I need to stay connected, so I signed up for a USB-based broadband deal with 3. The salesperson told me 3 covered "99% of the UK", so I figured I could get online pretty much everywhere. But when I was in Wales for eight days, there was simply no signal from Hay-on-Wye to the Lleyn Peninsula.
Irfan Husain
3's website says it has "an expanding 3G service area already covering 91% of the UK population, backed up by a voice and text network covering 99.5% of the UK population". This is the sort of description that phone companies use.
Of course, 3's own Coverage Checker shows that its HSDPA (broadband) and 3G service comes nowhere near covering 90% of the UK's land mass. Wales, Cornwall and anywhere north of Yorkshire have very little HSDPA coverage beyond the main towns and cities. Even in places such as Surrey and Sussex, coverage is patchy. This is something you should really have checked in advance.
Dial 333 and ask for your contract to be cancelled on the grounds of mis-selling. If 3 does not resolve the problem, you can take it further by using an ADR (alternate dispute resolution) scheme. In 3's case, this is the Ofcom-approved Otelo on 0845 050 1614. (Many ISP's use Cisas, the Communications & internet Services Adjudication Scheme: see http://www.cisas.org.uk/Members.asp for a list.) Ideally, you should have full details of the deal, such as the name of the salesperson, the date and time of the purchase, what you were told, and the nature of your complaint. You may also get help and advice from your local Trading Standards office.
