[3GScottishUser]

Worth having a read at some of the consumer (and staff) posts on the following sites.


Grumbletext UK (http://www.grumbletext.co.uk/vt.php?t=82&postdays=0&postorder=desc&highlight=hutchison+3g+uk&subj=complaints+3+mobile+complaint&start=0)

ReviewCentre UK (http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews12640.html)

A nugget from Grubletext (Contributer yoshimi):

when I worked at 3 I was asked to fudge numbers all the time. A little off the top here, a little padding on top there. my mgr would threaten me if i didn't want to do it. and that was just 1 person in 1 office. the end of q results are the greatest work of fiction since dickens!

the work conditions are a bit dickens too - RFID tags for all employees - can't go for a piss without going through 2 doors with your RFID tag. you have to take your co mobile home at the weekend too so they can track you lest too many employees be talking outside of hours. this co has a lot to hide.

i got out but my heart bleeds for the ppl on the call centre floors - most are students or single mums - most sent by agencies and you know how agencies work - they don't tell them what company they are going to work for, they just send them there. they are only as good as the support they get from their mgrs and all they get is sarcasm and attitude and witch hunts.

basically the co is one big inside joke - xcept someone forgot to tell the line staff and customers. the mgrs laugh at what they do and they laugh at the people under them who have no taste for their games and attitude and are just trying to bring in a wage. i tried my best but this co treated me like s**t and i still feel messed up thanks to them.

when 3 goes DOWN DOWN DOWN it will be one of the happiest days of my life !

One cannot be certain that posts to any forum are what they claim but on balance one can get a 'feel' for how customers rate a product by scanning through the comments.

Happy Reading.... :)

[Ben]

Hmm.

I worked in a call centre once... there were also two doors between the floor and the toilets, and the passes were RFID type things that tracked where you were in the building and what rooms you'd tried to access along with dates and times.

It just sounds like a typical call centre to be honest - all call centres have targets that they have to meet.

Welcome to Customer Service.

It's also worth noting that, as we all know, people head to places like that when they've had a bad experience and want to tell people about it. Three's start was rocky, they had a hard job on their hands especially when we look back on the awful handsets they bought, but I don't think there's too much to read into this other than *Three is still a new network, more prone to mistakes and problems than 10-20 year old GSM offerings*.

[3GScottishUser]

I have done some interviews at a big mobile call centre near Glasgow and happily they don't use RFID to track their staff. They do however keep track of when they are off-line of course. On the plus side they have a beautiful resturant and rest area with a Costa Coffee shop (subsidised of cousre) on-site.

It always struck me how remarkably subdued the place was. Very quiet and with the exception of a small outbound sales section very relaxed. The helpline staff have some fabulous software to solve technical problems too.

[cyberkid999]

Hmm.



It's also worth noting that, as we all know, people head to places like that when they've had a bad experience and want to tell people about it. Three's start was rocky, they had a hard job on their hands especially when we look back on the awful handsets they bought, but I don't think there's too much to read into this other than *Three is still a new network, more prone to mistakes and problems than 10-20 year old GSM offerings*.


I agree with you Ben. You hear loads of people moaning but very few commenting on the good points. I personally have had NO problems with Three when compared to the time I was with O2 and I would certainly recommend them.

[@NickyColman]

I agree Ben.

Most call-centres these days like to keep tabs on their staff when they at work. But to be fair, they have every right. They are, afterall, running a business and they need to have as many staff as possible running the phones/systems etc.

In regards to the bad attitude of the managers in at Three, there is the old saying of "there is always two sides to every story". And I imagine, altho there were crap managers, there will also be good managers too.

And like you said, Three is a new company, and their customer service is getting better now. Personally i like the fact there is hardly any wait to get to talk to an agent and the fact they are open 24/7. Now compare that with customer services of O2 and it makes Three look like the perfect network.

I have found that when ringing O2, although they are English speaking there is still a huge waiting time just to have a simple question answered. Without fail i am always passed from pillow to post, from billing, to complaints, through to disconnections etc just to find that simple answer.

For me, the best customer services at the moment have got to be Orange. I have never had to wait more than 5mins to speak to someone and they are extremely polite and helpfull (and English). Also, there are just little touches that make the world of difference, like when they answer the phone like "hello Mr Colman, your through to Orange Customer Services, bla bla speaking". A personal introduction like that changes my entire outlook on Orange. On a number of occassions when ive had difficulty or expressed disatisfaction with a service they have given me free 50 picture messages or an extra 20mins of video calling.

Touches like that make the world of difference to me.

Three has shown that Customer Services is an extremely important part to any operator and should be treated as such by the company.

[Hands0n]

I totally 1,000% agree that Customer Services is ".... an extrememly part of any operator....". Having run service teams all of my working life until a few years back I have very practical experience of how to service internal and external Customers. It is not, by any means, an easy job to do - the adage "You can't please all of the people .........." applies. Nevertheless, you don't do the job if you can't stand the heat.

Unfortunately, it is my direct experience of 3 that their Customer Services team is barely effective at resolving anything but the simplest of questions or issues. They do not make any perceptible effective use of their CRM which is evidenced by their inability or failure to retrieve Customer contact records. Something they should be able to do following the usual call disconnect mid-call (requiring the Customer to re-state their problem from the beginning each and every single time!). They have no margin to operate within unlike the CS ops at Orange who are able to offer some small sweetener during problem resolution as Bleubean mentions above. They appear to have very poor internal communications and do not know their product very well. Their Customer manner is poor - it may be a language thing but that is not the Customers problem - appearing unsympathetic to the issues. They do not honour their commitment to call the Customer back after promising to do so. In a nutshell, 3's Customer Service is dire in comparison to the likes of Orange and Vodafone. The foregoing is my opinion based upon my practical experience of 3's Customer Service since its inception and is my only (but highly significant) major brickbat against them.