3 Mobile: What an awful company!!

From Glasgow,

Ive got to agree with everyone of these comments.

I used to work at three in Glasgow (in the retention dept) when they first launched, but they still havent got any better.

From Surrey,

I signed up on this website, purely to channel my frustration with 3 somewhere! Reading the previous posts, I'm reassured that I'm not the only one!

I bought my first contract phone (Sony Ericsson K750i) from 3 mobile's website. A hefty 18 month contract no less. 'Sorted' I think to myself and it started out fairly smoothly, but being naive to the 'contract phone' world, I soon found my bill spiralling upwards - £200 on one occasion

Six months in though, I turn the phone on one day and am presented with the infamous 'white screen of death' (as it's formally known). I ring 3's customer service, who can only give me scripted responses to questions ('human' responses to these questions would mean 3 paying them a 'human' wage, god forbid), but agree to send a courier to pick my handset up to be collected. And yes, no delivery driver anywhere to be seen on the allotted day so I take the phone into my nearest 3 Store to be greeted by some obnoxious, air-headed member of staff who can't quite seem to be able to channel all his attention on my handset problem and is clearly thinking about his next paycheck and flogging another lengthy contract to some poor soul. I'm told the problem is a software fault and that they can only replace the handset after three of these technical problems; I'm not able to have a temporary handset as they don't have any left, nor halt the bill until the phone is fixed again. I ask for the phone to be forwarded on to my home address once fixed. When phone arrives back fixed, they ring me and say it's arrived, but they can't forward it on, meaning another expedition to collect it again.

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Repeat this process another three times, the same problem occuring once every month ('three' is becoming the recurring theme here).......

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Finally, had enough and bought another mobile phone (good, old relaible Nokia this time - avoid Sony Ericsson's like the plague; far too fiddly and high-tech for their own good resulting in errors and faulty handsets).

Four months now remaining on my 3 contract and it can't come soon enough; it feels like a life sentence

Moral of this story: Take a 3 contract at your peril!

I hate 3, absolutly despise them.

I took a contract out over 18months with 3, and half way through the contract the phone failed to work.
I phoned three to explain the situation, and to request that i just wanted to drop to the lowest line rental and see the rest of the contract out until able to cancel.

Wait till you here this... despite the situation with the phone, and it being obvious by my bills that there was no usage either going to or from the phone the conversation and options that were given to me defied logic.
I could only reduce my line rental by £5 per month, and was to be charged £25 everytime i did.
I was obviosly very unhappy about this, however was quoted that it was 3 policy over and over again.
The other option that was presented to me was that despite informing the advisor that the phone i had no longer worked that i should sign up for another 6 months on top to escape the charges.
When asking how i should have been informed about these charges in advance i was told that i, ( again after informing the advisor about the situation with the phone) was told i could visit three on my handset, or in case i had a moment in my mind on the "off chance to check" could bob in to a shop.
I incurred the charges whilst being very angry.
I cancelled my contract in Oct 2007. With a balance totalling the charges due to my anger telling me i should not pay. I received phone calls regarding setting up a payment plan to clear the £75 pounds and again refused to set up a payment plan.
I heard nothing then from three - not a letter or a phone call untill 15th july 2008.
Telling me i had to pay £53 or go to debt collection agency... 9 months later.

I wrote to 3 back when i first contacted 3 regarding the phone, writing to Glasgow as the advisor advised.
I recieved no response, although apparently it is listed on my account.
I have since tried to get in touch with with the site by phone. Only to be told by every advisor that "they" dont have a telephone number.
This asstounds me! Even when asked that someone, anyone in the call centre should not have a telephone number for a site within a business the answer is no.
Therefore i should imagine taking complaints for three must be a very cushy job, where al you do is read letters, rather than respond to them, and never recieve a phone call, nor make them.
Maybe they are based in a library for training so they can brush up on there reading.

Absolutly disgusted with 3 mobile... in my opinion, if anybody takes a three contract, with poor coverage, poor customer service advisors who are unable to deal with basic queries and basic english and with contract terms that are based to milk every penny they can out of the consumer then im affraid... you need a mental health worker.

I've been with 3 for almost a year now and the serious problems started about 4 months ago. Half of the calls do not get through, the calls drop and there is a huge delay in getting my voice messages (up to a month!) So no matter how good the deal sounds think twice!

My problem was that I was recommeded a phone upgrade by customer services at the end of my contract. A model was recommended and was told if I didn't like the modle I could change it. It turned out I didn't like it.

I called for a change but my request was not properly noted and I was sent the same phone they had already sent me but in a different colour. On their system they had logged a request for a colour change only. I haven't opened the box for this new phone and it's as it was sent but they won't accept that a mistake has been made and won't change it.

I think this is unreasonable.

When I was trying to sort this out I called them many times and was told someone would call back and they didn't. This happened on multiple occasions and went of for 2 days. They said they would call me back in 20mins, didn't, I call them. I'm told someone will call me in an hour, they don't, I call them, they say someone will call me in 3 hours, they don't, I call them, I'm told someone will call me within 3 hours again, they don't. I call them again they told me someone would call me the next day...........surprise surprise, they didn't.....finally was handed over to a floor manager who said she had no authority do anything and I should write in.

I contacted them via their website and 1 month later no response, I call them and they say the message was never received, there was clearly a prompt on my screen to say to say the message had been sent.

When I called trading standards I was told to write to a recorded delivery and ask for a transcript of the original conversation under the freedom of information act.

The written reply I received back was appalling.

They didn't apologise for anything and is inacurate with what I know what they have on their systems regarding this saga. The letter states.

They tried to contact me but were unable to reach me, if this was true on all those occasions I would have many messages by them to that effect. I had none.

They said they offered me a 6500 classic, not true, I had requested one but was told 6500 classic was out of stock and I had to chose another.

They wrote they did not recieve a complaint from me via their website.

And they will charge me £10 for a transcript of the conversation.

In response to the main point of this dispute they don't even aknowledge what I'm complaining about. The simply state 'on the 5 july we agreed to send you a Nokia 6500 slider'......my dispute is that I didn't ask for it.

I feel like I'm talking to a wall, and can I be bothered to fight anymore so I'm just gonna open the box and use the damn phone until my contract ends in 16 months.

I do think having their call centre in India makes a big difference. I have never experienced anthing like this with a UK based company. I didn't feel I got anywhere after hours of talking to lots of different people. They don't seem to have any authority and don't aknowledge that mistakes can be made by the company they work for.

anwar

I have the same problems, they charged me for 3 months worth of internet and downloads that i did not used, and they still made me pay it. Also i asked if i could block internet and they told me that i couldnt.. But when i looked into it, guess what, i found out i could very easily.

Also in order to sort out another problem with my bill, they said i needed to go to the nearest store and get a form, i then went to the store to find out this didn't even exist!

This discussed me....I have been with 3 mobile for 18 months, the service and connection was okay as I live in central London. I recently found that a blackberry would work better for me and decided to give my 30 days notice to cancel.

After being put through to the right department I clearly told the woman that I wished to give them my 30days verbal to cancel the contract in March.

Within an instant it seemed she was trying to push me into an upgrade without even taking a breath!
Me myself am a very pushy person and am never really won over by anyone; I stopped her and Clearly stated “No I am not Interested. I wish to cancel.” But no.... She continued for another 30 mins, with me stopping every 20 seconds or so clearly stating that i wish to cancel. The woman was obviously under a very strict sales regime and her job was clearly on the line as I could tell in the distressed sound of her voice now. After another 5 mins or so i was getting extremely wound up, I raised my tone of voice and stated. “I wish to cancel. If you do not adhere to my wishes to will launch legal action towards you and your department, make a formal complaint to 3 mobile headquarters and contact the telecoms watchdog.”

With this she stepped down, only to ask me for feedback on why I was leaving. I stated that this is life and the way business goes and it is time to move on. She told me that this was not a feasible reason and continued to ask me for a legitimate reason that it appeared she was going to play with and try and sell me something else.
After 56mins, a 2 minute part of the conversation led to my contract being cancelled. The woman ended the conversation very faintly voiced, and it was clear she was under immense pressure to “win” contracts at her work place wherever she was. This has left me feeling guilty and in general has ruined my morning.

If there is a one piece of advice anyone would like when signing up for any contract phone
Pay an extra £4 a month to pay by check. Then you can choose when to stop paying

There mobile broadband is not much better, like previous people i shall be celebrating the day my contract ends with them. Im just waiting for them to trip up so i can cancel my contract. I currently have complaint going with Otelo and i urge anyone else to contact Otelo, the more people complain about this bunch of lying scum the better.

We apparently downloaded 5gb of data in 48 hrs on a 2mb connection, but guess what 3g cant provide any evidence and charged me over £80 for the privilage. The staff have not a clue, they lie constantly to cover themselves. We have been told the whole network is down when our broadband wouldnt work and when i rang the next day they didnt know anything about it until five mins after i mentioned it and then they went back on what they said. They deny ringing me at 11.30pm and waking me up then 20 mins into the conversation they admit it. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT USE 3 FOR ANYTHING.
I shall be celebrating the day my contract ends.

I was with 3 for 4 years, and to be honest, never really had any problems with them other than their call centre, which is in india or somewhere. the people there must have their responses burned into their brains while they sleep as they tell you the same thing a thousand times when you have already explained to them that you fully understand but that what they have told you doesnt help with your problem.

well today i decided that they seriously need to address their call centre. i phoned to cancel my contract in march and was told i would have to pay a certain amount in one go, i didnt have the money at the time so i asked if they could just let the contract run until it was finished then cut it off. 'YES, THATS NO PROBLEM AT ALL' is what i was told. so just to confirm i ran over the datails again, ensuring that it was understood that when my contract ended it would be cancelled automatically.........'YES THATS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT' i was told. excellent - job done.
however my contract finished last month and this month i received a bill and had the money taken from my account. i rang the helpful people at the call centre and spent an agonising half an hour explaining the situation during which time i was told the same thing possibly 60 or 70 times, it didnt matter what i said, they just replied with the same thing. needless to say i lost my temper. it had on their notes that i had been informed that i had to give them 30 days notice of cancellation, which i wasnt, otherwise i would have done so. they could not understand this so they checked to see if the call had been recorded which, conveniently for them it seems hadnt been.
so i havent got a leg to stand on, i tried and tried and tried but even though they accept that i claim i was not told, because it says on the notes that i was informed, and they have no call to back my claim up they will not refund me the money nor cancel the contract without the 30 day notice period.
I am a reasonable person and i do not cheat or scam anything, but i do believe i should not have paid this bill and i am disgusted that i have been treated like this, i have lost money basically through deception on their part and there is nothing i can do about it.
i recommend that you pay your hard earned money to a company that has an uk call centre with a well reputed customer service system to save yourself the pains that i have had to endure.