beware: bags of tricks 3 tries to pull out to keep its customer

yz324

This is a sort of a rant/warning post. I wonder if someone had similiar experience.

I had a contract with 3 until last month. I now actually want to get the new 3 contract for 6.90 a month. I found this to be 4.89 on billmoniter, but now it is gone :S, but when I first called them I did not know. - however there still exists cashback offers cheaper than buying from 3 direct. Also, I personally found 3 signals to be highly unreliable, maybe I will switch anyway.

The thing is I will be away soon for 2 months and I want to cancel my current contract and start a new one when I come back but they have been ridiculously difficult. When I called in, told them I want to transfer my phone number to pay as you go. The first guy offered a 8.00 a month contract - for a moment, i thought, oh wow, that sounds cheap, then i asked what was the phone, it
was an Al Catel 903 - a complete piece of junk, given that I already have a Galaxy S2. This guy tells me that though I may not like their current offer, I might like future ones. seriously, boy, you think this kind of empty promise would fool me? I think I made a mistake renewing my previous contract.

Then another guy calls a few hours later, tells me he is the other guy's manager, tried to persuade me, offered me 2000 extra mins a month. I use less than 150, so what is the point? This guy tells me in the future, i might have a family etc, !!!!!!? I told him I will be away and won't be using it, so i want the contract to start later. This guy pulls out his calculator and to tried to do the maths, i told him to stop, told him I have a maths degree and doing a maths PhD and I really dont want to listen any more after 20 mins.

Together, these 2 guy wasted 50 mins of my life but that did not stop them from trying. A 3rd guy tried to call me just now, I said 'oh, no, not again, I am not interested'

I do not understand, why they tried to get me to renew even though I was planning to buy a new 3 contract anyway, though not through them? I also really disliked the whole experience. It was 3 indian salesmen trying to hardsale me things I clearly did not want.

HereAgain_2

I just wasted a minute of my life....

grumbler

Al Catel sounds like "Al" Capone

dazzaofdagenham

Just come to the end of a years contract with 3 for a Internet mi.fi dongle which I was paying about 11 pounds per month which included. 25% discount.

The allowance was 5GB per month and I said I wanted to cancel as I wasn't using it much, well if that had checked I was USING all the allowance all the time.

So after a bit of a battle on the phone I am now paying 2.50 month for the same deal, ok I've agreed to a new 12 month term.

Good for me eh ?

jd87

This seems to be 3's business strategy. Pull people in with cheap deals but then NEVER let them leave. Took me two weeks and about 2 hours actually on the phone to cancel a contract with them once.

Guys_Dad

jd87 wrote: »

This seems to be 3's business strategy. Pull people in with cheap deals but then NEVER let them leave. Took me two weeks and about 2 hours actually on the phone to cancel a contract with them once.

It's what I call the "Hotel California" strategy.