3's idiot data policies for their USB modems
SMS Text News reader David runs a highly successful mobile internet startup in the UK. He’s been having no small amount of trouble with 3UK. I wonder, has anyone else had similar issues?
Over to David to
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Hi Ewan
I wanted to share my experience with 3 yesterday.
I bought a 3 mobile broadband modem on pre-pay for my son who has broken his leg to so that he can use his laptop when on hols. Great value for a little peace and quiet 🙂
So I get a call from him asking me to to top up his credit. Easy me thinks all I have to do is sign in to My3 add a card and add some credit. Having eventually retrieved mobile numbers and passwords from said son.
I signed in and added a card. Apparently it takes 7 days to confirm a card (what utter crap me thinks) but the nice people at 3 charge £10 to the card enough for 1Gb me (me thinks) problem solved, happy son I can get on with my Sunday.
3 hours later I get a call from my son saying “Dad I am out of credit again!” I quizzed him “What have you been downloading, uploading, streaming?” but it appears that he had been using MSN.
I called 3 broadband customer support number, only to be told to dial 550 from my 3 mobile. “But I don’t have a 3 mobile, I have a 3 Internet dongle!” I exclaimed. Eventually I was transferred but got lost in the system so repeated the whole process again.
“Well sir I can see that you topped up by £10 but you did not use this purchase a £10 extra so your data has been charged at £1 Mb. You have to purchase the extra to get the 1Gb.” If I can borrow some your own words “What utter arse!”
“But sir it is clearly explained in the terms and conditions in the book that came with the USB Modem.” Like I still have the book and why if this is really necessary (because programming the online and billing system hasn’t gotten done yet) didn’t it say that when on the Web page when I spent the money?
After a further 10 minutes of remonstrating what a ridiculous system this was and asking to speak to the supervisor they applied the credit to my account. I had to phone my son and ask him to unplug the modem otherwise any data would have been charged at £1 Mb immediately.
Total cost £10 top up, 30 minutes of calls to an 0870 number so probably another £10 and a good bottle of red wine to lower my blood pressure.
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David, thanks for taking the time to document your experience. Ridiculous. So you actually have to phone up and tell them that you’re BUYING AN EXTRA for 10 pounds and THAT gets you the 1GB of data?
That’s a bit of a creakingly crap billing system…
