[Hands0n]

My eldest daughter has been with 3 on an 18-month contract which expires in October 2007, with a Nokia 6280. It is one of the first issue from 3 and it is rank, to be entirely polite. She has had it sent back so many times and they flat out refuse to replace it, her own personal CS experience has left her completely embittered against 3. They are taking some £60 a month off her in contract fees and can't even be bothered to ensure that she is taken care of with this broken 6280! Perhaps she is one of these "wrong kind of Customer" that 3 are always banging on about. They must have the "right kind of Customer" who spends twice or three times that on some gilt-edged contract ...... they wish!

So, no surprise then that tonight while having a full on rant to me she could find absolutely no polite words to describe the sheer feeling of disgust she felt towards 3's CS at the way she has been treated.

She cites the experience being repeated across several of her friends who went to 3 at the same time (about 15 of the "circle" as I call them). Come September/October this group of earning 20-somethings are leaving 3 en'masse. Their disdain is such that at every opportunity they are passing on the badwill experience to anyone that asks them about 3.

I am completely convinced that 3 are trying to commit Corporate Suicide - their CS in Mumbai are costing them dearly, and yet they still will not listen.

If they can treat such a high ARPU-giving customer so badly what chance does a £15 a month bargain basement customer stand?

[3GScottishUser]

Oh dear... some things don't seem to change.

The thing is that 3 UK have probably made their own bed as far as much of the above experience is concerned. That said the bigger players have invested heavily in UK support and have frankly squeezed 3 into a very unpleasent small sector of the market. 3 have had to reduce prices yet again to compete and having 3 appear as a cheap also ran is just what the established players prefer.

With a limited range and chronic customer service the 3 product simply does'nt stand a chance competing with others.

I have just advised a friend to get a Nokia 6120 on the £15 texter deal. Its a gorgeous phone and it arrived when promised and so far the service has been fine. That customer will never buy content, will never exceed the monthly spend and will probably be quite happy with the product. Problem is that you need 4 like him for every one spending £60 a month that leaves. Its a horror situation and with fewer High Street outlets promoting 3 the task for Kevin Russell looks daunting.

Quite sad to see that there is now very little comment on 3 now in phone forums on general consumer websites. That probably reflects the numbers joining now, most direct acquisitions who 3 will struggle to make any real income from.

Is it a deliberate policy of 3 to spend the minimum to support customers? Are we witnessing a quick land-grab with a view to a disposal? I cant see how the current strategy has any long term prospect to build a profitable UK operation for HWL.

[solo12002]

Question is how many do realy go over there limit ie 750 mins and 150 texts who needs to go over that the same can be said for t-mobile surely? after all if you buy flex £35 you get free calls evenings and weekends, buy your web and walk add on, no need to spend more.

Can the same not be said for o2 long weekends, double mins? and what about vodafone stop the clock and passport, sure most ppl buy what they feel they will use with the aim of not going over it, if they dont use it then sure the networks are quids in?

as for CS I have to admit Im thinking of going for three, I know they have crap overseas CS but Im sure they are not the only one has Orange and a number of other networks not gone down that path.

I know Tiscial my BB provider has ffs.

To be fair three is known to have crap CS, but to be fair they are moving the right way, lok at their internet add on £5 a month, its a fair price look at their roaming charges 25 out 10p none of the Big networks are touching it so its not all bad.

Fix the CS by proving far better training or by having centres in the uk and it will address a lot of their problems. Mind you i wonder if Tiscial would buy it?

[Hands0n]

The problem for 3, and certainly from my daughter and her peers' direct experience is that no matter what 3 do, their CS will ruin it utterly! That, and that alone, has them walking away come the end of their respective 18-month contracts.

I really do not think that Indian call centres are naturally bad - there are one or two fine examples. But most implementations are out of hand outsources which do nothing to represent the company that has contracted them in. The staff loyalty, after all, is to their paymaster - and 3 are locked in to a lengthy contract with Mumbai's operation so what do they care? And if at the end they lose the 3 contract they'll just sack all the Indian staff - with their lack of statutory compensation requirement the Mumbai company wins all ways.

Us the Customer? As far as they're concerned, we can go hang. And so the other mobile network operators - those who do this better - win, win and win again.

[superfakename]

If the phone is so faulty...can you not take 3 to small claims court under sales of goods act :confused:

[Hands0n]

I tried to hold a phone call with her tonight - at least six times the handset reset itself causing the call to be lost. She has had to live with the handset like this for months while trying to slug it out with 3's CS. It has been back for repair six times! Unfortunately she lives away from me otherwise I'd be in the mix big time. But she's not unable to stand her own ground - its just that 3's CS wear even a saint down.

She's now at the point where October can't come around quick enough. She and her group of friends who are also on 3. Every single one of them, most on a similar £60pcm contract, are all walking away from 3 becuase of the lamentable CS support they have experienced from that company.

If this is being repeated around the country then 3 could be in for a shocking fall in customer numbers during the final quarter of 2007 - 18 months after their big promotion of the [then] new 6280.

[a_ukboy]

I think to be honest all the networks are as bad as each other in regards to repair, but then at the end of the day they dont actually make the phones!!
My Mum's on T-Mobile and i find them much worse then Three, she had a faulty handset, not only did she have to take it to a T-Mobile shop but it had to get sent away for 14 days!!! That's shocking, at least Three offer a 3 day repair.. Have to admit Orange has the best repair system to my knowledge..

Anyway as its a Nokia phone, did you try getting repaired with Nokia?? After all that's who the warrenty is with.

[Hands0n]

My own 6280 with T-Mobile did go faulty and I took it back to the T-Mobile shop, they got it repaired - a new Mobo was required, no quibble at all, didn't even blink. Okay, it was away for "up to 14 days" and in fact arrived back in the shop in less than 7 - I was away on holiday but they texted me as I said that I'd use my SIM in a spare handset. The service was entirely hassle-free. I'm totally content to wait a few days more for such a first class service, rather than be treated like something they'd stepped in as happens when dealing with 3's CS. Hell! I'd wait 28 days :eek: rather than allow myself to be subjected to the indignity that is 3's CS.

Unfortunately for eldest, she lives quite a distance away and I could not take personal charge of matters or things could have been different. But my point is, while I am something of an expert at dealing with technology companies (its what I've done for a living for over 30 years) she is just a regular punter. 3's CS were completely predicatable in their lamentable response to her pleas for help. Each 3-day repair (six in all) resulted in a handset that was no better. 3 flat out refused to replace after the 3rd repair. I urged her to press her case with the Exec Office but she didn't. But again, if this is how 3's CS treat their customers how can they expect any return loyalty. All of that is blown away in illwill.

The icing on the cake came today - when 3 called her back to discuss staying with them, she mentioned T-Moblie FlexT (my suggestion) and they offered her the £15pcm deal to match FlexT35 (£180 credit to spend as you like). She asked me what I thought - my answer is unprintable here but went along the lines of "Are you ............ mad?" :D Sanity prevailed and she told 3 to stuff it, and come October to anticipate her leaving. Apparently, the Mumbai CS she spoke to on that occasion was nonplussed and could not understand why she felt quite so completely negative to the offer.

You see, the thing is, we on here and those that generally inhabit the forums are all relative experts in how to handle the likes of 3. Or at the very least, we know entirely what to expect and therefore are not at all surprised or irritated when the inevitable experience ensues. But, and this is the important bit, the general buying public have no such set expectation. They, foolishly to us, assume that Customer Services is just that - and that they will have their issues taken care of. And for sure, 3's CS can do the simple stuff.

But it is when things go wrong that they fall over their own shoelaces each and every time, without exception, and without fail. They really are predictably crap - and their notion of a Customer does not fit the European model - which is [I believe] why they treat the Customer with such disdain.

It is, in effect, a clash of trading culture that has disasterous results in the goodwill stakes. I have never, it is safe to say, ever witnessed such a shambolic outfit that is 3's CS organisation - there may well be worse, but I have not yet encountered them. This lot, it is my contention, stand head and shoulders above all comers in the "How to pi55 off your customers in one phone call" competition. They have achieved the seemingly impossible and perfected the art of ineptitude.

Rock on 3. But not for too much longer, huh?

As Richard Littlejohn has been known to state .... "You couldn't make this stuff up" :)

[gorilla]

Well I have to say that I've had the opposite experience. In fact I can't believe how much their coverage has grown in the year that I was away. I now have a 3g signal in 95% of the places I frequent in NI. I would also suggest that this is also the highest concentration of population, but that it is not restricted to town centres either. O2 and Vodafone do not have this reach.
As for their CS, well I can't add much to the debate. I've not had any handset issues and so I have never had to complain to them.
Can you not get the handset fixed under warranty by Nokia? Has she insurance? What about replacing the 3 firmware with the generic one?

All the problems I've read about with 3 seem to be handset related and dropped calls due to the network. I'm going over to Southampton this weekend (driving via ROI) so I'll be intersted to see how 3's coverage holds up.

Is her tariff £60 per month or is that actual spend? Surely if her tariff is £30 she should cut her losses and buy out the remainder of the contract (or Daddy can do that for her ;))

I've already convinced one mate to join 3 and another to stay on for a reduced monthly fee and an E65. So I suppose for all those leaving there are more joining? Is churn not an accepted fact for the networks?

[gorilla]

well not to pleased. I crossed the border this morning, only to find myself on vodafone. Fine, i'll go into network settings and switch to manual. Ok, selected 3 irl only to find that every 10 mins that it reverts back to vodafone. Is this a 3 firmware trick?

[solo12002]

I understand that were three has no coverage in the south, it will switch over to vodafone who three has chosen as their roaming partner.

It be nice to see how you get on as you move around the south to see what coverage three has. Oh and I think the reason why you cant use other networks other that three or vodafone is to ensure three no ends up with large bills, Im sure some of the older hands here will confrim.

[3GScottishUser]

Just remember that the 3 like home T+C's state that you only get the home tariff if you are on 3's own 3G networks. They don't mention any domestic roaming partners and have published their EU roaming tarriff which includes countries like ireland, Austria and Italy.

I seem to recall some special deal by one of the networks (02 maybe) where their Irish Republic customers could use the UK network at the same rate??

Happily whatever the deal it'll be a lot cheaper now than it used to be thanks to the EU..... or rather it will be at the end of August!

[3g-g]

well not to pleased. I crossed the border this morning, only to find myself on vodafone. Fine, i'll go into network settings and switch to manual. Ok, selected 3 irl only to find that every 10 mins that it reverts back to vodafone. Is this a 3 firmware trick?

Nope, it'll just be that the Vodafone signal is the stronger one, so that's why the handset picks it. Unless you're one of those conspiracy theory types, where yes, it's a 3 firmware trick! ;)

[gorilla]

Well that's the thing, I was stationary and the three signal was excellent, then for no apparent reason it would switch to vodafone.

[solo12002]

How did you find the rest of the trip re coverage etc?

[gorilla]

Over all I would say that 3 has pretty good coverage. I only lost their network when I was in the middle of nowhere and fell onto orange. Having said that, the people I was with who were on O2 received poorer coverage. they were often out of network coverage.
I'm still a 3 fanboy.

[hshah]

3 CS in India have never been much of a problem with me... I am Indian and can therefore speak to them in Gujarati, so I suppose that makes it easier for me.

When my Mum's LG developed a fault last year, I complained and got it repaired. For the inconvenience, I asked for some sort of compensation and got £10 of credit. The same fault appeared again after "repair" and I said I had enough and I spoke to the manager, and got a brand new phone sent out as well as another £15 of credit :)

If they are not being helpful, always ask to speak to the manager, take there name down... they will say their name really fast, but ask them to repeat it slowly as many times as you need so you have got all the details. If they keep on repeating themselves, stop them and be firm... usually works for me!

[Hands0n]

Blimey!! It comes to something to have to speak in Gujarati (or any other language for that matter) to be treated decently and have one's problems resolved. I would have hoped that there would be no bias at any call centre towards any nationality or language. I would hope that hshah's experience is a one-off and completely non-typical (i.e. that we all get treated equally shoddily by 3's CS).

Any alternative beggars belief!

People have reported having difficulty to flat out refusal when asking to speak with a Manager. Then, even if they are put through to a "manager" the likelihood is that it is the CS operator sitting at the next position - because no satisfactory outcome is reached.

No, in truth, 3's CS remains as dire an operation as it was on day one. It will prove to be 3's undoing if left unchecked, and there are no signs that 3 are taking complaints against their Mumbai CS at all seriously.

Will the last customer please turn out the lights and lock the door as they leave.