Three is awful - Worst company ever.

MilanPan!c

So I spent a few hundred quid about 10 months ago on a Sony Ericsson C905.

Killer phone with one fatal flaw, it breaks all the time.

Within 6 months it had spent a month in the shop.

Now after 10 months it's back in the shop again.

Three's policy is that, if a phone has to be fixed 3 times, it's replaced.

Unfortunately, they C905 was withdrawn and is no longer available.

So, they told me, "we can't follow our own policy" and that they'd refurbish it "as good as new".

This led me to calling 1913 (Three support) and asking them for help.

They told me to get a loan phone from the dealer, while my phone was "being refurbished" and that they would have a W995 (an sideways move) in stock by the 19th, at latest. They also said someone would call me.

On the 22nd I called tham and asked what was going on.

They said, "we can upgrade you for free to the 995 (I had been told I would be charged e20) but it won't be in until tomorrow. We will ship it to you and you will have it tomorrow".

So I said sure and signed up for another 12 months.

The 23rd came and no phone.

I called them back in the afternoon and gave 'em a bit of hell.

They swore up and down it would show up on Thursday, and they waived a month line rental and gave me 15% off all my line rental for the year.

I said to them, either get me a 995, or something better on Thursday, OR refund me the C905 money (as they sold me garbage and I still don't have a working phone) plus 2 months line rental and I'll take my business elsewhere.

So this morning, I call them and guess what.

They don't have the phone.

Should I even finish the story?

Over 10 months I have given them 800e and haven't had the phone I wanted for 2 of those months. Is that not illegal?

Never EVER use Three. They repeatedly lie, they sell faulty merchandise and they don't stand behind their products.

Now I just have to spend months fighting them to get money back.

Sounds fun.

Oh and the loan phone they gave me... well, it randomly does two things, on it's own:

1) signs me up to a premium service (it has done this three times in three weeks)

2) randomly blasts music, like during a meeting or while I'm driving


So what then, O2?

Totally pissed off.

justsomebloke

wow I've never heard of a phone breaking down before!!!!!

OP you are going to get shafted by who ever you are with it just happened to be with 3 this time. If you read through the forum you will find out that all the company's generally have the same rule i.e. phone has to be brought back 3 times before a replacement is given however with most other companies won't give you a discount or a months free line rental. So yes it's ****ty that it happened but don't think that by moving from 3 the service will be any better

MilanPan!c

Joe the Santa wrote: »

wow I've never heard of a phone breaking down before!!!!!

OP you are going to get shafted by who ever you are with it just happened to be with 3 this time. If you read through the forum you will find out that all the company's generally have the same rule i.e. phone has to be brought back 3 times before a replacement is given however with most other companies won't give you a discount or a months free line rental. So yes it's ****ty that it happened but don't think that by moving from 3 the service will be any better

The thing is, I have now been with out a (decent) phone for 3 weeks in a row.

They have made numerous promises and even sold me a phone they didn't have in stock.

They gave me that stuff because they admitted I was being quote, "screwed around".

If they lose me, that's a grand (or so) they'll lose.

At least if I switch I won't be rewarding their lies and incompetence with more money.

And hell, even meteor has better phones these days.

--

Btw. My bro-in-law has had his repaired twice in 6 months.

My friend Pete (hi Pete!) has had his repaired 3 times in about a year.

They're total garbage.

jimmycrackcorm

I don't think you can hold the network responsible for the quality of the phone. I also had a Three C905 and had no problems. In your case the customer service is truly crap however there are plenty of examples of people on all networks receiving bad customer service.

MilanPan!c

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I don't think you can hold the network responsible for the quality of the phone. I also had a Three C905 and had no problems. In your case the customer service is truly crap however there are plenty of examples of people on all networks receiving bad customer service.

I don't really, but they sold it long after they new people had problems.

And yea, I can back up that claim.

They also should've been more proactive in dealing with issues.

All companies are bad, but literally making and breaking numerous promises is just beyond bad.

I think people just take too much from these companies...

I wish I had your C905; this is the second personal day I've taken this week so I could be at home and receive the phone.

Maybe they aren't the worst company ever, but they certainly are the most duplicitous and incompetent company I've had the displeasure to deal with in ages.

drunkmonkey

MilanPan!c wrote: »

They have made numerous promises and even sold me a phone they didn't have in stock.

I presume your dealing with telesales going by what i've read. There's enough bricks & mortar stores that would have the phone in stock & give it to you there and then. They probably still can, go into one and see can give you your upgrade. NEVER BUY ANYTHING THAT SOMEONE DOES NOT HAVE YET!

C905 was a pretty bad phone all round regardless of networks, It either worked or was riddled with problems, There's a 2yr warranty i'd give up wasting your time getting 3 to replace it and go straight to sony ericsson and give them hell until they throw you out a new phone (not a c905)

jimmycrackcorm

MilanPan!c wrote: »

I wish I had your C905; this is the second personal day I've taken this week so I could be at home and receive the phone.

Actually I lost it in a taxi so someone somewhere has it now:( anyway I ended up going back to my trusty N95.

Drunkmonkeys post just made me recall that it actually did have a fault - it was a common one as I searched online about it - something to do with the speaker not working. I dropped it into my local store and collected it three days later repaired. So CS is not always that bad....

Beno

A little off topic but has anyone else noticed the amount of problems that people are having with SE, allot of my friends seem to have quality issues.

The funniest(or unfortunate) one being, A girl has just bought her first new phone ever, she is 23, after a host of hand me downs. And its awful. there is a significant delay between when you press a button and when it registers. Like what slow computers tend to do.

This is on a brand new SE W205. No bells and whistles, but phones have been around long enough to expect that the basics like entering phone numbers and writing text not to slow down a modern if cheap phone

Beno

So maybe its more the fault of SE rather than three. And therefore the 3 should be replaced with SE.

btw i'm a happy 3 and (ironically) happy SE customer

Gekko

There was a bad batch of C905s.

They were utter ****e in my opinion.

Breezer

Joe the Santa wrote: »

If you read through the forum you will find out that all the company's generally have the same rule i.e. phone has to be brought back 3 times before a replacement is given however with most other companies won't give you a discount or a months free line rental. So yes it's ****ty that it happened but don't think that by moving from 3 the service will be any better

To my knowledge, O2's policy is that if the phone develops a fault within the warranty period they will replace it upfront. The replacement may itself be a refurbished model, but that's equivalent to getting a repair done on your own unit really, you just don't have to wait.

More importantly though, OP, you don't have to accept the "brought back 3 times" policy. It is illegal under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, 1980. This act states that if a purchased item is "unfit for its intended purpose" (i.e. faulty), you/the retailer (it doesn't specify which of you) can opt to have it repaired, replaced, or refunded. If you opt for a repair, as you did the first time, the repair should be permanent. Therefore, if this second problem you're having is the same issue you had the first time, you are now entitled to a replacement or a full refund of the purchase price, and can pursue that through the Small Claims Court. It may take a few months, but you'll win*, the law is black and white (I've successfully got money back from Meteor on one occasion this way).

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I don't think you can hold the network responsible for the quality of the phone.

You absolutely can. Your contract is with the retailer you bought the phone from, not with the manufacturer. If the network subsequently wants to claim from the manufacturer, that's their business, but legally the issue is between the customer and the retailer.

*I am not a lawyer and this post in no way constitutes legal advice

kayos

Well when I got my TYTN II directly from 3 I got a handset with sales documents from a 3 sales guy on it, numbers in the memory, appointments and the like as well.

Went into the local 3 store to sort it out and got a band new handset and a partial refund applied to my account as a result. So on that side the local shop did what the guys on the phone were refucing to do or even refusing to believe could happen.

Since then any time I've tried to talk to 3's customer service on the phone I've ended up wanting to pull my hair out.

Out of contract now and just waiting on new handsets to be in stock to move the company account over to another network.