3 (Three mobile)

Well it has been a little over 1 years since I have written a review for this site and the only reason I am writing this one is to try and prevent anyone from going through what I have
Around 3 months ago I obtained an 18 month contract for 3's mobile broadband service. The reasoning being that I would get quick and easy access to the internet.

How wrong I was however the service did not work properly from the very first day. I contacted 3 about this problem and was advised to leave it a couple more days just incase the connection had not been put through. So I waited, but still it did not work.

So I was back onto 3 did several speed tests with them turned the computer off and on again unplug the modem and moved it to a different slot and generally wasted an hour of my life. They then said they would investigate the problem and call me when the discovered the issue.

On the 15th day of taking out the contract I received a phone call from 3 in which they informed that there was currently work taking place on my transmitter and that it would be a month until it was finished. Now why was it that they took so long to tell me something that the technical team would have been able to tell me instantly? I'll tell you why I was now one day outside the date for cancellation and now I would need to pay them a £200+ cancellation charge.

Three now refused to allow me to cancel my contract to a service that did not work. The company seems to think that they have a deal where you pay them and they give you nothing in return. I refused to pay anything until the broadband was fixed. The member of the customer service team agreed and said no charges would be made until the broadband worked.

Then the date of the first bill came and sure enough I received one through the post. I contacted 3 again and they told me that they had no record of me getting my payments cancelled (fancy that) and that I would have to pay. Naturally I refused to give them money for a broken item. After an hour of arguing I was told that my payment would be cancelled.

However 7 days later I received a letter from a debt collection company. I contacted this company and explained the situation to them and they agreed not to pursue me for the money and to send the case back to 3. So once again I needed to phone 3 and I was told they had no record of my payment being cancelled (are you seeing the pattern yet). After yet another hour of my life wasted they 'cancelled' my charges (by this point I didn't believe a word).

We are now at 6 weeks of a broken service and I contact 3 again to see why it has not been fixed. I was dutifully informed that my account had been suspended for not paying (no record of charges being reversed i'm afraid) and the only way they would fix my account is if I paid them.

So this is 3's logic
1) We are going to provide you something that doesn't work
2) You are going to pay to call to tell us that it doesn't work
3) We will keep you on the line as long as possible and record none of your information so that you can call again go through the same process
4) We will then bill you for this broken service
5) If you don't give us your money for nothing we'll send a debt collector after you
6) We also won't fix you broken service until you pay for it

After £40 of phone calls and more requests from a debt collector I was forced into paying them for providing nothing.

So they fixed your problem I hear you say, we'll no it is still broken and I now have to go to the Ombudsman about the issue.

For all those who are considering going after 3's mobile broadband I would strongly advise you to avoid it at all cost. Do not underestimate the need for a company that values the customer, because 3 certainly do not. Oh and to give you an example of how bad the connection I tried to post this for 3 hours. Eventually I went to a friend's house and used their broadband to post the information.

I can't stress this enough please DO NOT deal with 3 you will regret it if things even go slightly wrong. Considering I have tried my modem at 6 different post codes the chances will be pretty high I suspect.