Apologies as this is a bit of a long read.
I've recently come to the end of my 24 month contract with Three and being generally happy with the service and performance wanted to renew my contract... which was where my problems started.
I was specifically after the 5G Outdoor Hub as my situation had changed over the course of the previous contract and I thought this might be the product for me.
I initially tried upgrading online but that proved painful as Three don't seem to cater terribly well for people at the end of their current contract and there was no obvious path and besides I wanted to update my 2 years old router if possible.
The people I chatted to online were pretty dire and said I couldn't have the 5G Outdoor Hub (simply because their computer said NO) and wouldn't be budged.
I knew if I went into a Three store I'd probably get what I wanted and I was correct. It was explained the best thing to do would be to cancel my out of contract 5G deal and just sign a new deal, and don't worry "cancelling is really easy".
Spoiler alert: Cancelling WASN'T really easy but eventually I did manage to get this done.
Anyway, I got an excellent deal on the Outdoor Hub and I was told if I had any problems to just return it.
I took the Outdoor Hub home, opened it up to insert my SIM and noticed there was already a SIM installed (so this Hub was used) I wasn't too bothered as it seemed in OK condition but after some testing I realised it wasn't the product for me and opted to return it.
I naively thought they could leave the contract in place and just swap the hardware but I was very wrong on that front. I had to cancel my previous contract and setup a new contract to get the internal 5G router.
So with little choice I cancelled the outdoor hub contract and signed a new contract for for the indoor hub.
For the second time I got home and opened my 'new' hub only to discover this second device was also resealed and wasn't new. To make matters worse it was a ZTE MC801 a router first issued by Three over 2 years ago I believe with the current model issued being a ZTE MC888. So my new 5G router wasn't new or new and it certainly wasn't better than my existing Zyxel NR5103E (in tests the Zyxel was performing at nearly twice the speed of the ZTE).
Still fairly confident this was a mistake that could be easily rectified I contacted Three to ask why I'd been issued second hand equipment and could I be sent something newer... I was again told NO and that I'd have to cancel my contract AGAIN or there was nothing at all that could be done to fix this.
Also the Three complaints department didn't seem bothered at all that stores were reissuing second hand equipment which I also thought was odd. This is Three after all not Cex.
I found the Three staff in store did pretty much everything they could to help me and give me what I wanted but I found the Three staff on the phone and chat to be beyond useless. It really makes me want to cancel everything I have with Three as this is a terrible start to my new contract.
And the final (possible) nail in the coffin is I have set the wheels in motion of cancelling my out of contract 5G deal but I now want to keep that old router (as Three want me to send it back and keep the new, rubbish 5G router) and just carry on from where I was. I'm just hoping Three will allow that to happen now but are fearful that the self destruct sequence I've initiated can now not be stopped for some random Three reason that nobody expects.
Only time will tell I guess.
