9 posts tagged “xseries”

I've had enough of Mumbai.  I want to speak to someone in Scotland or Maidenhead.

What am I waffling on about?  The fun and games that is trying to get something resolved when speaking to people in a call centre half a world away!  On my 3 mobile phone I have X-Series Silver.  It's an internet add-on that's supposedly unlimited but with a fair-use limit of 1GB (or 2GB - depending who you talk to or what Ts&Cs you read).  When you get near to the limit you're sent an SMS to warn you.  However, I only ever get an SMS telling me I've gone over - never an "about to".

Users, including myself, keep getting these messages even if they've not gone anywhere near the limit.  As such, most of us ignore them.  You finally get your bill in and find out you well under.  Of course there should be a way to keep an eye on what you're using - and there was - just not anymore!

I've spoken to two people so far today, presumably in Mumbai.  No matter what, they're stuck with their script and as hard as I try they won't deviate from it.  It's kinda like talking to robots.  It's also funny how their accents become harder to understand the more you press them (or is that just me?)  One minute their English is crystal clear, next minute you have to keep asking them to repeat themselves as they sound like the guy from Channel 4's Phonejacker!

Ho hum.

Ideally I'd have the direct line to the Scottish chap that sorted out a previous internet issue earlier this year.  He knew what the problem was likely to be straight away.  He had the same service on his own handset so had personal experience too.  He didn't suggest any generic "solution" and it was obvious he wasn't stuck with a script.

You'd think I might know someone at 3 that could fast track any issues I have, but I don't!  That's probably a good thing in a way though as I get the same treatment as any other customer.

Back to my search... (excuse any typos, I've got some phoning to do!)

Slingbox, slungbox

Yesterday at 3 UK's press bash I was left with the impression that Sling Media's place-shifting service is now but a distant memory.  There are no plans for 3-ified Slingplayer Mobile software on the upcoming devices that were on display.  And, I'm sure I heard a, "do we even sell those anymore?" regarding the Slingboxes.

For those that don't know what Sling is, here's the lowdown nutshell-wise:  There's a Slingbox - a device you place near your TV and connect to your broadband as well as your cable (satellite or whatever.)  You then use the software - Slingplayer on your Windows PC or Slingplayer Mobile on your phone to tune in and control your TV service no matter where you are as long as you have internet service.

When Slingplayer works (I had no end of trouble with a bunch of routers), it works well.  Picture quality on my old Nokia N73 was astoundingly good.  Sound quality wasn't bad.  It was reliable and responsive and well worth the extra fiver a month 3 UK charged on top of the £5 unlimited internet.  That included more hours than any sane person would need for telly on a mobile (80-freaking hours, for what it's worth.)

If it was so good, why did I stop using it?  I got a new wireless router and couldn't figure out how to get it to play nicely.  Not long after I replaced that and tried to get another one working... no good.  Went back to my old wired one - the one that had originally worked, still no good.  In the end I gave up.  Maybe that's the problem - all those support calls!  Or perhaps the potential network overload if the service had really taken off (offering 80 hours of really good quality video over 3G takes up shedloads of bandwidth).

I think the writing was on the wall when Sling Media brought out a newer version of the software that offered a couple of better features, the main one being fullscreen video.  It was a must have to anyone that had 3's version but only 3's version could be used if one wanted the 80 hour allowance.  Those using the new version would instead have their allowance coming out of their data plan.  1 gig doesn't go that far when Slinging, not far at all - maybe a couple of hours.

It's a crying shame as Slingplayer would be great on the Blackberry Bold, one of those touchscreen Samsungs (I don't think there's a client for whatever they run on, but one can dream), the Nokia N96 or E71.  Bundled with HP's Mini-note which is to be bundled with 3's Mobile Broadband it would be, to paraphrase my 9-year-old nephew... awesome!  Travelodges and Holiday Inn Expresses would never be the same again.

El Reg's summer gadgets numero diez... Slingbox

Interestingly, El Reg has the Slingbox rated as their number 10 gadget choice for techie travellers this summer.  They actually sum it up far better than I could, although I'm surprised that they're showing what is an out of date price.  Shop around and you can pick up this version (known simply as Slingbox or Slingbox Classic) for around the £60 mark.  If you're a customer of 3, you may still be able to pick one of these up for zero, nothing, zilch.  Okay, there's a catch - you have to take X-Series Gold for 12 months.  That's £120, hardly free.  But as X-Series Silver (or unlimited internet - which are more or less the same thing) is £5 a month.  Who on earth is on 3, reads this blog and doesn't already pay £5 for the 'net on their handset?  So over the course of a year that works out as just £60 extra plus you get 960 hours of streaming included.  That's 40 days worth!

Good luck finding a 3Store that knows about the offer... that was always the fly in the ointment!

Three mouse mat

Just off of the phone to 3's tech support.  They called me before I'd actually gotten around to calling them - good stuff, I didn't have to go through a bunch of spoken menus!

I explained that I'd tried a different 3 SIM in my phone and that it worked fine and that I'd also put my own SIM in a different 3 handset and it still had problems.  They accepted that the SIM or the account are where the problem lies and they've escalated it.  Not before I had to clear out my cache and everything else from Nokia's browser (but it's the SIM, not the phone?!?) and the suggestion that I should re-set the phone to factory settings (I mad my own suggestion as to why I wouldn't be doing that again!)

I'd hazard a guess that I'm going to be without internet service on my phone until my next billing cycle (which is in about 10 days time).  I think this problem has something to do with their billing and/or usage system thingy-majig and that it will fix itself then.  In the meantime I can still use some goodies like Google Maps Mobile and GMail.  Oh and I've got my trial 3 Mobile Modem and its access (but that won't work in with my Eee PC, so is hardly a truly portable solution!)

It's at times like these I miss the X-Series Blog...

Three mouse mat

Regarding my internet connection woes, I've put the SIM provided with my trial Mobile Broadband "dongle" into my Nokia N95 8GB.  All the websites I tried worked, Yahoo! Go worked - not a problem.  Just put my SIM back in and none of the same sites nor Yahoo! Go work.  Will the tech support guys on 333 now accept my phone isn't the problem?  I have little faith, but who knows!

I'll be ringing them shortly...

Just off of the phone to 3's Tech Support peeps.  They rang me up regarding my (lack of) internet access on my phone (I have their X-Series Silver which offers "unlimited" full interweb access).

For about a week now I've had problems accessing anything other Planet 3, Google and parts of Yahoo!  I've only briefly had outside access beyond those for short periods on Thursday and Sunday.

The first guy I spoke to (Thursday afternoon) alleged he'd done nothing, yet whilst on the line to him my internet came back on!  Well, it only lasted a couple of hours and I got back on the phone.  The next guy got me to jump through many, many hoops - some I realised were completely insane (and meant I had to re-do all my phone's personalisation - it also seemed to mess up Bluetooth and WLAN settings), yet I duly followed the instructions.  It got me nowhere and he was stumped.  Today...

Well, today I got a call from another bloke and he asked me to try my SIM in another phone.  So, I did - I put it in the 3 Skypephone.  He asked me to go to a bunch of sites, I did, and none of them loaded.  He then asked me if there was a 3Store nearby - to which I replies, yes.  It turns out I need to go there and try my SIM in a bunch of known working phones.  The likelihood after that is that'll need my phone flashed to the latest software/firmware.

To me that sounds wrong.  I'm no tech expert but I've got this hunch that if I replicate the internet access problem when my SIM in another phone, the SIM (or rather my service/account) is where the blame lies.  But, instead, I have to traipse into town and go through this silly process as if I don't they won't "escalate" it further.  All the time and effort it takes to get my phone the way I want it, the applications, the content, the settings and bookmarks.  I'm gonna have to do that all over again to make them happy and I'd happily put money on my phone not being the problem!

I got an email from a reader, let's call him Dan as, er that's his name!  Anyway, he'd come across a previous blog post of mine whilst seeking out more info on the text message warning he'd received from 3 UK.  In my original post: 3, give me back 'data usage', give me a heads up and sort out your FUP as it's FUBAR! I mentioned how I got a text message in the middle of the night telling me I'd gone over my fair use limit and that I should cease using data until the start of my next billing cycle.  You can see the text message below:

3 giving me no advanced warning and their link doesn't work either

Today though, it seems Dan wasn't alone - many 3 customers have experienced the same problem in the wee small hours and some, it would appear, have gone nowhere near even the 1 GB limit (let alone the 2 GB that is now the  actual "secret" limit).  Check out Ben Smith's article on SMS Text News: 3UK data ‘fair use’ policy problem and gerrymoth's: No internet for 7 days, I’ll never survive on his nokiAAddict blog.

The problem now seems to be resolved... at least for the time being.  The silver lining is that lots of people have aired their views on 3's notification and billing systems as well as their lack of a data usage meter (we used to have one and it worked but they took it away and don't seem to realise!)

Anyway, other than the beep, beep, beeps of the texts keeping people awake at night, I wouldn't lose any sleep over the warnings.  Below you can see my bill that I've just received for the period when I was warned.  The first picture is of the summary.  The bill quite clearly states that I've not used even one meg outside of the allowance...

3 data usage summary - Bill date: 13th May '08

And below is a break down of each day's use.  You can see I kept on using the internet on my phone after the warning, albeit more sparingly!  You can also deduce that the fair use allowance is clearly more than the 1 gig mentioned in the small print.

Day by day breakdown (I was warned on the 1st)

It's a shame they haven't gotten their act together on this as otherwise 3 UK's data/internet offerings are great and, IMHO, can't be beat.  Having said that I have a sneaky suspicion of late that they may have throttled my service as Nokia Internet Radio isn't working nearly as well as it used to be but I need to do a bit more digging and delving to find out if that reall is the case or not.

When I could get Sling Player working on my phone it was great.  Unfortunately it wouldn't work with my replacement wireless router.  Oh well, I thought, I'll just have to plug the wired one back in again.  Still couldn't get it to work.  Tried really hard, did everything I could think of and wasted a lot of time.  In the end I figured it just wasn't worth it and my Slingbox is just sitting there months later with blinking lights and no way to communicate with the outside world.

I could've just checked which WiFi router Sling Media recommends and gone out and got one but I just don't have the money to waste on another dud and there's no way of knowing if that wouldn't cause some other problems somewhere else.

I can no longer use Sling over 3G on my phone anyway as I've since dropped my X-Series service (from 3 mobile) down from Gold to Silver.  Saves me £5 p/m and really, was a non-working Sling Player really worth £5?!!

Anyway, it now appears that Sling have made what amounts to be a fool-proof Slingbox - the Slingbox is the modem, it plugs straight into a cable connection.  It really should be plug and play.  Initially US cable TV only.

Found via Electricpig