3 customer 'care' again - phone replacement problems!

Solair

I have been having some problems with my Sony Ericsson W850i on "3". It's a nice phone, but it's developed a fault with the handset's built in ear peice speaker and voice calls are sounding very tinny and distorted.

The story so far:

I rang "3" customer care and had a long discussion going through a long process (30 mins) of pointless questions about the fault. (fair enough)

Then they suggested, perhaps I could bring it into a "3" Store.
So, I went into a "3" store in Dublin where they immediately treated me like as if I had tried to steal the phone or something. Demanded that I bring in proof of purchase. I explained that I didn't have any as the phone was an upgrade and the entire transaction was done over the phone. She suggested that I find the specific bill where the handset was charged!

I asked her to look up my account / call three and remained polite. Even offering to provide various forms of photo ID.

This got me nowhere and I ended up walking out of the shop in utter frustration.

Anyway, I then called "3" again on their 333 helpline.
After another long, polite but pointless discussion with an agent, they agreed to take the phone back for repair and sent a jiffy bag out (I was impressed that it arrived quite promptly).

I followed the instructions and sent the phone off and it came back within 48 hours in EXACTLY the same state that it went away in. They'd flashed the firmware and erased all of the settings, but the handset was most definitely not repaired. The sound quality was as bad as ever.

So, I rang "3" again and after another painfully longwinded discussion they agreed to replace the handset. That was 6 days ago!
They are insisting that I be personally available at my home address, with ID to pick up the phone. However, they refuse point blank to let me know when the courier will arrive and won't give me a tracking or reference number.

A courier arrived yesterday, very nice polite lady and had the replacement handset in a secure bag. We opened it up and discovered that "3" had dispatched a Sony Ericsson W800 rather than a W850 so she had to take it back. (Good thing I opened the package at the door!)

Anyway, once again, "3" have absolutely no idea when they will be delivering the correct handset and are utterly insistant that I can only accept it at my home address and that I must have valid ID and be there in person!

I need the phone for business etc but do they really think I can just work from home for a few weeks while their idiotic customer care deparment gets their act together.

I am sick to the back teeth of this network. The products might be high tech and the mobile broadband might be attractive but the customer care is the worst that I have ever encountered anywhere.

How can this company hope to get any serious level of market share in a fully saturated, mature mobile market like Ireland.
They are a total joke!

Sam Vimes

Solair wrote:

We opened it up and discovered that "3" had dispatched a Sony Ericsson W800 rather than a W850 so she had to take it back.

w800 they don't sell that phone. its not even 3g ffs


i had a phone sent to me in college and another at work before. looks like they've added a new retarded policy for no reason other than to piss people off

godskitchen

These people need a good kicking, they really dont care and are laughing at us.

Solair

Sorry that should have read K800i, not W800i

But, either way it's still bloody stupid!

at this stage I really want to terminate the contract without penalty. Sent them a stinking email outlining all of this and I'm quite prepared to go on Live Line and vent my anger to the nation.

Commander Vimes wrote:

w800 they don't sell that phone. its not even 3g ffs
i had a phone sent to me in college and another at work before. looks like they've added a new retarded policy for no reason other than to piss people off

The instruction I got from the Call Centre agent was: You will need to be at your home address, have ID (passport/driver's licence) *AND* a utility bill in your name! And you cannot have someone else be there to represent you e.g. a family member.

As far as I am concerned they can go take a long walk off a short plank. Who do they think they are?!?

There's reasonable security and there's taking the piss!

paulm17781

Isn't the utility bill proof of address? They need proof that you live in the address that you answer the door in... :rolleyes:

They really are taking the piss. Some people have been successful in contacting the heads of companies over here to get things done. Perhaps we should try to contact the head of 3's Irish operation???

Random

paulm17781 wrote:

Isn't the utility bill proof of address? They need proof that you live in the address that you answer the door in... :rolleyes:

They really are taking the piss. Some people have been successful in contacting the heads of companies over here to get things done. Perhaps we should try to contact the head of 3's Irish operation???

I love it

Urban Weigl

When I bought a Nokia E61 from Vodafone, the first one I got was faulty. While they did tell me false information and in general the experience was not a pleasant one (they told me they would refund me and I would need to order a new one, when I did order a new one at a shop they posted me a new one, so I was left with two phones, and some other hiccups that eventually got solved), I did get a new phone within 2 weeks and without having to answer the door holding a utility bill!

Sam Vimes

Solair wrote:

The instruction I got from the Call Centre agent was: You will need to be at your home address, have ID (passport/driver's licence) *AND* a utility bill in your name! And you cannot have someone else be there to represent you e.g. a family member.

i'm confused. surely if someone managed to break into your house coincidentally on the day the courier was to arrive*, they'd be able to get a utility bill in your name since they're in your house.


*of course he'd have to kill you first because you would have been in the house waiting for the courier

paulm17781

Commander Vimes wrote:

i'm confused. surely if someone managed to break into your house coincidentally on the day the courier was to arrive*, they'd be able to get a utility bill in your name since they're in your house.


*of course he'd have to kill you first because you would have been in the house waiting for the courier

No, it would be a hostage situation. You need the photo ID too. They are pretty common crimes actually. Nearly 65% of all crime last year was people breaking into houses to get mobile phones from couriers in extremely complex ways... No wait, I made that up. It's just 3 having a ridiculous policy. :rolleyes:

Urban Weigl

I think the issue here is that 3 are taking policies from the UK and applying them in Ireland. They need more "local" staff to tell them how business is conducted here. And I think they are working on that, they recently head hunted a guy from O2.

Solair

Still no sign of my handset replacement.

I rang 1-800 330 333 which seems to be in Ireland and was transferred to the call centre again. Went through to an agent who was, as usual polite but couldn't do anything at all.

I've been informed that my handset *should* arrive by Monday at the latest!

I first called 3 about my handset problems on 02.05.2007. Monday is 21.05.2007 and I will not be available to collect it.

So, only 19 days to resolve a handset fault! Now that's customer service!!

I'm going to have to buy a prepay phone to tide me over!

Does anyone know if I would have grounds to just return the faulty handset to 3 HQ in Dublin with a letter terminating my contract?

I would consider 19 days without service unacceptable.

godskitchen

Solair wrote:

I would consider 19 days without service unacceptable.

You would think so wouldnt you...............I have now been 3 Months without service.

paulm17781

Solair, did you show them the stuff here?

http://www.three.ie/support/insurance.htm

It bothers me even more that it is written there and yet they've made sure none of it happens for you.

Solair

In that case, can I reasonably terminate the contract without penalty and return the faulty handset?

If it goes beyond Monday, I think I'll just pop the old handset into a jiffy bag along with a letter stating that I'm terminating the contract.

I might just port to Meteor.

Solair

Finally, it arrived.

A very grumpy courier delivered my phone this morning (moaning constantly about how he couldn't get through to me on my mobile [duh!])

Anyway, ID was demanded etc as per 3 customer care instructions.

The bit I am not overly impressed by:

1) Phone does not appear to be new, it's loose in the box and has no screen protector or any other indications that it has not been used before. I am, therefore, assuming it's reconditioned rather than new. I don't know if that's really acceptable to me as I would have thought the handset was covered by warrenty on a new-for-new basis.

2) They only sent a phone + charger. Had I not opened the box to check, I would have returned all of my phone's accessories (which is exactly what the 3 Customer care person said to do!)
(The courier was flustered and was trying to convince me to just throw everything into the bag so he could go asap)

I am still *extremely* unimpressed with this 'service'

Sam Vimes

Solair wrote:

1) Phone does not appear to be new, it's loose in the box and has no screen protector or any other indications that it has not been used before. I am, therefore, assuming it's reconditioned rather than new. I don't know if that's really acceptable to me as I would have thought the handset was covered by warrenty on a new-for-new basis.

yeah it is "refurbished" but they don't tell you that.

Solair

Well, it just shows me how much they clearly don't care about their bill pay customers.

I spent a fortune on this network over the last few months. My bills are pretty big, I have been loyal to them for over 12 months (this is contract no. 2). Never been in a billing dispute, pay on time etc.

It leaves me with an extremely bad taste in my mouth.

Rang the National Consumer Agency who said that the legislation only requires them to replace it with an item of equivilant value etc.

It's still lousey customer service though and my impression of 3 couldn't be worse.

I can guarentee you that I will not be signing a 3rd contract and will move network at the soonest opportunity i.e. by reducing my contract down to the absolute minimum per month, then paying to get them off my back and porting away from them.

The mobile broadband's nice, but it's not nice enough for me to put up with all of this nonsense.

Solair

Great! I am locked at my price plan level for the first 6 months of my new contract too.

I've seen quicker divorces!

godskitchen

Its no wonder people turn to guns to slove things.

Its not the end of the world i know, but i hate to think someone has taken me for a fool.

I feel for you.

muppetkiller

I must be the onle extremely happy 3 customer. But then again having had vodafone and o2 previously I couldn't say I've had anything good to compare them with

paulm17781

Solair wrote:

Great! I am locked at my price plan level for the first 6 months of my new contract too.

Write to the head of their Irish operations? I don't know if it will help but we may get something done if we start doing this.

We are their customers FFS. They should be privillaged to have us not the other way around.

keltoms

yeah i feel for ya solaire, i have had to contact "3" customer care several time in relation to mistakes on my bill and money that has been taken out of my account that shouldnt have been!! i would advise all to carefully read through their bill when they get it.

Also, does anyone know where the "3" customer care office is?? i have called up cust care id say at least 10 times and never spoken with an irish or english person. the CSR's are very nice people, they always put ya on hold though and when they come back on they would say "sorry to keep you waiting". "really sorry for the delay" but in reality the havent a f***ing clue whats going on!!:(

godskitchen

Its in India, and while polite and while they say "sorry for keeping you waiting" they dont mean it, its a meaning less thing to say, They have been trained by British call center managers on how to placate customers they leave on hold, and the way they talk is very non aggressive, almost to the point where its monotone.

Sam Vimes

keltoms wrote:

Also, does anyone know where the "3" customer care office is??

mumbai

godskitchen wrote:

Its in India, and while polite and while they say "sorry for keeping you waiting" they dont mean it, its a meaning less thing to say, They have been trained by British call center managers on how to placate customers they leave on hold, and the way they talk is very non aggressive, almost to the point where its monotone.

and they always say "i'll go ahead and....". not a big thing but i've noticed every one of them says it nearly every sentence. why don't they go ahead and learn how to do their jobs

keltoms

Commander Vimes wrote:

mumbai


and they always say "i'll go ahead and....". not a big thing but i've noticed every one of them says it nearly every sentence.

Another one is "what i can do for you now mr. x is....." as if there really helping u!!:o

BuffyBot

Same problems 3 customers across the English speaking world seem to be having. All the same is being said by 3 UK and 3 Australia customers (who have most of their calls routed to 3's Indian centres)

Solair

Well, I can't say the Indian staff have ever been anything but polite.
The problem is that they're clearly powerless to actually do anything about the problem and are often given the wrong information.
It's not the staffs' fault, it's clearly an organisation/management problem.

Few minor issues:

• They left me voicemails asking me to call them back on 333 or 0870-XX33333 (only works from the UK!)
• I've been given UK T&Cs
• I've been given details of 3 UK products and services.
• They've called me to do a survey and talked about products that are not provided (or weren't then) by 3 Ireland.
• I've been refered to as Mr. (My first name) [minor issue, but indicates poor training of call centre staff to me]

Also, I have paid by Laser Card and credit and call me paranoid, but I really rather not have my card details going outside the country or to subcontractors.
I have no particular worry about 3's Indian employees, the worry is that when I give my credit card / debit card details they are being stored and processed on a system that is operating presumably under Indian law. I am not 100% sure what that means for my data protection rights.
I'd rather not use my credit card internationally, at least not outside the E.U. where data protection standards are generally quite harmonised.

Yggr of Asgard

So my 6 month old handset (K800i) decided to do what the most of them do, switch of constantly despite saying its fully charged.

Call 1 to india ends up nowhere.
Visit to 3 center ends up getting told to call 3
Call 2 to india ends in them denying that they offer replacement handsets (despite the clear statement on the webpage and the T&C to which I signed up).
Call 3 to india ends up with talking to a "supervisor" which clearly was just the next agents sitting next to her. Again going nowhere (we don't do replacement...). It ended in them promissing someone from their Upper Management calling me back within 2 business days.

Well time again to contact to the 3 Executive office.....

I'm going to go to a different provider as soon as possible.

Solair

Clearly they're being told to fob off the customer as much as possible to avoid replacing the handset.

I don't understand why though, I would have thought that Sony-Ericsson, Nokia, or whoever the manufacturer is takes the hit on most of the handset replacement cost given that it's a faulty product. They're usually insured against this kind of thing anyway.

Sam Vimes

dublin-texas wrote:

So my 6 month old handset (K800i) decided to do what the most of them do, switch of constantly despite saying its fully charged.

Call 1 to india ends up nowhere.
Visit to 3 center ends up getting told to call 3
Call 2 to india ends in them denying that they offer replacement handsets (despite the clear statement on the webpage and the T&C to which I signed up).
Call 3 to india ends up with talking to a "supervisor" which clearly was just the next agents sitting next to her. Again going nowhere (we don't do replacement...). It ended in them promissing someone from their Upper Management calling me back within 2 business days.

Well time again to contact to the 3 Executive office.....

I'm going to go to a different provider as soon as possible.

next time, tell them to go to this page while you're on the phone to them

http://www.three.ie/support/insurance.htm

3's philosophy: "the customer is your enemy"

Solair

Finally, some response from 3.

I just had a call from their customer care centre humbly apologising for all the inconvenience and refunding me for the period of time that I was without a working handset.

They've also promised to raise all of these issues with the various line managers & departments involved.

I stressed that at no time did I have a problem with individual members of the call centre team but, that I did feel they needed to improve their knowledge base or whatever information system is being used to support them as they do not have the necessary information to support customers (in Ireland anyway)


They're also getting in contact with '3' retail in Dublin to discuss why they were so nasty about demanding proof of purchase etc for an upgrade handset on a bill pay account. Given, that I had photo ID etc.. (no proof of purchase, other than on the 3 billing account itself would exist)

Hopefully, the feedback might actually get some things ironed out. I get the distinct impression that the major problem could be that the Irish operation is just a minor off shoot of the UK one and as such, is perhaps not getting analysed as heavily as it ought to be by senior customer service people. Hopefully, this might get a bit of focus put onto it, particularly as they're spending a fortune on an ad campaign at the moment and I doubt they want negative publicity.

My main focus of my complaint was to get them to recognise that there *is* a problem and to get them to do something about it rather than let it fester and just moaning on boards.ie etc.

The call sounded very genuine and sounded like they will be doing something to improve things.

The refund for the service charges was also quite fair.

I can appreciate that they're still in 'new network mode' but, really when it comes down to doing business in a very mature mobile market like Ireland (or anywhere in Western Europe) you need to have your product polished and customer service up to scratch or you're going to flounder. It's not much good if a small, supposedly dynamic, new network has more bureaucracy and red tape than either of the two old incumbants Vodafone & O2 who have very little need to be all that innovative with their c/s given that they have most of the market already signed up!

I think if you have any customer service issues, e-mail their c/s team :
customer(dot)services(dot)ie(at)threemail(dot)com
and cc to customer(dot)services(dot)ie(at)3mail(dot)com

Quote your '3' number (and billing account if you're on billpay) in the email!!

(dot) = .

Inserted to prevent address being harvested by spammers.

It's definitely worth airing your views and giving them the necessary feedback.

There's no point in trying to feed it back through the call centre frontend staff. I don't think you get very far (same in most companies).