3 - charging for text delivery receipts

drbesty

If 3 were smart they'll have got the all clear from OFCOM before doing this

arielcohen

Spoke so someone from the exec office today, they said they will open a case and will get back to me within 5 days. To be honest the guy seemed reasonable and felt like he wanted to help. I don't really want to risk my credit rating by cancelling my dd but if 3 make me go down that route ill be looking for more then just my leaving my contract early.

You've got to be sure that the people at 3 are aware of this thread and reading all that we say, so to 3 please just either cancel the extra charge/offer us a better contract or let us be on our merry way without any further disdain for you company and legal team.

FlashUK1983

I'll also be looking to cancel my contract.
Has anybody tried going into a three store to talk about this yet?

bantoi

arielcohen wrote: »

... I don't really want to risk my credit rating by cancelling my dd but if 3 make me go down that route ill be looking for more then just my leaving my contract early.

Hello,

is there a "clean" way to cancel without impacting the credit rating?

I will go ahead with the cancellation, but apart from doing it in one place, I'll have to write multiple letters to 3, then to the small claims court, then to the credit rating companies (which is really to 3, who then need to inform the credit rating companies that your score should be reverted back to good, if it does get ruined).

It just seems to me that 3 are doing this to make it as difficult as possible to do, knowing the whole time that they are wrong.

I'm actually a happy 3 customer but all I want is to have a cheaper tariff and would gladly stay with them, but if this is how they intend to treat me, I will switch from them to an alternative carrier.

So if this bureaucratic "battle" goes ahead, I will create a website outlining and documenting all the steps that I had to take. It will be done in non inflammatory, factual manner and I'm sure it will look good for 3.

sarahxox

I have been following this thread and also trying to sort this out with three. I registered online and they rang me back 2 days later.
I've spoken to three people, including a customer services manager and this is what they've said.

1. At first they claimed it was an additional service, I quoted hte t+c until they agreed it was not, but it was a 'service', so i looked under 5.7 where it says if they change a service without 30 days notice you CAN cancel.

2. I guess because they couldn't argue the point that it was additional service, they moved on to 'detrimental change'. They said it was not a detrimental change.
They did not, however, have a definition for a detrimental change. The customer service manager said a 'detrimental change' was when something that never existed is introduced into the contract that is of monetary detriment to the customer. I didn't think that was a very solid argument, as it seems like a very specific definition and there is NO definition of it in the t+c! So I said, if there's no definition, surely its up to interpretation?

I asked if he could email me a summary of his points so that I could have them in writing, including a definition for a 'detrimental change'.

3. He sent me the email. It did not include a 'detrimental change' definition.
It said "The delivery reports is an additional service, we haven’t made any changes to your contract."
Back to square one!

So far they have offered to not start charging until 30 days after I recieved the notification, or to knock £5 off my next bill. He said it was '£5 from my own pocket", which i can't believe is true, and yet they surely can't lie!

So frustrating! I'm not sure if I can email back, or if i have to ring. They talk and talk in circles so you can never get anywhere, and really confuse me. They're also very keen to remind us that 'all other networks' charge - as if that's relevant! We made the agreement with THEM!

Any suggestions of what to do now?

JudasPriest

Detrimental:
–adjective 1. causing detriment; damaging; harmful.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/detrimental

Detriment:–noun 1. loss, damage, disadvantage, or injury.

2. a cause of loss or damage.


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/detriment

Changes are detrimental if they result in the customer losing access to services included when the package was sold, or if using the services sold to you in the same manner will cost you more, IMO.

You must write(recorded delivery to the executive office, regular mail to customer services - but with a certificate of posting), and cite all the points raised so far. Changing of non-"Additional Services", and your desire to leave the contract as a result. Announcing changes with less than the stated period of notice - and your desire to leave the contract as a result. Changes made are of detriment to you - either financially if you continue to use the services in the manner available when sold to you, or the loss of functionality to keep to that stated price - and your desire to leave the contract as a result. I'd likely also mention that you've lost all faith in the company, and their ability to adhere to the contract they supplied you with. There is nothing confidence inspiring about this - least of all the constant name changing regarding what service delivery reports are.

Unless you are genuinely happy to do-so, do not accept any temporary discount or offer to change the charge date - they've broken the contract, and are preventing you from exercising your rights to end the agreement.

I'd also suggest advising them that you cannot use the service after 5th June without accepting these variations - which you don't. This means the SIM is removed, you send them a cheque for what you believe is payable to that date, then alternative services matching your package sought, (don't mention this next bit yet) and the difference in cost charged to Three via the small claims court as consequential losses or out of pocket expenses.

Three won't let it get that far. If they do, they'll get a heap of bad publicity(even more-so than now) and end up with several court cases. And they'll likely be shedding a legal department and starting again from scratch after walking into a PR disaster on a very poor legal footing.

I'd also wait for suggestions from other users before acting on mine - I'm very sleep-deprived right now and may not be on the ball.

sijarvis

Just to add that I sent recorded mail to customer services and it was received and signed for. It doesn't seem to matter that it's a PO box. Having said that I've not had any response yet...

Bricks

filo-beto wrote: »

I got the response I expected:


We’ve done this after doing all the necessary research. Most of the text
messages sent by our customers’ are being delivered successfully. If the
text message isn’t sent successfully due to any reason, it shows up on their
phone as ‘Message sending failed’. This will notify our customer’s and they
can resend the message.

Is this true?

I think you only get the "message sending failed" notification if it fails to be delivered after quite a long time (24hrs? More?)

I'm another 3 customer annoyed about this change. The delivery reports are very useful for knowing whether a message has been delivered. For example, if I send a message expecting a prompt reply and it doesn't show up as delivered I know that the person is probably on the tube (say) and that the message may no longer be relevant when they get it.

Will be following this thread with interest.

drbesty

You usually only get 'message sending failed' if the SMS doesnt leave the phone at all, if it never reaches the network its obviously going to fail. I also don't buy 3s excuse about improving network performance, an SMS is at most 160 bytes in size, a few fairly decent servers can handle the load

whowants2brich

I wonder if Martin and the MSE team can or should get behind this, on behalf of all the 3 customers? It would probably be better for everyone, especially with the mass of bad publicity thrown at 3 for having made this change...?

I think it's really bad how they've said that people on new plans get 3000 or unlimited texts, and encourage people to send loads..... and then complain that their network's struggling, that they have to find a way to reduce text volumes, and they think that by hiding everything behind a 1p charge is the best way to reduce the volume of texts sent...

I for one will be happy, I have 500 texts on my vodafone sim card, which does still do free delivery reports, and I get 300 minutes or texts on 3. I'll just stop texting from my 3 phone, it won't impact me much.

My wife, however, who has 3000 texts, will not be quite so happy...