i have had my three mobile for 4 months and yes it was the worst mistake. i am paying 30 pounds a month for a phone that i cant send text messages from or even phone numbers my screen has totally dissapeared. When i phoned 3 i was put through tio someone who was obviusly reading from autocue and not british now i am not racist but the majority of 3 users will be very fluent in english so why when we want to talk to someone about our phones do we get put through to someone who is not english. i found them really unhelpful and i am still walking about with the mobike that doesnt work. i can wait for my contract to end as i certainl wont be renewing it. They are the worst network ever i will be going back to the best and thats VODAFONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re "Re: 3 Mobile problems" posted by binks at 16:05 11/01/05 ...
My phone has been back for repair twice in the last 3 weeks yet is now worse than ever. In fact, only last night I was unable to answer a call because at least once a day the "answer" key doesnt work and the phone simply vibrates without ringing or showing me any caller details whatsoever.
Having turned the phone off then back on again I was then somehow able to make calls whilst the phone was still vibrating from the previous call that I couldn't accept (and yes I had successfully swtiched the phone off and back on).
When the "service" agent told me they would book it in again for repair rather than demolition I am happy to admit I lost it. When one asks to speak to a manager or supervisor (which I am not partial to doing very often), they have great pleasure in saying "well you can speak to one but they will tell you exactly what I just have and you will in a few moments be speaking to me gain to book your phone in".
I can honestly say that I would be less annoyed if I were to suffer a burglary at my home and lose everything I own, be forced out of my car at gunpoint and watch it being driven off and then being told I had lost my job, than I am when I speak to the excuse for human beings that work in the call-centre. They are nothing more than cheaper labour than the robots employed in this coutry...it is a shame that the upper management have no idea how to run a business because it could have been really successful. I sincerely hope the whole comany goes out of business, the sooner the better.
The irony is that the monthly costs are alot cheaper and I do actually have better service than with my old network!! But the hassle and years taken off life through dealing with the service centre is not worth any money.
Re "3 Mobile problems" posted by jas at 19:10 09/01/05 ...
I can't tell you how funny it is reading this website. It gives me a little comfort to know I and all my friends are not alone in wanting to bomb 3, their head office and their Indian Call Centre (which has done for India's PR what Hitler did for the Germans ...).
ANYWAY, IS THERE ANYWAY TO CANCEL A CONTRACT FOUR MONTHS INTO THE TWELVE MONTHS ... WHAT WILL THEY DO? THEY SAY THE 'DEBT COLLECTING DEPARTMENT' BUT EXACTLY WHAT IS THE WORST CASE SCENARIO ...
I agree, they are the worst, i signed a 12 month contract, in which i get the first 4 months at 4.99 a month, so they go and charge me half price line rentel insteade. Then they give me the wrong sort code and account number to pay my bills into and guess what, they cut me for not paying my bill on Christmas Eve, i phone to see what is going on, and they send me a letter, which says due to me not contacting them they have passed my account to their debt collecting department. I have just about sorted it out now, but i realy hate them
Myself and my husband have been on contract with 3 mobile for the last year and would like to warn other customers about the network. We have been very disappointed by the service 3 provides, in particular the fact that the phones don't work and are sent back from repair without being repaired. Generally it is the 3 mobiles attitude towards us that put us off ever using their network again. They may have good deals but it is not worth it.
Re: - AVOID AT ALL COSTS - The WORST mobile phone service pr
Re "Re: - AVOID AT ALL COSTS - The WORST mobile phone service pr" posted by Guest at 22:57 03/12/04 ...
You are obviously very lucky then!! I wonder though if you would be quite so happy and understanding if you were having the same problems as the majority of 3 customers? Would you be quite so happy if you had phones that didn't work 3/4 of the time, that lost calls, lost text messages? If you had the phones replaced and had them "fixed" on numerous times to no avail? Would you be satisfied with paying for a service you didn't receive? I dont think so! And yes we are quite aware of the fact that the contract has you shafted and you cant cancel it, but this is a website for "grumbling" about companies that we are dissatisfied with and that is what we are doing!
Guest
22:57 03/12/04
Re: - AVOID AT ALL COSTS - The WORST mobile phone service pr
Re "- AVOID AT ALL COSTS - The WORST mobile phone service pro" posted by visitor at 14:34 06/07/03 ...
I'm on Three and perfectly happy. I've found them as good as the other nets I've used and in some places got a signal where other nets don't.
Sure CS needs to be better, and some of the handsets are awful, but overall, they aren't bad.
And the gent who wants to cancel his sisters, or whatevers, contract.....You're outta luck as someone else noted, THree; and O2, Orange, VOda and T-mobile; have their arses covered in every direction, the main one being that they don't promise you any signal or service at all. Remember 'Service Limitations Apply'
As for everyone with difficulty understanding the Indian CS, try speaking normally and not shouting down the phone.
Finally, the dickhead who thinks the CS are 30p an hour.................Mumba CSA must have a degree, has subsidised housing, medical, the works.
What a load of ****s!!! For any poor bugger that got this off f****n santa this year then shove it up rudolphs a**
This mobile is the biggest joke ever, and i cant be bothered to explain because it makes me want to down a crate of stella, bottle of vodka and join the BNP.
I will never sign a contract again with a mobile company and be left with an asshole the size of an ashtray!!. I have recently bought a samsung flip mobile virgin network pay as u go and is miles away from the shite ive suffered.
Virgin mobile r light years away from these bastdards and have a british customer service who r very polite (hurray) . I pay 15p min fist 5 mins then 5p after 5mins to any virgin and land line. What a difference. If u want a neat slim phone 5 day battery, neat games (chess) is on there wap that is dead cheap then go to argos and get the samsung phone.
I reduced my contract with F*****N 3 down to 15 a month and i have now put my phone at the bottom of the drawer.
take my advice , to prevent physical violence against your wife or some innocent stranger then put your phone in the bin, and get one u can trust.
I hope i have put loads of people of this **** OF A COMPANY
i was a very happy customer with vodafone with a very good phone (GX20) and reception that could be picked up down a mineshaft. i only had one problem, the price!
after seeing the 3 ad's with the funky soundtracks, voice-overs from lauren laverne and cute lil mascots i decided to join 3 mobile. they looked modern, had good handsets and the promise of video-calls!
that was the biggest mistake ever.
i have been with the mickey mouse network now for roughly 5 months and have not enjoyed one single day where i have been even 30% happy with the service.
the handset is not all that, why have a massive screen when the picture display is tiny?
anyway thats not my real gripe as im sure you can guess..... thats right my real problem with the mobile telephone service provider that provides no service is I NEVER HAVE RECEPTION.
i either have none or have to manual serch for the back-up O2 network. this itself takes a good ten mins and runs the battery more than usual as it is serching for the O2 network. when it finally finds it, it occaisionally gives me some reception to make a very short call. any person that i talk to tho (whether i called them or they called me) tell me that they can barely hear me and to sort it out!
well enough is enough and i have decided to sort it out.
either back to vodafone with the perfect reception and even video-calls soon, maybe a bit more cost but i have to admit they know how to give good customer service.
or chance another network, maybe O2, but after the problems with changing to 3 i doubt ill bother.
jus one problem, whether to just cancel the 3 contract or lower it to the minimum payment.
grrr, think i feel a bit better for getting that off my chest.
[email protected]
07782500412 haha
Re "Re: The 3 saga" posted by 3hate at 14:04 24/11/04 ...
Hi 3Hate
No I haven't got anywhere with it. I have not got the bottle to cancel the direct debits as I dont want my credit rating affected. I have this weekend, had a 1 hour 40 minute conversation with their cancellations department in the UK and got absolutely nowhere with them. As far as they are concerned everyone has a 14 day cooling off period to cancel their contract when they join 3 and if it goes past that 14 days then, and I quote, "its our problem not theirs"! I didnt even use my new phones until 10 days after the contract started, as that is how long it took them to transfer my number from my old phones to the new ones! Then when after a few days of using it, I found how bad it was, I went back to Phones 4U and they gave me 2 new phones. They were no different, but by the time I established that and contacted 3, the 14 days were over and I was basically told "tough"! I dont know if you have looked at your contract, but they also cover their arses by saying that they do not guarantee the signal in any area all the time anyway (so much for their coverage map on their website then!). Also, when you try to compare them to other networks, they get really arsey and say that it is unfair to compare them to companies that have been going for years when they are still a relatively new company! I really feel like we are all in a no win situation to be honest. All I can suggest is to write to BBC Watchdog (go to their website and fill in a form on there). I have emailed them about it and if they get enough complaints about a company then they will put it on their show. I think that the only way to get our complaints listened to seriously is to go on TV with them, and try and stop potential new customers being ripped off the way we have been and maybe even try and get this appalling, non customer friendly, rip off company closed down! If you need any further persuading, have a look at www.3hell.com a website that is dedicated to unhappy 3 customers. I hope this information helps.
Re "Re: The 3 saga" posted by ducatigirl at 17:12 22/11/04 ...
Did you get anywhere with this?
I have already downgraded my contract to the minimum monthly but am still faced with �15 / month for a useless service for the next 6 months. I would be lucky if I could make 100 mins of calls a month with the coverage I get and the amount of times I get cut off.
Re "The 3 saga" posted by orangeusernow at 23:11 22/10/04 ...
Hi
Could you please tell me how you managed to cancel your contract unpenalised? I have had approximately 12 phonecalls with 3, 3 emails, and 3 letters and they are still not sorting my problem out! I bought two 3 phones (plonker that I am) and neither of them work at home, around home or pretty well most of the county I live in, (unless you stand on your right leg, hold your left arm in the area and hop on the spot that is and then you may be able to talk for about 2 minutes before it cuts off)! I have threatened to cancel my remaining 6 months of contract but they tell me I will be blacklisted and my credit rating severely affected. I have threatened Watchdog, solicitor etc. but they are not at all phased by it and just laugh and say "you tell me a single company that has not been on Watchdog!" they have replaced the phones once and repaired them once and they are still the same. We all know its the reception not the phones so I feel they are just "fixing" the phones to stretch the time out until the end of the contract. The stress of all the communication and lack of help from them is now making me ill and I would really love to know the best way of ending this hell! I have spoken to Oftel but they say they cannot help unless 3 tell me in writing that they are not prepared to do anything else (i.e. a deadlock situation). Im stuck in a rut paying �60 a month for 2 phones that are as useless as a chocolate teapot!!!!
This is my 3 saga, who I have been with for nine months. It starts with a few complaints...
Dear Sir/Madam
Re: handset no: xxxxxxxx
Thanks to some persuasive advertising and a good salesman, I switched from Orange to 3 in March this year. I signed the contract, took delivery of my phone and anticipated enjoying the following benefits:
1. 500 free minutes each month, any time.
If only. The reception on my 3G handset is so unreliable outside of London�s Zone 1 that on the rare occasions I can call when I wish I regularly get cut off mid-call. The normal phone reception can appear at 4 bars one second, unavailable the next, for no reason and with no warning. At times I get so tired waiting for the reception to come back I use my wife�s phone, or a friend�s, instead.
2. 3G multi-media access, including sports and news downloads.
See above. If I�m fortunate enough to be in a 3G zone (central London only, it seems), and if I somehow get full 3G reception on the handset, I may have a 50/50 chance of downloading a video if the signal doesn�t disappear mid-download. Wapping is a waste of time. Your news/sports features are not up to date, and on the again rare occasions I can access something I want to see, there is no BACK button to take me to the previous screen. This means I have to go all the way back to the start of the menu again! Every other network provider seems to have worked out how to make their WAP services user friendly � except 3�
�and of course even if I wish to simply read reports rather than view videos, I can�t unless I�m in a 3G zone � which as I�ve detailed, is about as extensive as my knowledge of particle physics (small). Why are your text services not separate from your video services?
3. Camera/video functions
How your customers manage video calling I have no idea. Do they have to stand next to each other? I have not ONCE managed a video call with another 3 user not in the same room as me. Pictures � the camera works well, but I can�t share my pictures as promised I could by your salesman. Why? Because 3 customers can�t send or receive picture messages from other networks, that�s why � a wee nugget of information overlooked by said salesman (can�t think why). Neither can I download any pictures onto my PC because your software wouldn�t work, and the USB cable provided with my handset developed a fault after a mere ten minutes. I was told by your customer service people to ask for a replacement at the store I bought the phone from � but I bought it on-line. So how do I get a replacement cable?
4. International Roaming
I was told that the international roaming was set up for me, went away for a week on business and was irritated to find that my phone would not work in Italy. Ancient payphones in the street became my only method of communication. On speaking to your customer services dept on my return, I was told I had to reconfirm my request at least 48 hours before departing the UK.
Two months later I was due to go on holiday. Three days prior to my departure I rang up to ask my international roaming to be activated. Needless to say, it was not. My phone was useless and my wife�s T-mobile again came to the rescue.
When I returned to the UK two weeks later, I called up again to see if the activation had finally been managed. It had not. I had to ask a third time, and only then was something actually enabled. Only this week, on another business trip, did I finally manage an international call�
�but not for long!! The roaming reception is almost as free-spirited as that in the UK. I was cut off four times in ten minutes, my phone registered text messages arriving that never appeared, the handset switched itself off three times, and finally refused to connect me to any other telephone despite showing a full strength signal and all dialling codes being correct.
5. Long battery life
As a result of the above problems my handset spends a lot of its time on standby, so I can at least confirm that c.30 hours is possible if the phone is not used. However, no more than 45 minutes of talk-time later and even the larger of the two batteries is completely flat�
Disappointment doesn�t really cover it. I now have a �backup� pay as you go telephone for all those occasions when I am let down by 3. I spend more time on my �backup� than I do on my 3 handset.
Bearing in mind that the customer is, if not always right, deserving of a fair deal, I favour sending the whole package back to you (handset, USB cable, charger and all), cancelling my line rental direct debit and moving to another network so I can pay for a service I can receive.
How would you suggest we resolve this unsatisfactory state of affairs?
In late July I received two messages, one on voicemail and one on my home answering machine, from an un-named 3 employee who asked me to call their cancellation line to speak about the problems noted in my letter.
It's the 2nd August now and I�ve since telephoned 3 no less than six times after I got those messages. I have been told by your Customer Services Dept that:
I would have to explain what the problem was - again (do your people not keep any sort of customer record?); that I would have to contact the cancellations dept; that the cancellations dept was not open on Sunday; that I could not be put through to the cancellations dept; that there was no cancellations dept; that I would have to contact the cancellations dept (how???), and pay �179 to disconnect from a service that barely connects me in the first place; that I would have to send another letter to you (and face the same rigmarole thereafter??); and finally, that I could contact you by email (which I am now doing).
Why did I call up six times? Because my phone cut out on me four times of these six, and I had to start the whole process - explanations and all - from the beginning each time.
Can you imagine the irony and frustration of calling up to complain about pathetic reception, only for the reception to fail 66% of the time??? Now multiply this by the anger I might feel on discovering during the remaining 33% that a total of one hour could be spent listening to Nora Jones on hold before having to explain the entire situation from the beginning to an employee completely unable to help! Now I know that you have your call centre in Mumbai (or wherever) on economic grounds, but what is the point of siting a bunch of men and women 4000 miles away when they lack the technical skills or authority to sort out a task as simple as MAKING MY PHONE WORK.
I can't adequately express how angry I am with 3. I've given it a damn good go, I know, but trust me, there aren't sufficient words in the English language. I may have to make some up.
I want to send you the handset, recharger, manual, software - everything to do with this phone, and never see it again. I do not wish to pay for the privilege of dumping a phone/network that fails in every aspect of nominal function. I don't even want my money back. I'll happily forgo the line rental and �80 phone fee 3 has conned out of me in return for never having to use your products again. Your suggestion that I pay you �179 to cancel a service that has never served me is beyond the boundaries of human belief.
So come on then, I dare you - give me a call. I can be reached on 020 7314 1602 days, 020 8378 5995 eves, and 07866 746542 when Saturn is in line with Aquarius, I am stood on the top of a hill in Central London with no breeze blowing and your reception fairies deign to supply a 3 signal for more than five minutes.
Oh, and you can tell Anna Friel that if I see her round SE24, I'm going to give her naked actress arse a damn good kicking.
Yours Faithfully
Ben Heywood
SE24 9BH, date of birth 02.12.73
This letter was sent to [This section edited by Grumbletext - reason being that the customer had clearly obtained/been given the wrong email address somehow causing them to write to a clarly completely unrelated company with an unsurprisingly irrelevant response]
[b]Since this letter, my handset has been replaced, and has proved just as crap as the first one - I endured two weeks where I could not make a single call or text despite being able to receive them. I want to take them to OFTEL, but have been told they need to do nothing for 8 weeks before you have a legal case against them. I can't afford a poor credit rating so am trying to switch back to Orange, and kiss 3 months worth of line rental goodbye. With the good Xmas deals about (half price line rental), I'm actually �30 better off. And I'll have a phone that works.
I have had my 3 mobile for 4 days and will be taking it back later on to day. I have absolutely no reception, I cant even access all the attractive music crap you see in the adverts, and just to add......YOU CANNOT TEXT ABROAD !!! I tried to text family in Spain, and it would not work. France either.
Customer services are f***ing ridiculous. I have been cut off twice because they could not understand me, and most of the time and cant understand them !!! It sounds like Ive been with these guys for ages but its been 4 days and Ive had it with this joke.
I got the �40 a month deal 750mins + 150 txts, but YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU GET ! Poor reception (If any) and comedy sketch type customer services. Oh yeah, theres also an average of 20 mins waiting time to speak to some poor illiterate 30p an hour Indian.
I will stay with Vodafone �60 / month 1000 mins + 50mins video calling. �20 difference is worth it.
I think that the 3 mobiles are great and good value for money apparently the problems come with the network. I don't want to have to fork out �15 for credit, which eventually disappeers and my signal to drop constantly.
I am currently on o2 and searching for a new mobile. I love the o2 network, its great value for money as I am using the 300 free text messages bolt on, but there phone are either too expensive or rubbish.
So... I was wondering what would happen if I bought a 3 mobile, had it unlocked and used my exstisting o2 sim card, which services would and wouldn't work?
i have also had a complete fu#@ing nightmare with 3, and want to know what to do about it. when i signed up carphone warehouse made the first messup by putting me on the wrong contract, which i then 'supposedly resolved the very next day (according to 3 ). unfrtunately though my fantastic introductory offer half price for 3 months (�12.50) didn't go to well and by the end of the three months i had recieved bills for over �400 some of which 3 themselves had no record of!! since then i have suffered from signal drop, and dissconection during calls without even losing signal. when trying to deal with this i have spoken to people who litterally cannot understand what i'm saying to them, (it seems yorkshire accent is a no go with 3) people who have just cut me off, people giving me more than one name during the same phoncall when i am trying to establish who i am talking to at 3 so as to back up my complaints, not much point anyway as i was also told they have 'no complaints procedure, and no address to send a complaint to'. !!! i have now been dissconnected due to not paying my bill, as i had to cancel the standing order cause they were just billing me left right and centre. i have now payed the bill using my switchcard 4 days ago and after being told i would be reconnected within 12 hours a couple of times a day since then, to no avail, i am obout ready to try and get some kind of legal advice and get my money back, they have most definitley not fulfilled their half of the contract, it is simply not fair!!!! what can i do??!!??!!??!
I joined three briefly (very briefly) a few months back. Everything seemed to be going okay for the first two weeks. I managed to live with the signal drop now and again and evrything seemed hunky dory. That is until one day a 3 sim card magically appeared in the post. i phoned up 3 to find out what it was for only to be told that they new nothing about it and to dispose of it, which I did. Several days later the signal disappeared off my mobile, never to be seen again. After 2 days, it still hadn't reappeared so I phoned 3 to find out what the problem was.... that's when I realised I was totally f*cked.
Basically I had to phone them about 6 million times trying to explain the sim was shagged and that the same happened when i put the sim in another mobile or a new sim in my phone. Despite this they insisted I had to wait for somebody from the technical dept to phone me back (which they never did) until I finally got to speak to someone who told me that because I had requested a new sim, they had cancelled my old one. two weeks had passed by this time and I still hadn't got a clue what the hell they were on about. Then to add insult to injury, they told me I had to wait a MINIMUM of 13 WORKING days for a replacement sim. To which I politely told the to shove their sim up their, well, you know what. And then I tried to port my number out which took another 3 weks. In total I went nearly 2 months without my mobile. Total wan*ers. Wouldn't light my cigarette off them if they were on fire.
My mate also tried three, but found he was getting charged for video services that he hadn't watched. When he phoned 3 to complain they told him if the network was experiencing technical difficulties then it was, and I quote 'tough' and that he would just have to pay it.
Just like to say i agree with you all .3 are crap.
I am on the pay as u go service. One when u ring for help you can't understand them(india, The things 3 with do to save money).
Poor signal for 2months now since i got the phone.
15 pounds for a top -up (where u have to pick which u wanted)30 days to used 100 text or voice. So everyone must used there credit in that time. how many people used 100 text message a month.
Good point: 333 from your phone is free.
Poor batt life. 1 day and half on the nec e228
Don;t bother ringing your freinds you get cut off with poor signal u get.
I have to say that until recently i have never had a single problem since purchasing my handset in july. The fact that I may lose my signal momentarily is not a problem whatsoever as it is usually only for a few minutes. However for a week now there has been a problem trying to take a photo or video clip,the handset tells me it is unavailable at this time, Then the handset was frozen all day and no buttons would work, This seems to have been the start of my problems as now I have nothing but a blank screen and cannot use my phone at all. On Sunday 25th october my handset had no signal or 3g network at all from 9:00am, I left my handset all day and thought it was just a problem with the 3 mobile company, I decided to take the battery and sim card out and simply put them straight back in only for nothing to happen, I did have water on my screen three days after purchase but it has worked fine all this time so it cannot possibly be the problem.As i brought the handset in july it is still under warranty so i would like to know if i can simply go to a phone shop and have it replaced or fixed.
I was lucky and was such a pest to them they cancelled my contract without penalty, I since met an ex-credit controller for 3 who told me she was under instruction not to be too picky in taking on business clients, once signed up, she was told we have them locked in anyway so get a years worth of rental income.
She now steals purses from pensioners and doesn't feal half as guilty about where her income comes from.
Re "Direct Action" posted by ukcommando at 14:10 26/09/04 ...
Anyone who has read ukcommando's post should bear in mind that unless you cancel your direct debit by dealing with whoever the factoring/credit agency for 3 is, you will be in breach of contract. Regardless of the piss poor service you've received, if you break the contract before you have officially proved that 3 are in the wrong, you'll make it a lot more difficult for yourself. Fortunately you'll still have a chance of legally solving the dispute because of just how bad 3 are.
A friend of ours who works for us as a childminder, recently got a 3 phone from "dial a phone" in response to a newspaper ad. Usual package, free phone on condition to a 12 month contract with 3. It was only after the so called trial period expired that she started to realise how bad the service was. She would bump into friends or family members who would say "I've been trying to call you for days but couldn't get through!"
She doesn't have a landline as she can't afford both. She tried calling the customer service but when she eventually got through, the woman at the other end said, "Sorry I can't understand what you're saying, please call back another time", and cut her off!
She has never received any contract or even terms and conditions for the airtime agreement, just the first invoice from 3. She only received dial-a-phones documentation, etc which makes no reference to the airtime service (other than having the 12 month agreement).
It always seems to me that in these situations, companies often go for the "muddy the water" approach and do very little whilst happily continuing to take the monthly money, so I wrote a letter for her and decided to go for the jugular, claiming breach of contract on the basis that:
1) In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, it can be implied into the contract that she is entitled to a reasonable quality of service (at least for established technology like voice and SMS) as judged by that provided by the established 2G companies. This is not being provided.
2) She only agreed formal contract terms with dial-a-phone at the time of signing up and it can be implied into this contract using the "officious bystander" principle that the validity of her obligations to dial-a-phone must rest upon the acceptable fulmillent of any airtime contract (and that obligation is very much 2 way!)
So we've cancelled her direct debit instruction and told dial-a-phone that they can collect their phone or send pre-paid packaging to have it returned. As the scenario is breach of contract, she is released from her contractual obligations (i.e. to pay for the phone)
The letter also emphasised that she is a struggling single mum and that she depends on the phone for emergencies (such as the nursery contacting her if there is an emergency with her son)
The letter was only sent in the last few days, so it will be interesting to see how they react. If (as we suspect) they go for the approach of just insisting on claiming the 300 something pounds for the phone, then we'll probably challenge them to justify it in court where they would have to answer the following two questions:
1) Do you believe that the service being delivered to this customer is satisfactory (so they'd either have to claim on record that a crap service was acceptable or admit no)
2) If not, then how can they claim that they are due payment for the service?
So we shall see. The thing is that customers should always remember that contracts are two way, both parties are tied and you have every right to demand the service you are paying for, even though companies like 3 want you to believe that you are the only one tied by the contract..........
Phone hasn't worked for a week, customer services in bombay is appalling. Their own staff aren't allowed to talk to the real technical team in the UK! Keep being told 'we are working on it' what a load of sh*t.
Guys, I URGE anyone who has already made a complaint with 3 (that they haven't bothered to deal with!) to go to www.otelo.co.uk
As long as you have already made a complaint to 3 and they have ignored you etc, they will carry out a full investigation. Fill in the complaints form online and send it to them - with any luck, we can get this SHITE network shut down for good!
Re "Re: absolute rubbish, no joke" posted by philsie at 18:31 29/07/04 ...
3 are absolute crap!! I have been with them for 3 months now & i can't say i'm happy with one bit of it!
In the last week, there has been at least 3 days where i haven't been able to use my phone at all. Can't make or recieve calls or send or receive messages. Sometimes the phone is showing no reception constantly other times it appears to have a full reception but is still useless!
Apparently i live in an area with the best reception! Yeah right!
People have told me they've rang, yet the phone shows no missed calls, messages send themselves numerous times yet i've only sent them once! Also the 3 months free messages are a scam. Like someone else has mentioned you don't get 3 months. I started my contract on the 8th & my billing date is the 11th. So my first month only lasted 3 days!! How can they call that a month???
Customer services are a joke you can't understand a word they're saying & they aren't really any help at all.
If anyone finds out a way to cancel they're contract, please let me know! i'm contemplating just canceling my direct debit but i'm abit dubious about this as i don't want to end up with a poor credit rating.
Re "absolute rubbish, no joke" posted by as at 14:35 22/07/04 ...
yes 3 are the shittest "communication " company bar none!!!
1:they lost our first payments by cheque on both phones "yes what a prat i bought two" but no matter what i did ...calling,letters which they lost part of but they were in the same envelope,traces on the cheques etc NOTHING WORKED, then we were told that we would have the baliffs round credit refs etc .when they did eventually find them three months later the guy on the phone did apologise but said there would be no compensation as they do not offer that with 3.
2:can't get signals especially within m25,dont get voice messages sometimes for months.
3:both phones went back 1 was replaced but the other sent back with no differance apart from losing all the ring tones etc i'd paid for.
4:can't remember how many million times i've rung services in bloody india but as everyone says here you always speak to someone new and repeat the story knowing that they will never keep ther promises of action,so whats the point.
5:i can know cancel my contract as it is a year but when i ring services and tell them i want to cancel they ask me to upgrade "yeah right upgrade to what exactly ..another year of misery"then when you laugh at their suggestion they tell you theres a long wait at cancellation "i wonder why"and yes they don't answer after an hour and im pissed off by then so i put the phone down.
6:they emailed and said the phones were to be cancelled by the 26 07 04 but they still work three days later but apparently it takes a while to cancel?????? and i gave them warning of wanting to cancel weeks before by recorded delivery.
this is stuff off the top of my head not everything. ( P.S RINGING OFFTEL WORKS)
ENTER A CONTRACT WITH 3 AT YOUR PERIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
purchased the 3 contract last week. thought it was a very good deal (750min anytime, anynetwork, 9months half price line rental, lg u8100)
when i received the handset, it was pretty cool, its got all the features plus more.
I was testing out the phone by trying to call friends. Nope. could not do it. eventhough the phone shows 4 bars of reception, i am unable to make a call or txt. I tried the following days and no joy. Occasionally i get reception but only for a short while. Its absolutely shit.
Ive got a tmobile and o2 handset at home, i get maximum reception, no problems.
The bloody map shows that voice calls are perfect in the london area, and i checked my area before purchasing the contract. I tried changing to 2g but no improvement..
Ive sent it back to the retailer as you have 14day moneyback guarantee. im now waiting for 3 to cancel my contract.
Re "3mobile = phones from HELL!" posted by Guest at 21:05 01/07/04 ...
well im another compleatly baffled customer of 3 thanks for nothing phones.
same old story no joy sorry sir i dont ubderstand you will have to send yor phone away lose all you photos and contacts, we dont appologise for the shit service because we charge you to send mail and not to receive it! whjat the fuck is all that about.
dirty c#$ts, if any one know how to get out of the contract or any way i can help in being a thorn in the side of such a scam please get in touch.
i would rather spend all my time finding ways to bring these pricks down than calling india and talking to customer services? if they know what that means.
aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh im so sick of these aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh
hope everyone who is having problems with these phones spends as much time as they can letting people know about what probs they cause so know one else will be fooled.
i sure will
Guest
21:05 01/07/04
3mobile = phones from HELL!
buying a 3mobile phone has added 10 years to my life! apart from discovering that the pay as go system is really a sort of contract (due to my own stupidity i supose), everything was fine for the first month - such bliss , but something went wrong with the SMS function - some messages arrived, some didn't that's when i became addicted to the call centres! after toing and froing between Phones4U and 333 (twice that and u get the Mark of the Beast ) the phone went off for its 3 day holiday, but when it came back it was no better. i spent a whole month phoning 333 trying to get it fixed - the promises to call me back were never kept (except once) - EVENTUALLY, i was given some instructions on resetting the settings and it seemed to work (but i cannot really know how many messages are not getting thru). i then phoned to ask them to compensate me for the time that i could not use the phone properly (about a month in all). these calles were to the centre in india, and i have to say that it has always been really difficult to communicate with them - every night i have to repeat the whole story and every night they recreate a whole new version of it and tell that back to me the following evening (full marks for creativity!) i had one girl almost screaming down the phone ' I DON'T UNDERSTAND! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!' Neither do I love! I wanted to scream back. Any half-way decent company would have fobbed me off with a �20 worth of credit just to say sorry for the inconvenience, but this company has no idea of customer service. i mean, why say " i will phone u back" and not do it - are the phones so crap that even 3mobile staff cannot use them????!
Re "3 Mobile - what a load of rubbish" posted by exc at 13:38 01/06/04 ...
I totally agree with the ethos of not putting up with being pushed around, but how do you deal with the damage they can do to your credit rating, especially when it is undeserved? It feels like some thing that should be in breach of the data protection act. I'm in almost the same position with O2 (for a different reason).
I took out a contract with Phones4U on the 3 mobile network and got an A835 Motorola. the contract was for 750 mins a month x network. it was not 3 months, but 3 billing periods. During the entire time I have been on 3 the calls keep dropping off in mid conversation, some calls do not get through and don't register as a missed call, and texts go astray. I have contacted 3 mobile and told to go to Phones4U. I went to Phones4U and told to go to 3 mobile. On three occasions when speaking to 3 mobile on a landline they have hung up on me. My phone has now gone off altogether and cuts off immediately you start to talk.
I have written to 3 mobile and faxed them on a daily basis for the past 4 weeks and they have completely ignored me and failed to reply in any way whatsoever.
I have a work colleague on 3 and he has stopped his direct debit and said -- take me to court. I am doing the same. This appears to be the only way to get someone to talk to you. The only information I have is that to stop my contract they want over �300.
STAY AWAY FROM 3 MOBILE - THE SYSTEM IS RUBBISH AND THE SERVICE EVEN WORSE. THEY DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.
yep throughly agree with everyone the are crap had mine for 3 months they kept trying to bill me for months i'd paid as for the first 3 months freebies got charged for all of em indian call center as much help as fish in batter!! told to stuff went back to payg at least you knowwhere you stand with it
Not happy with 3 mobile service. Often 'down' for hours o
Not happy with 3 mobile service. Often 'down' for hours on end. Indian help polite but don' t do what they promise. My 3 months free offers was not three months. It was politely explained to me that it was actually three 'billing periods' and as the period starts from a specific DATE in the month - 14th apparently - I joined (stupidly coz that fact wasn't explained to me) on the 11th. So my first free 'month' was in fact only 3 days long.
Yes they are a bit of a con and a bit rubbish, but cheap.
I have been with 3 for 6 months now, its true that the cu
I have been with 3 for 6 months now, its true that the customer service is frustrating, , , I asked for roaming to be added in August 2003 and then again in October 2003 about 5 times and it STILL hasn't been done despite being on hold for a total of 4 hours, being cut off 18 times and being promiced callbacks 8 times and not getting any.. ALL THIS just to get my phone to work on holiday thich it never did :-(
The credit limit is a joke too. Let me explain... every customer has a spending limit of �30 above thier line rental. EG if you are on videotalk750 once you have used all 750 minutes you can make up to 30 pounds worth of calls before they cut your phone off. you then have to call from a land line and give them payment. The 1st time this happened I was a long way from home in need of my phone to arrange meets, get directions etc and despite paying them streight away I waited over 48 hours for reconnection and spent best part of 4 hours on the phone to them offering alternative payment methods and all sorts. They even said they couldn't take my solo card as it idn't have a valed from date (no solo card has one but they insisted I was wrong)
I was lied to by the Car Phone Warehouse Gloucester who said it woudl be suitable for a hugh use business user and also told me I could use my phone with my laptop as a high speed modem (this was one of the main reasons I bought the thing) I cant do this as 3 has blocked this function.
On the plus side there is no other mobile phone service provider offering such value for money... I do enjoy getting my bills (when they are calculated correctly) but no other network will try to compete as they all know 3 is not going to be around here for much longer.
After deciding to change our usual mobile phone service p
After deciding to change our usual mobile phone service provider (Orange - who we had never had any problem with) We saw a better deal with Three - same money but more inclusive minutes. Ordered two Motorola A920 handsets from Three, one on the Video Talk 500 and one on the Video Talk 750. BIG MISTAKE!!!! After having the handsets for just four days, we have had enough. We visited their website first of all to make sure we could get coverage in our area, according to the website we could get voice calls anywhere and video calls in certain parts of our city. Not a problem we thought!!! What a bunch of liars they are. Very poor coverage, even in the centre of town, which is supposed to give you the best coverage of all. No use! The handsets that they sent us, whilst looking very impressive on threes website are complete and utter rubbish. They come supplied with software to synch to your computer - it doesnt work!!!! The charger connections are appalling, it told us that there was no battery in our chargers even though there was, the connections are very poorly put together. Sometimes you had to hold the Charger a certain way just to get it to work, then you had to sneakily take your hand away slowly hoping against hope that the connection would stay, sometimes it would, sometimes - no chance! It seems to me that Three have launched far too early, their service is not up to scratch, they build cheap crap handsets ( Motorola for goodness sake!!!!!!), and then rush them out into the shops before they are ready. Did they run any of their services by an independent test group first? I doubt it! Our phones were returned today to the Carphone Warehouse, and even they said they were crap. Three apparently said to our lovely assistant who phoned them, Not another handset being returned! So we are not the only ones.
Pardon my French but this is one S**T company, awful cust
Pardon my French but this is one S**T company, awful customer services (held in India! where they don't even understand half the stuff you say) with disgusting waiting times (20-30 mins). I've had my phone bout 5 weeks and after a week dropped it in some liquid (yeah I know DOH! my fault!). Alas, STILL to date I havn't received a new phone for which they were certainly fast enought to take the �40 excess insurance fee. Although these guys (Hutchison) are run by the ppl who used to run the once excellent 'Orange' they clearly don't have a F**KING clue what on earth they are doing. B***OCKS to can't cancel your contract beyond 14 days, they are getting dumped, they are AWFUL please don't get a contract or buy a phone with '3'. I have taken 2! days off work to stay in for this mystery courier who'll deliver my new mobile, haha I won't be holding my breath. The icing on the cake is the're ACTUALLY advertising all over the tv at the moment when they can't even cope with their existing customers!!!
- AVOID AT ALL COSTS - The WORST mobile phone service pro
- AVOID AT ALL COSTS - The WORST mobile phone service provider EVER. My TWO new video phones were supposed to be activated within 2. 5days. Still didn't work after two weeks. Customer sevice line (call center probably based in India) was appaling. Hardly could speak English. Called them 18 times. Always on hold for at least 30mins sometimes longer. Said they would call me back to sort out the 'technical problems' within two days on numerous occasions. Never received any calls. Returned phones to 3 shop eventually. Service extemely rude. Continuously lied. Store manager said they have never had any phones returned. Later assistant told me they have phones returned every day. Pretended their 'computer system was down' so I would have to come back another day to return phones. Just wanted my 'trail period' to run out. AVOID 3 AT ALL COSTS and DO NOT be tempted by their attractive deals.
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