Network Busy on three

kevinmcc

Over the last few days I have constantly been getting network busy when trying to make a call on three. I do not have 3G coverage so I am using Vodafones mast. My sister who is also with three has the same issue. I rang them yesterday about it where I was told I should turn off my phone and manually select the netork three :rolleyes:

After being put on hold the agent came back and told me that they were experiencing service difficulties in Dumfries and Galloway and was that anywhere near me? It's not even the same bloody country! She then put me back on hold and came back to me and said you have been with us since 2005, unfortunately we do not have coverage in your area! At this stage I was on the phone for over 20 minutes to them and getting nowhere, after nearly 30 minutes she said she would escalate the problem to techinical support, needless to say 24 hours later still not working, gave them another ring and they tell me to wait 48 hours, their indian customer support is a complete joke, they're never going to make gains into the irish market without some customer support presence in Ireland.

Urban Weigl

1.6% market share. That is all I have to say.

legs11

as peter griffith would say

unfreakin real

Random

She told you about UK coverage issues? Love it

kevinmcc

Well finally after countless phone calls to Three and faxes to their Head Office the network busy issue was fixed. I had been told on Wednesday by Three that their network was not at fault and had to again get the issue escalated. I had made a complaint to three re their customer service and ways of handling the issue and funnily enough several hours after the problem was fixed their Glasgow office rang me to apolgise for their errors in handling the issue and to admit that they were at fault. Turns out that vodafone had an outage in the mast close to where I live for serveral days, as a goodwill gesture they gave me one months free line rental, ok i suppose but at the end of the day it was an awful experience dealing with Three.

I have pasted all the letters I have had to send to Three below.

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12/6/07

Dear Sir,

Re: Three Customer Care and Service Interruption

Further to recent attempts to correspond with 3 Customer Service in India I have no other option than to raise this matter with 3 Ireland Head Office. I have since in or around the 8th June 2007 been experiencing difficulties when trying to make calls on the three network. I am constantly getting a ‘Network Busy’ message, however I am usually able to receive calls and send and receive text messages. The problem seems to only occur from one particular town (I am in Donegal so my three signal is coming from the Vodafone Ireland agreement) and when I move outside my hometown area and on to different masts my handset works fine. I would like to point out that I know of two people also with Three in my area who have the exact same problem since approximately 8th June last thus showing that the problem lies with Three/Vodafone’s network / mast.

When I reported the fault to Three on Saturday 9th June I was first of all placed on hold and then advised that Three had issues with a site at Dumfries and Galloway and was I anywhere near there. With respect Dumfries and Galloway is in Scotland and therefore serviced by Three UK, I am in Ireland, I know that the Indian call centre might have poor geography of Ireland but surely getting two different countries mixed up is ridiculous. I was then told by the agent that I have been with Three since 2005 but that she checked and they do not have coverage in my area. I informed her that Three have a roaming agreement with Vodafone Ireland to provide coverage which Three do not service, I felt like I knew more about the company than the employees. After talking to the agent for over twenty minutes the fault was finally escalated to Technical Support and I was advised that it should be resolved within 24 hours.

On Sunday 10th June 2007 my issue was still not resolved and after ringing Three customer care I was assured that someone would be in touch that day. Needless to say this was not the case and I was advised that it may well take up to 48 hours but that they were very hopeful my issue would be resolved as of Monday 11th June and that my case would be made a priority.

Yesterday, Monday 11th June I again contacted Three as I could still not make outgoing calls and was advised that there was no update available from Technical Support, that I should hear back from them tomorrow. At this point my hope faded as I had initially been told 24 hours, then 48 and now I was being told 72. I asked to speak to technical support but was told they were unavailable. The agent informed me that I “should get a call from technical support tomorrow”, not even a definite answer. I enquired as to where Three’s technical team were based to which the agent told me India. With the greatest respect how is a technical support team in India supposed to deal with a network issue with a mast in Donegal, Ireland? Is it because of your technical team being based in India the reason why this has not yet been rectified, I am not sure it has even been looked into in any detail. Unfortunately it appears that the Indian Customer Service team have received minimal training from Three Ireland from my recent experiences as the staff I have dealt with have quite poor English and are quite inexperienced in the telecommunications sector. It is poor experiences like this which will hamper the success of Three Ireland.

I have two months remaining on my contract with three and it is with regret that if this problem is not dealt with and rectified immediately that I am going to have to change operators. I will also be seeking remittance for the days I have been without service. If it is necessary for me to leave Three and change to another network as I am not able to make calls I hereby place Three on notice that on foot of doing same I will not be paying any early termination fees or remainder of line rental due as Three have breached their contract by not providing me with an adequate service. Any challenges by Three to try and recover such monies from me will be strenuously defended.

If you wish to contact me in relation to the above please feel free to on 083-XXXXXXX or in writing to the above address. I await hearing from you as a matter of the utmost urgency.

Yours faithfully,


______________
XXXXXXXXXXXXX



c.c Commission for Communications Regulation
and Three UK Head Office

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12/6/07

Dear Sir,

Re: Three Customer Care and Service Interruption

I refer to the above and to my previous letter (copy enclosed). I note that I have still not heard from Three in relation to my complaint and to queries raised. I have been contacted by Three Technical Support in India this morning shortly after 11.00am who asked me what problem I was having and was I based in Ireland or the UK. With all due respect both the problem and where I was based was made clear to Customer Service on numerous occasions since reporting the issue on Saturday 9th June last. The technical support representative then told me they would look into the issue and revert to me. It is looking increasingly likely that your technical support department have in fact not even looked at my issue until today, thus being confirmed by the fact that the agent was unsure as to whether I resided in Ireland or the UK. This is not the first instance I have had of the poor geographical knowledge of the support team. I am still waiting for an update in relation to this matter, Three technical support could provide me with no timescale as to when it could be resolved. I would also like to raise some more questions as to what steps Three have taken to try and resolve the issue which myself and two other people in my area are having since the problem was first reported, as this information is not forthcoming. I have helped Three in every way possible, by providing the telephone numbers of other effected customers as well as even identifying the possible mast which is at fault for this, however despite this the problem continues with no resolution in sight.

Despite writing to yourselves my concerns and complaint appears to have been ignored, as I am still awaiting a reply. I now ask Three to confirm whether or not I or the other effected customers on Three Ireland who have reported this fault will be penalised or will have to pay any outstanding line rental due on our contract if we wish to switch operators, due to the fact Three has failed to resolve the issue. As you are aware this issue has been escalated over 72 hours ago to your Technical Support Team. I have also been told by Customer Service that my issue is now a “priority” and that a “special request” has been sent to Technical Support to deal with same, however despite these claims Three have failed to provide me, or others with what steps they have taken to resolve the issue and what they intend to do. Once again I may be contacted on 083 XXXXXXXX or XXXXXXX. I await hearing from you and shall keep you appraised of all developments.

Yours sincerely,

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15/6/07

Dear Sir,

Re: Three Customer Care and Service Interruption

Further to my letters of the 12th June last I await hearing from you. I did say I would keep you appraised of all developments and therefore I have some new information I would like to inform you of.

On the 13th June I spoke to a member of Three Customer Services in India who advised me that the problem had been identified and that they were now working to resolve the issue. I asked customer services where I could find Three Ireland’s Code of Practice for handling complaints as every operator must have same on their website and be able to direct a consumer to it when asked, as laid down by Comreg (Telecommunications Regulator) and as stated on their website www.askcomreg.ie The operator informed me that Three did not have a Code of Practice for handling complaints and suggest I make a legal complaint to Comreg. I find it alarming that this information is not available from Three Customer Service and even more alarming that same does not exist.

On the 14th June I received a call from Three Technical Support in India asking me to ring the contact centre. When I did I spoke to an agent who advised me that Three had completed their investigations and that there was nothing wrong with their network. As you can imagine at this point I was extremely annoyed and upset that Three could come out with such a statement, especially since (a) – The advisor on the 13th June advised me that Three had identified the problem and were now working to resolve the issue and (b) more importantly there are also two other Three customers in my area with the exact same problem which started occurring at the exact same time as my own, thus confirming that there is a problem within the network. The agent suggested I try some troubleshooting steps and proceeded to ask me to enter in codes to cancel diverts on my phone. With all due respect this had been done in my initial telephone call to Three and with the other two customers effected and failed to solve the issue so I was not prepared to repeat this step. I then asked to speak to a manager. I was placed on hold and an agent from technical support spoke to me. He advised me the delay was due to the length of time Vodafone took to revert to Three and that Vodafone had advised Three that everything was running fine. The agent also informed me that Three’s Engineers had checked the masts in the area and that all were running normal. I then once again proceeded to tell technical support that the problem which occurs, seems to only do so in the town of XXXXXX, I have full signal in this town yet I continue to receive the ‘Network Busy’ message when trying to make a call and people ringing get diverted to my voicemail. This is the same for the other two effected customers on Three. As I move 10 to 15 miles outside the town and log onto another mast I do not have any problems, thus meaning that the fault must lie with a mast either in the town of XXXXXX or relatively close to it. My understanding is that Three to do not have masts in this area so the fault may lie with a Vodafone mast which Three is using to provide coverage with. Needless to say whether or not this is the case same needs to be rectified as quickly as possible. Even though I have provided Three with all this information, they still have not been able to resolve same. I have even given my undertaking to Three that if they are so sure that the network is not at fault I will pay for any travelling expenses occurred for someone from Three to come to the effected area if they can prove that they are not at fault, however this would be subject to arranging a mutually convenient date and time.

As of today 14th June I have been told by technical support that they would escalate the issue with Vodafone and revert to me within the next 24 hours. I can only hope that a Manager from Three Ireland will have the courtesy to also contact me shortly in relation to all the queries and concerns I have raised about your company and to ensure that this issue is fixed as quickly as possible.

I would also like to point out that I have tried contacting your Head Office in Dublin on 00353 1 5426300 and that all I can seem to get is an answering service saying that the office is open from 9 – 5.30 despite me ringing within these hours. I had asked your Head Office in Glasgow why there was no answer from the Dublin office but unfortunately they did not know and told me that they would raise the issue with one of the Managers.

I now await hearing from Three in relation to the above and to my letters of the 12th June last and I shall, of course, as always keep you appraised of all developments.

Yours sincerely,

Bulmers

if u can receive calls and txts, not sure if Vodafone issue, if Vodafone were down in the area that long, you would hear...being able to receive but not call points to a core network issue but if this was the case, alot more suscribers be affected and would be known..

i'm sure Vodafone would have a different story..

well put complaints btw...

legs11

can you write complaints like that for me dude.....:D