Hi everyone. This is my first thread in our new home (thanks Saspro) and I need help

My mum is with 3's mobile broadband service but wants to move to Sky. She has about 6 months left of the 18 month contract but doesn't want to stick with 3 or pay the rest of the contract off to move. Normally, I would just say bite the bullet and pay for it, as I'm sure would a lot of you. However, I believe that 3 are providing a very lacklustre service and don't deserve the rest of the contract. For the duration of the contract, she has had various spells of time where the connection has been unusable due to the lack of speed (pages timing out etc) and other times, a connection just couldn't be established. When a connection is established and working, the speeds she gets are diabolical. Today, I did some speed tests with 3 different sites and got the following averages; Down:0.56Mbs Up:0.185Mbs and a ping of 213ms.

In my eyes, that is not acceptable and due to the fact they market the broadband at 3.6Mbs and say on the site they say "up to 2.8Mbs because we want to be honest with you" (not exact words but something like that) and that most people (using the map thing, my area is in the best signal band) should get 0.6 to 1.6Mbs. Do you guys think there's anything I/we can do? I'm no legal eagle but I'm sure the sale of goods act mentions that the product sold should be as described.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I believe that the Sale of Goods Act only covers tangible goods, not services. On a positive note, the Supply of Goods and Services Act may be in your favour.

Your Mum should go to the Citizen's Advice Bureau with everything and see what they say.

Good luck!

Peter.

Edit: I've just looked on Ofcom's website, and they suggest putting it all in a letter to Three to see if the speed issues be resolved. If they managed to deliver the advertised speed, would your Mum be happy staying with them for the remainder of the contract?

That would be the one I was thinking of, I always seem to get those two confused - I guess for someone who doesn't work in law on a regular basis, they are pretty similar. Turns out, I found a rather useful document from Three saying that (and I quote) "you are free to cancel the direct debit at any time.....". I guess that invalidates anything else there may be in the contract? I will tell her to write an email explaining why she no longer wishes to be with them and showing them the findings of my speed tests. I will also do some more research on the Supply of Goods and Services Act.

Thanks for the advice - TBH, I really think she wants out due to how rubbish it has been. She has tried to get them to sort it out before without success also.

The first thing I would do is get a record of the service you are receiving.

Go to www.speedtest.net and get a number of results at varying times of day and different days of the week.

I'm not sure if speedtest.net will save the results for you but if not then take screenshots and paste them into a Word document or something.

That way you can show that you are not receiving the advertised service and actually have something to produce when asked. Otherwise it will look like another Joe Bloggs trying to get out of his contract early.

Careful with that one...

The direct debit <> the contract.

If you cancel the direct debit then you will still be accruing a monthly charge that, if left unpaid, will be sent for collection.

Seriously, get your Mum to go into a Citizen's Advice Bureau and get their advice. It's completely free of charge and they may be able to find you a "Get out".

As Fogmeister said, do not cancel the direct debit unless you want debt collectors.

Peter.

Doing that now, I've got you on that one . I have a spreadsheet going on with averages of download, upload and ping from three different speed test services. These are backed up by a screenshot for each one.

Oh and if you guys think the prim and proper way is the best, I shall do it.

Have there been any developments yet, Dan?

Peter.

I have completed all of the speedtesting I had scheduled as well as getting in contact with 3. I'm now just waiting for the reply.