drgl
23-10-2007, 06:48 PM
Well i guess i should have known-a cheap tarrif & problems all ready! I signed up with 3 via the website last Thursday,Friday morning my new phone arrives. After setting it all up i noticed the number 2 key didn't always work and the * key was the same & stiff. No problem i think-quick call to customer services & all will be sorted..................
Err NO! That's what has happened in the past with the two networks i have been on when handset problems came(Orange & Virgin). Here'sa copy of te letter i sent to their customer services :-
FAO Allan McLuckie
Dear Allan,
To coin a phrase from your covering letter with my mobile phone I can assure you I am not “enjoying myself”. In fact I would be enjoying myself a whole lot more if I had not made the decision to join 3 & experience the worst customer service of my life!
Today my new handset was delivered, a Sony Ericsson K770i PURPLE (please note the emphasis on the word PURPLE).
After powering the phone up & setting up my phone book it became apparent that the number 2 key and * key do not always work. After spending over TWO HOURS on the phone to various "customer service" (& I use the term “customer service” in the loosest possible term imaginable) representatives it became apparent that 3 really couldn't care a less about their customers.
First I was offered a repair-what to a BRAND new handset that has been in my hand for less than 6 hours??!! I wasn’t going to accept that and after some explaining the representative agreed that this was not acceptable and proceeded to check availability of a replacement-he could only offer a brown phone.
Brown really is not my colour-if I liked brown I would have ordered brown in the first place. I requested he find me a replacement PURPLE phone.
After some time he explained you had no purple phones in stock. At this point I was puzzled, I was simultaneously speaking to someone on your website pretending to be a new customer, this is how the conversation went (Steve really is me by the way just in case I have to explain everything in great detail as I did to the call centre in India).
*****Can't link pics here???*****
As you can see stock is available for new customers (well I consider myself new as I’ve been a customer of 3 for less than 12 hours at time of writing!) but not for existing customers with faulty handsets!
After been passed from one department to another my interest was seriously waning and my confidence in 3 as a “service” provider had reached an all time low(in fact at this point I had decided I would cancel the contract even if 3 offered me a limitless supply of premium beer and infinite free texts & minutes until the day I die).
To be told one minute you will be passed to the department that can cancel the contract only to be told you can’t is frustrating to say the least. Perhaps more frustrating is the knowledge that you have been sold a faulty item and the retailer is neither interested in replacing it or helping you as a customer and seems to think they are above consumer law!
At this point 3’s link to India seemed to be as reliable as the information I was been given, ie, not very. I lost count of how many representatives I spoke to who managed to cut me off-dodgy network or representatives who couldn’t be bothered-I’ll leave you to decide that one.
One VERY rude person said I could only have a brown handset and there was nothing she could do! Repeating the same phrase to a customer does not make it right-a good tip for your representatives who seem to have a distinct misunderstanding of the English language and keep repeating the same old information in a vain attempt to convince the customer to accept the deal on the table.
I’m afraid I also didn’t buy the line that I had 14 days to exchange the handset and the purple phone would probably be in stock by then (only we already know it is in stock so why believe that? A vain attempt to get past the 7 day period allowed by law in my opinion???).
At this point after banging my head against a brick wall I requested the representative cease access on the phone-this has been duly done. He has noted on your system everything that I have said (lets hope too that my calls were lucky enough to be recorded for training exercises-you will then be able to hear my full experience of 3!!)
He also stipulated point blank I can not cancel the contract, I’m afraid this is against what the OFT say with regard to distance selling, details of which I have outlined below.
A visit to my local 3 store in Telford also drew a blank in my quest to sort the situation-the “assistant” said he couldn’t help with a websale handset-choosing to distance himself away from 3 as a company and offer zero help. He could however sell me another handset and throw in a 512M memory card!! Great……..
He also mentioned i could cancel the contract I had and return the faulty handset for a full refund & the contract would cease………….Not what India keep repeating but perhaps he is a little more genned up on consumer law?
Cancellation periods
The regulations give consumers an unconditional right to cancel an order. This is to allow the consumer the opportunity to examine the goods or consider the nature of a service.
If a consumer cancels an order, written notice must be given to you by:
• goods – seven working days from the day after that on which the goods are received by the consumer;
• services – seven working days from the day after that on which the consumer agrees to go ahead with the contract.
Where a contract is cancelled, the consumer must ensure that reasonable care is taken of any goods received and 'restore' them to you. This does not mean that they have to return them - unless you stipulate this in the contract - only that they make them available for you to collect.
You must refund the consumer's money as soon as possible and, at the latest, within 30 days of receiving the written notice of cancellation. The consumer may, at your discretion, be charged the direct cost of returning the goods, but you must tell them about this in the written information you give them.
If payment for the goods or services is under a related credit agreement, the consumer's cancellation notice also has the effect of cancelling the credit agreement.
All of that information is straight off the OFT’s website-http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/cancellation-periods
This is in cotradiction to what your “customer service” department repeatedly tells me & 14 day money back gurantee claims, which incidently, are contradictory in their own right! You state the returned item must not have been used but the return form then goes on to request the handset security code if changed-please explain how on earth I could change a handset security code without installing the SIM and removing the handset from the box?! Power of the mind maybe?
Please also explain why you feel it is acceptable to expect a customer to accept a product that is different to what they purchased due to your stock inadequcies(or more to the point refusal as stock IS available).
As it stands this is the situation :-
I have formally requested you cancel both mine & my wife’s contracts(full details enclosed within) to which you have point blank refused-please also accept this letter as my notification of my wish to cancel these TWO contracts.
In light of this I have instructed my bank to cancel any direct debit requests from 3, in short you will find you will be unable to extract any more money from either me or my wife.
With reference to the OFT’s guidelines both handsets have been re-boxed and are in an as new condition. The handsets are available for your collection at a time convenient to both myself and 3.
No matter what you come back with I will not be using 3 as a company EVER again, the customer service has been nothing short of disgusting-if this is how you treat two new customers then thank the Lord that this happened so early on. So please, if after reading this letter you think offering what should have been done hours ago will retain us as customers do not bother wasting both your time and mine any further.
I look forward to your reply and please make arrangements to cancel the two contracts and refund any monies paid thus far in FULL & collect your equipment.
If you refuse to do this then I see no alternative other than court action, which will need to be instigated by 3 as I have done everything required of me by law-I have formally requested you terminate the contracts and your merchandise is ready and waiting in an as new (but faulty in respect of my handset) condition.
Did it really have to be this hard to replace a faulty handset that was brand new on the day of writing this letter wasting yet more of my Friday evening? I don’t think so…………….
Regards
Err NO! That's what has happened in the past with the two networks i have been on when handset problems came(Orange & Virgin). Here'sa copy of te letter i sent to their customer services :-
FAO Allan McLuckie
Dear Allan,
To coin a phrase from your covering letter with my mobile phone I can assure you I am not “enjoying myself”. In fact I would be enjoying myself a whole lot more if I had not made the decision to join 3 & experience the worst customer service of my life!
Today my new handset was delivered, a Sony Ericsson K770i PURPLE (please note the emphasis on the word PURPLE).
After powering the phone up & setting up my phone book it became apparent that the number 2 key and * key do not always work. After spending over TWO HOURS on the phone to various "customer service" (& I use the term “customer service” in the loosest possible term imaginable) representatives it became apparent that 3 really couldn't care a less about their customers.
First I was offered a repair-what to a BRAND new handset that has been in my hand for less than 6 hours??!! I wasn’t going to accept that and after some explaining the representative agreed that this was not acceptable and proceeded to check availability of a replacement-he could only offer a brown phone.
Brown really is not my colour-if I liked brown I would have ordered brown in the first place. I requested he find me a replacement PURPLE phone.
After some time he explained you had no purple phones in stock. At this point I was puzzled, I was simultaneously speaking to someone on your website pretending to be a new customer, this is how the conversation went (Steve really is me by the way just in case I have to explain everything in great detail as I did to the call centre in India).
*****Can't link pics here???*****
As you can see stock is available for new customers (well I consider myself new as I’ve been a customer of 3 for less than 12 hours at time of writing!) but not for existing customers with faulty handsets!
After been passed from one department to another my interest was seriously waning and my confidence in 3 as a “service” provider had reached an all time low(in fact at this point I had decided I would cancel the contract even if 3 offered me a limitless supply of premium beer and infinite free texts & minutes until the day I die).
To be told one minute you will be passed to the department that can cancel the contract only to be told you can’t is frustrating to say the least. Perhaps more frustrating is the knowledge that you have been sold a faulty item and the retailer is neither interested in replacing it or helping you as a customer and seems to think they are above consumer law!
At this point 3’s link to India seemed to be as reliable as the information I was been given, ie, not very. I lost count of how many representatives I spoke to who managed to cut me off-dodgy network or representatives who couldn’t be bothered-I’ll leave you to decide that one.
One VERY rude person said I could only have a brown handset and there was nothing she could do! Repeating the same phrase to a customer does not make it right-a good tip for your representatives who seem to have a distinct misunderstanding of the English language and keep repeating the same old information in a vain attempt to convince the customer to accept the deal on the table.
I’m afraid I also didn’t buy the line that I had 14 days to exchange the handset and the purple phone would probably be in stock by then (only we already know it is in stock so why believe that? A vain attempt to get past the 7 day period allowed by law in my opinion???).
At this point after banging my head against a brick wall I requested the representative cease access on the phone-this has been duly done. He has noted on your system everything that I have said (lets hope too that my calls were lucky enough to be recorded for training exercises-you will then be able to hear my full experience of 3!!)
He also stipulated point blank I can not cancel the contract, I’m afraid this is against what the OFT say with regard to distance selling, details of which I have outlined below.
A visit to my local 3 store in Telford also drew a blank in my quest to sort the situation-the “assistant” said he couldn’t help with a websale handset-choosing to distance himself away from 3 as a company and offer zero help. He could however sell me another handset and throw in a 512M memory card!! Great……..
He also mentioned i could cancel the contract I had and return the faulty handset for a full refund & the contract would cease………….Not what India keep repeating but perhaps he is a little more genned up on consumer law?
Cancellation periods
The regulations give consumers an unconditional right to cancel an order. This is to allow the consumer the opportunity to examine the goods or consider the nature of a service.
If a consumer cancels an order, written notice must be given to you by:
• goods – seven working days from the day after that on which the goods are received by the consumer;
• services – seven working days from the day after that on which the consumer agrees to go ahead with the contract.
Where a contract is cancelled, the consumer must ensure that reasonable care is taken of any goods received and 'restore' them to you. This does not mean that they have to return them - unless you stipulate this in the contract - only that they make them available for you to collect.
You must refund the consumer's money as soon as possible and, at the latest, within 30 days of receiving the written notice of cancellation. The consumer may, at your discretion, be charged the direct cost of returning the goods, but you must tell them about this in the written information you give them.
If payment for the goods or services is under a related credit agreement, the consumer's cancellation notice also has the effect of cancelling the credit agreement.
All of that information is straight off the OFT’s website-http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/cancellation-periods
This is in cotradiction to what your “customer service” department repeatedly tells me & 14 day money back gurantee claims, which incidently, are contradictory in their own right! You state the returned item must not have been used but the return form then goes on to request the handset security code if changed-please explain how on earth I could change a handset security code without installing the SIM and removing the handset from the box?! Power of the mind maybe?
Please also explain why you feel it is acceptable to expect a customer to accept a product that is different to what they purchased due to your stock inadequcies(or more to the point refusal as stock IS available).
As it stands this is the situation :-
I have formally requested you cancel both mine & my wife’s contracts(full details enclosed within) to which you have point blank refused-please also accept this letter as my notification of my wish to cancel these TWO contracts.
In light of this I have instructed my bank to cancel any direct debit requests from 3, in short you will find you will be unable to extract any more money from either me or my wife.
With reference to the OFT’s guidelines both handsets have been re-boxed and are in an as new condition. The handsets are available for your collection at a time convenient to both myself and 3.
No matter what you come back with I will not be using 3 as a company EVER again, the customer service has been nothing short of disgusting-if this is how you treat two new customers then thank the Lord that this happened so early on. So please, if after reading this letter you think offering what should have been done hours ago will retain us as customers do not bother wasting both your time and mine any further.
I look forward to your reply and please make arrangements to cancel the two contracts and refund any monies paid thus far in FULL & collect your equipment.
If you refuse to do this then I see no alternative other than court action, which will need to be instigated by 3 as I have done everything required of me by law-I have formally requested you terminate the contracts and your merchandise is ready and waiting in an as new (but faulty in respect of my handset) condition.
Did it really have to be this hard to replace a faulty handset that was brand new on the day of writing this letter wasting yet more of my Friday evening? I don’t think so…………….
Regards