3 Gaining ground?

Sam Vimes

rc28 wrote:

Yes that is Tallus who couldn't get the gmail app to work either even though others could(after previously not been able to) so that suggests to me that there is either something wrong with his old v3x or he just has to change some settings. Other people are using opera with 3pay now so i don't see what they stand to gain from lying to the thread?

which others? i've seen one that said he could use the gmail app and one other who i have a feeling is on bill pay. i just downloaded the 3 settings from the nokia site and they're the same as the ones i currently have.

it could be that they've changed the configuration since i last tried in june. as i said i can't use it because they're incapable of remembering that i've verified my details. can anyone confirm that they were able to use opera mini before june?

Sam Vimes

Terrontress wrote:

There is nothing to suggest that if 3 were to open a call centre in Dublin, the staff would know any more.

yes there is. the customer care used to be in scotland and they knew a lot more, although they couldn't do anything to change the company's ridiculous policies either

Terrontress wrote:

It is simply poor staff training rather than the nationality or background of the people working there.

that was the point i was making in the first place, that i hate them because they don't know anything and the fact that they're indian is irrelevant. although having to call out my number 5 or 6 times every time i call even though its on the screen in front of them and having my name mispronounced even after i've corrected them does grate after a while

rc28

flodis79 wrote:

I cannot use data in the Gmail app. Can just download it, but cannot connect after entering the login details.

It's working for others and 3 must have changed their proxies because you can now access https (paypal, aib etc) sites on 3pay whereas previously you couldn't. Have you checked all your settings?
Did you get it from the right link:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/mobile/mail/index.html
Remember, some phones simply can't run certain apps (aft never worked for me)
Here are quotes from others showing that something has changed with the proxies and I don't see what they stand to gain from lying about getting wesites/apps to work:
"something has definitely changed on 3pay - it loads everything fast now"
"was able to access https:www.paypal.com no bother"
"yep, google application working perfectly!! and fast loading of webpages too. they have obviously changed things"

"Secure sites definitely did not work before, even the likes of https://www.paypal.com used to be blocked. Also the Gmail java app, and Opera Mini, did not work before"

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

rc28

Solitaryman666 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Yup for 3pay you can buy a 100mb add on for 5.99 and a 250mb for 9.99:
http://three.ie/on3/mobile_broadband.htm
If you are on bill pay you can also add on these packages-that's why there is confusion on whether it's available on 3pay or not.

Sam Vimes

Solitaryman666 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

the internet add-on is the only one you can get on pre pay

flodis79

rc28 wrote:

It's working for others and 3 must have changed their proxies because you can now access https (paypal, aib etc) sites on 3pay whereas previously you couldn't. Have you checked all your settings?
Did you get it from the right link:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/mobile/mail/index.html
Remember, some phones simply can't run certain apps (aft never worked for me)

It still goes through some kinda proxy (widerweb.net)
Yeah, I have checked my settings. Well, not much to check since you cannot alter or add anything as regards access points. I had no problem downloading the gmail java app, it's just that I can't get data to work with the app. I downloaded the Gmail app from http://gmail.com/app/v1.0.0/en/gmail-g.jar directly, no problems whatsoever.

I am curious - are some people experiencing that 3pay does not have proxies in use anymore, and for some they are still there?

Terrontress

Commander Vimes wrote:

yes there is. the customer care used to be in scotland and they knew a lot more, although they couldn't do anything to change the company's ridiculous policies either

that was the point i was making in the first place, that i hate them because they don't know anything and the fact that they're indian is irrelevant. although having to call out my number 5 or 6 times every time i call even though its on the screen in front of them and having my name mispronounced even after i've corrected them does grate after a while

I don't wish to label you as a racist Vimes but you can see that some people, not you, have been sailing fairly close to the wind in terms of talking about the Indian people working for 3.

This has been compounded by people, myself included, who when describing our contact with the customer service department talk of speaking to an "Indian woman" or "the Indian woman told me that..." when the nationality is not relevant.

I know that many Scottish people would mispronounce the most common Irish names. In fact, a lot of Northerners can't get their head around many Irish language names.

People have had bad experience with the Indian staff in 3. Fine. But I think the mods need to be careful that this does not descend into racism.

Sam Vimes

last night i was able to search google because its one of their allowed sites, although i wasn't able to look at any of the results of course because i'm "not verified. if i saved google as a bookmark the saved address would have the widerweb prefix.

but i saved it this morning and it didn't and when i tried to go to one of the bookmarks with the prefix it told me it was an invalid address. and the pages don't have "page generated by mobile broadband v5.1.3.2" at the bottom anymore. this is all very exciting. all i have to do now is wait for them to get off their holes and verify me and this internet might finally be worth using


and i'm sure we'll all be happy to know that even with this under 18 block on i can do a google image search without safe surf on and see some really filthy stuff. thumbs up for protecting kids 3

Sam Vimes

Terrontress wrote:

I know that many Scottish people would mispronounce the most common Irish names. In fact, a lot of Northerners can't get their head around many Irish language names.

this is true but when you correct them they usually get the idea. lets pretend my name is ciaran (another name they pronounce wrong). the conversation goes like this:

them: hello see-are-on, how can i help you?

me: its ciaran

them : ok see-are-on, how can i help you?

me: its ciaran, k-ir-on

them: how can i help you see-are-on?

me: sigh

Terrontress

Not such a big deal. They could call you sir. They are just trying to add the personal touch.

Have you ever heard the voice recognition voice on a Nokia N73 say Aoife?

It took me four or five attempts to work out what it was saying.

And a northerner would call Ciaran "keern" and refuse to say it any differently!

Anyway, we're splitting hairs. There have been offensive comments about the Indian staff of 3. 3's call centre being in India is not ideal, due to their inability to adjust to the Irish idiosyncracies of the English language. It could be as bad elsewhere on this island. I have had many positive experiences with 3 customer service.

Sam Vimes

terrontress, i found out today that you can do web chat with 3 customer care so i decided to try and explain my problem there to see if i'd get anywhere. this is the exact transcript. now you'll see why they irritate me:

[Operator 2] Welcome to 3, my name is xxxxxxx, How may i help you?
[Visitor] i was wondering if you can speed up the process of getting age verified? i've done it twice already in the past few months but its still telling me i'm not verified. i called up and they told me it'll take up to 48 hours to change it on my profile
[Visitor] what could possibly take 2 days?
[Operator 2] well we need to creat a new profile under your name that is the only reason it takes around 24hrs.
[Visitor] my main problem with waiting 24 hours is that a lot of people i know have been told to wait 24 hours by 3 for various reasons and when 24 hours are up they're told to wait 48 hours and when 48 hours are up they're told to wait 72 hours etc. will it actually take 24 hours? and is there any way you can speed up the process?
[Operator 2] it genarally takes upto 24hrs we wouldn't informed the customer about the 72 hours.
[Visitor] fair enough so. i have another question
[Operator 2] sure go ahead.
[Visitor] it's about the iethree.widerweb.net proxy that blocks third party applications. some people are suggesting that it might be gone. is it?
[Operator 2] we do not block any application. it depends on the compatibility on your handset.
[Visitor] that's what i keep being told but that's not the case. i had a bill pay account on which any application i tried worked fine. if i took out my billpay sim card and put in the pre pay one none of them worked
[Visitor] the main two being opera mini and gmail
[Visitor] its not that the applications are specifically blocked. everything is routed through the widerweb.net proxy and none of the applications can get aroundit
[Visitor] they need a direct connection to the internet which pre pay doesn't provic
[Visitor] provide*
[Visitor] so is the widerweb.net proxy still there?
[Operator 2] the broadband services are nothing to do with the 3pay or the post pay it works the same way for both.
[Visitor] read this page please
[Visitor] http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055125955
[Visitor] not one of 3's customer care agents seems to know that this proxy exists
[Visitor] its not your fault, its up to the company to explain it to you
[Visitor] which they haven't done
[Operator 2] well we can not guarntee or take responsibility of the third party application that are downloaded from the unknown source.
[Visitor] you don't have to guarantee they work, you just have to stop actively blocking them
[Operator 2] and we have are own application coming up it is the X-series products in the month of august.
[Operator 2] we will not be able to provide you with any settings if it is not downloaded from 3.
[Visitor] i don't want settings. i don't want support. i don't want the x-series. i just want your company to stop blocking all third party applications or at least acknowledge that they're doing it!!! this is word for word the conversation i have had every time i have mentioned the proxy for the past 6 months.
[Visitor] were you aware of the widerweb.net proxy before i mentioned it to you?
[Operator 2] as i expalined that we do not blocked any sites or the application.
[Visitor] that is not true
[Visitor] from the page i asked you to read:
[Visitor] I wrote to 3 Ireland's Managing Director about this and was subsequently contacted by their head of PR - initially they were not aware about the difference between billpay and 3pay as their technical team initally told them there was none - but they promised to do an investigation
[Visitor] they have come back to me and said that after conversations with their technical team they confirmed that 3Pay is routed differently (for various reasons) and there maybe some https sites that can't be reached directly -
[Visitor] that wasn't written by me by the way
[Operator 2] well let me explain all the browser service are connected with the same proxy.we do not have any different router.
[Operator 2] and it may be possible but we do not have the answer to your query.
[Visitor] if you have meetings with your staff, please tell them about this conversation and that, no matter what your superiors tell you, 3pay is routed differently to bill pay for no apparent reason and as a result, all third party applications are blocked
[Visitor] goodbye


it went on a bit then with him asking why other people were able to access it if i wasn't. i said that was the original point of my question, ie was the proxy gone. it went on for another ten minutes or so and in fairness to him, unlike every other agent i've spoken to, he finally acknowledged that there was a difference between 3pay and bill pay that might or might not be gone and all i could do was wait until the world's slowest computer verified my age to check for myself

Sam Vimes

Im posting this from my 3pay phone using opera mini. I take it all back, i love you 3. Come to my house and ill give you a big hug and a kiss on your hindu heads

1huge1

Commander Vimes wrote:

Im posting this from my 3pay phone using opera mini. I take it all back, i love you 3. Come to my house and ill give you a big hug and a kiss on your hindu heads

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

hosi

Commander Vimes wrote:

Im posting this from my 3pay phone using opera mini. I take it all back, i love you 3. Come to my house and ill give you a big hug and a kiss on your hindu heads

That was good!
See, they do their best, we just need to be patient

1huge1

Oh and vimes were can you talk to them online through text? that guy you were talking to in all fairness did seem very helpful

Sam Vimes

1huge1 wrote:

Oh and vimes were can you talk to them online through text? that guy you were talking to in all fairness did seem very helpful

http://livechat.boldchat.com/aid/7939057008210113350/bc.chat?cwdid=2337875678197600307&url=http%3A//www.three.ie/priceplans/index.htm

he was polite i'll grant you but not very helpful. he was telling me the same thing that i've been told for the past 6 months. what he was telling me was wrong until very recently and he'd had no update. as far as he was concerned there was never a proxy but some people still can't get past it

as far as i can figure out, they've got rid of the proxy but they have to "update people's profiles" so their phones are using it anymore which is taking time. they haven't told the customer care anything about this, i've been left to figure it out on my own

AlmightyCushion

Commander Vimes wrote:

as far as i can figure out, they've got rid of the proxy but they have to "update people's profiles" so their phones are using it anymore which is taking time. they haven't told the customer care anything about this, i've been left to figure it out on my own

Well I'm glad someone figured it out. I can't wait to use all the cool apps.

1huge1

Well thats good, how did ya manage to come across that live chat vimes, like from the sounds of it you wouldnt have a clue its related to 3, i was expecting www.three.ie/webchat

Sam Vimes

In the other thread about "3pay, what will work". Page 2 or 3

Blaster99

Seeing you as didn't have a specific problem, what exactly did you expect this customer service rep to do?

tvnutz

A little off the main topic but I didn't want to start another 3 thread! 3 don't do upgrades,right? But I also heard that other 3 sims won't work in other 3 phones. So if I bought a different 3 phone but used my own 3 sim card it wouldn't work. Is that true?

The_Hustler

No, I am using my old sim in my newer 3 phone. (The lack of upgrades is terrible imo)

Sam Vimes

@blaster99, i thought it was fairly obvious. I had 2 questions:

1. Could he possibly make it take less than two days to do a simple profile upgrade which should take no more than 20 seconds

2. Was the proxy gone. Getting this question answered was hindered by the fact that he never knew it existed

godskitchen

Its pointless trying to talk people out of going with Three, or pointing out their endless bad points, they have already made up their mind and come on here to get reassurance, simple as that.

Some people see a low price and are just blinded by that, everythiung else you tell them about the company gets blocked by this massive € sign that keeps popping up infront of their face.

Leave them to it, dont discuss it anymore, if someone wants to know more then they can search for the information, its all here on the boards.

Terrontress

The massive € sign that popped up in front of my face when I was with Vodafone caused me to cancel my contract with them and change to Vodafone prepay!

What difficulty do people have in understanding that there are people on 3 whose phone does what it is supposed to?

Blaster99

Commander Vimes wrote:

@blaster99, i thought it was fairly obvious. I had 2 questions:

1. Could he possibly make it take less than two days to do a simple profile upgrade which should take no more than 20 seconds

2. Was the proxy gone. Getting this question answered was hindered by the fact that he never knew it existed

It sounds like you have fundamentally misunderstood what the customer service rep does. It's not their job to know about network infrastructure. They're there to register a fault and escalate it. They can do simple account related stuff like cancelling an add-on.

Just for future reference, when you talk to a support person you present them with testable things like "URL such and such doesn't work."

Wrt to your age verification issue, your question was "what could possibly take 2 days?". Again, that's not likely to get you anywhere is it? The question is surely, what is the status of my age verification request and what is being done to resolve it?

If this is how you've approached your various issues I'm not surprised you've gotten nowhere and got frustrated in the process.

Sam Vimes

Blaster99 wrote:

It sounds like you have fundamentally misunderstood what the customer service rep does. It's not their job to know about network infrastructure. They're there to register a fault and escalate it. They can do simple account related stuff like cancelling an add-on.

i've been dealing with the customer care of all the networks at one time or another in a professional capacity over several years. i know exactly what customer care can do, depending on the agent you get.

i used to think meteor's customer care was badly trained but they look like brain surgeons compared to 3. they literally have a few pre-defined responses for the most common questions and are lost if anything else is asked.

with the other networks, if the agent doesn't know, they go and ask someone and come back in a few minutes with what is usually the right answer. the only time i've ever had to wait more than a few hours for a problem to be resolved is with porting issues or when a complete balls had been made of something. with 3, pretty much anything besides "what's the name of the company" requires a 24 hour wait while they queue up to ask the one guy in the place who knows anything

Blaster99 wrote:

Just for future reference, when you talk to a support person you present them with testable things like "URL such and such doesn't work."

i asked him a very straight-forward question: "is the proxy gone?". the proxy (when it was there) was a fundamental aspect of the 3pay internet. it effectively crippled it and made it useless. anyone who used the internet discovered its existence as soon as they loaded a page because every page had "generated by mobile broadband v5.2.3.4" at the bottom (after the obligatory 5 minute wait for a page to load because of the proxy). its not my fault that their superiors lied to them for months telling them it didn't exist

Blaster99 wrote:

Wrt to your age verification issue, your question was "what could possibly take 2 days?". Again, that's not likely to get you anywhere is it? The question is surely, what is the status of my age verification request and what is being done to resolve it?

If this is how you've approached your various issues I'm not surprised you've gotten nowhere and got frustrated in the process.

this is not how i've approached my various issues, this is what i've been driven to after dealing with staff every day who have received zero training and do nothing but "go ahead and escalate" everything but the most simple of requests

and as far as i can see, this age verification problem seems to be happening to every 3pay customer. it happened to me 3 times. the fact that the agent i was talking to did not know how to fix an extremely widespread problem that has been happening at least since may shows the level of training they have


mr hutchison, if you're reading this, train your f*cking staff. there's a reason people are loyal to o2. their prices are mid-range but their customer care is excellent

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Sam Vimes

i got the settings working in a k800 today. Im in work at the moment and posting them from my phone is a bit awkward so ill do it when i get home. In the meantime, google the following without the quotes: "hutchkey site:boards.ie". In the results you should find a post from me with the settings.

It should be straightforward to enter them except where it says "authentication:normal". On an SE, that means select PAP from the authentication menu