More tips for complaints

I recently received an email from a lovely girl called Amy giving me some additional tips to assist you with getting a complaint resolution:

The persistent demanding of a deadlock letter is amazing - the first time I asked for it I was transferred to a manager (which I had previously had been told was impossible), I continued to disagree with their awful offer (they wanted me to pay £25 for a phone I had on my 3 contract 3 years ago or a free Nokia 3120 which is worth £80 less than a Nokia 6500s). I was told to email the executive office with my request for a deadlock letter (Executive.Office@three.co.uk) but they were got Auto response saying they didn't deal with such requests. So I managed to get a lovely 3 shop employee to give me this:

Executive Office, 3, DIRECT LINE (+44) 08707 330 295, Executive.Office@three.co.uk

The lady was lovely enough to tell me how to make sure you email got through to the Executive Office so that your complaint could be investigated - in the subject header type: DEADLOCK LETTER in big capitals and to say FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE in the subject too. The 3 store employee told me to send this email as many times as you feel necessary (I sent off 20 in quick succession with the subject DEADLOCK LETTER NOW).

The 3 store employee also said that I should be persistent with the 333 call centre and demand that they organise you a deadlock letter as you feel you have done enough and that you feel that you email can be ignored. They will say they cannot do this, but if you get put through to a senior enough manager they are authorised to do it for you even if they do this still demand to speak to the head of the call centre. This way 2 people are investigating your problem which means it should be sorted earlier.

Less than 24 hours after the big boss of the Indian call centre called me and offered me a one time special offer of a free nokia e71 and some compensation. I hope everyone else is able to get a similarly good resolution.

Thanks Amy!

Cancelling your contract and still getting charged?

I have actually had a few emails now from people who have cancelled their contracts and still been charged by Three. Worse still, they receive threatening calls/emails/letters from the overseas/indian call centres requesting payment.

Other cases include Three customers reaching the end of the contract term and Three call center advisers refusing to issue PAC codes for customers to transfer their numbers to more reliable networks. All of this is absolutely not acceptable!

Wherever possible try and contact the executive office address and I will keep hunting for UK telephone numbers and emails.

I will be looking more into this but please keep emailing me with your cases and if you are in the middle of a complaints procedure, let me know how they are getting on so I can advise other visitors to this site.

Latest Complaint email recieved

Regarding unsolcited charges by Three. Customer is currently making his complaint with customer services.

My £15 per month contract with 3 had ended in August 2008 and I contacted 3 customer services to ask for a pay-as-you-go service in October 2008. Unfortunately customer services were not happy with allowing me to go to pay-as-you-go (PAYG); They tried to convince me that there were better services and phones available. 15 minutes of repeating my wishes to go PAYG later I was put on hold as I was transferred onto another customer services advisor to “confirm” my choice of going to PAYG. My wife Sarah was listening to the conversation and found it quite humorous that my simple request was being blatantly ignored.
I was then talking to a customer service advisor called LENE DASS: she was going to offer me a better phone at the same cost of £15 a month. I implicitly told her that I do not use a phone enough to justify £15 a month an that I was more than happy with the phone I had: a Sony Ericsson K800i. She continued to haggle with me that a better phone for £15 a month would be wiser than PAYG. I reiterated numerous times:
· I don’t use my mobile phone enough to justify £15 per month
· I mainly use it for emergencies and as a camera phone.
She then tried to convince me that another phone with less megapixels and a xenon flash would be a better camera phone than my k800i but I was not going to change my mind. Then Lene Dass offered me the Sony Ericsson C902 (as I was on the internet at the time I could bring up the phone and confirm that it was a true upgrade).
Beyond any shadow of a doubt I continued to reiterate I would not pay more than £15 pound a month and that’s all I would pay. Lene Dass had mentioned a video call package and I was adamant that this would be of no use to me and that I would not pay more than £15 a month. I had her implicit assurances that I would not be paying more than £15 a month. I made her assure me several times as there was something in her voice that raised my concerns that she was not telling me the truth: a wavering in her tone that made me concerned that she did not seem confident and clear with her assurances. I made her repeat her promises to me and I repeated my terms: NO MORE THAN £15 PER MONTH.
When I checked my bank statement online I noticed a large payment to 3:
· £105.64 on the 21st Nov 2008.
I checked my 3 statement online and realised that I had been charged £76.596 (ex vat) for a device upgrade charge.

I called back to 3 customer services (Sunday 14th Dec 08) and spoke to a man named Zoficar who assured me that I must have agreed to this charge. I find that insulting to anyone’s intelligence that they could miss such a large payment. He would arrange for Lene Dass to phone me within 24hs.
Lene Dass called me around 9am on Monday 15th December 08. The conversation was deeply upsetting and unpleasant. Lene Dass continually lied to me and told me that she had listened to the tape of our conversation and I had agreed to pay the £90 for the phone and that she had evidence. The idea is preposterous, I asked to speak with a supervisor and eventually I talked to a man who identified himself as Riveed. He assured me that he would listen to the tape and would contact me within 5 days.
Today is the 13th of January 2009 almost a full month has past since I spoke with Riveed: I have received no phone calls from 3. My mobile phone keeps a record of missed phone calls and there have been no phone calls from 3.