Dreadful service & Lies

[Threlly]

I joined Three for 5G home broadband last year, I'm well within the 5G footprint and my router gets a good signal on my windowsill.
Early in the morning and up until noon I can achieve over 250Mbps regularly although a dependable speed is rare.
That's where the fun stops.
From midday onwards it slowly degrades until early evening where most evenings anything over 10Mbps is rare.
Yes, you heard that right. Sub 3G speeds.
I have called user support many times and been fobbed off with a few pounds off my bill and they point me to the "service status" page, whereupon entering my postcode gives me:

"We’re fixing an issue with our network in this area
We’re sorry for any disruption you experience. Our engineers are working on masts nearby, which means the rest of our network is handling more traffic than usual.

Updates on our work will be posted here. We’re working as fast as we can to build a better, stronger network in your area.

You can find more help and advice below. And you can read more about our Big Network Build here."

This message has been there, permanently, since at least January.

Yup...January.

This is nothing less than a criminal disgrace, a lie to disguise a company filling it's pockets, bragging about profits (Revenue up 3% to £2.52bn (2021: £2.44bn) driven by customer base growth) whilst spending the least amount of money it can outside of the capital investing in network infrastructure.

The same-old-same-old.

The moment I am out of this farce of a contract I'm gone, forever.

Liars & thieves.

[Avondale]

@Threlly 

There are many reasons for network repairs taking longer than expected. And, in fairness, Three's 5G Broadband is excellent when it works ! 

I wonder whether @JonathanB might be able to put you in touch with someone who can give you more detail on progress and when your service might be more reliable. If you don't get the answers that you want, you might be able to persuade Three to let you leave your contract early.   

[Threlly]

Imagine your gas, water or electricity company saying "it's excellent when it works" !!
This is a utility we all depend on, the scenario you describe is utterly, utterly unacceptable.
Fairness doesn't come into it.

They're taking the money and not providing what they're contracted to.

[Avondale]

@Threlly 

I think that you will find that no mobile 'phone company guarantees you a service, so if you want to be cynical, you could say that they have contracted to take your money but not to provide you with a service. 

It is disappointing that the moderators, such as @JonathanB, do not seem to have responded. Of course, they are the only Three employees on here. The remainder of us are mere customers, just like you.

If you really feel strongly about this, why don't you take the matter up with your bank ? If they agree with you, they will recover your money from Three and return it to you, using a procedure known as "chargeback". The bank will probably insist that you raise a formal complaint with Three first, but it might be worth a try.    

[JonathanB]

Hi @Avondale,

Thanks for tagging this thread, and I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to address this. I totally appreciate the reasoning with suggesting a charge back, but it's not a good route for anyone to follow with a contract dispute. The previously paid bills end up showing as defaulted so it can have a serious credit file impact.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Threlly]

It may come to that, however, just as I'm spending time bellyaching about Three on this forum a letter dropped through the door yesterday from Netomnia stating that my block will be getting full FTTH soon. 10Gbps no less!
So that's a nail in the head for Three.

[jonohanson]

Pretty sure they use that comment on the status checker when they have had a few people complain.  Pretty sure it's all way over subscribed.

[JonathanB]

Hi @Threlly,

I'm really sorry to hear about your experiences of our Broadband this past year. It does sound like the network in your area has capacity issues, and it's disappointing to hear that we haven't been able to sufficiently upgrade this since January.

I can understand your perspective around Three's investments if this is the experiences you're having with our service, but I can assure you, there are billions spent on infrastructure improvements. The message you see on our Network Status Checker indicates that we're aware of and working on improving capacity, but there can be a number of reasons why this can take time.

I do appreciate that 7 months isn't a reasonable time to wait though. I'll PM you a link to some colleagues that will take ownership of your complaint, they won't realistically be able to speed up network improvements, but they may be able to give you more insight into what's happening, and if a termination fee is the only thing that is currently keeping you in contract, they may be able to help you leave the contract early if that's what you'd prefer. 

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan

[stevekn]

when will the ongoing problem of the ZTE MC801 (b15 firmware) dropping internet ( on a good 5G signal) get fixed ?

Does it 2- 3 times a day, and a modem restart immediately re-connects , once it has rebooted 

Left alone re-connects eventually after /minutes/hours !

[Threlly]

Steve.

What is the QA process in Three?
Does it exist?
Do they care?
What power do customers have?

Well...we can jump ship, or, better yet never set foot on the ship.
That, most likely is the only thing three care about. The bottom line.