cancelling mobile broadband from 3

fiendishly

3 'customer service' are taking the p1ss surely?

I spent half an hour on the phone yesterday saying, 'no I'm not interested, please cancel' over and over and over again.
'no, I'm not interested in the retention deal'
'no, I'm not interested in passing it to a friend or family member'
'please just cancel it'
'no, I no longer need it'
no
no
no

eventually I said 'I'm ending the call now as I have to go out and I am sick of you debating whether or not I should be allowed to cancel. Consider this my 30 days notice'

I got into work this morning and there is a voicemail from the obnoxious member of 3 'customer service' staff on my work number (not my home phone or my mobile, note) saying that I need to call back for further discussions before it can be cancelled.
What should I do? Ignore, or call back?

jd87

This is typical of 3 sadly. See my thread here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4049661

I think you're just going to have to call back. I got mine cancelled eventually by calling back after hitting a brick wall the first time. Whenever they offer you anything, just tell them you already have it. For example when they offer you a free iPad 2, just tell them you already have a New iPad (the more recent version). Then say you just want to cancel over and over and over and over until they finally accept.

It seems that their set-up essentially forbids them from allowing a cancellation on the first call. When you call back the second time it seems a bit easier.

Once they finally say they will cancel it, they are usually telling the truth. My cancellation came through within about a week.

fiendishly

thanks jd, isn't it peculiar that others seemed to doubt your description of your experience when it would seem that I have had the very same experience as you?
I have sent the email to complain about not being able to cancel. (I couldn't help being a bit stroppy though as my blood started to boil again as I was typing it, I called them a bunch of unprofessional a**eholes).

I have cancelled my direct debit but I will call them again and try one more time to cancel over the phone to prevent any further issues.

HeadAboveWater

Yes you'd be as well to ring to make sure it's cancelled.

I wanted to change from the 3 dongle to MiFi, but between visits to the store and calling CS, I ended up with 2 new contracts :eek:

Finally got it sorted - including a discount as a goodwill gesture for the hassle!!

Buzby

The obvious alternative is to give WRITTEN notice. Not only can this not be disputed, if cannot be ignored by them, especially as it prevents an ongoing sales pitch.

fiendishly

They say they only accept cancellation over the phone. I'm on hold again now, he's pretending he has no idea what a PAC code is and has put me on hold again whilst he tries to find out.
A few minutes ago he laughed out loud when I said no, I'm not interested in reducing my monthly bill to £10.99, he asked why on earth I wanted to waste my hard-earned money paying the full £18 a month for the 30 days notice.

shaggy

If this was me I'd ask to speak to his supervisor at this point and also mention you've been recording his phone call as part of an investigation by watchdog/random newspaper.

jd87

shaggy wrote: »

mention you've been recording his phone call as part of an investigation by watchdog/random newspaper.

They will just hang up the phone if you do that. You underestimate how incredibly unprofessional this company is.

OP, please don't just cancel your direct debit. You are in a contract, your service will continue and you will just build up charges and debt. Your credit file could be affected.

shaggy

jd87 wrote: »

They will just hang up the phone if you do that. You underestimate how incredibly unprofessional this company is.

OP, please don't just cancel your direct debit. You are in a contract, your service will continue and you will just build up charges and debt. Your credit file could be affected.

OP another option would be to write to them cancelling and if you want to, you can complain in the letter as well about the experience youve had.

Make sure you send it recorded post and ask them to acknowledge in writing the cancellation has been received and accepted.

Reading this post has put me right off trying to get an iphone on '3'.

droopsnoot

I've had trouble with my 3 mobile dongle for the last couple of days, visited the store this morning and explained I hadn't been able to connect for a couple of days, tried two sim cars, two PCs, nothing, sounds like the dongle is dead and how much for a new one on PAYG. Just before ringing the sale through I asked whether there were any network problems, the chap mentioned one bad mast about 3 miles away, but agreed that shouldn't have any effect. Took the new dongle home, plugged it in, exactly the same.

Marched back to the shop, got a different chap (though the other was there) who told me that the mast is actually about 1 mile away, and that they've had several others in my area phone in with the same problem. But I could not get them to agree a refund - they insisted that I give it a couple of days until the mast comes back into service (which is now has) and "go from there", though they didn't say exactly where we would go from there.

In my mind, I only bought the new dongle because I felt that the assistant said it would help, I don't need it to be faster as I don't use it that much. I feel I've been conned, but by the sound of it there's no point me getting in touch with customer services to take it further. I also feel bad about almost being prepared to put it down to experience and just make the best of the supposedly quicker dongle.