Three Mobile Robbers-Advice Please

disj

Hi there people

I just wanted to highlight an ongoing issue I am currently having with Three Mobile. I have posted in the Three section and have been in touch with the Three Rep there but I am hoping someone with actual brains here (ie.not someone from Three) can explain something to me/offer advice.
Ok, so I have a bill with Three and among the insane amounts of issues I have had including price hikes and shockingly poor reception/service I have one other issue that I know for a fact has happened to others (my partner) and wanted to put it out there to see if anyone else has had said issue and where do the likes of me stand on this.
So last year I was due to pay a Three bill via Direct Debit but my payment into my bank was delayed so I missed the payment. I figured no big deal, they will try again like most other companies in a few days and the money will be there-wrong. They didn't go in for it again so I rang them and paid over the phone using my Visa card.
The following month I had my money in the account and they never went looking for it. I called up Three and enquired about it as I noticed I also had additional charges on my bill. I was told the following:
After one Direct Debit payment is missed the Direct Debit is cancelled and due to this there is then an Admin fee charged on the bill.
When I asked to set up the Direct Debit again I was told:
I could but that it would not apply to the next bill but rather the month after that again and my next bill would incur Admin fees.

Now, recently, my boyfriend had a similar issue and he was told by Three- on speaker phone so I heard, that if one Direct Debit is missed the bank cancels the Direct Debit.

So I enquired to the bank who told me that if three Direct Debits are missed then the Direct Debits, Standing Orders etc are cancelled not one. I told this to the Three rep who said, Yes if three are missed it's cancelled and then went ahead and offered up three random dates to me when the Direct Debit was supposedly missed.
However, the incident which I am referring to happened before these three dates and during the three dates she refers to there was not a single attempt to enter my bank account for the Direct Debit AT ALL!!! So if there is no attempt it is clearly cancelled, am I right?

Next, I received a letter dated 08 April 2014, after I requested my Direct Debit be reinstated, this letter was a confirmation of the Direct Debit being set up by Three. Yet in April they never once went into my account looking for my bill, nor did they in May and so once again they have added Admin fees to my account.

I mean..... What's the story here from a consumer point of view? Is what they are doing legit??? Has anyone else had any similar issues with Three?

I was with O2 a couple of years before Three and with O2 I could pay my bill early- had no effect on Direct Debit, I could pay online-had no effect on Direct Debit, if the money was a couple of days late with O2 they would make the second attempt at taking the Direct Debit and all would be fine.

Look I have no issue taking blame for late payments but this whole craic of making up the rules as they go is a bit annoying.

skelligs

so you call them robbers and say their staff don't have brains and you expect them to do what you ask? - I'd say they'd rather you not as a customer.

Many companies cancel Direct Debits after a single failure. It suggests to them that you don't have the funds for direct debit and the cost in time chasing unpaid direct debits is not worth it. Therefore you miss a direct debit payment and its cancelled immediately until such time you re-sign a new direct debit mandate.

then when you re-sign, it takes about 7 days to set up and is valid form the NEXT payment date - so an april 8th sig-up would be valid for the May bill


At the end of the day, YOU did not have funds to meet your bill. Direct debit was cancelled as the bank did not honour it. Totally your fault.

All additional charges and how it works are always written in the terms and conditions. - I ALWAYS read terms and conditions. Its boring, but it avoids a lot of hassle.

Mick Murdock

You and your boyfriend missed your direct debit commitments. That's part of the T&C's. Not sure how that makes all of Three's stupid or the company robbers.

From what I gather from your post they should have taken a direct debit last month which they didn't.. Which if correct equates to €4 or €5 you have been incorrectly charged.

They generally take my payment at the end of the month around the 30th - I believe that's the same for everybody.

You would want to seriously check your attitude when dealing with them or I wouldn't be helping you either!

disj

As a matter of fact, Three told me that I am an excellent customer with excellent payment history. The missed bill was due to an error with my payment being put into my bank account and I couldn't do anything about that. I was told by Three themselves that they do not cancel a direct debit until Three payments were missed, that was by a rep here. Yet on the phone Three told me after one payment first that They cancel it and then that the bank cancels it.

I know a lack of funds in a bank account is my fault and not Three's but they cannot simply pick and choose what rules to follow. One branch at Three cannot tell you X and another Y. In fact Three have claimed ownership of THEIR mistake and today I got a message saying it WAS their fault and will be looked into and are reimbursing my account. So it is an error on the half of Three and my reason for highlighting it here was so that other's can ensure they have not also experienced the same issues. A company has a set of policies and this company had one set of policies when you call them and another when you email them. In fact the Three rep was surprised the Direct Debit was cancelled after ONE ATTEMPT as she said this was not the norm.

disj

I have been super nice to Three for a long time and had built a decent relationship with them having previously also had a dongle. But it started with being sold a phone that was dodgy, not really their fault, then the reception is beyond bad but I don't even wreck their heads over that.
I completely own the fact that a missed payment, even if out of my control, is my issue to deal with and if both the online rep and the customer service said, Look if you miss one payment we cancel it, that's our policy, I'd think, cool beans, that's life, my problem.

It's just when one side of a company tells you one thing and the other side another thing that's a problem. In fact when I was initially told that one payment equals cancelled Direct Debit I was OK with that, I had no issue. It was recently that I was talking to a one I know in the bank and she was saying how it's three and then cancelled and I was wondering about it so I got in touch with Three about it here and the one from Three agreed with me. That's my issue, maybe I ranted a bit OTT at the top of this post, but my issue is that there should be one rule, either it's one missed payment=cancelled or three. The fact that admin charges are placed on people's accounts when maybe they shouldn't be is the issue.