# Three cancelling 2g roaming - handsets now useless outside 3g signal areas.



## ovaltina (Nov 30, 2010)

I've been on the Three network for about a year with no problems, until about a week ago.

I used to get a 2g signal in my flat (basement in Brighton) and a 3g signal most of the time outside.

Now it's 3g or nothing. I've spent a looong time on the phone to Three customer service, but all they say is the 3g signal is being improved and very soon it will work in my flat. I'm a little sceptical about that claim.

A bit of research reveals that Three used to allow roaming on Orange when it's 3g signal dropped off, but the firm is now cancelling 2g in cities across the country. 

http://blog.three.co.uk/2010/02/05/our-2010-network-plans-video/?id=1183#comments

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/217318-anyone-three-uk-having-signal-problems-2g.html

If you find that your contract phone no longer works for most of the time, you've got a good case for cancelling your contract.

I've got 2 Three handsets that are in regular use, one on PAYG and another on an expensive business contract. I'm now going to cancel both and switch the business phone to a PAYG (it's just for incoming calls anyway so this will save a fair bit of cash).

It's a weird move from Three, and disappointing because until a week ago they offered a good service, which met my needs well.


----------



## sim667 (Nov 30, 2010)

3 are the worst company I've ever had dealings with. I hope they go bust.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 30, 2010)

Bit of a stupid move cancelling one service BEFORE you've upgraded another to take over 

(for clarity: I mean three cancelling 2g before upgrading 3g, not ovaltina cancelling her contracts )


----------



## ovaltina (Nov 30, 2010)

Vintage Paw said:


> Bit of a stupid move cancelling one service BEFORE you've upgraded another to take over
> 
> (for clarity: I mean three cancelling 2g before upgrading 3g, not ovaltina cancelling her contracts )


 


It's stupid isn't it... I bet they're losing more business than they'll save from not having to pay Orange for 2g. Anyway it's working out well for me, it's given me an excuse to trade in my HTC for a nice new Orange San Francisco on PAYG, and cancelling the business contract will save about £25 per month on a 24 month contract. Result!


----------



## Mr Smin (Dec 1, 2010)

The Register covered this - I think 3 was targeting specific areas where there were less than a certain percentage of connections being made on the 2g fallback.
3 pay Orange for this arrangement so it is an effort to save money for 3. You are right that a loss of service like this is a reason to cancel the contract.
I've had worse customer service from Voda and O2 than from 3 - matter of luck which rep you speak to maybe?


----------



## ymu (Dec 1, 2010)

For fuck's sake. We're both on 3, and it's often 2G only on the canals. That's two more customers lost.


----------



## ovaltina (Dec 2, 2010)

Mr Smin said:


> matter of luck which rep you speak to maybe?


 
I put the sim back into my phone when I went out yesterday, to check for missed calls etc, and there were four waiting from 3 customer services  then one of the customer services people rang me for a chat. He confirmed there had been 'changes' to the network and said that very soon I'd have the best 3g signal ever in my flat. I asked when and he said he didn't know. Useless.



ymu said:


> For fuck's sake. We're both on 3, and it's often 2G only on the canals. That's two more customers lost.


 
I'm using an Orange sim at the moment, it's a £5 add on for 500mb of internet and will work where your 3 sim worked. Obv you'd have to unlock your phones. I've also asked giff gaff to send me a free sim, their packages look good - £10 gets you 250 minutes (think any network?), some free texts and free internet access until 28th Feb, then it's free internet every month that you top up £10. If it works in my flat I'll stick with that.


----------



## pinkmonkey (Dec 2, 2010)

ymu - you can unlock dongles, you can buy the cracks on Ebay for about £2.  I'm planning to do this, have also bought a mother of a 3G aerial to boost my signal.


----------



## ymu (Dec 2, 2010)

Our phones are unlocked, and we have PAYG dongles for every network anyway - reception is shit on the canal so we have all bases covered! The only reason we have both phones and (usually) internet on 3 is because 3 has the best reception in the areas we travel through, and the MiFi means we can share the same data allowance, plus 3 have (had?) the cheapest data charges.

We've been chopping and changing for the last couple of years. Now we have to do it all over again. I've had a bad experience with every single network except the small ones which probably have the shittest coverage. 

Anyone know what Virgin mobile are like? They don't seem to publish coverage maps, which makes me suspicious. Postcode look-up is no damn good - I need to be able to check what it's like along the route of the canals we use.

Mainly, I could just do without this. I quite liked 3.


----------



## ovaltina (Dec 2, 2010)

ymu said:


> Mainly, I could just do without this. I quite liked 3.


 
Same here  especially the free calls to other 3 numbers, free skype and very cheap internet.


----------



## Fingers (Dec 2, 2010)

ymu said:


> O
> Anyone know what Virgin mobile are like? They don't seem to publish coverage maps, which makes me suspicious. Postcode look-up is no damn good - I need to be able to check what it's like along the route of the canals we use.



Virgin Mobile piggy back T-mobile's network so check their coverage maps.


----------



## ymu (Dec 2, 2010)

Ooh, thanks.


----------



## ovaltina (Feb 5, 2011)

So here's an update - we held off cancelling the business contract because it was made via another company, which has now gone bust. Since we're now dealing directly with Three, I guess their t&cs apply. This letter is uses bits of the T Mobile cancellation letter posted here recently, adapted to Three's breach of contract. Will post back results.

Kevin Russell
Chief Executive Officer
Hutchison 3G UK Limited
Star House,
20 Grenfell Road,
Maidenhead,
Berkshire, SL6 1EH
7th February 2011
Dear Mr Russell

I hereby terminate without notice my contract with your company under phone number xxx, due to your company’s breach of its obligations under our contract. I require my PAC code to be sent within seven days of receipt of this letter, and that you do not allow my number to lapse until it has been transferred to another service provider.
Under your Terms and Conditions, under the clause Disruption to Three Services, you state: “5.9 There may be situations when Three Services are not continuously available or the quality is affected and so we cannot guarantee continuous fault-free service:
(c) when you are in areas not covered by the Three Network. In these cases Three Services relies on other operator’s network where we have no control.“
As you know, the Orange 2G signal is no longer available in urban areas such as Brighton, where I live, meaning I am no longer able to use my phone in my home, which does not receive a 3G signal.

Under the following clause, you have promised to cancel my contract without penalty when a detrimental variation is made to my agreement.
“10.1 You may end this agreement in the following ways:
(d) Within one month of a detrimental variation to your agreement… (a Cancellation Fee will not be charged).”


I also revoke any automatic payment mechanisms you have in place for my account with immediate effect, and thus any further automated collection of payments constitutes fraud on Hutchison 3G UK Limited’s part.

Any attempt on your part to claim early termination fees should be pursued through the courts, which I will be absolutely delighted to defend.

Yours sincerely

xxx


----------



## Bob_the_lost (Feb 5, 2011)

Not sure the kisses are merited but carry on.


----------



## ovaltina (Feb 8, 2011)

I've got a case number. They're going to respond within five working days... I hope this works, it's annoying to pay for a phone that doesn't work!


----------



## ovaltina (Feb 18, 2011)

This is the worst company ever!

They didn't respond within five days as promised, so I sent two chasing emails. Still nothing. So yesterday I called the executive office and was promised my case officer would ring me back in the afternoon. He didn't.

I called again this morning and he rang back a bit later.

He said there was still a 2g signal in Brighton and he couldn't understand why the phone didn't work.

I said he must be wrong, because I'd tried several handsets, and they had all lost 2g coverage at the same time. He said call technical services.

The first tech services guy listened to my story (on a call made on the street in the cold) and was going to transfer my call, but his system wasn't working, so he said to call back.

I spoke to a second techie, who said the 2g service has been turned off throughout the uk, so obviously there's nothing they could do. He then said I'd need to speak to customer services and let them know this.

Then I spoke to a customer services bod, who said he'd charge a cancellation fee for the remaining 18ish months of the contract. I shouted a bit, saying there's no way I'm paying a cancellation fee when they were responsible for turning off 2g and making the phone useless, and he put me through to somebody else... 

The last bloke said he's going to report to my case officer and say there's nothing that can be done to resolve the problem. This should mean that they cancel the contract without penalty and give me the pac code.

Fucking ridiculous company.


----------



## ovaltina (Feb 22, 2011)

They've agreed to cancel the contract with no penalty 

They're asking for the handset... which could have been a problem because I sold the original handset, an HTC Hero, but they're happy to accept its replacement, which is a £10 Nokia jobbie. I said I'd broken the Hero and thrown it away.


----------

