3 mobile - fun and games

Towards end of May, rang up by them asking if I wanted to upgrade as my contract was coming to an end. Explained that didn't use it so I would be cancelling. Girl offers to reduce monthly contract from £15 to £13. (Wow! really pulling all the stops out to keep me eh?) So I said no thanks, just cancel it. She says okay.

Few hours later, another call, this time a chap. Says I must be mad not to want a mobile phone as how can anyone live without one these days? So I explain once again that I really don't need it. He offers a non-contract pay-as-you-go sim card so I say yes, that's okay. He says "I'll put that on the notes on the computer and hope that my colleagues see it."

A week goes by and no pay-as-you-go sim arrives but not really bothered. Then comes phone call number 3, same lady as first time round who goes into the upgrade waffle routine again. I explain I have already had two calls and have cancelled the contract. At first she says "Have you put this in writing?" before saying, "Oh yes, I can see a note on the computer. Sorry for troubling you."

Next day the phone is off-service and no sim card has arrived. Fast forward to June 3 when a letter arrives from 3 mobile.

Dear Pound Shop Peter

Thanks for choosing to upgrade. Your new contract will start on June 10th. We will send you your new phone just before and thanks for choosing our Internet Talker package at £28 per month.

Your sincerely

Halfwit Mobile

Anyway, I fired off a very sarcastic letter to them which basically said JUST YOU TRY IT and told them Trading Standards & the media would be informed if they did ...

I will keep you posted if more chaos ensues but advise you to be careful if you have a contract with them which is due to end.

And to bring you up to date ...

Following my letter to them I then received another letter saying thank you for choosing the mix 'n' match contract at £15 a month accompanied with June's bill for £19

(This despite the fact the contract is cancelled and no service available on the handset!)

So, having ignored this I then get a letter this morning from their (so-called) customer services:

Dear Pound Shop Peter

I'm sorry you had to write to us about the upgrade letter. I understand you're upset at the way your contract was upgraded.

On 25 May we've received a call from an unknown person who identified themselves as you and chose to upgrade the contract, so a letter confirming the upgrade was sent to your address. On 26 May our fraud and security team suspected a fraud and suspended services on the account and stopped the handset from being delivered. On 7 June we reversed the upgrade and changed everything on the account back to the way it was before the upgrade was done.

We've received your letter on 4 June, we'll take 30 days' notice and close your account on 4 July.

As we've sent your 10 June bill of £19, in your final bill we'll credit the extra line rentals charged from 4 to 9 July. We'll also charge you for any usage outside your allowances until the contract ended. If the final bill is in credit, you can call us for a refund of the credit balance.

We're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.

etc.
********************

Well 3G, apart from poor grammar you are lying about receiving a phone call from someone identifying themselves as me and you didn't change everything on the account back to the way it was before.

Clearly this is just another 'standard' letter which they try and use to cover their nefarious practices. Any attempts to get me to pay this 'final bill' will result in me going to trading standards about them.

Anyway thinking of using these clowns, think again!

Bloody annoying for you Pete

I signed up with 3 for mobile b/band (dongle) as I couldn't get a signal where I was living and this was one of the few companies that I could get a signal with.
Fine to start with - they then changed their signal provider to Orange - of no use to me so couldn't use the dongle - and neither could plenty of other folks - had to resort to going to the library to use the pc's there - but still paying the monthly contract fee !!!

To cut a long story short - the only way I could get a signal when I moved to my new place was to sit outside with the laptop - no fun in the Winter - and had no joy from customer service. They did offer me a better cheaper contract - but pointless if you can't get a signal !! They even sent me a new dongle - no different to the old one for signal strength. I made sure I cancelled my DD at the bank when the contract ran out - but was not impressed with 3 at all.

What an absolute disgraceful showing.

Perhaps we ought to have a section on this site where we detail all our personal instances of bad customer care?

Perhaps we ought to have a section on this site where we detail all our personal instances of bad customer care?

They can go in General Discussion for the time being. If there are enough posts there on the subject I'll consider making a separate section.

Perhaps we ought to have a section on this site where we detail all our personal instances of bad customer care?

They can go in General Discussion for the time being. If there are enough posts there on the subject I'll consider making a separate section.

That's a very good idea - it's always good to pass this sort of info. on.

Please discuss any non-3 Mobile customer service related issues here:-

http://icserver.no-ip.biz/coventry/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5499

Following the letter from their so-called "Customer Services" I then got one from their fraud team to say they take impersonation very seriously and had added my address to the CIFAS (fraud prevention) database under a 'protective' listing ... suffice to say I wrote them another letter telling them to remove this at once and provide further details of this alleged 'impersonation' ... in response they have removed the listing ( I will confirm this with CIFAS ) but still didn't provide any further details.

Having worked in a fraud department I can assure any readers that 'protective listings' on the credit blacklist don't work - companies that use the CIFAS database see a marker against the address and don't bother checking to see if it is a 'protective' marker or a fraud marker - they see said marker and refuse credit. Simples.

I am just waiting now to see if any more bills turn up ...

It goes from bad to worse Pete!!! You just couldn't make it up could you ????

Keep us posted as to what happens next.