Re "I have never been so angry!" posted by markhuxley at 11:30 13/04/05 ...
Call the Executive Office: 08707330295 - they are really nice. Don't ever call those stupid customer service people at the call centre in India - they haven't got a clue and have no power to do anything whatsoever. Tell the exec. office you want your money back for all the direct debits you've had taken out. If they put up a fight, tell them you will contact Watchdog, better business bureau, office of fair trading, and go to small claims court, etc, etc.
I bought 2 x 3 mobiles in October 2003. As everyone finds, they were c**p. I took them back within 6 days, no payment, money back etc. Promised I wouldn't pay a bean. But they had my bank account details, so they just charged me. I rang customer services, spoke to them and left a message, which is all you can do.
Next month, they charged me again, I rang customer services, spoke to them and left a message, which is all you can do.
Next month, they charged me again, I rang customer services, spoke to them and left a message, which is all you can do.
It is now April 2005, and because I cancelled the direct debit, they are still billing me.
I want to speak to someone useful who can HELP!
I will NEVER reccomend 3 mobile to anyone! They are lying, cunning, devious bar**ards!
I too hate this company with such a passion. The signal is rubbish the phones are rubbish the customer service is so unbelievably crap as to be farcical. The only thing they seem to be good at is getting the money each month! How do I break this contract?
I only noticed, by chane, that as someone who pays by cheque 3 have kindly decided to levy a �3 administration charge each time i pay them! Of course i used to use direct debit, but they proved incompetent in handling it so it got cancelled. Now they seem to have found another way of stiffing the customer!
What is it with this country? Why does every company want to rip off and turn their customer base against them? I am so sick of intractable, inconsiderate, greedy corporations trying to get their hands into my pocket all the time with absolutely no regard for anything but the letter of their damn contracts.
3 won't be getting admin charges from me; they can bloody well go whistle. Bunch of sharks. Anyone else thinking of dealing with these swine - DONT.
hi
has anyone else had the problem of things appearing on their bill that they have not done ....ie , making a call they haven't made , sending a txt or an mms that they haven't sent , strange things keep appearing on my bill that i am certain have never been done by myself or my husband ....any help would be GREAT !!!!
I have recently lost my 3 mobile...sim cad, of course is gone as well...
(anyone of you experience this with 3??)
I call up the call centre......
in order to obtain a replacement sim card will ''COST'' me 15 pound!!!
Never in my mind ....thinkin.......I will be charged...
Is anyone of you know if this is written on the contract??(if there is)
apparently that is what CS siad...I said where on the contract, I never seen it!!
He basically replied its in the contract!!!
NO WAY!!!!
I want to finish my 3 contract badly as it is, the last thing in mind is pay extra 15 pound for a stupid sim card!!!!
I argued and argued, try to get to speak to a senior person, a different opertaor, a number is based in the UK..etc, none were provided!!!!
(I think I will email the CEO, dont have option here do i...anyone of you got any better idea???)
Q: do you, any of you guys think i should pay 15pound?
I am so happy I found this site!
I had horrible problems with 3 (ie. no reception, etc, etc, see below mail from tritone) but followed the advice given by some of the other people who've written in and now am finally freed from my contract.
What I did was email the CEO of the company (Bob Fuller - email given in one of the messages below) and it was passed on to the executive office who cancelled my contract for me 2 weeks later.
Do not contact the normal customer service people - they will do NOTHING!
The number for the executive office in Glasgow is 08707330295
Don't give up!
OH MY GOD! I absolutely hate 3.
I never get any reception.. my phone takes matters into its own hands and deletes data.. The indian call people hang up on me.. my gay sofware doesnt work and they dont give a sh*it..
The other night, i decided to go out.. far away from home. Im a young girl so my phone is much needed at time like this, you know, for emergencies! anyway, i had no credit (some of it had mysteriously dissapeared.. other times it all goes away because i didnt use it in 30days!!) and i had brought some to top it up but i the call centre thingo where you put it in was down! wat was i to do? It told me to hold on to get through to customer service so i did... 14 min later, an indian dude told me sh*&it i already knew such as i had no credit and wouldnt listen to me when i told him HIS bloody service was down.. OH MY GOD! after at least half an hour i got some credit but it was no use because my previously full battery was now dead.
Thanks 3 you fu&*^kin idiots.. MErrry christmas to you too
I�m not going to go into my problem, i've read everyone else�s and there�s nothing new, I haven�t even started with the call centres yet, but i�ve had enough experience to know i'm going to try all the UK numbers I�ve found instead. However if that doesn�t work I do have an idea that might help some people out.
I did a business law module in my 1st year at uni, and i�m sure I remember some sort of postal law to do with offer and acceptance (wasn�t that good at it). basically if you were to send them a letter (registered post for proof) saying that you were ending the contract and would no longer pay for any services or additional costs. Then state if they did not reply by X amount of days then you would assume they have accepted your offer.
BTW not many people have mentioned sales of goods act of supply of services act, from what I remember these are statutory laws and cannot be over ruled by terms and conditions in a contract. If they are not providing a service as agreed by them, then isn�t the contract is in breech?
I had the same problems as the people who have been writing in, with the 3 mobile i bought 10 month ago. Less than one month into the contract i started getting all the problems and eventually after month and 4 letters later with NO reply i took matters into my own hands and sent the phone back and ended the contract myself.From that day i havnt heard anything from them apart from every month i receive a bill which i am very reluctant to pay.I am just writing this letter to see if you can tell what will happen at the end of the 12 month and if i have a case in which to fight them in court if they take me.I have my own buisness and could no longer tolorate the poor service.I have never missed a bill in my life and dont intend to and i am now in a very satisfactory contract with vodafone which i WISH i had just gone to in the first place.
01[color=red][/color][size=9][/size]
hi i want u to send some of ur goods so that i can sell 4 u and u also make ur gain and i also then i will send the money back to u . thanks. [/quote]
Re "3 mobile" posted by warweezil at 22:04 20/03/05 ...
Hi
I've been having load of problems with my three phone, I've spoken to so many of their staff at the call centre in Bombay, I have no help what s oever, I've been asked to write in and nothing has happened, So I managed to track there Head Office in the UK, and called in to speak to their excutive office and they helped to get the matter resloved!!! Although I did have to argue for 20 mins
So if any of you having bad customer service problems call
and insist on speaking to their excutive office
I have read a lot about people being stuck in contracts with 3 even though they are unable to make a call.
I wonder if there is any help for these people in The Supply Of Gods And Services ACt 1982? I read an article recently (computeractive 6-19 Jan p16) dealing with Broadband internet access and they mentioned there that under this act, an ISP cant hold you to a contract if your service doesnt work, specifically the providers must use "reasonable care and skill" to ensure that customers get the service they are paying for. Surely as 3 are selling a "service", they would be subject to the provisions of this act? And if that service is frequently not available despite being in a good signal area then surely they cannot hold you to a contract when they are failing to provide an adequate and acceptable service?
Maybe it would be worth talking this over with consumer Direct or your local CAB and see if you have a "no cost exit option" that way.
Funny how you guys don't post back after your issues have been sorted out isn't it?
Guest
11:31 16/03/05
Re "" posted by Tabitha 2 at 16:24 25/01/05 ...
I have cancelled a DD and now they send me a letters and write about Debt Recovery Agent. Should I start to be afraid? is it dangerous institution? I have about �200 debt..
I told them before that I want cancel my contract, but there was no response. That why I've canceled my DD. what the after effects are?
They are a wankers. They change the prices of calls and don't inform customers (that was a reason of my cancellation).
Thanks for eventual help!
now they send me a letters and write about Debt Recovery Agent. Should I start to afraid? is it dangerous institution? I have about �200 debt..
I told them before that I want cancel my contract, but there was no response. That why I've canceled my DD. what the after effects are?
They are a wankers. They change the prices of calls and don't inform customers (that was a reason of my cancellation).
Thanks for eventual help!
I had originally been given a supposed 3 Pay as you go phone one of those really big nec handsets that were only �30.00, I then received phone calls from Hutchinson asking if I would like to become a contract user to save having to top up I agreed. I really wish that I hadn't as like the others people that have posted comments on here I have had many problems, where to start.
I have had issue with their competitions e.g. the lowest bid at Christmas I sent two texts which were matched and decided that I would no longer participate. However whilst I was at work and taking calls I had two messages come through advising me that my bid had been matched!!!! Well both the messages which I had sent were for the top prize of �10,000 pounds because I have that sort of money and they were sent whilst I was taking calls in a call centre.
I contacted 3 to get the money for these texts �0.37x2 credited back I was adv to wait for my bill and that they would credit me the money so I waited for one more month for my bill and called back. My reply from them was that they could not credit anything as the network said that I had sent the texts. I was disgusted by this as I can not use my phone whilst at work and that it was in my possession at all times.
Other issues with this company are they correct me on the pronunciation of my name every time I call!!!!!!
If I here that the network is always right one more time when I work for a mobile phone company and therefore know what I am doing and have done when it comes from using a phone as I am sure most users do as well. I feel like I am participating in a sketch from the TV series Little Britain of "Computer say's NO!!!!!"
My phone then developed a problem; it turned itself off then back on and changed its language to Italian and the front screen no longer worked. I called 3's customer service department and faced the usual rigmarole of advising them over three times on how to pronounce my name then tried to explain the issue. Because of my job I know what details they need and had all of this ready, I asked about the possibility of losing my downloads which have cost me approx �40.00 and was adv that they would probably be wiped as they are all copyright protected I could not copy then in order to still have the use once my handset came back so decided to make do.....
After just one week my phone turned off and would not let me turn it on again. I phoned 3 from my partner�s handset after placing my contract sim into my old Pay as you go. I adv the CS adv the issue that I had and must have told him three times that I could not turn my handset on. The adv then told me to "Turn my phone on and rescue my things" so not only had he not listened to the problem with the mobile but instead of using correct terminology he told me to save them. I then attempted to give him my works address to pick my phone up from. My work shares its site with Transco and when I asked him to delete this from the address and just leave the company name he did not understand that it would go to the wrong building it took 4 attempts to get him to remove this. I then adv him that my contact number was still available because it was in another handset, to this he said "no it�s broken that why you are calling" I explained again that I had put my sim card into another headset and that I could receive calls. He then said oh so you don't need it fixing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! arg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I said yes please come and get it and gave him my call centres number to enable him to understand me.
The last or should I say most recent issue is that I have of course lost all of my downloads under the explanation that it had been put back to its factory default settings but this is not entirely true as my handset contains some of my old information such as my old landline number in the handset information and that the words that I have added to spell check are still there. If the handset had been fully reset then none of this information would be there, it seems very convenient that it is only the downloads which are chargeable that have been deleted. I called customer care in relation to this and was on the phone for over 45 mins being transferred from one department to the next yet never once being put onto a mgr top be told that they would not credit anything but handset department might to then be put back through to customer care each time having to complete DPA. I also had issue getting a complaints address the only details that I was given was the email address I asked if there was an address at which I could actually post a letter to, and was adv no!!!!!!!!!! Every company has an address. The adv to whom I was speaking to this time kept moving the phone away from her ears and I had to shout to get her attention on more than one occasion.
I am sorry for the length of this message but I am sure that you all understand.
Re "Re: 3 are evil" posted by akramz at 0:49 13/03/05 ...
For those of you out there who are stuck into a contract with 3 and desperate to get away from them, Phones4u has a solution. If you are six months or more into your 3 contract, we can usually bare all or part of your cost of cancelling your 3 contract, if you are willing to switch to a different network. Lol, honestly I am not trying to promote sales for Phones4u or anything like that. Just a bit of advice for all you stressed out people out there. Just walk into a store and speak to someone.
Re "3 are evil" posted by tritone at 23:38 12/03/05 ...
I'm a Sales Consultant at Phones4u and not a fanatic of 3 myself, but in large, I think you get what you pay for. Working for one of the larger stores, our usual sales mix of 3 is usually over 30% of our daily sales mix (ie. around 30% of the contracts that we sell per day are 3 contracts). This is quite high concidering that the customer has a choice of 6 different networks. Generally, the amount of dissatisfied customers (around 5 to 10 percent) on 3 are quite high compared to other networks as well, but concidering the amount of customer's that purchase 3, this is a meager amount for us retailers. We should not ignore the number of customers that are actually very satisfied with 3. I upgrade customer's who have been with 3 for years and the seem to be very satisfied.
Also I believe you get what you pay for with 3, so you can never complain. 3 is a revolution, saving us a lot of money. One could get 500 cross network minutes and 100 text messages per month for �8.80 at our store today, on a 12 month contract, free phone and no catches. 500 minutes and 100 texts on a network like vodafone might cost you a fortune, �56 a month to be precise. So theoratically, one might argue that you would be happy with 3 if you got service atleast half of the time, but usually might not work well in practice.
So if you are thinking of saving money, and not worried about recieving exceptional service, then 3 would definiteley be a good choice. And not to forget, video calls as well.
But if it was me, I'd probably wait for them to provide better reception and introduce some better phones before thinking about them.
3 are so evil. I really really hate them and want to go and burn their offices down!
However, after reading some of the messages here, I feel so much better, that I am not alone in the hell that is my life since I signed up to 3.
I'm not even going to go into all the problems I've had with them, it would take too long. Suffice to say I get hardly any reception, calls get cut off in the middle of conversations, I have to try loads of times to connect calls, usually it says 'Service Unavailable', I can't download any pictures to my computer because their software doesn't work for Macs, the phone goes dead about once every couple of weeks and I have to fiddle with the sim card to get it working again. Unfortunately, I can't even tell when it goes dead, as for some reason it looks fine on the front, but the inside is black. So I have people constantly telling me that they tried to ring me or text me without any response. After reading some of the messages here about the uselessnes of sending the phone off for repair, I don't think that's something I want to be doing, especially as it means I would lose all my photos, contact numbers and ringtones I paid for.
I have written them letters, emailed and called them to no avail. They won't let me out of the contract unless I pay them the rest of the year's rental fees (�30 month for another 9 months!). I keep asking to speak to someone who I can talk to about cancelling the contract and they said I'd need to speak to the cancellation department but they refused to transfer me over to them unless I agreed then and there to pay the penalty charge of the year's line rental!
I think we should all definitly write to Watchdog and I am thinking of cancelling my direct debit, but am worried about credit rating.
Maybe we should organise a demonstration in front of one of their stores? How about the one in Oxford Street? Name the time and the place, I'll be there.
Re "3 mobile - absolutely unbelieveable!" posted by bluebird16586 at 14:31 05/03/05 ...
I too hate 3, the main reason being that my signal went whilst calling an ambulance, i had developed severe complications during mypregnancy, lucky for me control called me back or i wouldn't be here to tell the tale. The a*** holes won't even apoligise for the "inconvinience" it caused. I simply can not rely on my mobile and am getting increasingly frustrated by the whole thing!!
The number and nature of comments here does not surprise me at all. I have had nothing with problems with my LG U8120 phone I got with e2 save in September. I was told by a stranger that came up to me in a cafe that my phone will break very soon. I didn't really believe him, but two weeks later, everything seemed to go wrong. It seemed like a great deal at the time, but I would pay twice the money I am paying now to get rid of this phone and get one I can actually make phone calls with (and this is coming from a student deep into her overdraft!). A lot of people have the same phone as me, and every single person I know who has it (about 20 people) have had problems with it.
**IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING GETTING A 3 PHONE - DON'T!!!** - no matter what the deal is, it's not worth it.
Re "Three - An utterly poor excuse for a company" posted by Savage at 11:05 03/03/05 ...
My three phone is dead. It works for just enough time for me get a phone number from the directory before it shuts down.
My sister gave me her old phone. I took this to get it "chipped"(altered so that it can be used on a network other than the one it was set up for) - which i then found out was illegal!
I went to a few shops and everyone said no the three, until one man explained that three (now) block all unauthorised handsets.
I recently bought a handset (LG8120) from e2save for many reasons, such as the inclusive minutes and low line rental.
Here the saga starts:
The phone took over a week to activate.
The phone would not recieve any content from three. full stop. - Resolved after six weeks of phone calls.
The battery lasts on a good day 23 hours - on a bad day about 10.
The phone switches itself off at least twice a day or the screens stop responding.
I've had it reflashed now and lost the content I have paid for including ringtones and wallpapers. Three refuse point blank to refund this or even let me download it again for free.
Really bad reception - the phone really does not switch networks fast enough. Usually takes a restart for it to find the o2 network when the 3g one is out of reach.
I sympathyse with everyone on this forum - I really think that it is time three get what is comming to them - a boycott from all their customers.
The only solution i can think of without incurring a penalty is to put the sim in another phone and use that untill the unfair and quite possibly leagly "illeagal" contract is stopped.
Three pay is advertised as a PAY AS YOU GO Service
If you are crazy enough to fall for this con - beware. Credits dissapear for no reason, the reception is crap, no one in 3 mobile has a clue about mobile's
But worst of all their PAY AS YOU GO service isn't !!!!! Its a �15.00 per month minimum charge whether you use it or not - thats not pay as you go!
3 Mobile should be prosecuted under the trades description act. I used to think Orange were the worst mobile operator - looks like 3 Mobile wins the OSCAR this year !!!!
I joined them along with my wife in September 2004, with the LG 8120 phone.
I regret the day we signed up.
My phone has been replaced 3 times now, and has been sent back to be fixed on several occasions, my wifes has been sent back once.
There billing system was a joke, I was being sent a bill for �50, yet the direct debit that was collected was only for �20, this happened for 3 months solid,and when contacting them they where saying I had not paid the bill.
I sent 4 faxes confirming the payments, and they still cut me of for not paying the bill, their customer service department refused to accept the seriousness of my complaint and refused to escalate my call. When I did get escalated to a team manager, I was treated with contempt, and she refused to pass me any higher.
I decided to take course of action, I emailed the chief executive [Grumbletext suppressed email address for legal reasons]. I then emailed ofcom & watchdog, I then wrote a letter to 3 as well (as they do not respond to ther emails via the contact us section of their website)..
I also emailed their DPA office [email protected][Grumbletext note: this is the 'Executive Office'] and requested all info held on my account, the letter was sent in someone elses name, with someone else account details.
Basically, I recieved all bills cleared in full (over �300 for both phones, as they had not been taken the right amount of money from the DD). I received a brand new phone, I kept the faulty phone & upgraded the software at the carphone warehouse, and then had it unlocked (so we have three lg 8120's one is now on 02 pay as u go).
This was all done by the chief execs office, and low and behold the next month I was cut off again, no one had credited the account, told them to cancel both contracts, we have had enough and its now in the hands of my lawyers. To receive a phone call, crediting my account for the next two months bills, if anything like this happens again, I will be taken things a lot further.
3 mobile are the worst company I have dealt with, before it was orange.
do not touch three with a barge stick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it is so good to know that i am not alone with the most appalling service i have ever received in my life. i purchased my three phone from dial a phone, but after one week i realised the phone was really poor quality and the signal terrible. as i was within the 14 days i decided to return it. however, by a very poor stroke of luck, some unsuspecting fool managed to steal my mobile. gutted - not becuase i had lost the hunk of junk - but becasue three refused to accept my cancellation when my replacement phone arrived from the insurance company, as it was outwith the 14 days, despite the fact they were informed of it before 14 days. well that was back in november, and since my replacement phone arrived, i have had a total of two weeks connection time. the replacement phone took three weeks to be activated after hundreds of calls to dial a phone and three [swallowing up my money in a bloody payphone]. when it was activated i had two weeks of using it, to then recieve two bills covering the same period. one for the stolen phone and one for the new phone. i called three to explain and asked them to close the 2nd account as i never opened two! they told me they could not cancel it before 12 months. this is ludicrous as i had never authorized two accounts! getting nowhere i called dial a phone and they told me they would sort it out. to cut a very long story short, it was not sorted. the replacement sim was deactivated and after waiting six weeks for it to be reactivated i have finally given up. three hav agreed to cancel the contract due to the disgusting non-existent service and i have cancelled the direct debit. out of three months of being signed up i recived a total of three weeks activation and use of the phone. the cs in India are an absolute joke. its shambolic that they have been given the absolute bare minimum of training and have a complete lack of knowing how to deal with a situation. i am not a racist but the accents are so strong that i cannot understand them, and with my scottish accent how are they to undestand me? well they dont. they just kept saying what is your problem? i do not understand what your problem is. arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhh! a frustrating nightmare. a terrible service. i sincerley hope this is the last i ever hear from them, but im not convinced. i have demanded compensation for all the money, time and enegery wasted trying to sort it out. i will certainly be contacting watchdog. i hope all of you manage to sort out your problems and urge you to pursue with cancelling the contract and boycotting these fraudsters. we need to make the public aware of this company!
This is my experience of dealing with Three from late last year to date.
Got my wife a Nokia 7600 on Three on the 500 minute tariff in October of last year. I had the same problems as everyone else with no signal, the phone switching it self on and off, dropped calls, SMS arriving days after being sent etc etc.
First called dialaphone (the seller), they said "not our problem" as it was over 14 days since I signed my contract! What ever happened to the good old consumer rule that problems rest with the seller not the manufacturer, it doesn't seem to apply to mobile phones at all!!!
After calling Three CS to sort this out, they said that this was due to the 3G network signal being weak and that I should switch to the manual back up 2G network (run by O2). Sorted, all done, so I thought, this worked fine for about ten minutes and the phone reverted the the poor 3G signal.....
After some research on the good old internet, the following facts became evident:-
Three use a back up 2G network (in fact, its O2's network), I assume that they pay O2 to access this, this network is gold plated and you are pretty much guaranteed a good signal.
The Nokia 7600 is programmed to automatically switch to a 3G network if it senses a signal, no matter how poor it is. The Nokia menu function has been disabled on Three phones to switch this off. For a small fee you can unlock this function and permanently access this 2G network.
The Nokia 7600 has software problems which affects the reception of the phone.
In addition, there is a problem with the sim card that causes intermittent switch on/off at any time.
Step1
Had the phone "re flashed" at Car Phone Warehouse - reception problem sorted
Step 2
Asked Three for a new sim card as this was a known fault, they denied all knowledge and said it was a phone problem. Explained that I already had the phone sorted, they still were not bothered. If I wanted a new sim card, I would have to pay for it.
Step 3
Lied to Three and said that the phone was not reading the sim card, got the suitable error message from the internet and they sent out a new sim card FOC.
Conclusions, touch wood, the phone has been operating perfectly for the last two weeks like any other network.
Now, the thing that really really annoys me about Three is that they must know that there is a problem with the phones, its in the public domain. Why don't they acknowledge it and get the problems sorted and make customers happy.....
I'm lucky, I researched it and vaguelly understood the problems but why should I?
Where do you begin with a compnay like 3? Ever since Feb 2004 i have been contracted to them and it has been a complete nightmare ever since. Since May 2004 however i have been with O2 and its been first class all the way , now after a full year and lots of phone calls and emails i have my final 3 bill standing at £162, for a service that never did work or by the looks of things never will. Dropped calls and more a sad company with a terrible state of customer service to boot. You may be glad to hear (as i feel for all of you on here, with the same issues as mine) i have actually had my contract terminated without penalty, 'How?' i hear you say, try writing to this address [email protected], complain and keep it truthful and real, they will then hopefully pass it on to this address, [email protected], complain there as well (this is without doubt in my mind a very dodgy Blagger of a company). It is worth noting that the Exec email address will be handled there in Scotland not Japan or India , take the correct route be patient (hard i know with this company) and good luck you may also want this number 08707330295 (thats the Exec offices in Scotland hurry before they catch on and divert the number to India again, as has happened in the past). Here is my email i sent to the exec offices in Scotland, i had sent another onto Whampoa before this , Good luck , and lets teach 3 a lesson....
Dear 3,
Maybe you missed what i was saying to you.....I am not overly concerned for the tired OLD LYE of 'My handset needs attention', seems to me the English side of this company has taught the Indian side of this company extremely well in deceiving your customers when it comes to the incredulous state of affairs for what is in my opinion the worst , most frustrating mobile communications company on the market today.
I would like to point out here , if you would ever like to visit one of the many chat forums ... http://uk.blagger.com/scripts/db4.php?company_id=652&companyname=3%20/%20Three%20/%20Hutchison%203G , technological magazines/newspapers, even just your customers complaining about the same issues, it becomes very clear 3 has a major problem, as i have said in my previous email/s in my opinion you are stealing from the public by falsely claiming to offer a pay monthly service that is not worth having for free.
I am deeply shocked that you would come back to me with such an inept statement of a problem with the handset , after all i have the handset in front of me working to its full potential on the O2 network no matter where i use it.
So its very very very very obvious what you have just told me is a Blatant LYE...........
If at 3 this is a acceptable level of customer service (i am sure by now it is) then so be it, but i absolutely refuse to pay for something that never did work or never will by the looks of things......
I tried to come to some kind of agreement by sending the phone back to you, i also offered �50 with the phone so we could call it quits (i still don't think that i should pay anything ) but i am more than willing to offer the �50 as a full and final settlement , as i find is appropriate to the completely awful experience i have had with such a deceitful company.
I know FULL well that i am not alone here and am very concerned for the future of your company , i have not turned a blind eye to your monthly contracts being dropped down to just �2.99 per month....leaving me with valid suspicions that people are trying to leave/not join in the first place... leaving you with no option but to drop the price, to trap people into paying you some money for the 12 months , for a service that leaves you feeling robbed and very cold.
I cannot tell you the disappointment i feel in dealing with you all there at 3......it has been a truly awful experience i am not kidding you, you just do not care about your customers PERIOD.
Seems to me the � signs are all you people are interested in and the guy on the street is of secondary (if at all) importance.
Please i ask you again to please help me here, and do the right thing and come to some kind of agreement with me about this painful contract you have me stuck in, and this time please do not come back with such nonsense as a handset problem.
You mentioned below "I have reviewed your postal area *** *** and can see you are in an almost exclusively 3G coverage area". I am very sorry but i find that mildly amusing here at home is one of the very worst places your Network operates..... i know of other 3 users here and they have just the same issues......so i guess you are sending out broken phones ????? I think NOT......
I don�t think the Indians at the 3 mobile call centre as a stupid as they sound.
i believe that they actually try to piss you of so much that you will hang up.
Chasing a problem for my daughter as they have been giving her the run around for a month now.
I gave the twat the eimi (whatever) number, the serial and sim numbers as well as name address 3 times each, as you go though thier trial of fire trying to get a fault resolved.
They really are evil these people at three mobile, not incompetent. as they seem extreemly skilled in not fixing problems.
I have never experienced such a diabolical service in my life! I have tried to cancel my contract with Three but was told that I would have to pay over �200 to do so. I have called Custoner Services up on several occasions to ask them how they can justify billing me one month's initial half-price line rental for 1 day (22-23 October) but the garbled explanation made no sense at all. So now I have being charged �30 a month line rental since the beginning of January although I shouldn;t have been biiled at that price until 23 January, as far as I can see. My handset has already broken twice and the replacement set they gave me didn't work.Any advice about how to cancel the contract with these crooks would be very welcome.
3 are the biggest con merchants in the known universe
The reason i pissed off with three is that when i bought a brand spanking new A100 from the dealer. An Indian three customer service representative was instrumental in my running up a bill of �51.09 because they advised me that under my 900 tarif i was entitled to make call using the 3 voice minutes allocated to me for this month. The ensuing 45 phone calls revealed a bungling and misdirected call centre in which i was left wondering if these individuals treat people like this all the time their own indian brand of put downs and disrespectful behaviour over something they should be dealing with.
After 9 hours i managed to get an offer of �10 as a good will gesture instead of a genuine offer of compensation to which i am entitled i didnt accept it and am going to get my pound of flesh by hook or by crook.
Thank You! I thought that I was alone in my struggle to get through to 3 and am now feeling alot better thanks to the sugestions of people on this page. Thank you thank you thank you. xxxxxxxx
I can totally relate to everything you are all going through. I have had an ongoing fight with 3 since August to get my 2 (yes I know I was stupid enough to buy 2) mobile phone contracts cancelled.
After many many letters, emails, telephone conversations, telephone calls to Otelo (the mobile phone company ombudsman) not getting my anywhere, I wrote to 3 and told them I was cancelling my contracts (not just because of the crap service, but also because of the appalling customer service) and that they were welcome to take me to court, if they didnt like it.
I had a phonecall within an hour of posting the email (amazing really considering I am actually still awaiting replies from emails I sent 8 weeks ago!). And they agreed that I had been treated badly and had no help whatsoever regarding my many complaints sent to them. I have now been told that my contracts will be cancelled without penalty (mind you I have asked for the "without penalty" bit to be confirmed in writing and am still waiting, but hey its only been a week!).
They even had the nerve to ask me to consider going back to 3 if I decide to change from my new provider (yeah right like Im going to give up Vodafone for 3, I did that 6 months ago and it was the worst decision I ever made!)
I have written to BBC Watchdog and would urge EVERYONE to do the same, as they have said they will do an item on them if they receive enough complaints! Why should we, the consumer, have to put up with such a poor quality of service and expect to pay for it? Why should we be spoken to by 3s CS as though we are an insignificant piece of dirt on the floor? Why should we be made to feel like everything is our fault, when all we did was purchase a phone / service that we expected to work? Why should we be lied to and not have correspondance replied to? When are 3 going to see that they need us a damn site more than we need them?
Dont give up hope people, if we all make a united stand then perhaps we can succeed in showing 3 up enough to make them buck their ideas up! Incidentally, if you want to speak to the Executive Office in Glasgow, email [email protected] or ring 08707330295. They are the only people I have been able to actually get though to.
I am just so glad that I am out of 3, I only hope that they honour this promise and cancel my contracts as promised without penalty, otherwise they will be hearing from my solicitor!
Re "The Trouble with 3" posted by JBR at 11:06 27/01/05 ...
What can I say got 3 contract whilst an unemployed student with debt and bad credit (!?) Now seven months later I'm boycotting by not using the phone and not paying the bill.
Have tried to change tariff to a lower one, but they'll only go to the next lower one after yours and then when i wanted to cancel the contract they said they wanted �204 for a termination fee and still expected me to pay �35 a month til the end of the 12 months!!!!!
Any advice would be great guys, the bill's starting to get hefty!!!!
Hi people, yes, I too have suffered at the hands of those incompetent individuals running the 3 outfit, however I can report some success in my efforts to deal with these fools!
Having read your messages I find that I have experienced similar difficulties, the extremely non-existant customer care services being the most annoying. You can contact 3's executive office directly on 08707330453. I have just finished talking to them (in good old plain English!) and they were very apologetic and in fact are about to terminate my contract and waive all payments as a gesture of good will. RESULT!!!!!!!! Do not give in; bombard this telephone number with complaints and send this dodgy company down.
Do not hesitate to contact me if you would like any more details.
Erm, sorry about that, my cat walked over the keyboard.
Anyway, as I was saying, by the time the truth had emerged it was too late, the two-week trial period had lapsed and 3 said I could not get out of my contract. So basically, I was left with a completely useless phone on a one-year contract!
I cancelled my direct debit and bombarded them with complaint letters, and finally someone from 3 phoned me today (January 2005!) to tell me my contract had been cancelled and they waived the termination fee and any money they maintained I owed them.
This is a very brief version of the story - it has actually been a complete nightmare of incompetence from 3, absolutely amazing! Never, any experienced anything like it, and good bloody riddance.
All I can say is don't give in to them, and don't give them a penny if you are getting as atrocious a service as I did. Plus lies and sheer incompetence on their behalf. You'll win in the end.
I took out a contract with them in May last year, and when I received my phone I noticed I had no signal from my home in west London. So I phoned 3 customer services that same day and they said that they had full coverage of the area, but my phone was faulty and had a weak signal. So I sent it to their repair service who take ages to get back to me, and when they did send it back they said it was now in perfect working order.
However, there was still no signal in west London! So when I told them about it, they said they didn't have coverage of my area... They had lied to me and there had been nothing wrong with my phone!
I have to agree with everything everyone has said, I have had many problems, including with their billing. They moved the dates forward by 5 days from billing to taking the money from your account, I was in Mexico at the time and went over drawn!! I complained and was told a letter had gone out, I had not rcvd this and neither had any of my friends who had joined 3 (they have also since left!) I had several rows over the phone and by email and they agreed to move my billing date forward bty 5 days. Great I thought!!
But........for all who know 3 it is never that simple. They let the 5 days of calls I made be assigned to my price plan and then charged me normal price (ie full rate) for the rest of the 31 days!! My bill was enormous and it took me a month to get it recalculated and then they only refunded me �20!!! What a joke. I argued that they had not met their part of my contract and their "special" customer services people told me they did not need to and that I did not have a paper vesion of my contract to prove that they had to!
I took advice from Carphone Warehouse and they said I could try changing my tariff to the lowest tarrif and then buying my contract. Well that was in July and I am still tring to get my tarrif changed over. Apparently there is a problem with my phone and they cannot change it !!! I am now near the end of the contract and will be going back to Orange ASAP. WHEN i GET THE PHONE CALL TO SAY WHY ARE YOU LEAVING THEY HAD BETTER WATCH OUT AS THEY WILL GET AN EAR FULL!!!!!
In their defence its not just the idiots in India its the idiots that work for 3 on the UK as they are about as helpful as a chocolate fireguard!!! I will also be expressing my severe dissatisfaction to OFCOM about 3 and I suggest everyone else does. READ YOUR CONTRACTS CAREFULLY, THERE IS A CLAUSE IN THERE ABOUT HOW VARIATIONS IN YOUR AGREEMENT CAN BE OF DETRIMENT TO YOU CLAUSE 4.1B
Re "Started a case against 3" posted by RiKk at 10:26 21/01/05 ...
Good luck!! I made the mistake of joining 3 in Oct 2004. Since then I have never received a decent service, the Customer Service centre is next to useless and they refuse to end my contract.
I have pointed out to them that when they accepted me as a customer they should have checked my postcode, they would then have know that there was no chance of me ever receiving a decent service on their network.
Would like any advice on further action I can take to release myself from the contract.
I have been pulling my hair out recently as for the past 7 weeks I am unable to use my phone at all, due to no signal.
I have read through all your posts and have decided to take them on in a court of law.
I am 3 months into my contract but today I returned my handset etc to the supplier. I also called 3 on the cs line and told them where to stuff it.
I shall keep you informed of the outcome/proceedings
cheers
RiKk
PS...Wish me luck
Re "Re: 3 Mobile problems" posted by binks at 16:05 11/01/05 ...
Hallelujah! there is a God, check my 3 case out mates, only it's with pay as you go, ok, I bought an NEC E616 from my cousin, who left the UK, I rang their Indian call centre and guess what, I get the same crappy from the ass response as most people got from this site, sorry 3, people do have freedom of expression in this country yeah?
I told them my cousin is overseas and I bought the phone from her, they want her to ring from Overseas, to the UK, to register me, haah!!! if they will foot the phone call so be it, if not, they better listen to an honest reported call from a customer who just wish to for goodness sake, register, If I were a criminal, would I want to register with them? and.........oh I just feel complaining to them is like talking to a brick wall............no! brick walls have uses, 3 doesn't, enough said, Peace!
My borther got roped into this shoddy oufit a little while ago. He too epxerinced very poor qulity telecoms service, so, quite understandably, wanted to move to a different network.
You may be interested that, before the telecoms watchdog 'Oftel' became 'Ofcom', '3' racked up more complaints than any other mobile serivce provider.
What is clear that, for whatever reason, 3 have provided a poor service to thier customers since their beginning. It is more than reasonable therefore that people should want to stop using 3 to provide their mobile serivces. Unforutnately 3, along with other telcoms companies, use a cancellation clause in their contract, with which they threaten errant customers like a doomsday cult every time one wants to leave.
I have advised my brother to RESCIND his contract. ie this is a right given to UK customers under S14 Sale of Goods Act 1979. Under this Act, the contract automatically contains a clause which says that if the product is naff then you can kill the contract and get your money back. Normally however this has to be done pretty sharpish.
If you have left it a while then you could rely on Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. This says taht if a clause of a consumer contract is 'unreasonable' then it doesnt operate. The definition of 'unreasonable' is - would any reaosnable perosn have agreed to the contract if they realised the impact of this clause? - I think that this can be said of the cancellation clause of this contract. Fair enough - cover a few quid admin costs in shutting down the line but ulitmately charging the full rate of the contract regardless of the fact that nothing is being provided to the customer in return is unlikey to impress any judge at all.
DONT GET CONFUSED - 3 may threaten debt collectors, but , accoridng to OFcom, they should be dealing with disputes that last more than 12 weeks by means of an ADR (ie Alternative Dispute Resolution) scheme - usually this is where an independant person tries to broker a reoslution of the dispute between the parties.
If you have cancelled your contract - demand that 3 tell you about this scheme - it doesnt involve any risk associated with going to court - although if it doesnt work you might be faced iwth that as the only option.
ALSO - if you have told 3 that the debt is DISPUTED, then they MUST have an order of the Court before any debt collector can do anything. After all your case is that you dont actually ahve to pay anything at all.
3 have shown themselves to use threats, ignorance and chidlsih tactics such as putting the phone down on calls they cant cope with. Their products are poor, their customer serivce worse and their days surely numbered.
THREE THREE THREE well what do i have to say that is different to any one else who has wrote on this web site. Well I have had the same problems with the phone and with trying to cancel the stupid three contract, and also had there stupid threatering letters about debt collectors
ITS NOT FUNNY I HEAR YOU CRY WELL IT SEEMS TO BE FUNNY TO THEM I HAVE JUST GOT OFF A RECORDED PHONE CALL WITH THEM AND YES THEY THINK ITS FUNNY
Do you think it is fair that three can tie you up in a 12 month contract and treat you like a bit of unwanted dirt on the bottum of your shoe.
I have had my 3 phone and contract (talk and text 600) with 3 for 3 months and have had nothing but crap from them as well. I have the same rubbish reception as everyone else, but my main issue was when I received a bill for �42 on Christmas Eve - it is suppsed to be �15 with the half price line rental - give or take a couple of quid. The reason for the sudden increase of �27 was because of calls made to what are known as non'geographic numbers - specifically 0845 anbd 0870 numbers. Stupidly, and because I never thought differently when I sigend the contract, I had always figured that, because they are charged at the local rate, these would be treated as part of the tariff. They are not. But the worst part is: 3 had never charged me for them before! Only now - at Christmas - for almost double what I regularly pay.
What did 3 have to say? Well they have variously told me that a) I should have known (which means I, as a customer am supposed to pre empt mechanisms within the industry and practises I know nothing about!), b) they made a technical error which meant the previous itemised bills were incorrect (they even offered to 'recalculate those bills' and charge me even more!), and c) there was no technical error and they didn't feel like charging me (you read that right) - in each of the latter two cases they had no answer as to why they couldn't write toe me to ell me what was going on I just had to take their word for it.
This company doesn't know it'as backside from it's elbow, their customer service is so inept it's not even funny. They have no power to do anything and will deliberately repeat what they have already told you no matter what the question just to get rid of you by saying the discussion is going nowhere. The concept of having a call centre to deal with problems in the UK based in a non-english speaking and non english culture is ludicrous in the extreme. I don't care what colour you are or where you re from, if you cannot communiate with me properly then go away.
Unfortunately there seems to be no way to resolve this situation and I have had to pay these charges and will have to put up with this crap company until the contract expires. However I do have some information people might find useful.
I have tried writing to them, which proved useless so I contacted Otelo who gave me a more senior address to try:
[Grumbletext edited a specific name from the address below, mostly because it is no longer current (we have this from Otelo not 3 Mobile). We made up the "Hutchison 3G Customer Care" addressee but given that this office is Hutchison 3G's (who own 3 Mobile) main customer care operation in the UK, this seems to be a reasonable bet. for those ot you have tried the company's offshore 1st line customer services and failed to be heard, the address below is the place to concentrate on. In addition, I believe you can email this office directly at [email protected] which definitely ought to be worth a try if you have a valid complaint which you have tried to resolve through their normal customer services route]
Letter FAO: Hutchison 3G Customer Care
3 Executive Office
123 St Vincent Street
Glasgow
G2 5EA
This address is not one they normally include in their paperwork.
Also their scottish department rang me after my first letter (only to tell me that all their price charges are on the website and that I should have looked on their when buying the phone, which is of course stupid - why would I think to do that when i have no reason to assume a problem?). The number they used was:
01618648200
Unfortunately when trying to call this number back I keep getting a recorded message telling me the number is unobtainable. This is nonsense because the message was recorded by the 3 themselves (you can recognise the voice). They just wont take your calls.
Anyone cancelled their 3 mobile? Probs i've had (cut and paste from complaint):
I have sent text messages to numerous people who haven�t received them. I have been sent text messages from people and never received them. I get a display that a text has arrived on the front display, but don�t always have the text within the phone. I have received texts in the middle of the night, 2-3 days after they were sent. Sometimes when I open the phone when it is ringing it, disconnects the caller. Half of the phone calls that I make get disconnected mid-conversation, I cannot then reconnect and have to call back at further expense from a different phone even though I live in a high signal area and the phone displays a high signal. Half the phone calls that I try to make gets no connection. I can try 5-10 times over 20-30 mins to get a connection in high signal areas and not get a connection.
Recently, the microphone on the phone has been intermittent. On some calls the person I�m calling cannot hear me however many times I call them, meaning that I have to call them back on a pay phone again at my own further cost. The battery designed with the phone only lasts approximately half a day as opposed to that stated by 3. The �brick� battery supplied by 3 realising this problem only lasts just over a day.
I've had the phone in for repair once already. it's in for a second time at the moment. I should have had it back 2 days ago but have not been contacted to be advised where it is. On calling 3, I have been promised it back soon but have been told that although i've not had my phone for 6 days this time, 2 days last time, I still have to pay all contract payments for this period.
I do not feel that 3 have honoured the contract from their side, meaning that over several months I have had to pay for numerous calls from pay phones and my partners phone, which if my phone worked correctly I would have been able to have made using my inclusive minutes and texts. I don't know who I have accidently ignored over the past few months by not receiving the texts etc that numerous people show me they definitely sent.
I thought I would give 3 a go due to their low tarrifs. However I have learnt that you pay for what you get. My phone took over a week to be activated which obviously caused numerous phone calls to their customer services. The first call I could not understand a bloody word the guy was talking about, and to make matters worse he couldnt understand me !! the CS Agent ended puting the phone down on me. I obviously called back to see if I had any better luck (20 mins wait) yet to end up with another robot Indian !!
I have no problems with Indians, but what the F*ck is going on here?? When the phone was eventually activated, calls kept diconnecting, and text messaging wouldnt work !! I gave up with customer services as they do not now what they are doing and can only read what ever literature they have on the screen.
I took the phone back to the Car Phone Warehouse to be greeted by a grinning representative who stated I dont know why people bother with 3. They also stated that the majority of people return the phones within the 14 day trial period (I had 3 days as it took over a week to be connected).
To sum up. Dont be fooled by cute & colourful advertisements. 3 is absoulute and utter b*llocks with the worst customer services possibly imaginable. It is definately worth paying a bit more for 'proper' networks ie: Vodafone, orange etc.
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