Internet Dongle From 3

itsakidsworld

Hi all,

Can anyone shed any light on this situation please?

We have a retired family member who is very ill and has been unable to use the internet since February.

We have been sorting various finances out and one of these was looking to cancel the internet dongle she has with 3 at £15.99 a month for 5GB (one month rolling contract).

After visiting the 3 shop locally the assistant told us that there had been usage from the device for each month since February at around 1-1.5GB a month, which is bizarre because that would in theory be impossible given the circumstances.

I have tried logging onto the 3 website as a new user to try to find information but it asks for the last 6 digits of a sim card. I have the dongle but no sim as her mobile is with EE.

My two questions are:

1. Will there be a sim card somewhere which is part of the dongle?

2. As we are certain it has not been used we are wondering does the dongle stay "switched on" somehow in the background using data without knowledge?

I will be going back into the 3 shop but would appreciate any information prior to doing this.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

marlot

As I read it, the person has two sims. One in the phone, one in the dongle.

There should be a sim card in the dongle. Look harder!

I wonder if the assistant is looking at the usage on the phone sim?

itsakidsworld

Hi Marlot,

Thank you for your quick reply.

I don't know if the dongle has a sim? Is that what they have? If yes then I will go and look again. The sim for her mobile is with EE so a different company.

marlot

If you can find the model number on the dongle, I'm sure we can help

gjchester

itsakidsworld wrote: »

2. As we are certain it has not been used we are wondering does the dongle stay "switched on" somehow in the background using data without knowledge?

Generally Mi-Fi's are battery powered, but if plugged into the mains then yes would stay on. Dongles tend to be plugged into a USB port and take power from the host, as well as supplying internet over the YSB port.


It's possible it could be on (or being turned on with a PC) and doing something like Windows updates, or updating something like facebook (Or any other page) in the background when the device is on.

kwikbreaks

If you let the dongle connect to the internet then connect to its WiFi signal - probably the default values printed on it somewhere you can visit https://www.three.co.uk/My3Account/Login without any need to login however so far as I can see it doesn't show historic data usage just amount left until the refresh date.

Yes they are battery powered and the battery lasts about 6 hours or so. If it wasn't plugged into a charger then data use would have been impossible. The most likely explanation is that the company rep was giving you BS to stop you cancelling the unwanted contract.

macman

Yes, all dongles have a SIM, they don't work without one, so there will be a slot or tray in it. Post the model number and someone can advise.

itsakidsworld

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. I went back to check the device and opened it and found a sim card inside.

I then went into the local 3 shop with the contract, device, sim & a form of I.D and another chap was brilliant and explained everything.

It appears that usage was heavy in February ( when my family member became ill) and a little in March as he showed me the account on his computer. After this it shows zero (even though the other shop rep said she had been using it each month which is why we doubted this).

The chap explained it is a wifi dongle and so our assumption is that it has been left switched on using occassional data as suggested on here, until the battery life has ran out?

So we have cancelled it as it is of no use to her whilst she is poorly but when she recovers we can simply start again on a month-to-month contract.

Thank you ever so much for you help everyone- once explained it does make things simpler to understand!

patman99

I've just go one of these and am paying £15 p/month for 10Gb, so when your relative re-anbles it (buy getting a new SIM) you should be on the cheaper tarriff for more data.

itsakidsworld

Cheers Patman99,

To be fair the guy in the shop did say that she would probably get a better deal when she starts again so respect to him for being honest!!

J_B

Just curious as to how you manage to persuade a 'shop guy' to give you info from someone else's account.
Data protection malarkey and all that