Citywire reader wins broadband battle with 3 and Carphone Warehouse

Talk Talk said that i should get 8 MB internt speed. I even do not get 3 MB speed. What can I do. I spoke to them several times but nothing sorted. I had to wait over 30 minutes to talk to Talk Talk's customer service.

I need better speed so I can watch movie on line. What can I do? Please advise. Thank you in advance.

Firoz, post your stats up on http://www.dslzoneuk.net/forum/, and we will ascertain what the issue is...

I have been having a nightmare with 3 after taking one of their donguls. I could not get it to work at all on my laptop and returned it to 3 within the 14 day money back period, that was in December last year they returned it to me in January - why I haven't a clue. I again returned it to them and since then have been plaqued with letters and phone calls and now debt collection agencies -how much are they chasing you may well ask - £20.00 !!!!!!!!!! Unbeleivable that they have done all this for £20.00. They have aslo dirtied my credit file for this £20.00. I have again again spoken to them on the phone and been told my contract is cancelled so why the hell has all this happened. By the way I have my mobile phone contract with them, and have noticed over the last three months my service has gotten worse there to. I cannot get internet on my phone at work or home - but I used to be able to -therefore I cannot check my minutes. I am constantly getting cut off on calls when the signal dies - which it does frequently. So in a nutshell I shall not be renewing my phone contract with them - they are the worst company I have ever dealt with

This could open a can of worms. There are lots of nonsensical assertions riddled throughout the broadband and mobile market. Plenty of "up to" and "should be" platitudes which are are weasle words designed to cynically rip off customers.

Also the notion that Emma Banks had missed a 3-day window to cancel her contract after taking it out sounds like tommyrot. I'm sure by law there has to be a 14 day cooling off period after signing a consumer agreement? Even though in my experience many companies try to play it down and claim it is less.

Well done Emma Banks, and shame on 3.

I have found the 3 network very good on the whole for mobile broadband, although funnily enough I have experienced more problems since the recent upgrade than I did before, I use it all over the place and more patchy coverage now than there was before the upgrade although still generally very good on the whole, as for the customer service just hope you dont have to speak to them too often

You need to bear in mind that most lack of service from these large companies is due to the fact that the CSR is either not interested/trying to meet targets for calls handled/not trained/doesn't have sufficient authority to resolve these issues. I simply refuse to accept shoddy service from suppliers. I had a similar issue with O2 on my mobile phone where there was virtually no signal in my area, despite the O2 web site said it was good. After 3 months of getting no where, I wrote to the Legal department by recorded delivery advising them that it had to be sorted in 10 days or else a County Court writ would be issues. 48 hours later I had received a refund of all monies paid, cancellation of contract, refund of the cost of my phone and I was able to keep the phone.

Similar issue with Sky where I did issue the summons. they sorted the problem in 24 hours and paid me all my costs including my claim for 6 letters at £25 per letter.

People, do NOT accept shoddy service. Its takes a bit of effort but the results are worth it

Contact Trading Standards for advice under the Goods And Services Act. They have standard letters on their website for this kind of nonsense.

The 3 day stipulation is irrelevant; you have reasonable time to determine that the service is "unfit for purpose" therefore the contract is void. However, you must allow them reasonable time to repair or make amends. Write to them and give them 30 days and make it clear that you regards the service as "unfit for purpose" under the Goods And Services Act. Then when they fail you sent another letter informing that you will cancel the direct debit in 7 days due to their failure to provide the contracted service. Also inform that you will seek redress in the Small Claims Court for all monies paid and a sum for distress and expenses in checking for damage to credit references etc.

If they're stupid enough to take you to Court then you can pile on the compensation there. The courts take a dim view of such corporate irresponsibility.

My son has a similar experience as a student in London. His flat is right in the middle of T-mobiles 'hot-spot' but can't receive a signal. Unfortunately, he's weakened my case by using the blasted thing at friends flats/college. However, I threatened to take my business elsewhere at end of my phone contract curtailing a 6 year satisfactory relationship. The Indian call-centre and admin centre was a disaster and couldn't understand the issue. Eventually, after I terminated the contract I was passed to a UK Complaints Manager who wrote apologising for their abject incompetence in handling the case and credited me with a sum that effectively paid the remaining dongle cost.

Don't get fobbed-off, they rely on the Great British dislike of 'making a fuss'. Take a leaf from the Yanks' book and scream blue murder. Anything to screw a dollar out of them. Take recent the BP/Lockerbie fuss as a model, coincidence that US Senate raises this issue after the BP oil spill and the avowed intent to force an Exxon (good old US company) takeover? Anything to make a dollar.

I am writing this response via my Talk Talk broadband with connection speeds of UP TO 8Mbps; it's actual speed this very moment is 4.1Mbps; and it is mostly 3.9 Mbps. Yet my fee is a fixed ammount of £15 [telephone & line rental deal incl.] . Perhaps my fee should include the term "Up to" and be charged on a pro-rata for actual service delivered, viz. my fee should be 50% lower. This term "Up to" should be removed from all contracts and it is about time the consumer is given a fair deal. So all you ISP's my response to you is "Up yours!"

Taff, post your Router stats up on http://www.dslzoneuk.net/forum/, and we will ascertain what the issue is...

Well done Emma! I had appalling problems with the unholy combination of 3 and Phones4u over a phone I returned within the cooling-off period as 3 couldn't get my old number transferred. 3 demanded payment for about 6 months afterwards and Phones4u point-blank refused to help. It took weeks of hassle and advice from Trading Standards to get them off my back. Phones4u head office refuse all registered post - to avoid acceptance of liability, presumably. These people are a disgrace - astonishing their practices are allowed to continue in a civilised society.

Firoz and whilst you were waiting @8p per min, 4p of that was going to carphone warehouse, so it pays them to keep you on hold.

Talk took over my provider and from unlimited broadband, I was limited and for £5 more per month and this is now the standard, across the board, price fixing at work, and the average speed is around 4.3 Mgb. Mind you, creeping up.

BT engineer has said you will not get 8 Mg until they get fibreoptics, but once you go to copper you are automatically limited. Fibre optics years away, probably 15+ years.

A spokesperson from 3 just sent me this statement: 'Three has the best cancellation policy for customers experiencing coverage problems on the market, in that if a custromer has persistent and substantial problems with their connection, from a place they regularly try to connect from, and if these problems are not due to be resolved in the near future, then we will let customers cancel their contracts at any time during the term of the contract'.

To get the "up to" advertised speed one has to live almost on top of the local telephone exchange. I get an average of 18.5mbs out of 20 stated when there is not much action about; I am only 1/2 a mile from the exchange.

Re; "Advertised Speeds" my understanding is that this is a theoretical figure not what one is likely to achieve in practice. It is a bit like the official M.P.G. figures for cars that are normally only attainable in a strictly controlled test environmant.

For what it is worth, my Tiscali (now Talk Talk) Broadband is rated at up to 8MBs and gives test download speeds of around 6. This seems to be about as good as it gets and we are situated almost exactly 1km from the local exchange.

The FCC in the US have now defined Broadband as a minimum standard of:

4mbps Download and 1mbps upload. Anything below this standard isn't classed as Broadband. I trust the UK will also follow suit soon?

I enrolled with TalkTalk a few years ago and found their service expensive at that time compared with rivals. I arranged to switch to BT but it took me 6 months to finally seperate from TalkTalk - Car Phone Warehouse. During that time I was constantly being threatened by Debt Collectors as they were reluctant to amend their compute,r to stop sending me monthly bills even though I had left them.

Some of Three's Cold Calling sale staff can be rascals.

They try the typical line of drowning you in such much chatter via their saleman that you cant get a word in until they think your ready to say yes to their every becck n call.

When you do tell the, that you would never go with three network because of previous/existing friends family experiences of their poor network service (i.e. their constant "emergency calls only" or Network not delivering messages sent by other networks until 3 months later) they either pretend to act "surprised or simply go straight for the "put the phone down on you phase".

I have never been with 3 myself, but twice in 6 months have I received erroneous cold sales calls from them out of nowhere...I think they along with T-Mobile were guilty of selling illicitly/buying customer details from other phone companies in a story highlighted bythe BBc awhile back.

I'd stay away from 3 their mobile phone network service is undeniably poor at least 30-40% of the time even when your in a big city or large town and not in a rural out of town area.

Great tenacity Ms Banks, glad you got there in the end.

This shameful behaviour by the suppliers is in the same vein as Ferrari telling Massa to give way to Alonso.