When my Three Pay Monthly SIM stopped working with my iPad, I decided to investigate. It transpires that although the Terms & Conditions hadn't changed, the way I could use my SIM had.
I was told I could not use my data-only SIM in my iPad (the picture is not of a Three SIM, BTW)
Hutchison 3G, better known in the UK as the Three mobile phone network, is suspending parts of its service to users after a covert change to its terms and conditions. That’s the experience of this customer anyway, from a SIM-only Pay Monthly contract that has been blocked from operation on an iPad.
At the time of taking out the contract last year, Three seemed to impose no conditions regarding with what type of device its data-enabled SIMs could be used. I started the contract with Three as it offered the best all-round deal of performance and price. During much testing of internet-enabled devices in the line of my work, and using various networks’ SIM cards, I decided to start a subscription with Three. It was relatively affordable at £5.12 per month, and gave the fastest 3G data I’d seen from any network in and outside of London.
This all changed around one month ago, beginning of June 2012, when internet access was blocked and a webpage started displaying a message reading ‘Your SIM will only work in your phone’.
It continues ‘Taking your SIM card out of your mobile phone and putting it into a different device – like a dongle or tablet – isn’t what our phone plans of Add-ons were designed for. You need to put your SIM back into your phone in order to continue using it.’
Using an iPad with a data-only SIM
The sticking point here may be the ‘isn’t what our plans were designed for’. Because there’s nothing in Three’s Terms and Conditions that dictates that you cannot move a SIM from tablet to phone or vice versa. We’ll return to this in a moment; for now, I’m not a lawyer, but surely that’s exactly the place where you dictate to your customers the terms and the conditions of the service for which they're paying?
Many calls to Three’s customer services call centre were going nowhere. Staff I spoke to would read the script that 'it’s on the website, you cannot use a phone SIM in your iPad'.
Oh really? The thing is, after reading through the entire document Three does not appear to have changed its Terms and Conditions since I started my subscription last year. But it appears to have changed its service to lock out customers from using their network when they dare to move their SIM into another device.
Has Three changed its terms and conditions?
I reached out to Three’s UK press office. After prompting them again for a response after four weeks of radio silence, I was sent a link to a page headed ‘Terms & Conditions for competitions, draws and offers’.
We'll gloss over the confusing and irrelevant clause of 'for competitions, draws and offers' for the moment. It continues 'You'll find all the details of our Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go Terms & Conditions here.' (Italics mine).
Click through to the Pay Monthly Terms and Conditions link, and you find that seven-page PDF of small print – which in no way I can see places a condition on a SIM being provided for use in only a tablet or only a phone, etc. It seems more apparent that it is Three breaking the terms of its own contract by denying a service for which you started paying.
See for example Section 5.2: 'Once you are connected to Three, we will provide you with access to our Services'. My contract includes plenty of internet data, which unfortunately is not being provided. Three’s PR spokesman circled back later and then pointed to a Price Plan PDF which mentions, way down on p28 under ‘Points to note’:
'Use your SIM in the device category of your price plan.
'You can’t put your voice SIM into anything other than a phone (e.g dongle, laptop, tablet). For example, if you’re on The One Plan you must use you SIM in a mobile handset only, you can’t remove it and place it in a mobile broadband dongle.’
It’s not in the Ts & Cs but at last, it’s something in black and white that seems to back up Three’s revised policy. Problem is, that’s a new addition that wasn’t there last year.
It's a shame that Three didn't keep to its agreement to notify customers of such a change:
'Section 4.1:
(b) we will let you know at least one month in advance if we decide to:
(ii) make any variations to your agreement which are likely to be of material detriment to you.'
Maybe they thought they didn't have to notify existing customers because they haven't actually changed the Terms & Conditions at all, merely a footnote buried in a Price Guide? See also: Smartphones buying advice.
Comments
TonyMerryfield said: I was offered a plan for 1Gb for 10 a month - half the data for twice the price Im well out of my contract though so managed to cancel easily enoughThree do offer a plan with 10Gb for 15 which looks good - just wondering if I want to sign up with them again though
TonyMerryfield said: I had the same SIM Zero package - 2Gb data for 511 a monthSad to say as the service had been very good but its cancelled now - will have to start hunting around for a good deal on mobile data
ExThreeCustomer said: Just had the Three SIM Zero that was in my iPad blocked It was 511 a month and I havent gone over the allowance any month typically using 200-300MBInstead of replacing it Ive just tethered the iPad to my phone which is also on Three permits tethering and similarly never exceeded any allowanceSo effectively Three have just done themselves out of a fiver a month from me Hey ho their problemIf I do put an active SIM back in the iPad Ill probably go with one that includes free wifi - lots of those to choose from although not on Three Their further loss
Nmealey said: Andrew did you ever manage to get this resolved im in a similar position and have even offered to move to another type of plan only to be told that I cant swap plans - id need to start a new one and continue with my old plan as wellive only got a few months left at 10 a month but its more the principal
Elb said: I have same story with three but the interesting thing about my case is that i used it with my unlocked T-mobile e3131 dongle and it was working about 7-8 days then they ban me and i have another friend who use it on Galaxy s2 like a wireless point and he got same message when he use it on computer and another friend use it like 2 years downloading films every day still
Mihai Ppscu said: httpconsumersofcomorgukthey cant change terms like that youre allowed to cancel without penalties good luck with this
Ray Bennet said: Any idea how they spot the different devices Is it by any sort of deep packet analysis maybe IMEI or though Im not sure how the 3g linkup works is there perhaps a mac address or equivalent for their servers to look atMy USB dongle is the only 3g device I possess and I was using it to make calls via their network as well as for the data access Im puzzled as to what difference their hardware can register I certainly havent changed device as their block-page asserts because this is the only device Ive ever used
Monika said: Hi DavidCan you tell me whether your complaint to Ofcom has been answered and how exactly have you laid out the issue to them I had the same thing happen to me and as Im on a yearly contract I feel bad having to pay for something I cant useThank you for help
Paul Riley said: Had a similar story when I asked if I could put a Data sim into a mobile phome to use in WiFi hotspot mode I am only planning to use it for DATA not to make calls or text as this is not in the plan Threes responce was you can only use it in the supplied device Well I am sorry that device no longer works after the HSPA upgrade I am having to use E353 dongles and change them over when they get hot as they refuse to connect Connect being the next painful processsince the HSPA upgrade in March they have repaired the Emitters in April Another repair in May Upgrade in June Doubled the capacity in July yeah Really pull the other one Another is planned for the 4th August Guess what Intermittent Calls Text Data - one will work the others not - really driving me mad Works perfectly at home roughly the same distance from the mast