Three - The company, and handset from hell!

sc03tye

Hey up!

Last September I happily went into Phones4U to 'look' for a new phone/contract. As they do..they sit you down until you sign on the dotted line... deed done!

I got a Sony Ericsson K800i, on 3. I kind of knew of the mistake..., or should I say, 2 mistakes I made that very day.

1. Buying a SE phone..with THE joystick of DEATH. A lot of SE users are aware of the dredded problem, in that, the joystick fails to respond to movements made (now and then..). This is usually down to dirt, or so I'm told.

2. Going with 3! - call centre's abroad..or wherever they are.. no disrespect but the people are like bloody robots!!

Within the first week of owning it, the joystick problem occured. Why do I bother thinking a company will fix a well known problem...what a plonk I am hey. Obviously this is SE I'm on about..not 3.

The phone was promptly replaced with new, at Phones4U within the 14days (they saw the problem first hand..and if I remember correctly, I didn't even need to tell them what the problem was!..must have been a busy returns day!).

There after, it may have worked on and off for some time, but the issue just continued to haunt.

The dates of calls I logged with 3 are listed below.

16/09/2006 16:53:24 Phone checked - Updated firmware - No joystick issue found
24/04/2007 14:48:36 Phone checked - No problem found - Sent refurbished phone
28/04/2007 13:12:44 Phone checked - Updated firmware
03/05/2007 14:13:19 Phone checked - No problem found
03/06/2007 21:24:45 Phone checked - No problem found - Sent refurbished phone
18/08/2007 18:39:00 .... It's with them now... (excuse me while I scream!)

One thing to note here is that when they send the refurb's out, they replace the presumably working housing/facia with my original.

Now I've had a few phones..all supposably working.., will it not have occured to them that it might be a problem with the facia.. which should be covered by the warranty.., which you can't remove without voiding the warrantly..., which is probably part of a bad design..??!

Guys, what can I do!?? opinions? I asked for a contact to take this further (while I was last on the phone to them) and all they mustered up was a customer service email address. I have mailed them with a complaint stating pretty much what I have put here. I also included a copy of the email in the package which was sent to the phone repair centre..just so they know what's been going on..(if they read it..).

Is this kind of thing something I can cancel my contract over? - I'm getting fed up of them sending a phone back to me and it's no better than what I sent off. And then there's the 3 days..at least.., when I'm without a phone..which sounds stupid, but is like tying my hands behind my back.

Your input is very welcome MSE'ers!

ianjamie7

3 are a nightmare. I went with 3 when they first came onto the scene as I had always wanted a phone that you could do video calling on and also watch the footy highlights. I told them exactly what I wanted it, for but they failed to tell me that to do video calling you had to be in a 3G area, which I am not. That was not the real problem though, the real problem came when I received my 2nd mobile bill, bearing in my mind I was on a contract and it was something like 500 free mins, 50 texts for £35 month. The bill came to £300 so I queried it and actually recorded the phone call and the person I spoke to told me the bill was wrong and it would be sorted, so i left it at that until I received next month`s bill. I feel like crying whilst typing this but anyway the bill came to £600 so thats £900 in 2 months, so again I phoned up and again I recorded the call just for proof for myself and thought that maybe I might just need this,even though I know it won`t stand up in a court of law(tht`s what I was told anyway). Again they admitted after over an hour on the phone that it was their mistake and I would be refunded. I waited a couple of weeks and heard nothing but obviously I had refused to pay these outrageous bills, but then I received a letter through my door saying the bailiff`s would be around in 3 days time if I didn`t pay. At the time I was living with my parents and have never seen any letters like this before in my life as I have always paid everything on time, and you know what Mum`s are like, "you better pay this as I don`t want bailiff`s knocking on my door". After several calls back to 3 talking to the highest person in charge wherever I was phoning they denied ever telling me I had been over charged even though I told them I had it all recorded. £900 down and still suffering years later as this actually started getting me bank chargess because I got overdrawn when taking the £900 out. I don`t wanna talk about bank charges. I am sorry for long post but I feel I must make it clear to everyone that 3 are the worst company I have ever had to deal with and I do feel that they don`t care about after sales service.
I would tell them that for every day you are withoput your phone, you should not have to pay any contract money and you are losing business through it(even if you are not) and require some sort of compensation. Since I got ripped off I have learnt that as soon as you tell them you require compensation then it normally gets sorted a lot quicker. Good Luck. You will need it!

rash.m2k

Send a letter to

Lisa Kidd,
3 Executive Office,
123 St. Vincent Street,
Glasgow,
G2 5EA.

Give them 28 days to solve the problem, if they do not then forward your complaint onto Otelo.

Thats what I did and I got a call from the executive office yesterday.

sc03tye

Thanks for the address! I'll be getting something written off and in the post tomorrow...pending what I get delivered back to me tomorrow..! (I'll get typing..!! lol).

..I'll also mention the compensation, it's just rediculous. Watch this space!

zorber

thanks for the address i might use it my self

sc03tye

well... I got my phone back... a day late... but hey, it actually looks to work this time :eek:. Let's see how long this lasts....

yini3

When i had a problem a few years ago with a three phone (think it was an lg) i sent it back for repair. When it returned they still hadnt fixed it so i rung up again and told them. They then said the would send me a new phone due to the failings by the repair department. So i got a new phone...