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Three Broadband Tech Support

Yep, They were clueless and useless when I had an issue.
Only suggestions were.
Reboot it.
Reset it.
We will send another router.
 
Saves on paper with so few instructions.

"Have you tried turning it off?"

"Have you tried turning it on?"
 
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The best bit is when there clearly is a problem, they deny it anyway, say they've checked everything and all is A-OK... when - after months of perfect service - you're suddenly getting 2mbps download in the middle of a major city, both on your router and on your other three "powered" devices.

Many months now since I dumped them for 5g broadband and speed is still terrible here (full bars though!) on my phone.

One day I reckon it will be discovered that that an engineer has replaced their mast with a wire coat hanger. But not for a long time yet.
 
The best bit is when there clearly is a problem, they deny it anyway, say they've checked everything and all is A-OK... when - after months of perfect service - you're suddenly getting 2mbps download in the middle of a major city, both on your router and on your other three "powered" devices.

Many months now since I dumped them for 5g broadband and speed is still terrible here (full bars though!) on my phone.

One day I reckon it will be discovered that that an engineer has replaced their mast with a wire coat hanger. But not for a long time yet.
I fear a coat hanger transmitter would be an improvement with 3s 4G
 
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Mobile broadband is a plug and play service. Their staff is trained to tell you to reboot or to move the box to the window, that's essentially it. You think there's a problem with your local cell tower? All they can see is "no problems reported in this area" on their display. No good signal indoors? Well, their computer model says there is.

Sometimes we get lucky and are transferred to someone that can actually look into the issue, but even them have limited powers. It can take months or years to get sites to be upgraded, and that's when the network wants to spend the money.

I've learned my lesson years ago. I don't do long term plans or waste hours on the phone with someone that knows as much or less than me. If there's a complex issue that I know can't be easily fixed, edge cases, etc, I move to another provider.

I'm not defending this by the way, but we should understand how the business/technology works and have realistic expectations. If you expect the average support person to fix coverage or speeds for you, then you'll be disappointed.

On a side note, you can get better support by getting a business plan even on cheaper providers (and we get what we pay for). Three seems to have more competent support for their business customers.
 
I'm not defending this by the way, but we should understand how the business/technology works and have realistic expectations. If you expect the average support person to fix coverage or speeds for you, then you'll be disappointed
I would say that I progressed things as far as was sensible and reasonable, especially as I was in the first 6 months of a 24 month contract.

I was actually transferred to proper technical support, including one man who was refreshingly candid and detailed with me about the problems they had had with my local mast, and what needed to be done to resolve matters.

Sadly, I never got to speak to him again and those I spoke to from that point forward dismissed what I told them he said and were, frankly, either too lazy to arrange what was evidently possible or under orders to dismiss such problems.

I remarked to the man who "generously" terminated my contract that it is very easy to claim to be the UK's fastest 5g network if they bin off customers who experience otherwise and complain about it.

I understand the way the business world works, but I disagree that we should have "realistic expectations" when this amounts to just accepting rip-off Britain as the natural order of things. I expect staff and companies to be reasonable, and if they've not then then I assert my rights.

Arguably, if more people were pains in the backside like me the financial equation could likely tip in favour of companies just doing what they are supposed to.
 
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I would say that I progressed things as far as was sensible and reasonable, especially as I was in the first 6 months of a 24 month contract.

I was actually transferred to proper technical support, including one man who was refreshingly candid and detailed with me about the problems they had had with my local mast, and what needed to be done to resolve matters.

Sadly, I never got to speak to him again and those I spoke to from that point forward dismissed what I told them he said and were, frankly, either too lazy to arrange what was evidently possible or under orders to dismiss such problems.

I remarked to the man who "generously" terminated my contract that it is very easy to claim to be the UK's fastest 5g network if they bin off customers who experience otherwise and complain about it.

I understand the way the business world works, but I disagree that we should have "realistic expectations" when this amounts to just accepting rip-off Britain as the natural order of things. I expect staff and companies to be reasonable, and if they've not then then I assert my rights.

Arguably, if more people were pains in the backside like me the financial equation could likely tip in favour of companies just doing what they are supposed to.

To be clear, I'm not saying that we shouldn't complain or that we should accept bad service. I'm just trying to point out that there are things that support won't help us with. Unless you want to be disappointed, don't go in with high expectations.

They can't do anything about councils stopping upgrades from happening or the NIMBYs that don't want new masts. The part of the company that manages all sites is probably aware of the problem because they monitor their performance, so if they haven't fixed it yet it's because they can't or the company is focused on a different area/not investing.

You called Three and spoke to someone who understood the issue. They even told you they knew it was a problematic site. Was the problem fixed? Nope. You didn't tell them anything new and they didn't fix your problem. From my point of view this was a waste of time. All you got in return was frustration.

I had issues with Vodafone. Over the span of a year their performance dropped a lot for me. I could have called them to tell them what they already knew (bad performance, upgrades/new masts needed, etc) or to make a comment about the quality of their network to some employee that doesn't really care and is only trying to make a living... instead, I ordered a 1pMobile SIM and a few days later my problem was "fixed". A friend of mine complained and they gave him more data, but they're still slow, so nothing really changed.

Yesterday I read a thread on this forum from someone complaining about GiffGaff not having VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling... spending a year complaining on a forum or to GiffGaff clearly doesn't work, so why insist? Wouldn't be better to send them a message by giving your money to a different company?

Essentially, since you can't fix their network and most support people can't do much either, if you're having an issue that can't be easily fixed by changing a few settings or replacing the hardware, do yourself a favour and move to a different service.
 
You know this seems all to common with Three.

People seem to think there is a technical 'issue' with Three's service that can be resolved, when the issue is just related to capacity. There's no way that their tech support team can fix that.

One plus point is that Three are generally very willing to take the box back off you and cancel the contract after you've reported the problem a few times and ask for that as a resolution.
 
You called Three and spoke to someone who understood the issue. They even told you they knew it was a problematic site. Was the problem fixed? Nope. You didn't tell them anything new and they didn't fix your problem. From my point of view this was a waste of time. All you got in return was frustration.
On the first point, I believe had the original staff member continued dealing with the case it would have actually been fixed. He told me what had happened prior to fix it, told me what needed to be arranged, and escalated the call expecting it to be so arranged by those being escalated to.

I believe if subsequent staff were either or both as diligent and unhindered as he, the issue would have been been resolved.

I dispute that merely answering the phone is all one should expect from these people, and if that results in my disappointment so be it. I'll also continue to air that should it occur :)

Fundamentally, though, until I progressed through their "technical support" hoops I would not have reached the point of contract cancellation.

In fact, had there been any argument over that ending at small claims court, any court would expect me to have taken reasonable steps and afforded reasonable opportunity for the company to put things right before taking matters further.

It's not optional that people engage with technical support. The alternative is to sit there paying out for non-service.
 
You know this seems all to common with Three.

People seem to think there is a technical 'issue' with Three's service that can be resolved, when the issue is just related to capacity. There's no way that their tech support team can fix that.
The latter staff lazily tried to hide behind "capacity". I agree capacity isn't great on their network, but my city centre service dropped from around 100 to 300mbps to between 2 and 30, fluctuating between those wildly through day and night. There was (is) clearly a fault!
 
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The latter staff lazily tried to hide behind "capacity". I agree capacity isn't great on their network, but my city centre service dropped from around 100 to 300mbps to between 2 and 30, fluctuating between those wildly through day and night. There was (is) clearly a fault!
You know 5g been slower than usual in a rural area so no capacity, ive been reading others saying similar about 5g on three, im thinking they lowered the power consumption or something like that
 
but my city centre service dropped from around 100 to 300mbps to between 2 and 30, fluctuating between those wildly through day and night. There was (is) clearly a fault!
This doesn't sound like a fault at all, it's a capacity related issue that they're extremely unlikely to fix any time soon.

If it was a fault there would be no service at all. They have sophisticated monitoring in place so if it was a fault they'd be on it without anyone having to tell them in most cases.
 
Isn't the basic problem with Three that they've encouraged lots of heavy data users to switch to them by offering cheap unlimited data packages and 5G, and they're now a victim of their own success because they don't have enough bandwidth/masts/backhaul capacity to support this?
 
Indeed they have, and we should all know better, but we keep going back to it. I myself *cannot* stay away. I know full well when speeds are good they won't last but it doesn't stop be signing up again and again after leaving. The prices are just unbeatable.
 
The mast I currently connect too is kinda in "no mans land" regarding housing etc.
Its on the edge of a trading estate/M5 Motorway and the speeds rarely dip.
So maybe I will be OK for now
 
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Just you wait until the land is developed and they can get 4G/5G broadband for less than the half the price of a reputable provider. 200mbps will soon become 2mbps haha,
 
On the first point, I believe had the original staff member continued dealing with the case it would have actually been fixed. He told me what had happened prior to fix it, told me what needed to be arranged, and escalated the call expecting it to be so arranged by those being escalated to.

I believe if subsequent staff were either or both as diligent and unhindered as he, the issue would have been been resolved.

I dispute that merely answering the phone is all one should expect from these people, and if that results in my disappointment so be it. I'll also continue to air that should it occur :)

Fundamentally, though, until I progressed through their "technical support" hoops I would not have reached the point of contract cancellation.

In fact, had there been any argument over that ending at small claims court, any court would expect me to have taken reasonable steps and afforded reasonable opportunity for the company to put things right before taking matters further.

It's not optional that people engage with technical support. The alternative is to sit there paying out for non-service.

Long story short, while one person was competent, everyone else wasn't, the problem wasn't fixed and you had to leave Three.

I already know the support isn't competent, so I skip the part where I waste my time trying to help them to fix their network and just leave (or try to leave if I had a long term contract, something that I avoid).

Going through their technical support in order to get the service cancelled is fine, but since they rarely fix more serious issues, I'd be focused on leaving the service, not on fixing the issue. But this is me.

With this said, I would try to get them to fix the problem if no better alternative was available (what else could I do?). I didn't see a point doing this with Vodafone though... Three (okay) and EE (good) were good alternatives, so I just left Vodafone.

We should definitely expect more from them, but we already know what the "support" for regular consumers on mobile networks is. Whether we have high expectations or not, the outcome is likely to be the same: they won't (or can't) fix the problem.
 
Three is just oversubcribed.
Long story short, while one person was competent, everyone else wasn't, the problem wasn't fixed and you had to leave Three.

I already know the support isn't competent, so I skip the part where I waste my time trying to help them to fix their network and just leave (or try to leave if I had a long term contract, something that I avoid).

Going through their technical support in order to get the service cancelled is fine, but since they rarely fix more serious issues, I'd be focused on leaving the service, not on fixing the issue. But this is me.

With this said, I would try to get them to fix the problem if no better alternative was available (what else could I do?). I didn't see a point doing this with Vodafone though... Three (okay) and EE (good) were good alternatives, so I just left Vodafone.

We should definitely expect more from them, but we already know what the "support" for regular consumers on mobile networks is. Whether we have high expectations or not, the outcome is likely to be the same: they won't (or can't) fix the problem.
I doubt they're competent, probably just repeating what customers have told him
 
This doesn't sound like a fault at all, it's a capacity related issue that they're extremely unlikely to fix any time soon.

If it was a fault there would be no service at all. They have sophisticated monitoring in place so if it was a fault they'd be on it without anyone having to tell them in most cases.
While slow speeds on good signal would ordinarily suggest to me capacity, I had had a good number of months prior to that where capacity-related fluctuation would result in the lowest speed at peak of 100-120mbps.

Overnight this went down to fluctuating between 2 and 30 (as in one minute 2, next minute 20, next minute 2, next minute 10 etc. Never above 30 and again massively fluctuating minute to minute, and consistently doing this no matter the day or time.

Unless 10000 extra Three customers moved into my street overnight, and all decided to watch cat videos on YouTube endlessly, something most definitely happened equipment-wise. It wasn't me, so it must have been them.
 
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