Paul Whybrow
Full Member
I connect to the Internet by using a mobile broadband dongle, plugged into a USB port. I use pay as you go. When I moved to my present location, nine years ago, I checked online at the local library, to see which mobile broadband provider had the strongest signal. I live midway between two telecommunications masts in Cornwall, on a site that's surrounded by hundreds of acres of flat fields, so I kind of thought that I'd have no problem with reception.
In fact, back in 2009, there was only one company that covered my area—Three.co.uk—this was the only reason I used them.
I acquired one of their dongles, which came with a SIM, and attempted to register with their service. After hours of trying, this proved to be impossible, so I made a round trip of 20 miles to their nearest shop. It took the sales staff two hours to get anywhere, and they,(following fraught phone conversations with senior staff), eventually replaced my dongle and SIM. Not a good start.
I persevered with 3 for five years (I'm a masochist stubborn!), even though their service was patchy, at best, with connection speeds measured in kilobytes per second. Sending technical queries to them was a waste of time, as they were never answered. Simply adding credit to my account, by entering the details from a voucher, was sometimes impossible. This meant placing a call to the Helpline, in, you guessed it, Mumbai. I've nothing but praise for their staff, who were unfailingly polite and helpful, willingly phoning me back to sort out the problem. I got the impression that they had a lot of practice!
There were other issues. In 2005, 3 decided to redesign the look of their site...great, thinks I, perhaps they'll make it easier to navigate. Instead, they removed 3GB of credit from my account, taking it back to zero, and refused to reimburse me. To add to the fun, a couple of years later, the day after I'd topped-up my account with 5 Gigabytes, 4 GB of it disappeared overnight in downloads of films. Unless I was sleepwalking, it wasn't done by me. Puzzled by the titles, which were in an Oriental script, I did some research and found that they were South Korean pornography! Using geolocation I used the IP address of the downloader, to find that it was based in Hong Kong, where 3's corporate headquarters are—and in the range of IP addresses owned by them! Effectively, I was paying for someone at 3, be it humble geek technician or salaried executive, to pleasure themselves!
I'd had enough. 3 again ignored my vociferous complaints, even though I provided them with evidence via screenshots of the wrongdoing. By this point, I was thoroughly pissed off with computers in general, for I was still using Microsoft's Vista operating system (universally acknowledged, their worst ever), that was more obstructive than helpful, and trying to connect to the Internet via 3—who acted like crooks. I'd developed such a seething hatred for them, that I even started to dislike the number 3, whenever I saw it written down somewhere.
I searched around for another provider, seeing that now a company called Giffgaff were offering a signal that I could use. They piggyback onto the O2 network, so I acquired an O2 dongle on eBay to use with the free SIM that Giffgaff sent me.
I've been with them for over two years, and they are as brilliant as 3 are crap! I never give anyone or anything 10 out of 10, but I would for Giffgaff. Part of the reason for their success, is they're run by a community of users, with readily accessible forums. They are open and transparent about how they operate, willing to alter their site and their service on suggestions from the users. I made a comment about how the wording of an ambiguous sentence could be improved, and they rewarded me with £5 of credit!
Their tariffs are considerably better than 3 too. For example Giffgaff gives 9GB for £18, whereas 3 charge £25 for only 7GB. Giffgaff's signal is more stable and, if it does disconnect, it automatically reconnects. With 3, it sometimes took an hour of trying to get the signal back.
I went over to Giffgaff on my mobile phone too, after using the Asda service, which piggybacked onto the expensive Vodaphone network. Again, Giffgaff are brilliant, updating me of my remaining credit, whenever I make a call or text.
Going over to the Linux operating system revitalised my ageing laptop, which, combined with Giffgaff, means that it's almost as speedy as when new.
Summing up: avoid 3 like the plague! Go with Giffgaff.
Sadly, I think that they only provide a mobile broadband service in the U.K.
Have you had any horrendous experiences with broadband providers?
In fact, back in 2009, there was only one company that covered my area—Three.co.uk—this was the only reason I used them.
I acquired one of their dongles, which came with a SIM, and attempted to register with their service. After hours of trying, this proved to be impossible, so I made a round trip of 20 miles to their nearest shop. It took the sales staff two hours to get anywhere, and they,(following fraught phone conversations with senior staff), eventually replaced my dongle and SIM. Not a good start.
I persevered with 3 for five years (I'm
There were other issues. In 2005, 3 decided to redesign the look of their site...great, thinks I, perhaps they'll make it easier to navigate. Instead, they removed 3GB of credit from my account, taking it back to zero, and refused to reimburse me. To add to the fun, a couple of years later, the day after I'd topped-up my account with 5 Gigabytes, 4 GB of it disappeared overnight in downloads of films. Unless I was sleepwalking, it wasn't done by me. Puzzled by the titles, which were in an Oriental script, I did some research and found that they were South Korean pornography! Using geolocation I used the IP address of the downloader, to find that it was based in Hong Kong, where 3's corporate headquarters are—and in the range of IP addresses owned by them! Effectively, I was paying for someone at 3, be it humble geek technician or salaried executive, to pleasure themselves!
I'd had enough. 3 again ignored my vociferous complaints, even though I provided them with evidence via screenshots of the wrongdoing. By this point, I was thoroughly pissed off with computers in general, for I was still using Microsoft's Vista operating system (universally acknowledged, their worst ever), that was more obstructive than helpful, and trying to connect to the Internet via 3—who acted like crooks. I'd developed such a seething hatred for them, that I even started to dislike the number 3, whenever I saw it written down somewhere.
I searched around for another provider, seeing that now a company called Giffgaff were offering a signal that I could use. They piggyback onto the O2 network, so I acquired an O2 dongle on eBay to use with the free SIM that Giffgaff sent me.
I've been with them for over two years, and they are as brilliant as 3 are crap! I never give anyone or anything 10 out of 10, but I would for Giffgaff. Part of the reason for their success, is they're run by a community of users, with readily accessible forums. They are open and transparent about how they operate, willing to alter their site and their service on suggestions from the users. I made a comment about how the wording of an ambiguous sentence could be improved, and they rewarded me with £5 of credit!
Their tariffs are considerably better than 3 too. For example Giffgaff gives 9GB for £18, whereas 3 charge £25 for only 7GB. Giffgaff's signal is more stable and, if it does disconnect, it automatically reconnects. With 3, it sometimes took an hour of trying to get the signal back.
I went over to Giffgaff on my mobile phone too, after using the Asda service, which piggybacked onto the expensive Vodaphone network. Again, Giffgaff are brilliant, updating me of my remaining credit, whenever I make a call or text.
Going over to the Linux operating system revitalised my ageing laptop, which, combined with Giffgaff, means that it's almost as speedy as when new.
Summing up: avoid 3 like the plague! Go with Giffgaff.
Sadly, I think that they only provide a mobile broadband service in the U.K.
Have you had any horrendous experiences with broadband providers?
OK, found the smileys. They were rather obvious, actually.
