I'm on 3's 15gb a month for £15, which I thought was a good deal, until I realised that if I use my monthly allowance up they always allow you to go a small amount over before telling you your allowance is up. They then charge a huge amount on top for virtually no data. For instance, whilst I should be paying £15, on every month where I have used my data up I have been charged £35.99. The amount of data used over my allowance is always, suspiciously, exactly the same amount, so clearly they have set their system up to do this.
In addition despite coverage being good and being able to get a good strong signal, I regularly get dropped connections, sometimes every few minutes.
3 Mobile Broadband Reviews
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I am very angry with 3 connect! I signed a 15 month contract and the signal was always low! Impossible to use it during weekends.
I want to end my contract but after having 1000 phone calls they are not giving me any service.
I feel so frustrated! I will make a formal complain to any UK agency. -
Avoid 3 like smallpox. They are absolute crooks who will have debt collection agencies calling you with threats should you ever attemp to close your contract or have difficulties with your account or service disagreements.
I eventually rid myself of them to my relief. Do not enter into any contract or agreement with these criminals -
RIGHT! That's it! I hate 3! Just got off the phone having spoken to 4 people. I'm locked into a 24 month contract which gets me 15GB per month. Considering my last dongle on orange only gave me 6GB per month, i thought i would never have to worry again. It runs out faster every month. It ran out after 10 days this month. I only really use the internet in the evenings and not every evening. I just don't see how i could have used up that amount of data in that time. They told me that websites like facebook use much more data than they used to but that still doesn't explain it. And even if it did then it's terrible to lock someone into a 24 month contract for a soon to be redundant device/data plan. I'm about 4 months in and the thing is nearly useless already. After 20 months I immagine my 15GB will get me about 10 mins of browsing. They won't let me cancel or downgrade.
I recommend using any other way possible to get online but NOT A DONGLE!
It's too late for me now but here's a tip: Get a smart phone on contract with an "all you can eat" tariff. Then set up a "wifi hotspot" and link it to your PC. That way you'll get unlimited internet at pretty much the same speed, a nice new phone and unlimited internet... -
DO NOT purchase from 3, I have never been treated so badly from a company. I have had many contracts from lots of companies and pay all of my bills on time without problem, mobile 3 is an absolute disgrace and I will never ever advise anyone to sign up to any contract of theres.
this is my brief story-
I had a broadband service for around £5 a month that I used for 3 months I moved house and cancelled the contract. I then received a letter from a dept collection agency saying I owe £40 to 3. I spoke to 3 and they said they had no record of cancelation. So I paid and cancelled again. Another letter from 3 I owe £20, rang and said they still needed to make a final payment, and no cancellation until it was received, and the list is too long to mention what they were charging me for left rite and centre for nothing but apparently it was in contract so I could never actually cancel and get rid of them. This carried on for almost a year, being charged for nothing they even rang me over the xmas holiday 6-10 times a day for a £20 charge that I didn't even owe.
The customer services are based abroad and can obviously do what they like, as they never cancelled my contract, tried selling me more offers, hung up on me, said they would call me back and didn't, said they would put through a complaint request and didn't, said they would settle my final bill and didn't, charged me more money than I owed according to the contract, this all happened numerous times.
The final straw I couldn't take anymore and wanted to eradicate 3 from my memory. I ended up crying over the phone to a lady customer service operator who finally said she has waved any charges and that I shouldnt hear from the company again. I really hope this is the end from the 3 night mare. -
I have a 15GB per month account with 3 and I'm pretty happy with it. The coverage where I am (near huntingdon) is good and the download speed stay above 100Kbps for most purposes and stretch to 200Kbps if the weather's ok. It's not enough to stream programs from iplayer or crunchyroll at anything more than the lowest quality setting which is a shame but the connection is stable and any video service that buffers content properly is perfectly useable.
I've previously had to call 3's customer service to close an old account and I can confirm that their call centre is hellish. The staff seem very well meaning and all but they just can't speak English and spend way too much time trying to push you into buying other 3 services or upgrades or contract extensions. This is a minor issue for me as I haven't needed support except when closing accounts but I can see how it makes other people mad.
Similarly their penalties for exceeding your data allowance are so harsh that I really couldnt recommend the 1Gb package and the 5Gb package (that I've previously used) is also a bit of a stretch for home use as regular software updates on multiple computers will blow through a big chunk of that allocation without you noticing. When the web interface tells me I'm close to my limit I just unplug the dongle to be safe. The 15Gb package is quite hard to exhaust unless you get careless - my worst case was a download of Dragon Age from steam which is a good 24Gb in total and needed splitting over a couple of months. I tend to buy packaged games now as a result.
Overall: Very happy but aware of some serious gotchas. -
3 are massive rip off merchants!! If you accidentally go over your data allowance, instead of alerting you or cutting you off they bill you for ONE HUNDRED POUNDS!!!!!!!!!
They do not make it easy to see your usage. I have never seen a monthly breakdown for this charge. Be very careful!!!!! -
The service was fine, until my contract ran out, they failed to update my address when i asked for my final bill to be sent to me so I had it in writing, I got harassed with 3-4 phone calls per day by unfriendly people...still no letter! they then doubled my bill and gave it to a debt collection agency less that 3 months after the contract ended...I NEVER receive a bill in writing or on line log in details for the final bill. I will never use 3 again. Go to T-mobile, they have brilliant customer service I have never had any problems with them and have been a customer of theirs for 5 years now.
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@ Chris
When you do contact them about cancelling say these magic words to them,,, The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.
They tend to get a bit panicky. -
I live om a narrowboat so can only use mobile broadband. I started off in 2007 with a Vodafone dongle good signal but very slow then also at the same time had a o2 dongle, found to be slow as well but some friends on 3 were uanble to use there mobile internet. Then in June 2010 was informed by other boating friends that the 3 mobile network was the best. I signed up to 3 mobile internet 2010 it is brilliant my iphone 4s is now also with 3. As I have experience with three of the major suppliers and as many other boating friends are changing to 3 it is my honest opinoin 3 mobile is the best and in June will renew my contract with 3
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Horrendous, I can currently connect for one to thirty minutes at a time before being disconnected. Only after unplugging and reconnecting the modem can I reconnect. I am building up the courage to phone them and cancel but having spoken to the call centre in the past I am looking for other ways to cancel.
Stay away. -
3 mobile is the worst product and service regarding external modems, sneaky pricing, crappy dashboard that always phases you back to the useless hspa+ rubbish download speeds (supposedly 7mb feed on a technical review of my system through them (slower than 2mb in reality). Used external modems for 11 years now across the globe.... I know this technology intimately!!!!! Very sneaky dashboard which keeps logging time if you just pull out the modem without logging off. Their pricing will catch everyone if you're not careful. . . terrible, useless money grabbing.... and more...grrrrr
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In my spare time I'm a University sports administrator, which involves me travelling around the country by train from my base on the South Coast, with frequent overnight stays in hotels in not~unattractive Cities such as Canterbury, Exeter, Durham or Oxford. A year or so ago I finally got fed up with a) the spiralling cost of accessing the internet whilst away from home, and b) by the failure of many of the Train Operating Companies I travel with (Cross Country being the worst offender!) to provide free, on-board Wi-Fi to their passengers.
After doing some basic research, I then went to the nearest branch of Tesco's and bought myself a ZTE MF112 Ready-to-Go Mobile Broadband Dongle from "Three" for £20, which included £10 worth of pre~loaded data.
Thus far I'm very happy with the product which I bought as it provides me with effective internet access, at a reasonable price, where and when I need it. I've also bought the £3 "Add-on" for text messaging, which has been particularly useful whenever students in full-time higher education need to be contacted.
On the downside, I don't always use up the full 500 Mb of data which I "Top-up" with for £3 by midnight on the day after I bought it - which is annoying, because it cannot be carried over to the next day!
On the rail journey from Portsmouth to London (Victoria) the connection is usually rock-solid, and fast enough to watch catchup TV without buffering or stuttering .... apart from the brief intervals when the train is negotiating the tunnels at Clayton, Balcombe and Merstham, when the signal will drop out.
Apart from that minor quibble, I'm happy with my "Three" Pay-as-you-go mobile broadband dongle and would not hesitate to recommend it to other people who need internet access away from home on an irregular and unpredictable basis. -
Don't use 3 mobile broadband using dongle. Never.... .
I used its service (5 GB) for a month, but they charged me about 1,085 pound.
According to their investigation, I ran out of my data 21/10/2011and next day I used 12.5 GB. It's funny. I requested the evidence but they answered they just can know amount of usage of data for each day. It means they also don't know it even though they make a mistake. It is very important issue of credibility. If you know how to do for solving it, let me know about it. -
I have Pay as You Go mobile internet about 4 years now.The main reason I bought the PC to call my family through Skype which was fine in the first year.Since any time I try to talk with video phone or play a video sent by skype a computer gets frozen,I have to turn off back again connect etc.So I can not use it at all which is fustrating becouse I am back to sqare one to call on the mobile which is not really cheap.I dont know if it is the broadbend's faulth but what else?!I want to try another network I just dont know which one I shoud.
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I was surprised to read such negative comments concerning the poor 3G and coverage! I use 3 mifi and have so for over a year now, I use it at home and for work across Oxfordshire with no complaints. My partner uses a 3 network for his iPad and again no complaints. I was actually thinking of cancelling my 02 contract for 3 as my daughters Internet is faster than mine...will research further
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I signed up for a deal with 3G in order to get a Dell Inspiron Laptop. The contract was for £35 a month for 24 months until the Laptop was paid for then it should only be £15 for the monthly internet dongle. I decided to cancel over a month ago, 02 are offering a great deal on broadband as I've had a mobile contract with them for years and I was never happy with 3G's product or customer services.
In the 26months I was with 3G I had to call them at least 7 times as their kept on overcharging me even though I had a cap on the account, then they overcharged me for a replacement dongle (should have only been £10 yet they took £49.99 out of my account) It was so frustrating that I would have to call them up (which costs a bomb as I had to call from my mobile which isn't 3G so cost a lot per min) I'd be on the phone for a good 15/20mins before even speaking to anyone then it would take forever to deal with the problem so even when they did refund me the money it's cost me an arm and leg to get the issues resolved.
Now the WORST part is that when I called to cancel I was advised that I was still being charged £35 when it should have gone down to £15 and tax after 24months so technically I'm in credit of around £50+ so I was surprised to receive a bill for the internet used within the 30days until the account was closed. Surely this should be credited off of the balence on my account and the difference refunded to me. WRONG!!!! I was on the phone for 50mins (a 3rd of that time was I was on hold). This still hasn't been resolved I am awaiting a callback, but have a feeling I am going to have to call them AGAIN! I will be making a complaint to ombudsman services of telecommunication, if you have had similar issue I suggest you do the same.
http://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html -
can not put into words how frustrated I am lately with 3 network. today has been the worst I am on pay as u go and this is the first time today I have been able to access the internet its either being roaming and not letting me search anything or it shows full reception and then says check settings connection failed. I pay 15 a month this includes unlimited internet usage. can they limit my usage? if so they have gone too far today. I will not recommend this network to anyone its rubbish and unreliable! im changing network tomorrow no question of a doubt! im thinking orange? hope everyone has got their issues resolved.
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3 is a cheat I won't advise no one to deal with them,if you moniters carfuly how they tailored pages to target customers you will be supprised we have tested the internet data alawances usage on four identical phone visiting the same site metering the usage but each were used to consume higher aspect of service ie one we used to text alto anothore to serve before testing then we noticed the ones we used previously on the internet when all tested with the same amount of data and visiting the same website with timing guess what the targeted one data metering show double even more data used!!
then here the catch when we caught them red handed they cut us off and changed overnight their target ulr pages that show different content to each customers
3 is a cheat keep away from the snake charmers -
3 Are very poor lately the speed has been 0.2 mbs download and 0.3 uploads! the upload speed is faster than the download speed , its a joke. These speeds are with a full signal "I can see the mast from my front room". POOR is not the word to describe it. will be returning the phone under breach of terms! If you want a webpage to load up in less than ten mins and want a english person on the phone when you ring up steer clear!
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We've had 3 WiFi (Huawei D100 router plus Huawei E156G USB modem) for some three + years as we cannot get broadband here (rural West Sussex). Installed in the loft and used by two laptops. Usually all is great with 1.25mb upload and .25mb download and able to use Skype and videos. However every year to 18 months or so it fails.
Some problem happens with the mast and connection fluctuates by the minute and speed so slow you often cannot use it for anything. 3 tech support is really a joke as they just do not understand the problem however hard you try to explain. In addition they refuse to let a (UK) engineer phone us when a quick conversation with us both on-line at each end would identify / solve it. Eventually after several months of pressure from us in insisting there is a fault, 3 do find it and all is well until next time.
Please 3, just sort out your technical support and believe your customer sometime. It would save money and several months of an unhappy customer. -
I bought a 3 Mobile Broadband SIM, PAYG, without dongle. The package doesn't mention any restrictions but it turns out it will only work with dongles (apparently any dongle) - spent a long time with the support line in India explaining this - while they speak English they seem to have difficulty understanding what is going on, so the experience is quite frustrating.
I now have to return this SIM as I need to put it in my phone for tethering. So beware of using 3 SIMs in phones, double-check that the SIM and deal you are getting is allowed for phone use. The SIM I was using was not unlimited data so I can't see why they are stopping its use in tethering. -
Trialing 3 for one month as I need all you can eat data. So far the network has been fine (better than Vodafone for where I use it - south coast, London, train line in between). I use tethering a lot (2G a month) which is why I went to 3. Product good but CUSTOMER SERVICE IS A JOKE. The staff at the Mumbai call centre seem to have little or no technical knowledge. When I have responded (negatively) to their automated requests for feedback - I have received no reply. A shower!
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I haven't had to use 3's customer service yet (thankfully from the sound of it, although I don't believe it could be any worse than Orange's). And while I am actually using a tethered Samsung Galaxy SII rather than a dongle, the phone is HSPA+ capable, so I should be getting reasonable speeds. Regardless of location, the best I can get is around 3Mbps, with speeds of around 300kps being more usual - more than a little bit shy of 3's loudly proclaimed "up to 21Mbps*. They are using weasel words to get round the rules on selling something that they cannot deliver in full, and I am absolutely certain that if I had sold them something that only "sort of" worked, I would be getting used as a punch bag by their lawyers by now.
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Toppppp 4 internet both mobile broadband and mobile internet !
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I had a three dongle on a 3 year contract. Needless to say the service never performed despite my repeated requests for help, so I stopped paying the fee. I am now going to court with these idiots for the monies they claim I owe them for a non functioning product. I will let you know how it goes. My advice, if it doesn't work, stop paying!
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I have been using 3 Broadband for just over 2 years and with no real issues. My problem now is the INCREDIBLY POOR customer service. I upgraded to 15gb for £10.99 pm (a special deal they can ONLY offer me..!?) through the upgrade department. Then they charge me £25 pm. I've been on the phone for 7 hours this week (still on hold) and they are telling me the person who offered the deal was wrong - so they put me on the standard rate without telling me... (is that legal?). I wouldn't say the call center speak or understand English either. To sum up. The product is great. Reliable, fast, versatile etc... the customer service is awful. Get it right in the first place so you don't have to talk to them!
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really not worth the money. despite a good coverage i happen to have the speed is just shocking. you get a decent speed for the first couple weeks of your contract (if i'm not wrong
that's how long you have to cancel it if you're not happy) then the speed falls dramatically. if anyone is still considering taking it don't take any more than 5 gig - you won't to be able to use it anyway at the speed they offer. good luck to everyone xxx -
Utterly disgusted. Tried to cancel my mobile broadband contract, they hung up on me 3 times. They dont understand me as they are all foreign, they talked over me, they didnt let me speak, they tried to sell me other things when i just wanted to cancel, they almost refused to let me cancel in the end i had to speak to a manager just to cancel. Shocked and disgusted at such a unprofessional company. I strongly suggest NOBODY to go with these!!!
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I give up! Having had 3 mobile internet for a while I am finally admitting defeat. OK so I'm no whizz kid at all this computer come internet stuff, but I'm not completerly daft and I know when to admit defeat. Having gone through the frustation of 'no network' to apparently being bounced from one mast to another and being signed off/on at its will, to falling asleep waitiing for some sort of response and now not being able to search at all I have reached the end of my tether. In 3s favour the help desk people were very nice, useless, but very nice. So this is it, no more internet for me and good luck to those who have the will to persist. xxxx
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