It’s a bit long winded but…..

Got an HTC Sensation on 3, Ice Cream Sandwich over the air update, hasn’t worked since. Returned to 3.

Had an email telling me to call them on their premium rate number….
They inform me it’s got water damage;

Me “Oh really, how do you know?”
3 “There’s indicators on the inside, they’re white stickers that turn red if exposed to moisture”
Me “Sorry before we go on you said this call is being recorded for training and quality purposes?”
3 “Yes it is”
Me “Ok, I have pictures of each of the three stickers; one on the battery, one on the phone, and one on the rear cover, all white in colour with the serial and IMEI numbers in shot taken on a copy of that days newspaper, date in shot also (about a week after the fault was reported). Could you explain this please?”

After much needless debate I emailed them the pictures, which I only took as a mate experienced the same horror story. Despite my email confirmations they claim to have not received the pictures and that they only have that one email address at 3. Huge debates/arguments with various “managers” I was given the following options:

Pay £80 for the repair.
Pay £20 to get my phone back and organise my own repair.

Essentially they’ve now dug their heels in and won’t budge or discuss any further having been told by their complaints manager “this conversation is over”.

Fuming, clearly a scam as it happened to a mate also, like I say without the heads up I’d never have taken the pics!

Where now? Trading Standards? Rip Off Britain!?

Ideas and thoughts welcome……just needed to vent! And so the fridge for a beer!

Kev

Sorry, wrong forum….can’t work out how to move it!

I’d say get onto Twitter with your story and photos, as normally companies back down fairly swiftly if you make a noise. Sadly, Three have a unique customer service method…

Customer service 101: complaints aren’t ‘spam’

trading standards AND press would probably be VERY interested in this especially people like which…….

I would keep this thread going for as long as possible, and emphasise the 3 mobile bit.

3 mobile you say crikey? Possible scam scammers? 3 mobile?

Trading standards for me. its clear its a scam by someone

I had same with them years ago – phone and stickers were fine, but not according to them,,

I’m on 3, their .CS is Shiite, deals are good though.

who is that 3 Mobile? avoid them like the plague.

glad I’m not on 3 (three) mobile, sounds like they’re a reet bunch of asshats.

While 3 are great to deal with for most things, now all their call centres are Indian based they are next to impossible if you need someone to take any inititive that hasn’t a ‘script’ written for it.

Been there, couldn’t get past the guy who’s apparently the ‘senior Manager’ – only answer is to ensure they’ve your number, and cut the call off mid-sentence. That way ay least they’ll ring you back.

Sounds like 3/three mobile are to be avoided!

I’ve found Hutchison 3G – i.e. Three Mobile, also known a 3 or three.co.uk respond more proactively to small claims court paperwork than your phone call to a useless call centre who can only read scripts on their screen. Although you may find they no longer want to do business with you afterwards!

You might find this email address gets some sort of response: executive.office@three.co.uk

Failing that there is a whole forum of three hate over here: http://www.talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?3996-Three-UK-Complaints-Contacts/page3&s=2790f5f8468dfdeb8a16e921d3b11d2f

3, Three, 3 Mobile – whatever they brand as, they’re truly awful. On at least 3 separate occasions I’ve given them formal confirmation that my wife, who uses the 3 phone although it is paid for in my name, is OK to deal directly with them on the frequent occasions that they give us grief. Each time, they accept this, and each subsequent call they ask for me to give permission.

On the last occasion, they passed her on through 3 people only for the 3rd one to say that the password she’d given was wrong (but the other 2 hadn’t…).

We called them about 3 months ago to cancel our contract and they conveniently reinterpreted that as us ‘considering’ ending our contract. They’re still charging us. Really, really poor excuse for a service provider.

A mate of mine analyses various telecoms customer information and I gather that 3 / Three / 3 Mobile have double the number of complaints as the next nearest company. Cheap and distinctly uncheerful.

Cancel direct debit

They will get in touch then

Spot on b r the higher up the managerial tree you talk to the less of a conversation you can actually have, it’s like scripted interrogation, you’ll get name, rank (always senior manager), number and that’s it.

What really grips me is that they can halt their customer services process with no consequences, were I to halt my payments they’d be a solicitors letter in the post written in a far more comprehensive tongue.

Question: Were I to not pay their “admin” fee of £20 and therefore have no phone, could I just cancel my direct debit? Prob not reading that back, just thinking out loud………raging.

Many thanks poly! I’ll make good use of that email when I’ve not had a beer!

Also get on the 3 mobile facebook page and post the pictures.

andyl – I like your style!

cancel direct debit, when asked why you’re not paying it, tell them their holding your phone to ransom. 20 quid just to get it back? tell them to shove it right royally

oh and it’s bulls**t like this which makes me stay on pay as you go. Had contracts from 1998 until a couple of years ago when I decided to stop paying the money grabbing bastards any more monthly fees.

When I was on Orange I ended up walking into a shop and telling them politely at the counter that you are extremely unhappy with the customer service and want them to put you through to someone at head office. I hate Orange too and will never use them ever again.

Orange have a special room in their offices just on the north edge of Bristol by the M5 where they take customers who have finally had enough and end up having to resort to going to the head office as a telecommunications company seems unable to do anything over the phone. It has locks and reinforced glass to keep the staff safe so they must be used to driving their customers to despair.

trail_rat, not sure if you read all the stuff in the various links but 3 / Three / 3Mobile seem to make a habit of stuffing people’s credit ratings at the drop of a hat, even though it’s clearly not the case, and in getting debt agencies to recover non-existent debts. Lovely policy they have… 😯

actually, wonder how many people we could get to ‘like’ your pictures and complaint you post up on facebook? 😉

PS 3 mobile complaint scam bad customer service useless avoid 😉

http://www.facebook.com/ThreeUK

The first HTC Desire i had from three was wrecked from an update (12months ago) – took it into a store – 5mins and they just gave me a new handset.

annoying to have the issue but they resolved to spot on.

I think there was a watchdog article about certain phone companies claiming non-working phones had water damage when they didn’t it was just the markers that indicate water damage were so sensitive that a slightly steamy bathroom could trigger it.

Trading standards would be my first port of call.

so have you harangued them via facebook yet?

Not yet, gonna try that executive support email first, if I still get no joy it will be a full on war of attrition with every social network, third party and consumer TV programme going.

3’s a brilliant network, reception and speed. GF’s Tmobile really isn’t 3g all the time whereas mine is.

Saying this I dread calling them. You can say a sentence and the person replies as though they are in a different dimension.

3 are cheap but really not that good as a network. Full of tiny little ways to make extra money out of you that you don’t realise up front. My contract expires next month and I’m dropping them to something a little less annoying.