Endless trouble with 3, court action?

t8769

My girlfriend got a 3 phone from the Link, only to find the small print
denied her of the £80 refund she was due. The 'salesman' didn't tell her
about the date scam they run.

Ok, this is a common scam, and we took it on the chin, the smallprint and salesman's patter got us.. live and learn.

Then I told 3 I was thinking of taking over her account, they said 'fine
just let us know when you want to take it over, and we'll do it'.

What they didn't tell me or her, was that her bank account would be charged
while I thought about it. She left the country and didn't find out for
months that her account had been charged.

Not once, in the 10 or so conversations we'd had did they mention this.

These people are crooks, she's down about £170, I've called them but there's
just some poor sap in India who has no responsibility.

We called them endlessly, she called, I called, and eventually a 'manager' prommised us a refund, if we wrote in.

I've just got a letter from 3 Customer Service, full of factual errors, nonesenese and excuses.

We've been ripped of at the start of contract and end..

Is this a common experience?

I'm thinking of taking legal action through small claims court, has anyone else tried this with 3?

deutzkiwi

t8769 wrote:

My girlfriend got a 3 phone from the Link, only to find the small print
denied her of the £80 refund she was due. The 'salesman' didn't tell her
about the date scam they run.

I'm not sure I follow, what was the £80 refund for?

Then I told 3 I was thinking of taking over her account, they said 'fine
just let us know when you want to take it over, and we'll do it'.

What they didn't tell me or her, was that her bank account would be charged
while I thought about it. She left the country and didn't find out for
months that her account had been charged.

Not once, in the 10 or so conversations we'd had did they mention this.

I dont follow this bit either ... if you were thinking of paying for her account, surely someone (ie your girlfriend) would have to be paying while you thought about it? I'm missing something here!

kai666

why wouldn't they charge her while you thought about it? You hadn't told them to change the account, and they are hardly likely to suspend payment while you had your thinking time.

And presumably you were not both charged, so they have done nothing wrong have they?

MrsMondragon

I wish I had taken court action when "3" were messing me around. They are horrific when it comes to CS. I dont think they could do any worse even if they tried. I recommend you take court action, because otherwise they arent going to bother sorting out your problem.

Amba_Gambla

I don't understand what's wrong?

What was the £80 refund supposed to be for?

Why should they not have charged you while you think about it? If it's still active, then someone needs to pay for it

jimmyjim_uk

Then I told 3 I was thinking of taking over her account, they said 'fine
just let us know when you want to take it over, and we'll do it'.

What they didn't tell me or her, was that her bank account would be charged
while I thought about it. She left the country and didn't find out for
months that her account had been charged.

surely 3 were just taking their monthly line rental as per the agreement when the contract was signed??

If you think 3 are in the wrong you need to direct your complaint to their Executive Office. You can call them on 0870 733 0295 and ask for a contact name to send your letter of complaint to.

The address is

Executive Office
Hutchinson 3G UK Limited
123 St Vincent Street
Glasgow
G2 5EA

Forget india CS. If you ask anything that is not on the computer script they clam up and annoy the sh*t out of you!!!!

t8769

sorry if I didn't explain this well.

We got caught out on the cashback scam.


You buy the phone, saleman says' no prob just send this form in for a refund' but if you don't send the form in by EXACTLY the correct date, you loose the refund.

Of course, many people (most?) don't send the form in at the right time, not realising its a scam, so miss the refund. Or the company 'looses' the letter you sent or 'didn't receive it' recomend people use registered mail for this.

They get away with it as its in the small print, but its still a Link scam.

Ok.. so we got ripped off by the Link and 3 on that one..


But we weren't told she's be charged while I thought about it.

I told them, I'm not sure.. I'm thinking about it, I'll let you know.

They should have told me they were going to charge here while I was considering this. I'm not an expert on mobile charges, it didn't occur to me that this would be expensive.

I'm sure there's something in a contract somewhere to cover this, but its still fraud in my book.

The only questions is... should I take them to court. Is it worth the hasstle, will they just refund my money before I take them there.

Worst was today, to get a letter from 3 CD full of lies, excuses and nonesense justifying their rading of her bank account.

Of course Orange would never behave this way, which is why I've been with them for 5 years.


Court?

t8769

We called 3 about 20 times, ended up speaking to some poor sap in India who could hardly speak English. I'm glad they dont' have an office in London, as I might go down there and behave in a way that might be considered threatening or violent.

Nice people.. they deserve it.

t8769

PPS

Her account had closed, she'd given 30 days notice, the phone was switched off and would not accept calls. I was just thinking of re-newing the contact.

Sorry, didn't explain this.

Jay1b

So it was £80 down per cashback? And you missed two cashbacks?

Did you not think to ask? Especially as they have to be sent off on certain months.

So bascially your !!!!!! because you forgot?

Amba_Gambla

t8769 wrote:

.......Of course Orange would never behave this way, which is why I've been with them for 5 years.


Court?

I had a contract with orange, which was cancelled, and I cancelled my DD too. Every month I got a bill for line rental, every month I rang them up and they said yes we know about it, ignore it. This was all fine until I got a red mark on my credit rating and a Debt Collection agency claiming £200 from me.

18 months later I still get sales calls asking 'would you like to upgrade your orange contract?'

Basically, you forgot to send your cashback form in on time. That's how these cashback schemes work. They work on the figure that around 50%(?) of people forget to send the cashback claim in on time, otherwise each contract would cost them money.

I was with the link on 3, and I got all my cashback by sending the forms (not recorded delivery) in on time.