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Mobile phone dongle.


Tractor

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I am trying to cancel a single phone account with 3, the Hutchinson Mobile phone outfit; as I attempt to rationalize expenditure.

 

The device a dongle , had it for 8 years on 3, but has been useful for the internet communication on the boat.

 

I have spent 3 days, and many hours trying to achieve what must be a simple objective, resulting on:

 

3, trying to sell me stuff which I do not want, at reduced rates.

Put on hold for long periods, as soon as I mention the 'objective'.

After some time the phone goes to interference and noise.

A promise that if I call a certain number, 0333 338 1039, then I will not be put on hold; it is, and for even longer.

This must be against some 'human rights charter'.

It is not possible cancel the account through a 3 Shop.

I cannot cancel the account through the 'chat' service, sharp thinking here on my part as these 'chat lines are recorded??

Hutchinson head office, 'Customer services', 01628 765000, 'no I cannot cancel here', I have to call customer services; for this read India, along with the language disparity, poor communication and background noise.

 

I need recommendation for a company which has UK based customer services to communicate with and deal with.

Moderately reasonable comms, allowing for the limitations of ditch chugging.

Truly at the end of my tether.

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Tractor said:

I am trying to cancel a single phone account with 3, the Hutchinson Mobile phone outfit; as I attempt to rationalize expenditure.

 

The device a dongle , had it for 8 years on 3, but has been useful for the internet communication on the boat.

 

I have spent 3 days, and many hours trying to achieve what must be a simple objective, resulting on:

 

3, trying to sell me stuff which I do not want, at reduced rates.

Put on hold for long periods, as soon as I mention the 'objective'.

After some time the phone goes to interference and noise.

A promise that if I call a certain number, 0333 338 1039, then I will not be put on hold; it is, and for even longer.

This must be against some 'human rights charter'.

It is not possible cancel the account through a 3 Shop.

I cannot cancel the account through the 'chat' service, sharp thinking here on my part as these 'chat lines are recorded??

Hutchinson head office, 'Customer services', 01628 765000, 'no I cannot cancel here', I have to call customer services; for this read India, along with the language disparity, poor communication and background noise.

 

I need recommendation for a company which has UK based customer services to communicate with and deal with.

Moderately reasonable comms, allowing for the limitations of ditch chugging.

Truly at the end of my tether.

 

 

I dumped 3 years ago because of this practice and it seems nothings changed. Been with o2 for years now with better coverage and can all be done in an 02 store including quickly closing one redundant account at one time and they will do any changes for you instantly on their pooter. 

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Contacting Three by phone is not great I admit, but you should not need to do that often.  In fact I just did an upgrade with Three a couple of days ago online, as suggested by them in an email.  By upgrade read reduced my monthly cost for exactly the same thing.  Very happy with Three.

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If that doesnt work, just cancel the DD.....you are on a rolling contract now anyway and owe them nothing.

I've never had a problem either buying, changing or ditching a 3 sim card or contract......I NEVER call them, as with my very poor high level hearing can make no sense of the Bangalore/Mumbai twang.

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51 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Contacting Three by phone is not great I admit, but you should not need to do that often.  In fact I just did an upgrade with Three a couple of days ago online, as suggested by them in an email.  By upgrade read reduced my monthly cost for exactly the same thing.  Very happy with Three.

 

I had a similar email today where they gave me a very special customer offer of charging me a couple of quid more a month for exactly the same package.  Less happy with Three!

 

Fortunately iD Mobile will sell me the same package, still on the Three network, for a fiver a month less than the identical package direct from Three ... hmm.

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9 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

I had a similar email today where they gave me a very special customer offer of charging me a couple of quid more a month for exactly the same package.  Less happy with Three!

 

Fortunately iD Mobile will sell me the same package, still on the Three network, for a fiver a month less than the identical package direct from Three ... hmm.

Go with what makes sense for you.  For me as long at it is sub £20 for unlimited everything, at moment I am happy, and feel it represents good value.  It is cheaper than the broadband at home.

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1 minute ago, john6767 said:

For me as long at it is sub £20 for unlimited everything, at moment I am happy, and feel it represents good value.

 

Did you get offered the £23/1-month contract £22/12-month or £22/24-month (first 6 months at £11) ?

 

That's what they offered me, but I was already paying less than that!

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19 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Did you get offered the £23/1-month contract £22/12-month or £22/24-month (first 6 months at £11) ?

 

That's what they offered me, but I was already paying less than that!

Yep.  I was paying I think £20.50 (was £20 but had gone up).  So £22 with 6 months half price comes out at £19 a month if my off the top of my head maths was right, so that is fine by me and I feel is good value.

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1 hour ago, matty40s said:

If that doesnt work, just cancel the DD.....you are on a rolling contract now anyway and owe them nothing.

I've never had a problem either buying, changing or ditching a 3 sim card or contract......I NEVER call them, as with my very poor high level hearing can make no sense of the Bangalore/Mumbai twang.

I tried that, what they then do is charge you the full rate without the DD discount since you still haven't cancelled the contract.

 

I managed to cancel my contract in the shop (the one in Rugby if that is any help), but they had to go onto the chatline to be able to do so (the shops can apparently authorise opening an account, but cannot authorise closing one, supposedly...). I then asked for a printout of the online chat to confirm cancellation of the account just for clarity.

 

If you are changing to another supplier you can get the transfer thingy (can't remember what it is called) online and you then have to carry out the transfer within 30 days or it expires.

 

Other than that messing about, I've been content with Three since I seem to get a signal pretty much everywhere, not something I can say for my O2 phone account. At the moment I'm gettign unlimited Broadband through Three for £17 per month, happy with that.

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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Mine’s gone up too. It used to be £8/m unlimited everything but the swines put it up to £8.42/m. 

Just now, Wanderer Vagabond said:

If you are changing to another supplier you can get the transfer thingy (can't remember what it is called)

PAC code. All providers have to supply that pronto now and yes, it expires after a month and you lose your number. That’s the same across the industry. 

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2 hours ago, WotEver said:

I don’t get this. I cancelled a Three contract a while back and it was as simple as... log onto My3, go to My Details and select Leave Three. It was all over and done with in about 5 minutes. Why phone them?

You do that if you are hoping they will offer you a better deal, but I thing this virus has really hit call centres and their staffing numbers. But if you just want to leave its easy.

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4 minutes ago, WotEver said:

 

PAC code. All providers have to supply that pronto now and yes, it expires after a month and you lose your number. That’s the same across the industry. 

I think if you don't activate it it just expires. I inadvertently clicked on the link for one on my 'live' account, didn't activate it and the account is still running.

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9 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

With a PAC you don't lose your number.  With a STAC you do.

I was referring to what happens after a month. 

6 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

I think if you don't activate it it just expires. I inadvertently clicked on the link for one on my 'live' account, didn't activate it and the account is still running.

If you close an account with company X they will give you a PAC. It stands for Porting Authorisation Code. If you move to company Y within a month and give them your PAC then your number will be retained on (ported to) the new account with company Y. If you leave it more than a month then the PAC expires and your number is lost to you. 
 

 

Edited by WotEver
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6 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

You do that if you are hoping they will offer you a better deal, but I thing this virus has really hit call centres and their staffing numbers. But if you just want to leave its easy.

Yes, the ‘Client Save’ departments were probably the first to go un-manned. 

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11 minutes ago, WotEver said:

 

If you close an account with company X they will give you a PAC. It stands for Porting Authorisation Code. If you move to company Y within a month and give them your PAC then your number will be retained on the new account with company Y. If you leave it more than a month then the PAC expires and your number is lost to you. 

Didn't seem to happen when I inadvertently clicked on the 'close account' on the website on my current Three account (I was trying to close the other account). The PAC code was displayed and I just sort of ignored it and it went away. The account was only 3 months old (24 month contract) when I clicked on it, so if it had closed it would have cost a bucketload of money:unsure:, fortunately it didn't and I'm still connected.

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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10 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I was referring to what happens after a month. 

 

I'm confused.  If you don't use a PAC or STAC it doesn't cancel your account or number AFAIK.  It's only when your new provider uses the code you provide them with that it closes the old account (and switches if it's a PAC).

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3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

I'm confused.  If you don't use a PAC or STAC it doesn't cancel your account or number AFAIK.  It's only when your new provider uses the code you provide them with that it closes the old account (and switches if it's a PAC).

That makes sense, and matches my experience of wrongly getting a PAC.

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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My beef with THREE recently is that I get continuous signal from 5 pm to 11.00am approx, but Saturday from 9.00 to 6.00pm approx and afternoons, I have endless problems, I know I am in a poor reception area, but I think it is mostly lack of capacity.

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2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

I'm confused.  If you don't use a PAC or STAC it doesn't cancel your account or number AFAIK.  It's only when your new provider uses the code you provide them with that it closes the old account (and switches if it's a PAC).

That’s if you move straight from one provider to another. The use of the PAC ports the number.  If you simply close your account with company X then you’ve closed the account. They can’t keep taking your DD simply because you’ve not used the PAC

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7 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Didn't seem to happen when I inadvertently clicked on the 'close account' on the website on my current Three account (I was trying to close the other account). The PAC code was displayed and I just sort of ignored it and it went away.

I think the secret here was that you ignored it. If you’d followed through you would have received loads of dire warnings about cancellation costs. 
 

Think about it, if the only way to close an account was by using the supplied PAC you could never simply close an account for a particular number. I used to have two numbers for work purposes. Some years ago I decided to drop one of them because I simply didn’t require it any longer. They gave me a PAC but I never used it. The account closed and no more debits were taken from my account. 

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4 minutes ago, WotEver said:

That’s if you move straight from one provider to another. The use of the PAC ports the number.  If you simply close your account with company X then you’ve closed the account. They can’t keep taking your DD simply because you’ve not used the PAC

 

Yes, if you directly close your account the account is closed.  Just requesting (but not using) a PAC doesn't cancel your account

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