of the existing network.
 
Always remember when i cancelled my 3 contract when i got the iphone. Even though i said i allready had the iphone they were telling me how bad it was and i should stick with them and they were willing to give me a nokia worth about £10 that they were claiming was better than the iphone. Then they moved on to trying to take out another contract as a present for a friend:eek: Told them if i gave one of thiers contracts out as a present i wouldn't have any friends left:D

Whole call took me nearly 2 hours to cancel.
 
On the other side of all the negative comments I thought I would post that I have had a good experience with Three.

I took out their 5GB/month one-month rolling contract about 18 months ago. When I ordered I spoke to a lovely Northern (english) lass and the sim arrived next day. Subsequence calls to the call centre haven't been quite so good, but since I got the service running its been pretty flawless.

A couple of weeks where the service has been down due to a transmitter site upgrade and trying to get sense out of the advisors was pretty tricky, but other than that the internet service itself has been consistently excellent.

For anyone feeling like they should give up, just have a little hope! The pain of activation is more than likely worth it for the speed and consistency of the actual service they're providing!
 
I've noticed some annoying behaviour with my 3 mobile broadband...

Every now and then, the service just stops responding, even though the reception is still showing 5 bars. If I try to load a webpage when this happens, the request just sits until timeout (tried on Atomic and Safari).

After a few minutes, the service usually returns. However, by that point i've usually got rather annoyed and turned airplane mode on and off again to try and "reboot" the service.

I'm sitting in a static location when this happens, the signal is strong, so can't be a mobility issue.

Anyone else experienced this?
 
colmaclean said:
I've noticed some annoying behaviour with my 3 mobile broadband...

Every now and then, the service just stops responding, even though the reception is still showing 5 bars. If I try to load a webpage when this happens, the request just sits until timeout (tried on Atomic and Safari).

After a few minutes, the service usually returns. However, by that point i've usually got rather annoyed and turned airplane mode on and off again to try and "reboot" the service.

I'm sitting in a static location when this happens, the signal is strong, so can't be a mobility issue.

Anyone else experienced this?
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Not noticed that myself. Is it in one location only? it's possible there is a faulty cell or something. I have just used Three on my mifi for about an hour with 2 iPads logged onto it. No interruptions at all over that period.
 
Boblister said:
Not noticed that myself. Is it in one location only? it's possible there is a faulty cell or something. I have just used Three on my mifi for about an hour with 2 iPads logged onto it. No interruptions at all over that period.
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Hopefully it is a faulty cell. I'll be in a different location tomorrow, so will be checking to see if I get the same behaviour there.
 
Right....I registered with three yesterday and was on the phone to a nice chap called Darryl :confused: anyway....took 16 minutes and within a wee while the 3 logo was there but no 3G signal.

All I did was switch it off, then power back on and et voilà - 3G all sorted.

I'm a happy bunny now !!!
 
Phoned 3 I didn't have any service because they set it to start on the 28th June. They told me I had requested that. I don't think so. Anyway it's all sorted now.
 
I have to admit I too have experienced the frustration that is three's sim registration. I never expected it to take a few minutes for the person on the phone to finally spell Nottinghamshire correct. Very frustrating and still no service.....

Did anyone else get asked if they were 'excited' every 5 mins? I would have been more excited if the registration call had only taken 5 mins instead of the 45 it ended up being... Grrr

Can anyone advise, I've made the call to three, registered the sim, picked the plan, and been told to wait 3 hours but nothing... What should happen after registration to get the service working?
 
Wow..

I guess we're spoiled here in the U.S. Even with ATT's "poor coverage" and all the other woes about the network.. Rates are great and we of coars can always activate / deactivate via the device. Never knew we had it so nice over here.:cool:
 
Still waiting 72 hours after calling them. Can't get through to support as they appear to be shut and none of their support lines recognizes my 3 number.

Regretting this big time.
 
Kibbe17 said:
I guess we're spoiled here in the U.S. Even with ATT's "poor coverage" and all the other woes about the network.. Rates are great and we of coars can always activate / deactivate via the device. Never knew we had it so nice over here.:cool:
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You don't. We have better rates, better coverage and a choice of four network operators.

The issue is that only two of those four have invested in Apple's proprietary system for on iPad-activation and they are O2 (weakest coverage) and Vodafone (least attractive tariff). If you want to go with Orange or Three (better coverage and best tariffs for heavy users), you need to call them to activate the microSIM. In Orange's case, this isn't a problem. But in Three's it's a task of Sisyphean proportions due to a customer service front end that cannot be described as anything other than woeful.

Good to have a choice, though.
 
I'm finding it hard to believe that given a few of us here have posted on this thread how hard its been to get connected that there isn't more on the web about this. From my POV, I also had a woeful time in getting connected but now its on its been great. I did need to restart the iPad to get the service but thats been it. I appreciate the convenience of the O2 MicroSim I also got with the iPad, but in my location only 3 gets 3G, so I'm kinda stuck with them. I'll give them a couple of months (assuming all is good with my first bill) before I consider canceling, which I know will be another fight. I'm considering sending an email to the UK CEO about it, but I think I need more disgruntled views to point him to. Anyone seen any other reports of this fiasco on the web?
 
FlexPen76 said:
I'm finding it hard to believe that given a few of us here have posted on this thread how hard its been to get connected that there isn't more on the web about this. From my POV, I also had a woeful time in getting connected but now its on its been great. I did need to restart the iPad to get the service but thats been it. I appreciate the convenience of the O2 MicroSim I also got with the iPad, but in my location only 3 gets 3G, so I'm kinda stuck with them. I'll give them a couple of months (assuming all is good with my first bill) before I consider canceling, which I know will be another fight. I'm considering sending an email to the UK CEO about it, but I think I need more disgruntled views to point him to. Anyone seen any other reports of this fiasco on the web?
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Maybe get in touch with BBC Watchdog? They're always interested in any news item which lets them slag off a big business.
 
Hi
Got my iPad today with 3 microsim. The first time I rang to activate I had to tell the lady I am hanging up as she made no sense! Rang back in 10 minutes and got someone who seemed to know what they were on about. 90 minutes later and I'm good to go. So far no issues (fingers crossed!)
 
Email sent to Kevin Russell (CEO of Three UK). Maybe others in this thread would do the same so its not a lone voice of frustration.

Wonder if I'll get a reply?
 
FlexPen76 said:
Email sent to Kevin Russell (CEO of Three UK). Maybe others in this thread would do the same so its not a lone voice of frustration.

Wonder if I'll get a reply?
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Possibly. But more chance you get a call from one one of his experienced customer service representatives/technical experts.....in Mumbai.

/sarcasm off
 
FlexPen76 said:
Email sent to Kevin Russell (CEO of Three UK). Maybe others in this thread would do the same so its not a lone voice of frustration. Wonder if I'll get a reply?
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I respect you putting pen to to paper, and will be interested to see what kind of response you get (knowing as I do how well-rehearsed the excuses for such awful off-shore call centres are).

I note this thread has had a mention in the comments on the Three UK blog, so the issue may already be on their radar. It bloody well ought to be.

http://blog.three.co.uk/2010/05/25/data-plans-for-ipad-from-three/#comments

The more I think about, the more I think the iPad and Three are incompatible. Apple is a premium brand, with premium products and customers who have come to expect a premium service. Three simply cannot deliver this. End of story.
 
I had my own nightmare with 3 on Friday morning after picking up my iPad. I was calling from a cafe, not far from the apple store. The guy told me in very broken english that it would take 15 minutes to setup. After 30 minutes of repeating everything to him 10 times, using the phonetic alphabet for every letter of every detail he wanted, he told me his system had crashed and we needed to start again from the beginning.

Lost my patience and hung up.

So i trekked over to a nearby 3 store and they told me they couldnt help, but i could use their phone to talk to the contact centre. So, attempt 2, this time an indian lady, her english was slightly better, but she had no idea what and iPad or Microsim were. She told me it would be automatically activated :confused: Cue second hang up.

3 store staff then decided they had an idea and put me through to the team that deal exclusively with MiFi activations, they knew all about the iPad and Microsim, and the english was a touch better again. 20 minutes later it was all done.

I dont remember the number for the MiFi team, but if you call a 3 store they should be able to tell you. The staff in the 3 store in Manchester were great though, and helped as much as they could. I think i've also made them all want an iPad as i wandered in with the first one they'd seen and let them play with it.

Now its connected the signal is really good and it seems much faster than my O2 iPhone's 3g, but some of that could be down to the iPad being a faster device.

EDIT: FYI, i had to do a hard reset to get the 3G working. Kindof expected that though.
 
Four full days in, 4 long support calls (3 of them costing me 5p a minute) and still no network activation.

It was promised to me at 10am on the 1st June in my last support call (yesterday). I will call again later and feedback.

I'd think long and hard about whether you'd want to go with Three if you're considering it.
 
Last night, i tried to set up a "My3" account for my iPad.

http://my3.three.co.uk

After entering my micro sim's credentials, I was informed that a text message containing password details would be sent to my "phone".

Obviously the iPad can't receive texts, so I'm wondering how I get hold of my password?

Please don't tell me to phone the call centre!
 
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