Three Mobile Broadband Cancellation

xukc

Just put the phone down after talking to Three customer service and felt like a little rant!
About 3 months ago I signed for a one month mobile broadband contract in store, which I needed temporarily. As expected, very quick and efficient service when you are parting with your money. The contract had done its job and I no longer needed the service so decided today it's time to cancel it. As I'd dealt with 3 before, I knew it was not going to be quick or easy.

Got connected to their call centre in India and the fun began. Now English is not my first language, their accents are pretty awful so it all made for a very strained conversation. After I went through confirming all my details, why I wanted to cancel and all the rest I had to be put through to someone else. 'Don't worry Madam, you won't have to repeat any of your details'. So the next person I got to speak to, who had even less understandable accent answered with 'Hello, Can you confirm your name please :rotfl:'And what is the reason you want to cancel?' And at that point I got disconnected. :eek:

Briefly considered staying on the contract just so I didn't have to do this again but no, surely if you start a contract you should be able to end it so I dialled again. OMG could it be worse - there was background noise, crackling on the line, the voice disappearing and coming back... all this combined with lovely Indian accent... you get the idea. And then this happened:

Indian Guy: 'Blah blah. Can I have your 3 number please?'
Me: "Yes, it is 07 so and so."
Indian Guy: "Thank you. Could you wait while I verify this please?"

5 minutes silence, not even nice music!

Indian Guy: "Thank you for your patience. Can you confirm your full name please?"
Me: "Yes, so and so."
Indian Guy: "Thank you. I'll just verify this"

Another 5 minutes silence!

To cut this bit short every bit of detail on the contract was verified while I stood there in silence for about 3-5 mins each time, wondering whether I was still on the line or if I should really hang up. I was imagining the Indian guy chatting to his colleagues and laughing at me, while putting me on hold to see if I'd finally give up or maybe change my mind about cancelling. Somehow I didn't! And then "Thank you , Madam, about your patience. Sorry about this. Can you confirm ..."

After we confirmed everything there was to confirm and more he went:
"I am sorry about this but my manager is really angry today :eek: We've had more than 250 cancellations within 8 hours and really we can't process so many cancellations, so the manager is really angry. ":rotfl: Can you believe this?!
Me: "Yes, sorry but I need to cancel".
Indian Guy: "We are having a meeting about this, the manager is really angry. I need to hear the end of this meeting and I will be right back. Bear with me!" I was speechless.
Another 5 mins silence. By that time I'd invested too much in the call so decided to take it to the end regardless.
Finally he came back and started apologising again.
Me: "This is taking longer than expected, I can't stay much longer on the line. I want to cancel the contract and I am giving you the 30 day notice today as required. "
Indian Guy: "Who told you about these 30 days? I have to verify this, give me 5 mins please". :rotfl:

At the end he came back to confirm that my notice had been accepted and all the details of the cancellation, which it took him 30 secs to give me without putting me on hold. When I ended the call I just stared at the phone screen, 40 mins of my life spent in utter nonsense! Fingers crossed the cancellation has gone through!

I know you've got to do these sort of calls from time to time but I still feel a bit shaken every time. Why do they treat their customers like complete idiots, who don't know why they are calling or can be easily persuaded to change their mind? By putting them on hold after every sentence Why can't we have at least a bit of the respect and courtesy, used when you are signing for a new contract. I think it should be made law! And they should allow online cancellations, if you can sign up by filling in a form, you should be able to cancel with another form.

Rant over, thank you for reading! I am sorry for making it this long but I had to get it out so now I can laugh about it. :rotfl:

The_Pixi

I had a similar 'roundabout' conversation trying to cancel my 3 mobile broadband.

The Indian chap kept trying to change my mind, telling me I was a good customer who hadn't missed any payments etc.

He started looking at my usage and trying to get me down to a lower contract, asking questions like "What will you do for Internet when you're outside?"

After about 20 mins I finally had enough and told him that I didn't call for or even care about his advice!

I asked him if he was refusing to cancel my contract, to which he said he wasn't, but wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.

I told him to keep his opinions to himself and go ahead and cancel the bloody contract.

He did, and no further problems...

end result? I would never ever use Three 3 Mobile and I would discourage anyone who asked my opinion.

isplumm

well my wife had a contract with 3g - took 1 hour to cancel the contract.

In the end I just kept saying "cancel the contract" @ everything he said - until he got the message.

I wouldn't use 3g if they were the last mobile company on earth!!!!!!!!

:mad:

Mark

bribri_2

I enjoyed my hour I spent trying to cancel a mobile broadband account.

I marvelled at the guy's persistency as I said I didn't want the contract because even at £5/ month it was money I didn't need to spend. Then he said I could have a contact with a greater download allowance and I reminded him I didn't want to spend any more money

Then I was delighted in his every effort to offer me something else to stay with them. He offered me a galaxy tab if I signed a contract to pay even more per month and I reminded him I didn't want to spend any more money.

Eventually I just had to say it wasn't them it was me and we couldn't stay as friends.

emoaty

I had the same problem - I started another post on here about it actually.

I phone three to cancel my mobile broadband at the end of a two year contract and was given a 'new ownership' code. This was a code that I could give to someone else and they could take over my broadband contract. Although I told them that I had no intention of giving this code to anyone because there was no-one I knew who would want the code they still gave it to me. Because they gave me this code either someone new was supposed to phone back with it to say they were taking over or I was supposed to phone back and say that nobody wanted the code so still wanted to cancel the contract within 30 days as that was how long the code lasted for. Now, because the phone reception was so poor and I could bearly understand the guy I was speaking to he could have told me this and I just didnt understand him but as far as I was concerned the contract was finished. Oh, and he also told me that I would recieve my final bill which I never did.

About a month later I started getting phone calls from them and when I eventually spoke to them they told me that I owed them money?! I said that I had called to cancel the contract but was told that because my details had not been verified the first time (how is this possible?? after he asked me my details we started talking about my account!!) the contract had not been cancelled! So the contract was cancelled this time and I was told to wait for the final bill. After al this I tried to send a complaint using their complaint form online but it didnt work...

Couple of days later I get another phone call from them asking for their money which to be fair I did owe them as it was for the month before I had tried to cancel the contract in the first place.

I got my final bill the other day and just tried to phone up and pay it but their automated system didnt recognise the number...

Never, ever ever using three again, completely and utterly useless... I rarely get angry but this is just.... :mad:

Faith177

I've had worst I was in Montreal when my phone stopped sending text's. Called 3 the woman didn't even know where Canada was! I told her it's above America and she still didn't get it!

I then rang them to check I wouldn't be charged more to use my phone in Belfast it took 20 mins to get the answer out of them as they couldn't make up their minds if Belfast was in North or Southern Ireland!!