[Carrotline]

I took my Sony X10 phone in to the Three Store in Windsor because it was proving difficult to charge on Sunday 9 October.

Was told the phone would be sent off to the repair centre the following Tuesday (apparently it was not possible to send it off on the Monday, but the person who served me could not tell me why), and should be returned to me within 7-to-10 days.

On Tuesday 25 October, I decided to call Three’s repair centre because I hadn't heard anything from anyone at the company about my phone.

I spoke to a guy in their Indian call centre who told me the phone never arrived, and that I should contact the store to find out if they still have it.

I dutifully did this, and was promised that someone would call me back in an hour, once they'd got to the bottom of the situation. For whatever reason, they didn't bother.

So, I phoned back later that after afternoon, and was firstly told that they couldn't find my phone and didn’t have any record that it had been despatched.

They phoned back again shortly afterwards, claiming the phone was actually sent to the repair centre on the 21st October - not on the 11th, which is when they promised me it would be sent out. They also said the phone should have arrived at the repair centre the following day.

When I asked the guy in the store why my phone wasn’t sent out when it should have been, he said: “I can only apologise. We’ve had three new starters and the store has been really busy.”

As far as I’m concerned, that’s not my problem. Surely, if there are more people working in the shop than before, basic tasks like sending off phones for repair should get done?

I spoke to the call centre bloke again the next day, who assured me that Three is treating this “as a matter of urgency” and are trying to locate my phone. He immediately contradicted this by saying he would phone me back in three days with an update.

The aforementioned update consisted of him telling me they still don’t know where my phone is (surprise, surprise), before adding they have now asked the store to contact the courier firm responsible for transporting it to the repair centre to see if they know where it is.

Seeing as the store have not had a great track record, as far as I’m concerned, with doing stuff when I ask them to, I asked the call centre guy if he can verify ( or notify me) when the store has actually contacted the courier. He said no, but assured me the store will do it.

He then promised to contact me again in five days’ time with another update about what the courier’s response was. Why this is going to take five days, I don’t know. It has also done nothing to convince me that my case is being treated as a “matter of urgency”.

In the meantime, I’ve been without my phone for close to three weeks. I paid a £30 deposit for a decrepit SkypePhone S2, which the store is touting as a loan phone. However, it doesn’t allow me to access or half of the stuff I’m paying Three over £30 a month to use.

I've made an official complaint with 3 about all this (even have a case number) but any advice as to how I can quicken any of this up would be gratefully received.

[Wilt]

Have you tried contacting the support team on twitter via @ThreeUKSupport? They're often better than the call centre at, well, basically anything. Might be worth going into the store and kicking up a fuss face to face rather than over the phone.

[miffed]

With any kind of situation like this ,I've found the only way kick people into action is to email the person you want to act is to email said company's executive office and CC the person you want action out of - I have managed to get action out of many big companies this way (Sky , Vodafone , o2 )

Not sure what Three's exec office email is , but it should be easy enough to find. If you are unable to CC the 3 store in question , simply make sure you know the exec office address , take the Store managers name and tell him you are going to contact the exec office .

I think the reason this works is not so much that the exec office helps you out , but more the Store manager will not want to be seen not resolving the situation !

[Hands0n]

@Carrotline - I'd endorse Wilt's advice, the Twitter team at @ThreeUKSupport are a brilliant asset and very helpful. In a situation like this I would firstly ask them to help with either locating or replacing the phone at their cost, they've lost it. You may want to also ask for some good faith credit on account of not being able to use the £30 airtime subscription for what you purchased it for. They're a reasonable bunch, just be polite, clear about what you want and ask for their help, they'll give it to you.

Do let us know on here how you get on. We're all watching Three very closely as they try to develop into a bigger organisation than they have been for so many years.

[gorilla]

It might be worth contacting your local Citizen Advice Bureau (or trading standards) as this sounds well dodgy. I'm sure it will be an innocent mistake, but if not it will be in your best interest to act now.

[Carrotline]

Thanks for the advice. I'll get on to the Twitter team today. Also, I've seen contact details for a few of the Three management team on a couple of forums, so I'll get onto them, too.

However, do you think I should do this, even though I've already registered a complaint with them?

As for Citizens Advice, I think that's a good shout. My Dad's been pushing me to contact the police to try and spur the Three Store into action, but also because he's suspicious that my phone seems to have gone missing at a time when the store admits it's been undergoing a period of high staff turnover.

[Hands0n]

@Carrotline - Yes, you really should escalate the issue to the Twitter team at @ThreeUKSupport. Once your have their attention and are able to exchange the information with them that you have given us, and more, they'll be able to tell you what they are prepared to do for you.

I also think it worthwhile to make mention that you will need to contact the police about a possible theft from their shop if there is no resolution, citing the store's intransigence in dealing with your legitimate issue (don't use the word complaint).

[Carrotline]

I contacted the support team on Twitter, who have stated that someone from Three has been instructed to contact the courier firm. Don't know if they have or had had a response yet. The guy I spoke to in the call centre on Saturday said he will call me back with an update from the courier tomorrow (Thursday), so - hopefully - there should be some news on where my phone is.

If there isn't, I will mention that I am planning to contact the police about this. I'll let you know how that goes down...

[Carrotline]

Hello again.

I spoke Three again on Thursday, was told there was still no news on my phone and that they would phone me back today (Monday) with another update.

The call centre guy said they have recently moved their repair centre, and my phone may or may not have been sent to the old site in error. That was all he could tell me.

I contacted the Twitter team, after I finished my call, and said I was disappointed that I was still no nearer to finding out where my phone is. They sent me a message saying that a "batch" of phones has gone missing with the courier firm they use and my phone could be one of them. As an aside, I asked them to confirm how many phones constitutes a batch, but received no reply.

I actually work as a technology journalist, so - after my call on Thursday - I told my boss about all of this, and was offered the chance to air my grievances about Three on one our company's blogs. Within an hour, I had a call from Three to apologise, claiming that they have actually found my phone and will be fast-tracking it for repair now. Alternatively, I could just have a new handset. Can you guess which option I plumped for?

[Hands0n]

@Carrotline - all's well that ends well? I'm hoping that it was the influence of the Twitter team that helped, they have done some pretty good stuff already in the few short months that they have been live.

Do you get to choose a different model or the same, but brand new?

Good that it worked out for you, but one has to wonder what the fate and experience is of those who are less well versed in dealing with such things. This really is simple to me. If the firm has a known problem with lost phones they should outreach to all of the affected customers and make good. Not leave you to your own fate at the hands of their [still] dreadful off-shore customer services that let them down at every single opportunity. Lord! If I were Dyson I would be strongly appealing to HWL to untether the splendid UK firm from that Albatross that is Mumbai.

[miffed]

I am glad you got a new phone ! but frankly I feel you deserve a little more in the way of compensation than a replacement - I thnk the whole sorry episode should not leave you out of pocket , and as I am seing it you are £30 down from the months line rental , and £30 down from the deposit on the courtesy phone ?
I think you should push for at least a £60 credit to just break even !

[Carrotline]

@Carrotline -
Do you get to choose a different model or the same, but brand new?

They wanted to replace like-for-like, but the X10 I had is now out of stock. So, I got a slightly newer X10 Arc, which has a slightly faster processor. I was also assured that I will still be liable for an upgrade when my contract next comes up for renewal, if I decide I want to stay with Three after all this!


Good that it worked out for you, but one has to wonder what the fate and experience is of those who are less well versed in dealing with such things. This really is simple to me. If the firm has a known problem with lost phones they should outreach to all of the affected customers and make good. Not leave you to your own fate at the hands of their [still] dreadful off-shore customer services that let them down at every single opportunity..

Exactly - that's why I was keen to find out how many phones would have been contained in the "batch" of missing phones, because I'm planning to write a story about this for one of my magazine's sister titles, at their request. They feature stories about consumer issues, you see.

I also asked (I kept shorthand notes of all my calls with Three) on 3 November if the store I got my phone from had contacted any of the other affected customers and/or had warned those that were taking their phones in for repair that there had been delays returning them because they'd moved their repair centre.

The call centre bloke I spoke to said: "I assure you, Miss ******, that we are working very hard to resolve this situation." So, although he did respond to my questions, he didn't actually answer them.

But, yeah, if I hadn't had the luxury of my magazine's blog, who knows how long I would have had to have waited for (a) my phone, (b) a replacement and (c) a total resolution.

@Miffed I am getting a line rental refund and I got my deposit back when I returned the loan phone (although the guy in the shop had the cheek to suggest he wasn't sure if they'd ever see it again because I'd had it so long!). I've also still got a complaint outstanding with them, as I said I didn't want that closed (even though I had my phone) so I might even wangle some other stuff. We'll see.

[Hands0n]

They wanted to replace like-for-like, but the X10 I had is now out of stock. So, I got a slightly newer X10 Arc, which has a slightly faster processor. I was also assured that I will still be liable for an upgrade when my contract next comes up for renewal, if I decide I want to stay with Three after all this!


Personally, I'd not take this too much to heart :) and put it down to experience rather than leave Three. Unless, of course, when the time comes that the remaining three UK networks have started to match Three's propositions - especially their AYCE data (all versions). That, to me, would be a bit of a backward step, to go to, say, Vodafone who offer a whopping 500MB for your contract fee that is almost certain to be more than Three's monthly tariff.

Following a few Twitter channels I can see that Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile (Orange seem not to have a formal Twitter customer help channel) all receive similar complaints about their customer service, their stores, their after sales support etc. They're pretty much one and the same.

What is really important is coverage in the areas that you live, work and play. Outside of that, nothing much else matters, because when it goes tits up they'll all likely fall at the hurdles.