3 (Three) “Broadband” sucks.
October 16th, 2007 by Frank
I’ve already posted a LOT about 3 Mobile Broadband over at Aonach.com, but while I may have taken the piece of crap back and gotten a refund, many others still struggle on with 3 trying to get them to provide the service they were promised.
Mr. T asked bloggers to unite and get this shambles some extra coverage… and so I am posting again about the horribleness that is the 3 Mobile Broadband modem service.
Do read through my posts on Aonach if you want the details of my experience and what led to me throwing it back in their face, or go to Boards.ie and read posts from the countless people who are still not getting the service they were promised.
Whatever you do – DON’T GET A 3 MOBILE BROADBAND MODEM!!!
Entries (RSS)
October 17th, 2007 at 7:27 am
You should just take the word broadband out of the title. 3 as a whole, suck. Their customer service for the mobile network ranks up there with Dixons as the worst around, and their actual mobile service is bad enough to leave you trying to call their customer service a lot.
December 16th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Chris says damn straight
December 16th, 2007 at 3:06 am
three broadband has to be the worst internet sight on the planet took up an account and paid big time 500 first bill,Second bill after my best effort to monitor my usage 400 now gone thank god but paying for it now,there usage cycle was 2 days according to a hindi brother on the other side of the world. Try to make a payment plan wait until your overdue and sort it out with an overdue payment,good plan ha ha!!!. Good bye credit.
January 12th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Three are a waste of space ! Their customer service take a delight in being rude and patronising and their systems and website options only make sense to the idiot who set them up. Follow instructions to the letter and you end up with dead ends and frustration. Nothing about their product or system is simple or intuitive and they are too lazy to set up specific stage by stage pages on their website for new broadand modem customers. I have so far met personally three people in my own town who have had the same experience which is interesting, as the Three staff I spoke to insisted that my problems were unique. I used to be open minded about Indian call centres but I’m afraid that this kind of service in a UK call centre would be stamped on by Trading Standards in a matter of days. No aspects of the Sale of Goods Act, Distance Selling Regs. or general Fitness For Purpose seem to apply to Three – A TOTAL DISGRACE.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Yes, they are a disgrace. I’ve been a 3 “broadband” user since last summer. At first it worked fine but after they took on a huge number of users, the speeds in the evening nosedived and never recovered. At this stage, I’m sick of sub dial-up speeds EVERY evening, their awful customer service staff telling me lies and trying to get me to do stuff like unplug my modem and reinstall software and seeings their ads which promise the sun moon and stars. I am counting the days til I can finally cancel my 12 month contract.
I made complaints to Comreg, the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland and the National Consumer Agency but they were worse than useless. It’s clear that big businesses like 3 can do what they want and the small people can go sing for their supper.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
worst broadband and customer service ever.speed during the day doesnt go higher than 5kB/s and at most of times its arround 1-2kB/s.customer service isnt any better all theyre telling u is to unplug ur modem and plug it in again or try to connect later.im cursing myself every day for purchuasing this 18month piece of crap
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Dell Laptops To Offer Qualcomm Gobi Mobile Broadband
Dell (NSDQ:Dell) and Qualcomm paired up Tuesday to offer next-generation laptops that enable users to access multiple 3G cellular networks globally, the two companies announced Tuesday.
According to Dell, the company’s next-generation laptops will be imbedded with Qualcomm’s new Gobi mobile broadband technology, which lets notebook manufacturers ship Gobi-equipped notebooks in all global distribution channels to deliver roaming and connectivity capabilities across worldwide networks.
More info at http://broadbandmobile.blogspot.com/
April 25th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Hi from an ex-frustrated O2 user. From Oct 2007 to the New Year my broadband worked well, since then it has got worse and worse. After waiting three weeks for tech support to respond I went and fiddled. I think 3 use the same Huawei E220.
Try setting connection type to 3G only and band selection to GSM900/1800/WCDMA2100. Also worth checking windows network connection is set to maximum. It has worked for me (4x faster on downloads though uploads are slower)
Good luck
May 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
i have the three mobile internet modem and will never call it broadband! my current speeds range from 50-500bps at peak times to 1.5mbps at off peak times but lately i have noticed that off peak speeds in the carlow area have taken a nosedive and i regularly cant get above 500kbps! also msn wont stay connected and the modem regularly disconnects its self!
it appears the service is wholley unstable and seems to be intermittent in this area and is provided with a minimum level of poor quality customer care!
June 1st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Here here! I’ve had to suffer the ‘broadband’ service from 3 since last October and average download speeds are less than dial-up in Galway. Just waiting for my contract to end so I can throw the damn thing in the bin. Why isn’t there more publicity on this excuse for a broadband service and why are they still getting away with it?
August 10th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Anyone considering buying 3/Three mobile broadband, this is a warning to you.
Based on my experience and the experience of a group of friends that at about the same time signed up for three broadband in the UK.
While Three broadband does work at an acceptable level in some parts of the country, in London where most business users are it appears over subscribed.
As a result even when you do eventually get connected with a good signal ( and that can take several hours) the transfer rate is appalling (usually around 5 k bytes per second, which is the same as a dial up modem, and about 10% of basic broadband speed, and only 2% of what its advertised to be capable of).
If you have not realised this in your first 7 days then three operates a policy of NO CONTRACT TERMINATION. Without the full period of the contract being payable.
There call centre in India is very polite, however they don’t actually do anything other than solve windows PC configuration problems.
If you have the problem I have above, they will simply give you the run around, wasting hours of your time until you get fed up.
They will not investigate the problem themselves, they state that it is impossible to do this.
You will get very angry with them, and end up joining me in letting the country know how bad there product and service is.
I cant vouch for the alternatives at this moment in time, they could be as bad, or better, but people in my office with Vodafone have a better experience, and I have sat next to people on the train home who have a signal on T mobile all the way home when I have a signal for only 20% of the journey.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am
i finally got out of contract with three and even got a full refund for the modem even though i had the crap for 8 months.
ComReg were great in dealing with three as when they got involved three stopped ringing me several times a day and waited until they had something to tell me instead.
basically as three have never been able to provide any kind of broadband service they sold me dial-up but called it broadband which was the main reason i got a refund and termination!
also it is very important to follow some basic steps in dealing with three-
1/ WRITE TO THREE outlining the main issues you are having. you must use the heading “FORMAL COMPLAINT” for this letter as otherwise three will just regard it as “feedback”
2/ give three ten days to reply and improve the service. they may speed things up for a few days but if the improvement is not permenant your next step is write to ComReg outlining all your issues and all steps taken to get this resolved with three!
3/ wait another ten days for three to respond to ComReg and you can decide then what the best course of action would be for you. three may offer a termination without any penalty but this probably wont happen imediately.
4/ send copies of all your speedtest results to any email you have for three. this makes them arare of how bad your service is.
tell three you have never had good service and you intend going to court to recoup all monies paid to date as you have never got the service they sold you.
best of luck to everyone dealing with three india and try to get everything in writing, tell them that failing to reply to you by email or in writing is considered by you as a failure of three to communicate with you and this will void your contract!
August 25th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
It is with joy that I found this blog and realise I’m not alone! Apart from a disgracefully slow broadband connection (when i actually get a connection) I’ve also received threatening letters from finance companies demanding over €500 (even though I’m on a €19.99 a month direct debit) and they’ve never missed a payment. Any complaints or concerns expressed to their “customer service” were ignored or I received patronising phone calls scolding me for not reading terms and conditions (no apology for perhaps getting their account details wrong). Upon writing letters of complaint, I get those I’m complaining about phoning me. I’m one letter away from a rant on Joe Duffy. Can’t believe they get away with this.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I must be getting all the bandwidth and good service then?
Which is only fair I suppose.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Was about to sign up for 3 mobile broadband but just stumbled upon this blog. You all sound pretty frustrated so would you mind letting me know what company you have changed to as need to get it sorted myself. Thanks
September 20th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
I cant get signal or connected at all this is my 2nd modem i think i will return it i have 14days. Very bad service they said it was my old laptop so treated myself to a new one and still cant connect. What is the best mobile broadband in ireland any recommendations i dont know what to do
September 26th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I agree with everyone who finds fault with 3’s “broadband” , I’m living in an area of dublin where there is at least 3 masts within a 2 mile radius and still have a completly useless service, I complained to three today via their joke of a website, my connection was so bad that it took at least 2-3 minutes just to load the page. As for their call centre, I’ve had to hang up at times simply because I couldnt understand the heavily accented person on the other end. No fault of the staff I understand but 3 seriously need to get their “broadband” and customer service up to scratch.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Living in Dublin city centre. I signed up with 3 about 6 months ago. Average bandwidth at first – on a good day it maxed at 1.4 Mb (supposed to be 3.6 Mb) Last 3 months a nightmare though – typically hard to reach even 100Kb. Thought it was my laptop’s fault but as I entered the shop I bought it in (Henry St, couple of doors from O’Connell St, to complain/enquire I spotted a display computer hooked up to web with same system. EMBARRASSING ! (for them) – uploaded a fave youtube vid (search “German Coastguard” – it’s brilliant) IT TOOK ABOUT 10 MINS – IN THE 3 SHOP IN THE CENTRE OF DUBLIN!
THEY’RE OVERSUBSCRIBED AND THEY KEEP SUBSCRIBING AND THE BANDWIDTH IS GETTING WORSE!
October 7th, 2008 at 1:29 am
SORRY CORRECTION – I downloaded, not uploaded (see above)
October 11th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Same experience. What ComReg should do is to force the Three to give ALL the money back to all of the customers they have on the “Brodband” – refund is the only way it can be solved, that will make them think twice. And full refund for the little white thing that should have 14.4 clearly imprinted:-)
November 10th, 2008 at 12:43 am
hey,
just bought 3 broadband.the biggest mistake i’ve ever made.download speeds of 3.6mb??try an average of 5kbs. Was originally with vodafone, which wasnt much better. How can they get away with advertising the download speeds which i doubt have ever been reached.Might as well be using dialup. Monday morning i shall be waving bye bye to the biggest heap of crap ive ever purchased!!!!!
November 19th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Me again i would like to advice you all to check your bank statements 3 were taking the 19.99 twice from my account i doubt i will ever get a refund of the 60 euro they owe me now. I wish to cancel my direct debit with them its a terrible service. Can never connect it was good for a few days after i complained but back to the same thing again its so annoying.
Their customer service are dreadful also if it wasn’t so much hassle i would wave bye bye to it like previous poster but i haven’t time to fight with them at the moment
November 28th, 2008 at 2:08 am
I live in a rural area of Northern Ireland and took on the PAYG 3 Broadband because the house of was renting at the time didn’t have a landline phone in it, and so no chance of getting a normal wired broadband service. So initially I thought this was broadband heaven – go and sit in a cow field or up the top of a mountain and watch stuff on YouTube. No, no. Sorry. Wrong! You might as well forget it at peak times as I got LESS THAN dial up 56K speeds.
On the positive side though I would say that:
1) it IS better than having to go and book an hour on a computer at the local library;
2) if you’re a night time person like me you can get good enough speeds at 1am (that’s the time I’m writing this now!);
3) if you do manage to get a good signal you can get out and use it without having to be stuck at home.
I think that like all new ideas it will improve as the technology improves and more competition in the Mobile Broadband market forces companies to improve their service or lose customers rapidly.
Thanks for listening.
December 12th, 2008 at 2:27 am
I just have to say that it’s ridiculous that there has not been more publicity in relation to this so called “company”.They’re a complete joke and unfortunately it’s not a funny one there playing on the majority of there customers if thats what were defined as because to be honest.I feel that we’re all been played for complete Idiots.I’ve been lied to on the phone by a so called technician who thinks every person on the phone hasn’t an notion whats going on or how to use a computer…I rang only last week and I was told that there was maintenence being carried out on the server and even tho. my so called modem-dongle thing was showing a blue colour full signal and I couldn’t connect. I was in the same situation as the rest of threes customers” that It would bre fixed in a few hours…I put it to him that my Girlfriend in a different county was actually playing poker as we spoke for the last two hours and was still playing poker and would probably be playing poker when we were finished speaking,he said that the problem was all over the country and basically I wasn’t telling the truth…so I put it to him then that this work wasn’t being done and not to patronise me with his companys response to it’s arrogant neglect of it’s responsablity to it’s customers and told him that the real reason behind me not being able to connect to the server was that it was saturated and couldn’t bear the excessive amount of users trying to use it…and that the service was oversold…and guess what??He agreed and thanked me for my understanding of the problem and it further…as if I needed it explained!!It’s a disgrace that this is being allowed happen.I spent 130 euro on my set up and now it’s being sold at a fration of the price and selling like hot cakes but nothing is being done to allow for the big up take of the service-As if they haven’t fore-seen this happening……THE SHOWER OF FILTY,ROBBING B*STARDS…They know exactly what there doing as they’ve done it before in the U.K and now THE SHOWER OF FILTY,ROBBING B*STARDS are doing it to us and continue to…Where is the regulation!!!Oh and finally I rang again 3 days ago and complained and I got so angry on the phone.I had to applogise for not being able to string a sentence together and they have now credited my account with 20 euro!!another 110 and I’ll be dropping my case in the small claims court I’m opening after x-mas if I don’t get the cost of the modem back bcause THEY CAN HAVE IT!!
December 12th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Just to add I had to try post this msg 4 times…….Broadband??!!
December 12th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Opperation timed out twice again with so called 3.6 meg connection…a relatively new laptop..2 Gig RAM,Intel dual core processor all cookies,temps files etc. freshly deleted??At half 1 on a thursday morning??With only this page open??Can people please spread the msg….3 Sucks!!!
December 12th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
all of you people complaining must not hav a clue how 2 work a computer some of u say that you cant get over 5kps the lowest my 3 broadband goes to is at 20 kps and thats when im downloading 3 movies at the same time mayb its coz i use my 3 phone as the modem it seems to work better ..
December 12th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
The 3 mobile broadband provider is terrible.
I gave up on them after 4 months of useless service even though they still charged me each month as I was contracted for 12 months.
When the 12 months were up I rang them to disconnect me from their service and they refused and said that I had to give them 1 months notice. I refused to pay the 20 euro for the 13th month and they hired debt collectors to harass me by mail and telephone constantly for a full month, I eventually gave in and paid the extra 20 euro just to get them off my back.
Please do me a favour Google (3 broadband Ireland) on the right side of the search the 3 broadband network will have an advertisment, click on this advertisment several times as they will be charged a per click fee by Google every time it is clicked. Revenge is sweet. (Please let me know here whenever you do this Thanks)
December 16th, 2008 at 4:10 am
James with all due respect I’ve a computer neworking degree and you obviously haven’t a clue!!It’s advertised at3.6 meg I’ve now changed to Digiweb and I’m a happy camper at 8 meg and it actually does what it says…It’s a true high speed service well for Ireland that is and it only costs twice as much…P.s “20kbps” is not actually anything to be happy about even when downloading 3 files,I think you should read a book or two!?
December 16th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Oh and James I’m happy you can work a computer but your in the majority mate….kids as young as five can “work” a computer thanks to windows but only the more competent person can use one…p.s if you have a comment thats someway related to a topic,think about what your saying first and then maybe think a third and forth time and if your not sure,ask a grown up.
December 16th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
James you are obviously the only person in your “sector” using the service and you are close to the mast with line of sight so you are getting perfect uncontended signal, or you have some connection to three and are trying to call us all whingers for not putting up with your companies rubbbish service and non-functioning customer service.
when i had three for broadband at peak times the highest speeds i was getting was below 5kbps as there were too many people using their refurbished crappy modems in the carlow area, i was not imagining these speeds and at the time i advised three of my speeds by sending them all of my speedtest results,
if i was simply whinging over nothing they would not have given me three months free and then after 8 months they would not have allowed me out of the contract and also refund the full €129 for the modem! they did all this as the service had never worked properly from one month in and three had promised to upgrade and fix my speeds but nothing was ever done so if i had not got my refund from then i would have got it from the small claims court!
December 18th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I was an unhappy Three customer for around twelve months, I noted an average of one serious connection outage a day from December 2007 to the end of June 2008 at which point I gave up and cancelled the account
When I tried to cancel the account it took a fifteen minute phone call during which time I was passed between four different “support” staff each of whom tried to convince me to open a technical support call and each of whom I in turn explained to that I was certain I wanted to cancel the account and that having made multiple support calls before and having received several refunds for inadequate service I was certain that Three could not provide a reliable service.
I explained that Three’s problems varied between cell congestion, cell to Internet bandwidth congestion and packet loss problems, dns server outages and, my particular favourite, some crummy transparent http proxy that frequently claimed the website you wanted was unavailable and you should check your browser settings. I had access to another broadband connection via my phone and needless to say the site I wanted was never down.
However my story does not end there.
When I was cancelling the contract and finally got through to the accounts department who grudgingly acknowledged my request and said that I would receive two more bills thanks to their 30 notice requirement, I would received my last bill in August.
In September while checking my bank account I discovered that the fraudsters were still charging me. I went t my local bank and cancelled the direct debit. The bank teller remarked that I was not the first person to have to cancel their Three account and that Three seems to have a long history of defrauding customers.
I have since received about 20 calls from Three, each time they claim I owe them money and each time I explain the contract was cancelled several months ago and that they owe me money. They continue to call and I have opened a case with Comreg – I’ll probably have to go to the small claims court to get my 60+ euro back.
Three are quite the most astonishingly poor company – have no dealings with them and as a precaution make sure to have your bank close the direct debit to them as immediately after your last bill is due.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
the worst broadband ever!!!!!!!!!!!
January 19th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
thanks to you all from saving me the hastle of 3 mobile broadband-was seriously considering one of 3 o2 or voda-great to stumble on this site when checking it out
February 15th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Well well well, let me tell you all about Three in little old Australia, we contracted 3 broadband cards for our business in a so call “Zone” and get 14kbps to 56kbps.
Every once in a while it will spike to 887kbps then drop again like an expired viagra dose.
Luckily we have our own “business” manager due tot he fact we have more than 5 services with them. He is about as reliable as a 2 bob watch and has re-appointed 3 times already.
I wonder how well the dongles will fit up his butt then?
THREE BROADBAND SUCKS ))))WARNING((((
April 12th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Well it’s Easter Sunday 2009 and 3 ‘broadband’ was out of action until around half eight tonight. It seems every week 3 will cut out for a day. What a joke. I am going to try 02 and Vodafone and if I can get a signal I am cancelling this (my contract ends in August). If not then I will begrudgingly stay with it. When It works it works, but when it doesn’t … .it is brutal. Sub dial up speeds. Also the fact that the Irish government has given them a national tender is unforgivable.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
i have had three september 2008 and i havent been able to experience the world of the internet and i have been constantly on the phone to them and with no avail, i am new to computers and on 26th march 2009 i found out about a speed test and since then i have been doing them and recording them but now when i ring three they say that i have been experiencing the problem only from the 26th march but still im only getting 1184 bps download speed but when i say i want out of the contract they say i have to pay an early termination fee what a joke
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Three are a pack of con artists and theives. My connection on PAYG is just the pits. It keeps dropping out, refusing to display webpages, disconnecting and crashing my browser when it freezes while attempting to load a page. The support team are a pack of idiots who clearly have no idea what they are even talking about. The only thing I ever get told to do by them is clean out my cache and cookies. That doesn’t even work. I have had numerous disagreements with them on the phone, which has ended up with me shouting at them and threatening them with court before hanging up in frustration. They should be bloody ashamed of themselves for the lies that they are selling all over the world. Someday I am going to land them with a letter from my solicitor if they don’t cop onto themselves and sort this crap out.
May 3rd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I was about to get 3 thank for saving me from a massive misstake
As for james .You expect some fall off during peek time but not to the speeds i see here. It seems to me thet the network is incapable of handeling the flow of traffic as a result grid lock.
loks to me messenger pigions ,would be faster
May 25th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
thanks guys was going to purchase tomorrow, but stumbled on this, am with vodafone not much better so stuck now, dont know where to go next.
May 26th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
have to say the service isnt as bad as it used to be its much quicker now than last year. And they did refund the 2 months they owed me so i havnt complained since it suits me fine as dont use it much. But my mobile internet is still quicker and i tend to use it more
June 13th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Yeah I find massive dropouts,(australia) continual reconnections without success fails to recognise modem on both my desktop and laptop has trouble maintaining connection. In a word, Appalling!
Beware of these companies and their ripoff revenue raising for a non service. 24 month contract has no cooling off period which is a major crime. These Pakas are real financial terrorists that blow a huge hole in your pocket.
Please people keep well clear of 3 mobile broadband. Ive been “burnt” for 24 months of frustrating times. These guys should be made reduntant like their lowsy service.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:25 am
it is a very poor service. i am looking for people that have has trouble getting away from the contract. i cancelled the contract 3 months ago and they still want to take money from my account. the customer service in the shop and from the call centre is terrible.
July 16th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Their tech support is disasters; not the employees fault, but its impossible to understand heavy Indian accents…. No replacement offered while they would take modem away for a week, which is simply unacceptable and in my opinion a breach of contract on their part… Off in tomorrow to 6 – 10 Suffolk Street, Dublin (their secret HQ) to tell them that they can, eh, suffolk off!!
July 16th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I just want to follow up on what I posted last night; I went in today to their offices on Suffolk Street, Dublin 2, and I must say they could not have been any nicer!
They were very helpful, and replaced my modem without any hassle, so I am hopeful now that that’s the end of my internet problems, and if it isn’t well then I know regrettably I’ll have to get the computer looked at. Anyhow from my experience of going in, as opposed to relying on call centre back-up, I want to say how helpful they were. Thanks people in HQ 3!
: )
July 25th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I bought their new “7.2mbps” modem and returned it 24hours later. ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. I clocked the speed at 36kbps. Avoid Three at all costs.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
has anyone used the new national broadband offering yet? it is supposed to have better customer care although it is still based in the indian marketing call centre and still using the exact same operators to answer calls!
it is also supposed to guarantee 1.2mbps download and low pings of less than 120 but very unlikely that these speeds will be achieved as more users sign up in an area. so when your neighbours living in a rural area also get three fraudband they will be taking a slice of your speed ping etc and as more sign on the users at the edge of the coverage area get booted off and have continous connection problems.
July 26th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
@ruan
there is most likely nothing wrong with your pc/laptop just that when the service is oversold or has too many users per mast the people on the edge of the maps range will never be guaranteed speeds or even being able to connect, but three’s customer care is designed to throw suspicion away from the company and blame the customer doing something wrong and then blaming your computer then getting you to try it in someone elses pc then offering you an upgrade to a “faster” modem etc etc all the while delaying you from cancelling your contract with them and making you pay every month!
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I am looking to get out of my contract with 3. I’m thinking since I am simply ‘not getting what I am paying for’ Irish trading standards law would back me up?
While I was on the phone to India last night it took 23 minutes to try and load speedtest.net before it gave up. I told them it cannot be a problem with the modem as it works at 4am until 7am when there is no traffic, but they are trying to annoy me telling me to send it for testing – Suffolk Street here I come!
I have also been charged extra for using over 15gb limit, I suggested that was because I had to watch everything twice-a ten minute youtube video took 33 minutes buffering away. Support said once I had viewed this once, the second time would not use any mb’s – is this correct?
Then they told me since I had used over the data allowance “obviously their service worked”. After 45 minutes getting nowhere with an incredibly rude customer service guy I asked to be put though to billing, they kept me on hold until after midnight then said sorry we’re closed. They would drive anyone to drink! DON’T PURCHASE NOT EVEN DIAL UP SPEED 3
August 7th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
15GB a month for £15?? I’ve managed to download 5MB in the last 24 hours!! That gives the potential for 155MB after 31 days of continuous downloads. I think the term ‘fraudband’ says it all! The 3 ‘network’ is a steaming turd sitting in a puddle of vomit.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I’m experiencing the same behaviour as previously posted.
I’ve had the 3 mobile broadband device for over 3 years now and used to be ok. Recently, the download speed throughout the day really falls off. Below is a typical log performed today:
1,784kbps / 7:44am
1,512kbps / 8am
1,264kbps / 8:17am
1,728kbps / 8:49am
1,272kbps / 10:47am
400kbps / 11:20am
37kbps / 4:05pm
Tested and logged with: http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/
As the results show, the speed at 4pm is 37 times less than at 7:44am!!
Initially I thought it was possible interference so I took my laptop and dongle in the car and sat right under the transmitter – it made no difference.
I’ve also tried the connection on WinXP and Linux Ubuntu 8.10 and makes no difference.
As others have pointed out the India-based customer service of 3 mobile is an absolute sham. They always try and blame your setup, laptop, operating system, browser, etc, etc but will not concede that the fault is at their end.
Having come across this site and now know that I’m not alone I’ll be moving to a different provider.
August 16th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Not suprised I put “3 mobile sucks” into google and this site came up. Im with 3 broadband and mobile and gotta say 3 is the worst co. Ive ever dealt with. At first speeds were good but as time went by-speed became so slow its not even worth logging in and when u run an ebay shop it makes me angry that I have to get up at 1-7am just to get what I paid for. You ring broadband tech people and u get a different answer all the time why the service is slow. Once u sign up a contract they dont give a crap about your complaints. I asked about when my contract ended and all of a sudden they are offering to waive fees, and give me sweet deals just to keep me signed up, where was the customer service when I started??
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
I see I’m not the only person who finds my mobile broadband to be a complete pile of shit. Bandwidth turning down mother fuckers that they are. I don’t think the piece of shit has ever worked properly. I even have trouble loading my home page. I reckon I could go and fetch the information from America myself in the time it takes this rubbish to connect.
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Oh I forgot to mention just how pitiful my3 is. Who designed this web site a village idiot, Sloth from the Goonies? It is so shit Mozilla wouldn’t allow me to connect to it because it regarded it as unsafe because it is so riddled with errors and security risks. Internet explorer 7 didn’t mind though. What does that tell you?
September 6th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Haha. I’m on a $40 1 month plan with a wireless USB modem. It is absolutely ordinary. I was with optus before and we payed $50 a month for twice the speed.
I’m sorry to say but 3 sucks, if you’re gunna read the news or browse the web it’s okay. But if you like to stream videos, download big files, play games, go on multimedia websites then DO NOT GO WITH 3.
September 19th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
just take them to —- small claims court ——- they dont like that and will refund your money — keep the modem until you receive the money go to the district court and file it yourself 10 euro
October 1st, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Three are a total nightmare and a complete joke. Three contacted me 2 months ago to see if I wanted an upgrade modem for 30euro, I said that the one I had worked fine so I declined the upgrade. Before the call I had 5 bars coverage on a regular basis (3 bars on a bad day) when I logged on. From the day after their call I can’t even get one bar, the modem is showing up regularly as being “invalid” even though it is connected to my laptop and I’ve prepaid.
I got my modem from Carphone Warehouse so I called in to the shop yesterday. The guy said it was a coincident about the bad coverage and that I should just upgrade my modem, then when my sister (who came with me) said she had the same problem with Three he said it might be the area, then two people in the cue behind me overheard my problem and they joined in and said they experience the same problems with Three, he just said that Three wouldn’t work for me so there was no point getting an upgrade and that instead I should change to a different provider and that it isn’t really the Carphone Warehouse’s problem, it’s three are to blame so tell them if I have a problem, either way I’d rather get a dose of measles than have to spend another second on Three! Advise to anyone even considering joining Three ……..RUN, RUN LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT COS YOUR SANITY DEFINITELY WILL IF YOU HAVE THREE AS AN INTERNET PROVIDER!! Save youself the hassle. Good luck
October 4th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
3mobile absolute rubbish and their support centre is a joke. To sum it up in one word “FRUSTRATING”.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
if disconnecting from this purile service, they will ask for disconection fee. Tell them to fuck off, it,s not in the agreement. There add on tv should be done for false advertizing. def com are totally inadiquate, probibly in their pocket
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 am
I agree with all negative said about this three “broadband”??? service and its “patronizing customer not care at all service”.
I am sick of it and counting days to throw their shit modem and all their services out the window.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I see it wasn’t just me then that got totally screwed by these pack of money-grabbing liars!
I was bought a Three modem as a gift – about which I was initially delighted. My mother who got it for me paid a generous 120e for the modem and I myself was to pay 15e by direct debit for the 1st 3 months and then 19.99e for the remainder of the 12 month contract.
Firstly when signing up in the store I was informed as I hadn’t a photo ID with me at the time to sign up my mother could do it for me with hers and the direct debit could be set up from my bank account. In other words – she would be the registered account holder (but this could be changed later I was told) and I’d by paying the montly cost.
The first problem was when me and my girlfriend got home and tried to set up the modem – only to find there was no signal whatsoever where we were after being assured and promised we’d have “no signal problems whatsoever”. The person in the Three store even checked our exact location online via Google Maps before telling us this!
The only place in our entire village we could get any signal was in one or two spots on certain streets! Needless to say – we were less than impressed and took the modem back to the store. There we were informed we had in fact only 7 days from date of purchase – not the 14 we were told initially – to cancel the contract with them and that my mother as the registered account holder would have to cancel the account and she would have to come into the store to do it. A serious inconveniance as she lived a long way away!
From there – it just went from bad to worse. My mother couldn’t get to the store on time to cancel the contract so we were tied in to it and the first bill i recieved from them was for 21.99e – not 15e. Upon enquiry to their customer care I was told the payment had increased to this per month and that I now had to pay by laser or credit card because the first payment had failed! After checking into this I found the Three store had managed to take down my bank details incorrectly on the contract. I handed them a card with these details on it which I’ve used countless times before so I know for certain they were correct – despite their denials in the store!
When I explained to customer care that my mother was the account holder and I the bill payer they told me this couldn’t be the case as it was against their policy to do this!?! As far as I was concerned this should have rendered the contract null and void but apparently not. Customer care told me I’d have to take it up with the store as they’d have to sort it out – the store told me it was an issue with my bank and to go them – bank said nothing they could deal with and to take it up with Three – and so the merry-go-round continued . . .
In the end, well and truly fed up with the whole fiasco, I told them I wanted to cancel the contract. However they would only allow me to be released from the contract if I paid cancellation penalties of just over 70e which we eventually we forced to do. So – after experiancing the complete sham that is Three broadband between my mother getting the modem and the fees we were charged we paid a total of 200e for a grand total of 10 minutes use!
I’d advise anyone thinking about getting a Three modem – or any Three product for that matter – to think long and hard if this is the kind of quality of service they want!
November 12th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
‘ when me and my girlfriend …’, but Ed, I thought you were married!
November 12th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
To that stupid fucker from the previous reply that takes this issue with 3 as a joke…go and fuck yourself.
The one that call ITself Martin …is 3 paying you to be an idiot ? If that is the case my apologies ….they really couldnt get a better person for this task.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:00 am
martin – there’s more than one Ed in the world!
Iman, take it easy there, martin mistook one Ed for another, that’s all.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:12 am
This blog is for people that has or has not issues with 3 broadband and their services. Moreover it is for people that want to express the opinion that they have regarding the treatment they are recibing from 3 broadband company; it exists for that purpose only. People has been abused thousands of times by the company 3 Broadband, and they are angry as they are giving their money to 3 broadband, they are not recibing a proper broadband speed, they are being mocked and laughed at their faces by 3 broadband customer service representatives and and to add insult to injury they are stuck with 12/24 months contracts, not having the means to fight back at this nasty scamists called 3 broadband.
It is appaling that somebody thinks it is ok to reply to this blog with jokes. Probably the ones that owe 3 broadband are spending our money and living a great life whilst hiring cheap labour from India to do the dirty job. That does not sound like a joke to mef. Three is a magic number my ass!!
3 BROADBAND STOP ABUSING CUSTOMERS.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Is there more than one me? That’s just ruined my breakfast…
November 13th, 2009 at 11:21 am
I would never write that much about a telecom complaint.
Only mass Immigration.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Iman please caim down and think of the ulcers!
as for ranting here it is at the sole discretion of the blog owner/publisher what is and is not discussed but this particular thread is concernimg three and their broadband product but everyone is allowed post.
three from all accounts are still as bad as ever and even on the news the other night i heard of one parent who had to switch to three broadband so their gaming addicted son would not be able to play final fartacy or some other online nonsense this says it all really about three broadband!
sign up if you DONT want it to work!
November 13th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
English is not my first language; I meant thread and not blog.
3 BROADBAND STOP ABUSING CUSTOMERS!
November 16th, 2009 at 1:06 am
The one that call ITself Martin …is 3 paying you to be an idiot ? If that is the case my apologies ….they really couldnt get a better person for this task.
wtf?
Now what’s the standard of broadband like in your own country Iman, just out of interest?
December 19th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
[...] 3 (Three) “Broadband” sucks. » Blog Archive » BifSniff Tags: equipment malfunction, mobile web, southeastern united states [...]
January 9th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
i just bought prepay 3 mobile broadband and have to say i am very happy wit hit. am I missing something? everyone seems to have the knives out for 3 so enlighten me please. I was with Perlico, yes the worlds worst, if you guys think 3 is bad then see how you get n with Perlico.
January 12th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
@peter “Just bought” maybe why you’re happy. It’s always okay on your your trial period (which means they know what they are doing to us). Wait until you need to call support, just don’t have any sharp objects near you when that happens. When your speed slows down to 2nd class snail mail, my best advice is to disconnect and reconnect, its the only way you may get to send that really important email. Good luck brother. Why though, are you on this site if you are happy and have just bought the service I can’t help but wonder.
January 12th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
reason i am on this site is to look at peoples review, duh! most are of a negative nature, btw i was using 3 mobile broadband in the UK and it works very well, maybe the irish system is as bad as everytihng else here, i.e. corrupt and backward? anyway lets see what happens after the 14 day trial and I will join you all i your negative reviews.
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:20 am
same problem as all of you got it and it was fine for the first cpl of months but now is going downhill fast a joke and the call centre is a bigger joke ..serioulsy i have called their help line over 100 times ive had it with them and will be contacted my td about this
tonight took the bsicuit 0.05 kbs download on speedtest i couldnt hardly open the page never mind do the damm test!!!