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I am about to send a vitriolic letter to Three and would like to have someplace to perch for second thoughts.

have a look at this and help me back in my tree with it, please.

Name and address of idiot witheld

Sim card number *****##

Account number not known.

This is to inform you that I am instructing my bank to withold further payments on my contract with you until you sort out my account and reimburse the money overcharged.Around the time that O2 put their new mast across the road from me I started getting trouble with the USB modem (an Huawei Mobile Broadband stick, number: E353 HSPA+. (HTH.))

Although I never manged to kick it into anything more than 2 or 3 bars without hanging it out of the window, the service was adequate for my needs -until the end of the year.

Around about Christmas-time, 2012, about 10 days from the end of the bill period, the only web page I could recieve was notification my bandwidth limit had been reached. It never occurred to me that having stopped me using any more than that which I had contracted to use, you would charge as much again for apparently doing so, despite all evidence to the contrary.


I may have gone overboard with the YouTube videos for a few days in the middle of that month but 20 days service out of which my normal consumption is 10 to 12 GB for the whole month out of an allowance of 15GB should have warned me that something was wrong with your network.When in January -and the start of a new billing period, I used the modem to download some 30 or 40 weather charts, wrote a few blog posts and switched off for the morning, I thought that everything was OK.I was annoyed with both O2 and 3 when, on rebooting, I found another message telling me that I had once more gone over my bandwidth.


Finally realising something was wrong with your product, I took the modem down to the local "3" store and asked them if they would try the modem in one of their machines.I was surprised when they told me they didn't have anything it could be tried on, since they were selling sticks with the same fittings and much the same contract. Considering the efficiency of the place (they couldn't have got rid of me any sooner had they used violence and bad language (in fact they were very polite and, as I said, efficient)) I thought that unhelpful.


As you know, I have never been able to access my account online. Your agent insisted I phone you and see if you might grant me a new modem once I had proven to your satisfaction I am not an idiot. (I must admit, I could see it from his point of view.) But I don't have a "3" sim I can use (my present phone is locked and the old one can't find a signal with the phone sims you gave me.) and I didn't fancy paying 20 or 30 pence per minute to hear five minutes or more of canned bull and advertising before being fobbed off with an Asian based sub-contract company set up to deal with Microsoft-based users while rapidly running out of credit.


(Besides, your offshore helpline can't help me with my Linux based desktop because:

A. You do not send warnings to Linux users when their bandwidth limit is approaching.

B. It is often difficult to get a Linux distro that sees your device as anything more than a storage medium.

C. The only time I have used your helpline I got so horribly tied up I couldn't remember what I was doing -or trying to do and so frustrated that I had to hang up.)

I wonder if there is some way we can settle this without my having to pay any more over-inflated bills?Perhaps you can sell the recording of the above mentioned call to India's Funniest Phone-ins?Yours sincerely.Raving Loony.

I know I need to get the dates sorted more clearly but I can't be bothered looking through my paperwork. I'll get the banks to give me a printout of the times they have overcharged me.

Anyone here have any idea how long a USB dongle should last?
The contract still has an year to run.

Would any dongle work if I got hold of one and put my SIM card in it, or does it have to be Huawei?
(What's annoyed me is that I gave one away about 6 months back.)​
 
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I'd perhaps re-form the letter to be shorter and more to the point (keep it surgical). On top of that you should only instruct your bank to withhold payment as an absolute last resort as it can cause other problems later on (e.g. debt collection).

I would first attempt to resolve the problem through the usual channels and, failing that, engage with an ADR scheme.
 
I'd perhaps re-form the letter to be shorter and more to the point (keep it surgical). On top of that you should only instruct your bank to withhold payment as an absolute last resort as it can cause other problems later on (e.g. debt collection).

I would first attempt to resolve the problem through the usual channels and, failing that, engage with an ADR scheme.

Just blowing off steam about it really. But it is always best to moderate your language with anything that can be used in court against you.

What is an ADR scheme?

And can you honestly see why anyone should bother with a company like that?
I suppose they must get their fair share of abusers trying to rob them but in 5 cases out of ten, when local crime is involved it is about revenge on some such slight.
 
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As I read it several things are unclear.

You mention the O2 mast causing a problem, yet the problem you state appears to be that your usage did not reset at the start of the next billing period. I do not see how these two things are related.

For example, as it reads to me - it's as if the Connection Manager thing crashed, then when you rebooted the machine, it simply flashed up an old message about having run out of data. Did it actually stop working at that point, or was it just a "cached message" - what is the complaint?

If it runs out of data, and stops you using the service when it has done so - ours is PAYG and that's exactly what it does - this would then imply that it isn't possible to be charged "overuse" fees, because you cannot actually incur them. Instead, you just get the web page that tells you you need to top up or buy a bolt on or similar.

Reading between the lines I infer that you might be using an O2 MBB stick on Three, is that why they refused to "test" it perhaps? And, when you log in, you're automatically authenticated based on your presence on the Three network - no user name/password needed. Maybe that doesn't work when you use an unlocked O2 MBB stick? You also say "I don't have a 3 SIM I can use" which sounds odd since your issues are with 3.

It's quite feasible that they don't offer support for Linux anyway (your point A)

I don't actually understand your point B. If it's that it doesn't work with Linux then as above.

Simply, as I read it, it is not clear what the complaint actually is.

I have found when contacting them that the web form on their site is dreadful and calling them is quicker, but I have only had to call them twice in about five years (we use 3 as our home BB connection). They are generally helpful but like many, appear fairly ineffectual if you ask anything that isn't covered by the script sheet (e.g. asking about running it on Linux will probably baffle them)

Agree with MarkJ as above about rewording - just my thoughts anyway.

Finally, our old E220 dongle began to slowly die after about a year, and we got through two more E367s by leaving them outside all the time causing the connections to corrode (we have a roof antenna now).
 
As I read it several things are unclear.

You mention the O2 mast causing a problem, yet the problem you state appears to be that your usage did not reset at the start of the next billing period. I do not see how these two things are related.

It was just a coincidence I imagine.

I honestly thought there must be some interference but of course I am inept with things mechanical.

For example, as it reads to me - it's as if the Connection Manager thing crashed, then when you rebooted the machine, it simply flashed up an old message about having run out of data. Did it actually stop working at that point, or was it just a "cached message" - what is the complaint?

When I waited sans service for 10 days thinking it was my fault (and still not knowing) I was angry to find it was telling me I was over my limit after only a few hours. With a poor connection of some 2/5 of poossible speed whatever those bars mean, I would have thought it impossible to get that much mileage.

I mean come on even I am not that daft.


If it runs out of data, and stops you using the service when it has done so - ours is PAYG and that's exactly what it does - this would then imply that it isn't possible to be charged "overuse" fees, because you cannot actually incur them. Instead, you just get the web page that tells you you need to top up or buy a bolt on or similar.


I am on 15 GB per month.

The contrat says they will inform me if I near the limit.
But they don't.

I can't access my account because I don't remember anything about the code to get in, not even how I used my name. (Mr Soandso, or Soandso Soandso. Or even a pen name.)


Reading between the lines I infer that you might be using an O2 MBB stick on Three, is that why they refused to "test" it perhaps? And, when you log in, you're automatically authenticated based on your presence on the Three network - no user name/password needed. Maybe that doesn't work when you use an unlocked O2 MBB stick? You also say "I don't have a 3 SIM I can use" which sounds odd since your issues are with 3.

No. It's a stick supplied by 3 and on the contract they are reducing the price from £100 to nothing or very little, I don't remember. It's probably a tax scam anyway.

It's quite feasible that they don't offer support for Linux anyway (your point A)

They should say so in the contract.
Besides with modern mobiles these days using Android they should.

I don't actually understand your point B. If it's that it doesn't work with Linux then as above.

Simply, as I read it, it is not clear what the complaint actually is.

I have found when contacting them that the web form on their site is dreadful and calling them is quicker, but I have only had to call them twice in about five years (we use 3 as our home BB connection). They are generally helpful but like many, appear fairly ineffectual if you ask anything that isn't covered by the script sheet (e.g. asking about running it on Linux will probably baffle them)

Agree with MarkJ as above about rewording - just my thoughts anyway.

Finally, our old E220 dongle began to slowly die after about a year, and we got through two more E367s by leaving them outside all the time causing the connections to corrode (we have a roof antenna now).


Does leaving it outside affect the SIM? It is plastic and gold plated aluminium so it shouldn't.
 
The E367 has a hinged part at the bottom so it can stand up, like a book-end. The USB plug slots over that.

The gold/coloured contacts which connect with the USB lead became corroded (started going green) which caused the modem to become intermittent e.g. would drop and then not reconnect.

The SIM card was not affected, as it's inside the device.
 
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The gold plating was obviously so thin that scratches let moisture reach the copper layer and this formed verdigris - a greenish layer of oxidization.

If you were careful, you could clean this off, and paint the contacts with gold* paint to restore the seal.

*That is gold as in real gold, not gold as in Airfix paint; I have a small pot of it around here somewhere - bought for redoing HiFi connections.
 
That sounds exactly right.

The surface gets scratched when you plug in and remove the USB cable, or even just move the modem a bit and the connection between the two flexes even slightly.

Which was inevitable as every time it rained heavily I would unclip the modem from the metal bit that runs along the top of the upstairs window and bring it back indoors so it didn't get soaked.

And then put it back outside again and attempt to rotate it back into precisely the same optimal position it was in before I took it down.

In the end I got the roof antenna, and the modem lives inside now.
 
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