3's mobile data: Gateway 'Splash Screen'

legs11

I am back at home in the sticks for a bit and using my N73 to connect to the interweb again and half the sites dont work, and I keep getting the stupid splash screen every time I open a web page, what a load of rubbish, wouldnt even let me check my 3d mark 06 scores on line...!

I cant believe I am paying them 20euros for this nonsense. also msn messenger doesnt work.

on another note, while I am back in my god auld anti 3 mode has anyone heard of abwolfe solicitors in dublin? they are looking for that data bill from earlier this year. (yawnnnnnn).

culabula

legs11 wrote:

I am back at home in the sticks for a bit and using my N73 to connect to the interweb again and half the sites dont work, and I keep getting the stupid splash screen every time I open a web page, what a load of rubbish, wouldnt even let me check my 3d mark 06 scores on line...!

I cant believe I am paying them 20euros for this nonsense. also msn messenger doesnt work.

on another note, while I am back in my god auld anti 3 mode has anyone heard of abwolfe solicitors in dublin? they are looking for that data bill from earlier this year. (yawnnnnnn).

Allah be praised, you're back to normal! :-)

quintron

That splash screen they have introduced is absolutely ridiculous. I get it every time I go online.. 8 times or more a day!
Where did it come from? Who authorised it? It makes no sense. It wasn't there for 6 months or more then its everywhere.
Why do none of the reps at three know what I'm talking about when I call them in frustration? Another war of attrition via the phone... jeez..
Why bother.. thats what they are hoping I suppose.
3's service is fine for a while and then they go and do another dumb thing like this splash page.. I honestly don't get it..
I'm trying to get it..but ....no... I just don't get it. Probably because it makes no bloody sense!!!
Fed up.
Can one network just give us unlimited internet access (subject of course to fair usage et al) without ALL the bull****. I've more to be doing than calling three to get them to explain another odd move. But I'm compelled to do so as I'm paying for the service. Just drop the crap and give us b/band straight up. It won't kill you..

culabula

What's this splash screen?

quintron

culabula wrote:

What's this splash screen?

Each time you access the net on your phone (since mid last week), instead of the page/bookmark being returned to you, you are presented with a page containing the following text as outlined below verbatim..

<hyperlink> Continue, (I've seen this page before) <hyperlink>

Accessing the Internet consumes data. If you have X-Series or a Mobile Broadband Add-on this data will be consumed from your allowance. Customers without X-Series or who have exceeded their Mobile Broadband Add-on allowance will be charged at 49c per MB.

To accept these charges click continue.

<hyperlink> >Continue <hyperlink>

Get better value by purchasing a Mobile Broadband Add-on.

<hyperlink> >Learn More <hyperlink>

This warning will appear once per day. If you have problems, please click the following link.

<hyperlink> > Problems with warning <hyperlink>

Check my Mobile Broadband usage.

<hyperlink> >See it on My3 <hyperlink>


ENDS.

Now, why in Gods name suddenly have this page? Its clearly for people who do not have a bband add on. ANd their claim of once per day (aleady too much). NO. Getting it repeatedly per day.
Am I over my allowance? NO. I have 96MB remaining from my 100MB add on.

Clicking on "Problems with Warning" yield nothing except advice that your time and date settings should not change on your phone otherwise you may see the message more frequently (?).... and NO I haven't altered my time/date settings.

Result.. frustrating need to click through to get to your link and scatching your head wondering if three have screwed up their billing and you will be charged incorrectly when your next bill comes. Not good for peace of mind!
Equally unsettling is that I spoke to 3 seperate "3 reps" who knew nothing about this "warning" page, seemed bemused by the whole thing, "escalated it" & promised to get back to me in 24 hours (last week)....... came back to me after 4 days to ask me what sites I was having trouble accessing?, missing the whole point of the original conversation... so I repeat myself ad nausum..they promised that I would get another call in 24hrs and that it was being "escalated" again. (There are a lot of escalators in India apparantly) and I have not heard from them since.
I thought it was a glitch, gave them the benefit of the doubt for the first few days. Butnow its a joke. I get it now every single time I boot up the web browser and try to access anything, webpage, bookmark..
As a result of this splash screen, I'm convinced it has slowed down access to my mail via profimail, I'm getting more time outs. Resco news is equally slow to initiate a connection to the 3G mast.... all in all... a big step back for no logical reason. Programs which don't go through the web browser take longer to connect, as I presume there is some "splashing" around in the background that some bots are scrambling data back and forth or whatever... really though, just whatEVER! Why inflict this extra need to click through?
We've signed a contract. We pay our bills. I paid my add on for the past 6 months. I'm a responsible human phone interactive operant goddammit!
I know what the limits of my add on. 100MB. I have a page I can access to see if I'm going over that (never came even close so far) so this page is simply a nuisance that has no purpose.
Its simple! If you have an add-on.. no splash screen. Surely in the 21st century thats achievable? They can check user status like they must have done in the past in the background.
Step 2, tell the people who have to deal with the likes of me on the phone whats going on, so no one wastes anyone elses time going around in circles
Step 3 get rid of the daft screen for users who know what they have bought. If it ain't broke don't fix it..
Baffling.
This stuff just "appears" (or "disappears" in the case of Fring, Truphone, Gizmo et al). No site announcement, no one informed at the call centres. No email o text from 3 outlining their motives. No direct contact with the customer. No warning. No anything really...
Its almost like there is some maniacal decision maker locked in a room on high (the highest escalator I would imagine) throwing these network, service decisions (upgrades, sidegrades, downgrades) out on a whim, informing no-one and cackling at the fallout. OTT? Unfortunately, Its not that hard to imagine.
In fact it just about explains it!
Rant over. With apologies, I'm off to bed.

PS: legs I don't agree with your post above. 3 are providing the best of a bad lot and for the most part I'm a happy customer. So happy that I almost take straightforward internet access from them for granted. Then they go and do something really, really stupid (repeatedly it seems of late) and I'm compelled to ask WHY??? Are they trying to alienate users? If they outlined reasons,if they kept users informed via an official blog, if you could call and get a decent reply to your query, then there is room for debate, but you can't debate a brick wall and thats frustrating.

flywheel

legs11 wrote:

on another note, while I am back in my god auld anti 3 mode has anyone heard of abwolfe solicitors in dublin? they are looking for that data bill from earlier this year. (yawnnnnnn).

hi, for advice on your billing issue please the:
Biz > Consumer > Consumer Issues board

you should be able to get seek appropriate assistance there, i moved your last thread there so you shold be able to add to it:
3 solicitors- AB Wolfe?

this thread will be trimmed to focus on the element relevant to this forum, 3's 'splash screen'...

WezzyB

The splash screen is a royal pain.
I have talked to two reps about it and they have no clue about what it is also.

Also because of this my podcast updates are failing, i.e. Nokia Podcasting software scrapes the xml rss feed and because of the splash screen what the app scrapes is the the splash screen and not the xml causing my podcasts to be inaccessible!

I figure this could be a ploy to stop non web based access to the internet as podcasts can be quiet big, but then again nothing that Three have done has given me the impression that they are that smart.

They really should have the decency to have a special team for mobile broadband so we can ring them up and they understand what we want to do with our phones and want to help us, they really know how to shoot themselves in the foot by offering a great sounding service and then crippling it futher and further.

I wonder what they will do next?

Maybe you'll need to log onto Planet Three to send a text message instead of using the facility on your phone, because that is the only service they will allow and they will disable their SMS Gateway. You never know.....


P.S. Fring, Windows Live Messenger and Nokia Podcasting don't work on Three's mobile broadband.

Sam Vimes

@legs, the splash screen did show up the same day that the bb went to crap but i don't think it actually caused it. The splash screen was one of the things they did that day to cripple the service

i've explained the screen to about ten agents so far. I got some of them to write it all down on my account so i didn't have to keep repeating myself but they made me repeat myself anyway.

I wonder how many agents they have that makes it possible for so many people to call and still they have no idea what you're talking about.

Or would they not get together and maybe explain the problem to each other after the first call to avoid customers repeating themselves?

The warning is pointless because i have a bb add on and even if i didn't, its not necessary to see the warning every time i open the browser. I've taken to minimising the browser rather than closing it so i don't see the page as often.

The suggestions they've given me every time i called are:
1. take your battery out
2. wipe your sim
3. do a factory reset
4. wait 24 hours
5. age verify yourself
6. and finally:stop using the bb for a while.

Don't you just want to give them a big hug

Sam Vimes

Meant to say that if you submit a form and are redirected to the splash page, the form submits and if you press continue it submits again

quintron

Just got off the phone witha a technical support call back and also requested that they write every single thing down.. sick of talking.
She DID know what I was talking about though which is a first, though maybe she was bluffing well. I read the riot act. It makes no difference, I don't feel better, she probably got a shock. All in all a pointless 15 minutes going around in circles.

podgeandrodge

sigh :mad: this splash screen is transforming my life. For the worse. I want to cry but if I do 3 will have won. I want to hit out with my fist but India is too far away.

Why oh why do 3 try so hard to raise my blood pressure.

quintron

looks like they have updated it... Though it's worded pretty badly.
Now it says message will appear once a week... Though i have gotten it twice tonight. I'll do some testing in the am.
Looks like a compromise though obviously it would make more sense not to see it AT ALL if you have the add-on... you know... like it was, say, 2 weeks ago.
This message and the crap it creates should be reserved only for people who DO NOT have an add-on.

jimmycrackcorm

idiots! I get this screen all the time. I'm going to see if switching to X-series makes a difference. I see that they have X-Series back on the three.ie site again so they must think it works. Although I'm perplexed at the distinction between X-series and mobile broadband whereby for the same price you can get orb, skype and slingbox with the former additionally. Why bother with mobile BB?

Irritatingly now I cant go to mycast.orb.com.

quintron

Okay, so I have logged on to the web on my phone 3 times this morning and each time, I have been greeted by this stupid "splash screen".
So much for once a week!!!! And it still looks like it was worded by a monkey.
Is this happening for others repeatedly as outlined above?
Please let me know, because I need to contact them. My patience is wearing thin.

This is intolerable!

Sam Vimes

quintron wrote:

Okay, so I have logged on to the web on my phone 3 times this morning and each time, I have been greeted by this stupid "splash screen".
So much for once a week!!!! And it still looks like it was worded by a monkey.
Is this happening for others repeatedly as outlined above?
Please let me know, because I need to contact them. My patience is wearing thin.

This is intolerable!

the warning i saw said once per day but as you say it shows up every time you open the browser. that's because the browser deletes cookies when its closed. the only way i've found around it is to enable cookies before going to a page (and being redirected to the stupid screen) and then when finished what you're doing, minimise the browser instead of closing it. you're using a nokia symbian phone aren't you? i seem to recall you saying you have an n73 but i could just be insane

quintron

N73, cookies on always by default on the std S60 browser. It has also been checked on 3 other S60 handsets with identical results.

Minimising the browser is a workaround but we are all aware of the lack of operating ram on that model handset, and, in a real world setting, browser can shut in the background if you open the Gallery or indeed any other ram intensive program.

Ultimately we shouldn't have to resort to minimising a browser to keep a cookie that should be stored like numerous other cookies that remember forms and password data.

Its an additional process that hits battery life though a necessary workaround to what I consider a serious setback and one which I take grievance with.

If the message, bad as it is, says once per day or once per week, then thats what it should be, though we know it should not be there at all. The cookie does not even need to be stored locally! They know how to detract from add-on allowance as they have done for 6 months plus, via, I presume a server stored cookie of some sort (or whatever, I don't really care, its not my job) so its not rocket science.

The whole thing is lame and what makes it worse is that they can't even get this screw up to work properly!!!

There is a cold methodology at work here and 3 needs to 'fess up, educate their customer care representives and acknowledge to the end user the inherent fluctuating limitations imposed on their "unlimited" service.

It's simply not on.

Sam Vimes

Oh absolutely we shouldn't have to do it but unfortunately we do because 3 sucks donkey balls (i believe thats the technical term)