Complicated issue with Three BB

Forest Master

Hi all,

Right, so here’s my issue - I'll bullet point it to keep it as simple as possible:

• Signed up for 3 Mobile BB in September 2010 for €9.99 pm. My intention was to only use this when travelling to the UK on business every few months as I have fixed line connections for main usage. I also figured it would be handy to have as a backup in case my normal BB went down.
• Didn't use it at all until I went to London in Dec 2010. When I was over there, it would crash every few minutes with a "win32 host generic host error" (this is very common) - basically, I couldn't use it for more than 1 min. Then I'd have to restart my Laptop & connect again. Waste of time. BTW - this is NOT my Laptop's fault - it's an issue with the modem manufacturer's drivers & WinXP. Googling confirmed this, as per link above.
• Then I got a new Dell Windows 7 laptop in May and went back to London in May too - assumed the WinXP issue would be moot now. Didn't get that previous error, but the connection would drop after 5 or 6 minutes of use, and I had to restart again. This was in central London with a full signal – so it wasn’t a coverage issue.
• So at this stage, I had tried to use it twice, and it let me down 100% of the time. I was freaked – I had been paying €9.99 a month even when I wasn’t using it, and when I finally did want to use it, it failed miserably.
• So when I got back, I cancelled my Direct Debit, and rang to cancel the account. They said I couldn’t, because I had signed up for 18 months (over the phone BTW – nothing signed) – I said they breached their end of the contract by failing to provide the service I was paying for, so I refused to pay for it anymore and I was terminating on those grounds. My argument was that I wasn’t going to pay for a service I wasn’t getting - that would be madness. I received my next bill & paid it by cheque, so I had paid for all of my usage up to that date.
• Anyway, they wouldn’t cancel the account, and now they keep sending bills along with late payment fees tagged on. I have asked them to stop, because I’m not using the service anymore, and they knew that in advance. They said that they’ll keep billing me unless I wanted to pay the termination fee to cancel. I said No, because it was them that breached the contract and I wasn’t liable for an early termination fee.
• Now they’re collections dept is calling me 2 or 3 times per day. I keep telling them to f*ck off & that I cancelled my account in May 2011. They keep calling from an “Unknown” number and asking for my DOB & address for confirmation – I keep saying “so, a stranger with an Indian accent calls me from an Unknown number and asks me for personal details, you think I’m dumb enough to hand it out?” – and then the call can’t proceed, because they need to confirm who I am. But I’m not handing over personal details to a stranger, so the call goes no further.
• I asked them to stop calling me, as it’s harassment – they said NO – they’ll keep calling.

Anyway – my question is – where do I stand if this goes to court? I signed up in September 2010, and paid up until June 2011. I paid for all of the dates I used it.

I notified them that they let me down 100% of the times I tried to use it, their usage logs can confirm my story (i.e . 1min connected, 3 mins disconnected, x 10). They failed to deliver the service, so I cancelled due to a breach at their end, and they were informed in advance not to provide the service anymore, because they wouldn’t be getting paid for it, and it’d be pointless to supply it & keep billing me for it. Another thing to note is that I plugged in the modem a few weeks ago to check it, and it said “No Service” – I took this to mean the account was closed. Then I received another bill…

I really want to put my foot down over this – it’s the principle of it – it NEVER worked when I needed it. They asked why I didn’t call tech support, and I said “it’d cost me more to make a 20min call from the UK than it would for a months usage” – which it would, “just for someone to tell me to restart my laptop, etc, etc”. I know computers, and tech support is useless – it consists of morons telling you to Power Cycle & reinstall drivers – I tried that myself. I also Googled from my phone & tried everything that other people suggested. Tech forums that discussed this issue said that nobody managed to fix it, so I wasn’t going to clock up international roaming bills on the phone to their tech support in India.

Advice please? Thanks in advance.

ztoical

Forest Master wrote: »

I really want to put my foot down over this – it’s the principle of it – it NEVER worked when I needed it. They asked why I didn’t call tech support, and I said “it’d cost me more to make a 20min call from the UK than it would for a months usage” – which it would, “just for someone to tell me to restart my laptop, etc, etc”. I know computers, and tech support is useless – it consists of morons telling you to Power Cycle & reinstall drivers – I tried that myself. I also Googled from my phone & tried everything that other people suggested. Tech forums that discussed this issue said that nobody managed to fix it, so I wasn’t going to clock up international roaming bills on the phone to their tech support in India.
Advice please? Thanks in advance.

So why didn't you call their support when you got back to Ireland and explained the issue you were having? Why did you do nothing about the issue between December and May? It's not threes fault you weren't using the service you were paying for between December and May, as far as they are concerened they provided the service and you didn't log any issues about the service with them. You've given them no chance to fix the issue so you'd no grounds to break the contract - if you signed up over the phone it's a verbial contract and they most likely recorded the call as evidence of that. Random stuff you read on the internet isn't going to stand up, you should have called them straight away once you got back from the UK in December and had a record of the issue logged if nothing else. As far as they are concerened you were using the service for several months without issue as you paid for it each month and the first issue you had was in May. Why would you pay for the month of december when you couldn't use the service? You've made no effort to inform them of the issue, you've made no effort to allow them to fix the issue and expect to just the cancel the contract. If it were that easy then everyone could walk away from 12/18/24 month contracts claiming tech issues.

Boggles

Unfortunately you have to give them a chance to remedy the situation. You didn't.

A small claims court will look more favourable on you if you gave them a chance and they failed to remedy.

To avoid calling fruitless expensive tech support lines in the future, tell them you are hard of hearing and everything will have to be conducted through email. This way it's free and you have a record, you can also provide links and proof that it is a widespread problem with no solution, should speed up things.

As for them, themselves bringing you to court, I doubt it. They will probably write the debt off or employ a collection agency.

What I don't understand is if your paid up until the end of June, why have they been bothering you?

Best probably since you are paid up anyways, is to let them remedy the situation. If they can't then you can favourable tell them to stick it.

dudara

Three must be given a chance to resolve the issue on their side, before you declare the contract null and void due to lack of service. You can't simply decide that there was failure to provide the service.

There isn't a judge in the land who will side with you on this, as you didn't give Three a chance to resolve the matter.

Based on that fact, the contract has not been cancelled correctly, and thus Three would be entitled to their cancellation fee.

Forest Master

Thanks guys.

Will call them now & see if they can resolve the issue. If they can, I'll continue to pay each month & ask they waive the "unpaid" admin charges. If they can't, then I'll cancel.