Warning: THREE mobile broadband scam

brit1234

Warning: THREE mobile broadband scam

Today I checked my bank account and found a direct debit from for H3G for £48.02, this went back a few months. I had no idea what it was for so I put H3G into a search engine and it came up as THREE.co.uk.

I had a Huawei E586 moble internet wifi projector with them which gave me 15 giga bytes (GB) a month of internet usage with THREE for about £18.99 a month. However I couldn't understand why they were charging me £48 a month. What I was told is when you use all the 15 GB it would stop.





Huawei E586


What I wasn't told is you get not 15 GB but 15.2 GB then it stops. This extra 0.2 GB costs £29 with VAT. I was unaware of this extra 0.2 GB and the extreme costs.

When I rang THREE they stated I could put a 15 GB cap on (which I thought I had already had) and the 0.2 GB was a favour if I was short.

I was not told about this when buying the product and did not see this on the contract. The way they get away with justifying this huge cost is they send you messages through the dongle. These messages do not come on my computer and they recommended I go through their technical support at some costs to find these hidden messages.

These secret extra costs are a complete scam and are designed to steal money from unsuspecting users. The system is far from transparent and amounts to a deception to steal members of the public's money.

The costs of this unknown 0.2GB is charged to the customer at well over 100 time the original usage charge. This wouldn't be so bad if you knew about it and could opt in or out when it comes up but you don't.

THREE mobile broadband is a scam on this issue and should be investigated by offcom.

Existing users be aware, potential users stay away.

vax2002

Indeed, very underhand, come on 3 explain yourselves here

TakeThis

What the.....? Usually, every time you see the word 'scam' or 'ripoff' on these forums, you can ensure that it really isn't..... except in this case.

Insist on a full refund or take it further. It is simply unacceptable.

im-lost

Oh you muppet, this isnt a scam, its charges for your out of bundle usage.

It seems like you went over your usage by .2gb and thats where the extra charges have came from.
You havent bought a capped tariff, as with a mobile contract you have bought what is essentially an
'unlimited' credit account, capped to what they believe is an affodable amount taking in to account
your credit rating and past history with them.

Instead of crying scam watch what you use and dont go over it, its that simple. Dont go over the 15gb
and you wont be charged extra, which is I believe around 10p per mb, 10% of what alot of other
networks charge for out of bundle usage.

You would have recieved texts to the dongle stating firstly that you have 20% of your usage left, then
once once you reach your usage warning you that any further use would be charged for as per your contract.
Then further texts as and when you use more to tell you what you have spent over and above your bundled
usage.

They dont charge the £30 the second you go over your limit, they charge 10p per mb.

On the hidden messages front, what utter twoddle, type 3.home in to your browser where you will get your mifi
admin panel, you can go to your inbox from here to read all these 'secret hidden' messages.
If you cant remember to do this set 3.home as your homepage, so you see it every time you start your browser
and can see if there are any messages.

There are no secret costs, you surely read the out of bundle costs when taking out the contract, no?
Well lesson learnt, read the terms of your contract.

Ive used 3 mobile broadband for almost 3 years now, a few times ive gone over my limit, infact just last
month I went over by 21mb and was charges £1.80 + vat please see the inage below, which shows that
you are charged per mb out of your bundle.

Cant post links but take the spaces out
http:// bit . ly / rfbfik
[IMG]http://!!!!!!!/rfbfik[/IMG]

fozmcfc

I agree the cost for going over are ridiculous.

But it is extremely easy to monitor the usage on a 3 broadband modem, both via the dongle interface which comes up when plugging the dongle in or by clicking on my account.

I too have used 3 for mobile broadband for years, it is still easily the best value for money for 15gb a month and have had very little problems with the service.

The OP should consider it a lesson learnt and just be grateful they didn't go over my much more. My mate got over £200 in charges with O2, when he didn't realise that he had a P2P program starting up with windows, which took him well over his limit.

In short their is no scam, but the costs for exceeding the limits are something I would like to see the regulator look into.

Mark_In_Hampshire

I think it's all been said above, except that - we use it on a PAYG basis.

The moment you run out of credit, it just stops working. A few keypresses and a top up and it's back again for another month or so (£25 per 7GB) - this works for me simply because our average monthly usage is circa 7 to 9GB, means I don't have to have a direct debit mandate on my bank account (don't allow those) and don't get stung

[Deleted User]

A couple of points:

1) Is the OP aware that 15GB is actually 15360MB?

2) The Huawei E586 is no different to a mobile phone - the display on the front shows a little envelope with a number next to it showing unread messages, and the manual inside explains that these can be accessed at http://3.home/

3) The modem also shows how much you've used on the screen. Transparency to the max, if you ask me.

custardy

nice pictures though

HarryL

I use the T-Mobile dongle to avoid this problem. The limit is low (1 GB per month) but once you hit it your internet gets limited so you cant download large files or stream videos or music but you CAN still browser the internet at NO extra cost what so ever. This is the best option for me because I have to check my Email everyday and so other things on the internet and if my internet were to dry up 5 days before the end of the month then id be forced into going over the cap and in the case of every company except t mobile that would probably cost something like 10x-50x the cost of per MB prior to hitting the cap.

Buzby

Afraid I see no scam either, just user unfamiliarity. I have a business associate who was on the PAYg tariff using the SAME kit. When he got to his 15Gb limit, the line went dead - and he went ballistic, as he had no immediate means to get a voucher or top up online. The then switched to the contract model (the one you are complaining about) as in his view, once he ran out of the bundle it was his task to renew to get the best price, NOT find his service was interrupted.

Just goes to show you cannot please everyone, and one persons imagied scam, is another's ideal solution.

Jimx26

Can the thread title be changed as this clearly is NOT a scam,just another person who has failed to read their t&c's