During the time that I was off work and beginning to run out of money, I had looked at the possibility of setting up a cheap 30-day rolling Three pay-monthly SIM account so that if things went sideways with EE and they blocked my main number, I still had a phone number that I could use to make and receive calls. The downside was that I’d have to give out my new number on all future job applications as well as relatives and friends.
I decided to do this. And added an Apple Watch data plan too (in case I was far away from the phone that I wasn’t able to take a call). Three months later (ironically), I had my offer with UAL and I didn’t need to do anything with my EE account, so I began cancelling the Three line. In some ways, having used another number for a few months has probably saved me from many random phone calls from recruiters asking me if I am still looking.
But, ALAS!
Firstly, cancelling (or porting) a Three number – especially the the main number – will cause you to immediately lose access to the web site and phone app. It requires the phone number for both the logging in and two factor authentication (which I still say is a major security risk – let us passkeys or third-party OTP authenticators). If the phone line is cancelled, you can’t log in at all.
While the main line was cancelled (along with it the direct debit), I couldn’t cancel the Apple Watch data plan because it wasn’t eligible at the time for cancellation. Yet, I couldn’t access my account online to see any of the details. In order to cancel and pay the remaining bills, I had to call Three which is the worst experience of any of the phone operators out there. It has a typical horror maze of options which aren’t helpful at all, you usually have to keep stabbing a number key or hash before it’ll even put you through to a human. Sometimes that doesn’t work and you just have to keep waiting until the menu system times out. Takes an absolute age. It took two months to cancel down (you need to give 30 days notice within 30 days – you can’t do it ahead of time) and pay off Apple Watch data bills. Apparently there is still a final bill to pay, so I’ll await the notification. I raised a complaint with them when I last spoke to them earlier this month about all this.
Today I received this email:
What particularly amuses me is that they also sent me a text to my EE phone number…
So clearly Three can contact me – email and phone seem to be fine. Now, I’ve had to put my phone into call screening mode as I’ve been getting a lot of spam and scam calls of late (those in my contacts should be able to bypass this – unless its an upcoming iOS 27 feature – I can’t remember right now).
If Three operates an auto-dial system, call screening could potentially cause it problems, but tough shit – this is 2026 and the state of spam and scam calls through phones is at all time high. I’ve had so many phone calls from a wide range of unrecognisable numbers that haven’t left voicemails over the past few weeks that I’ve simply blocked them. If it’s important – you should have left a message.
Companies need to work harder to improve communications around stuff like this. For example, the email could have said: “We tried to call you from this number: XXX XXXX XXXX”, as I could have checked my blocklist and even whitelisted the number through my contacts – but, alas, no). But. don’t tell me that you tried to contact me when you can clearly send texts and emails without a problem.
Meanwhile O2 still haven’t fixed the “too many redirects” loop bug that prevents me from doing anything useful in my account on the web. It eventually leads to a system error. I have raised a complaint/ticket with O2 and tried to email their webmaster, but to no avail. It’s an issue that cropped up after Telefonica and Virgin Media joined forces and united their authentication systems into one. It’s a complete bloody shambles.
Why are telecoms companies unable to design a web site that serves its customers well through a web site that offers performance, stability and security? What we get with the major operators is a massive pile of shit that is unfit for purpose and probably combines 20 years of inherited code that hasn’t changed very much in that time leading to all manner of problems. Three, Vodafone and O2 should all be ashamed. EE is the only company that has improved not just its web site, but its contact options so that you don’t go through a maze to get to the right people. It isn’t perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than the others.