Three 321 SIM charges increase 200% to 500% from 16 Feb 2021

Yorkshire_Pud

leadhead said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

I’ve recently made a complaint via the Ombudsman against three. Three responded and said because I continued to use the service after 16/02/2021 I had accepted their tariff increase. Therefore they would offer no reward/award.

Fortunately our sim was replaceble. I was so intent on winning this, I removed the sim from the phone before the deadline date, because I expected Three to "cheat" in some way. As I mentioned to you earlier in a PM, the Ombudsman has found in my favour, but Three have until some time in June to object. I will report further on this when either Three pay up, or I hear from the Ombudsman.

I would persist with Three until they tell you that you have reached "deadlock"......Then get the opinion of the Ombudsman

I’ve already got the ombudsman involved and the case is ready for them to adjudicate.
I reached deadlock with three in January!
Doesnt surprise me to hear they still haven’t paid up!

getmore4less

Finally ran down my 321 £5 credit(over 6 month) to under 20p, fired up the O2 classic and ported number over.
Much better signal in house is a bonus as 3 WiFi calls were not compatible with my Poco X3(calls fail after ~2min).

£10 min top is going to last a while on O2.
I have 200MB free from 3 on a data reward second SIM which is currently managing the off wifi data use.

Spare phone now has a data reward getting 200MB a month and zero credit so can't spend excess.

gwapenut

I'm not expecting Virgin to be as good at honouring the classic prices as o2 for too long...

getmore4less

If the o2 classic goes it might have to be the sky mobile £42 3y deal

SpanishBlue

getmore4less said:

If the o2 classic goes it might have to be the sky mobile £42 3y deal

Have you looked at Asda PAYG, 4p a minute, a text & 1MB of data.

https://mobile.asda.com/pay-as-you-go

Yorkshire_Pud

Yorkshire_Pud said:

leadhead said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

I’ve recently made a complaint via the Ombudsman against three. Three responded and said because I continued to use the service after 16/02/2021 I had accepted their tariff increase. Therefore they would offer no reward/award.

Fortunately our sim was replaceble. I was so intent on winning this, I removed the sim from the phone before the deadline date, because I expected Three to "cheat" in some way. As I mentioned to you earlier in a PM, the Ombudsman has found in my favour, but Three have until some time in June to object. I will report further on this when either Three pay up, or I hear from the Ombudsman.

I would persist with Three until they tell you that you have reached "deadlock"......Then get the opinion of the Ombudsman

I’ve already got the ombudsman involved and the case is ready for them to adjudicate.
I reached deadlock with three in January!
Doesnt surprise me to hear they still haven’t paid up!

Received my adjudication from the ombudsman. Not upheld, no remedy or reward.
Long slightly pro Three in my view but basically terms 4.1 and 4.2 of the contract I never signed mean three can increase their prices whenever they want and by continuing the service after 16 February I ‘accepted’ threes t&c. 

I can decline the decision but have to offer ‘new’ evidence.

So the moral of the story is if a big company doesn’t care about goodwill and is prepared to rip off its customer of seven years for £9 credit then I wish Three all the ‘luck’ they deserve in the future with their wonderful business practices.

Oh and read the t&c. Even if they change them after the original offer of ‘great rates that won’t  go up’. Ombudsman thinks that was OK then but things change! So on the side of business not me.

And don’t load up your payg phone with too much credit. I didn’t and it’s no big deal to me apart from feeling ripped off but I will not knowingly go near Three ever again.

gwapenut

Sadly, they're not the worst. I remember when Vodafone took over TalkMobile and gave their PAYG customers 2 months to use their credit or lose it because they only wanted the Pay Monthly business. No refunds offered (though the ombudsman had other views on that). But, essentially, it was theft of credit, sometimes of the order of £50 which was about the level at which the Ombudsman got off its backside and started to take a passing interest.

It's not that they charged higher rates and wouldn't refund - they just fancied some extra cash from their takeover and thought up a good way of stealing it. Really scabby behaviour.

When Asda originally changed from Vodafone to EE, they also thought their customers could foot the tranfer bill by stealing any uunsed credit after a couple of months. They thought better of it in the end.

Yorkshire_Pud

gwapenut said:r

Sadly, they're not the worst. I remember when Vodafone took over TalkMobile and gave their PAYG customers 2 months to use their credit or lose it because they only wanted the Pay Monthly business. No refunds offered (though the ombudsman had other views on that). But, essentially, it was theft of credit, sometimes of the order of £50 which was about the level at which the Ombudsman got off its backside and started to take a passing interest.

It's not that they charged higher rates and wouldn't refund - they just fancied some extra cash from their takeover and thought up a good way of stealing it. Really scabby behaviour.

When Asda originally changed from Vodafone to EE, they also thought their customers could foot the tranfer bill by stealing any uunsed credit after a couple of months. They thought better of it in the end.

Yes I got my refund from Asda after they received unwanted publicity. In also got £35 from the ceo of carphone wharehouse when they tried the same tactic with their fresh tariff after a query from Paul Lewis.

Think I should have gone to Paul Lewis again for three. It’s obviously been done a few times now.

If only there was a regulator to protect us. And an ombudsman that isn’t on the side of big business and sharp practice.

gwapenut

Strange, isn't it. If a shop went bankrupt, people would expect to lose their gift cards.
But if a shop were just sold to another owner, and they tried to cancel gift cards with 2 months' notice, they'd be shat on by Trading Standards.
Why are the rules different for telecoms companies?

Another trick they use is applying RPI increases at annual (12 month) rates of inflation, but sometimes every 11 months. How is that even legal? 12 month RPI only works if it's applied every 12 months. Taken to an extreme, if you tried to apply a year's inflation every month, you'd soon be caught out. But they know just how far to push things without waking the Ombudsman from their nap.

leadhead

Yorkshire_Pud said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

leadhead said:

Yorkshire_Pud said:

I’ve recently made a complaint via the Ombudsman against three. Three responded and said because I continued to use the service after 16/02/2021 I had accepted their tariff increase. Therefore they would offer no reward/award.

Fortunately our sim was replaceble. I was so intent on winning this, I removed the sim from the phone before the deadline date, because I expected Three to "cheat" in some way. As I mentioned to you earlier in a PM, the Ombudsman has found in my favour, but Three have until some time in June to object. I will report further on this when either Three pay up, or I hear from the Ombudsman.

I would persist with Three until they tell you that you have reached "deadlock"......Then get the opinion of the Ombudsman

I’ve already got the ombudsman involved and the case is ready for them to adjudicate.
I reached deadlock with three in January!
Doesnt surprise me to hear they still haven’t paid up!

Received my adjudication from the ombudsman. Not upheld, no remedy or reward.
Long slightly pro Three in my view but basically terms 4.1 and 4.2 of the contract I never signed mean three can increase their prices whenever they want and by continuing the service after 16 February I ‘accepted’ threes t&c. 

I can decline the decision but have to offer ‘new’ evidence.

So the moral of the story is if a big company doesn’t care about goodwill and is prepared to rip off its customer of seven years for £9 credit then I wish Three all the ‘luck’ they deserve in the future with their wonderful business practices.

Oh and read the t&c. Even if they change them after the original offer of ‘great rates that won’t  go up’. Ombudsman thinks that was OK then but things change! So on the side of business not me.

And don’t load up your payg phone with too much credit. I didn’t and it’s no big deal to me apart from feeling ripped off but I will not knowingly go near Three ever again.

I removed the sim from the phone before the 16th of February, so cheating Three couldnt accuse me of using it after that date(and if doing so...accepting their new T&C's)...I decided to leave Three regardless of any decision made. In the end, Three made me an offer to refund my credit which I refused, as I had by then, involved the Ombudsman. After 6 weeks or so(the stipulated waiting time), the decision went in my favour, Three paid up and the Ombudsman got me an extra £30 (which I didnt ask for or expect) for Three's bad customer service practices.  I knew all along I would win this, even though Three's T&C's said it wouldn't refund. I'm glad I went through the ombudsman, and can only thank them for the £30 compensation on top of my £13 credit refund, which, Three had already offered me(after they got word of the ombudsman being involved).