3 Retention Deals

bluemoonrising

I came over to Three a little over a year ago. I notified them in May 2012 I no longer wanted to continue with the 12 month contract and was told my account would close on June 10th - a month's notice. I called back on June 1st asking for my PAC code.After considerable aggravation where I was put through a customer retention agent trying unsuccessfully to price match and I was wanting to put my kids to bed I was finally told if I wanted my PAC code I would have to pay a fee or I would have to wait 30 days and call back then. I asked why I had to wait another 30 days for a free PAC code as I had given a months notice 20 days previously and they said as I had not asked for the PAC code 30 days would start on June 1st. I have been on vacation and biusiness trips and finally I called last week (August 3rd) to request the PAC code to say it had expired.
I am told nothing can be done. I am so angry as I should have been told to ring back before 30 days not after 30 days and they can pull the tapes and check. I made my complaint clear last Friday and was only called back today by Cheena a manager - if he is a manager he has no authority, responsibility or accountability. Still no joy - what can I do?

KTF

Asking for your PAC code triggers the 30 days notice as a PAC is valid for 30 days.

When was the end of your contract as you can ask for a PAC 30 days before this otherwise it goes on to a rolling contract and they bill you from each month onwards.

The call from May should be recorded so if you call them up they should pass you to a manager who will get the recording.

al-kateb

BTW Three has introduced PAC auto-issuing service, which means there is no need to talk to one of their representatives to get the code. Good time to leave Three without too much stress

KTF

Do you have the details on how to use this service?

al-kateb

I called them yesterday twice. Went through the standard set of options (want to leave Three) and was redirected to PAC Auto-issuing service. The last question was something like "If you want to leave 3 please press ...". When I called them the first time, I was so surprised that I decided to talk to one of their advisers. He suggested me to use this Service.

Did it for my wife last month. It took me around 50 minutes to get PAC.

KTF

Interesting. I guess that saves them time on the phone offering the same deals as you can get as a new customer and frees up more agents to call you back 'to make sure you got the PAC ok' and offer you a proper retention deal.

I wonder if it warns you that if you get the PAC before the contract term ends you will be charged the remainder of the contract. If not then I can see a few complaints arising from that.

al-kateb

I guess so. But as you have your PAC (I got mine in less then one hour in text message with note on the expiry date), you can hang up on them any moment you feel bored ;-).

Don't know. I was on one month rolling contract.

dan7hughes

rang up today to give 30 day notice as online upgrades were rubbish, and can get a much better deal on an S3 through mobiles.co.uk.

Took about 45 mins to give notice and get a PAC code issued. The woman spent a lot of time trying to tell me the deal through mobiles.co. would be dodgy.

Only things offered were:
Current deal on £12 a month rolling contract sim only. Then I can get a fantastic deal when the Iphone 5 comes out (even though they won't offer me a fantastic deal on anything else).
£25 a month with Experia P and decent amount of stuff on tarif, similar to the £27 ultimate internet available to new customers..... however if i were a new customer i could get £70 cashback with this deal making it effectively £24pm.

senorsombrero

Per the prior post, if noticed 3 seem to say that deals elsewhere are 'dodgy' a lot. Is there any comeback to this to get them to stop it there and then I.e. surely saying such a thing is slander.
Just asking as I will be upgrading soon and know they will say the exact same to me about other retailers being dodgy, etc.

KTF

What about saying that you work for the company that they are saying is dodgy and you will be speaking to the companies legal team about what they are saying when you finish on the phone :P