3: Awful customer service!

chocandgo

Having received notice today of 3s intention to increase my price plan and basically change my contract, I have made umpteen attempts to contact them. There is nobody available to speak to me, there is no email address that I can use, I tried live chat and there's is nobody there to talk. From other posts I have read today, there appears to be a deliberate attempt to duck complaints. When is a contract not a contract? If they can change the terms of the contract, then do can you! Rise up 3 customers and don't stand for this. Cancel your contracts and go elsewhere. They are treating their customers with the utmost contempt!

njs030

Three have set up a special number to deal with this. If you look in the talk to three section of boards you'll see multiple threads about this issue with the number to contact them repeated many times.

ssmith6287

got through the other night after 18 mins. Given the amount of people trying to contact them it's prob to be expected

pilly

They're obviously extremely busy because of this issue, patience is a virtue.

Samuel T. Cogley

It's annoying but do people really think companies have around 50-90% of their staff laying idle most of the time? You don't staff for peak.

Also you went to the trouble of creating an account and making 1 post here - why not post on Three's talk to forum, here on boards, or at least post here AND there.

hungry hypno toad

notjustsweet wrote: »

Three have set up a special number to deal with this. If you look in the talk to three section of boards you'll see multiple threads about this issue with the number to contact them repeated many times.

Any the threads and posts from people who spent hours trying to get through to that number.

hungry hypno toad

pilly wrote: »

They're obviously extremely busy because of this issue, patience is a virtue.

The phone number was either inaccessible or randomly cutting off when on hold. Patience is one thing when you are in a queue and getting close to being served, but when you can't even join the queue or you are repeatedly randomly kicked out of the queue it is hard to remain patience.

hungry hypno toad

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

It's annoying but do people really think companies have around 50-90% of their staff laying idle most of the time? You don't staff for peak.

Also you went to the trouble of creating an account and making 1 post here - why not post on Three's talk to forum, here on boards, or at least post here AND there.

The problems getting in the queue and getting kicked off the queue are nothing to do with staff levels.

Samuel T. Cogley

hungry hypno toad wrote: »

The problems getting in the queue and getting kicked off the queue are nothing to do with staff levels.

They are. The call queuing systems can't handle the load as the staff can't answer the phones quick enough. It's not some conspiracy as all you have to do is send a dated letter.

Exactly the same thing happened to another telecomms provider recently when they did a price increase.

hungry hypno toad

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

They are. The call queuing systems can't handle the load as the staff can't answer the phones quick enough. It's not some conspiracy as all you have to do is send a dated letter.

Exactly the same thing happened to another telecomms provider recently when they did a price increase.

Staff can't answer quick enough? Ridiculous excuse, the system should easily handle that. The day of expecting customers to send a 'dated letter' are long gone. Are we expected to use registered mail to track if they received the letter? Are they expected to respond by letter so we know the request was received and processed?

Or should we fire off a letter and assume the request is processed and never query / verify it?

Samuel T. Cogley

hungry hypno toad wrote: »

Staff can't answer quick enough? Ridiculous excuse, the system should easily handle that.

They patently don't. Not a month goes by that some major organisations systems don't go down due to demand. It's far from ideal but it's not unexpected.

hungry hypno toad wrote: »

The day of expecting customers to send a 'dated letter' are long gone. Are we expected to use registered mail to track if they received the letter?

And that's why smart people still send letters. They treated much more seriously and generally at head office. You can track it or rely on the postal rule.

hungry hypno toad wrote: »

Are they expected to respond by letter so we know the request was received and processed?

You do know how we all got informed of this price rise right? Hint it was papery and came in an envelope.

hungry hypno toad wrote: »

Or should we fire off a letter and assume the request is processed and never query / verify it?

Track it or rely on the postal rule and keep a copy.

hungry hypno toad

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

They patently don't. Not a month goes by that some major organisations systems don't go down due to demand. It's far from ideal but it's not unexpected.



And that's why smart people still send letters. They treated much more seriously and generally at head office. You can track it or rely on the postal rule.



You do know how we all got informed of this price rise right? Hint it was papery and came in an envelope.



Track it or rely on the postal rule and keep a copy.

So we should rely on letters to deal with a telecom company where we have email, IM, phone, SMS etc. I think someone needs to join the 21st century.

Doesn't matter if I know I sent it, how am I sure the correct department received it and processed it as requested? Are you guaranteeing that they will respond to a letter with a confirmation of account cancellation etc?

Re your 'hint', the letter arrived today, days after this came to our attention. No doubt the letter was the first you heard of the changes though.

Regardless of all above, what about non-cancellation queries? Should they be processed through snail mail also?

Samuel T. Cogley

hungry hypno toad wrote: »

So we should rely on letters to deal with a telecom company where we have email, IM, phone, SMS etc. I think someone needs to join the 21st century.

Doesn't matter if I know I sent it, how am I sure the correct department received it and processed it as requested? Are you guaranteeing that they will respond to a letter with a confirmation of account cancellation etc?

Re your 'hint', the letter arrived today, days after this came to our attention. No doubt the letter was the first you heard of the changes though.

Regardless of all above, what about non-cancellation queries? Should they be processed through snail mail also?

You're rambling now. I heard about it here and like a few others have posted asking the reps on social media for attention - that also focuses the mind. However if I need to cancel it will be a dated letter and a port to another provider. Simples.

njs030

You have 30 days. It's all a little over dramatic to be honest.

Purple Mountain

It is annoying that a lot of telecom providers can't be contacted by email.

cml387

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

You're rambling now. I heard about it here and like a few others have posted asking the reps on social media for attention - that also focuses the mind. However if I need to cancel it will be a dated letter and a port to another provider. Simples.

I think in fairness to the OP, many companies will insist you phone to cancel (hello Sky),in order to try to dissuade you from leaving, and will not accept any other method of cancellation.

Samuel T. Cogley

cml387 wrote: »

I think in fairness to the OP, many companies will insist you phone to cancel (hello Sky),in order to try to dissuade you from leaving, and will not accept any other method of cancellation.

They say they don't. I happen to know different for that particular company. I'd be very suprised if a dated letter out of contract was not accpeted as notice by the majority of companies. It would almost certainly be fatal to any debt collection.

chocandgo

As 3 are not contactable by email, which we recognise as a deliberate attempt to keep customers at arm's length, and the phone message urges you to go to live chat which, on leaving the queue, you discover is unmanned, excuses such as overload etc don't wash with me. 3 want to change my contract and they don't want to have to deal with me so they try to cut me off at the pass. This is not new in customer relations. In the absence of the option of an email to Head Office, the dated letter is a good solution if you don't want to spend half your life in a queue. I will attempt to post elsewhere ( I am a novice). Thank you.

hungry hypno toad

chocandgo wrote: »

As 3 are not contactable by email, which we recognise as a deliberate attempt to keep customers at arm's length, and the phone message urges you to go to live chat which, on leaving the queue, you discover is unmanned, excuses such as overload etc don't wash with me. 3 want to change my contract and they don't want to have to deal with me so they try to cut me off at the pass. This is not new in customer relations. In the absence of the option of an email to Head Office, the dated letter is a good solution if you don't want to spend half your life in a queue. I will attempt to post elsewhere ( I am a novice). Thank you.

Also note that when you go to live chat and give all your details and then mention that you want to cancel, they will say they can't process a cancellation request through online chat and you need to ring the cancellation team on 1800 818 021.

Samuel T. Cogley

Just another reminder - they have a talk to forum...

L1011

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Just another reminder - they have a talk to forum...

They won't cancel there, either.

If its still impossible to get through to them in a few days it'll be time to start really pushing Comreg to get to actually talk to someone in Comreg (not the outsourced call centre staff you get first - they can't do anything) about it. I suspect they simply don't have enough staff as it appears virtually everyone in a contract with a subsidised phone is leaving.

Samuel T. Cogley

L1011 wrote: »

They won't cancel there, either.

If its still impossible to get through to them in a few days it'll be time to start really pushing Comreg to get to actually talk to someone in Comreg (not the outsourced call centre staff you get first - they can't do anything) about it. I suspect they simply don't have enough staff as it appears virtually everyone in a contract with a subsidised phone is leaving.

Oh absolutely and don't get me wrong - it's far from ideal but my incredulity stems from people thinking it's some sort of calcualted attempt. It's just incompetance.

Thanks for the heads up - I know what I'm doing on my lunch. Although I will say, moaning here will be seen by a few and no one from three. Monaing there...

pilly

I honestly feel so sorry for 3 staff at the moment, or whomever they contract out their call centre work to. Bear in mind guys that these people are on minimum wage and they weren't the ones who decided to up your prices. They've a script to follow and that's it.

I've no vested interest by the way other than having a daughter who once worked in one of these call centres and nearly had a nervous breakdown as a result.

Samuel you will see from 3's thread on here they're already getting the guff and they can't do anything either. The line they've been given is you must ring this number to cancel, nothing they can do about it. In one case yesterday the poor girl got abuse back and forth all day.

She can ONLY do what she's told to do! She's not CEO of 3 and if you think the CEO is reading boards you'd be mistaken.

Samuel T. Cogley

pilly wrote: »

I honestly feel so sorry for 3 staff at the moment, or whomever they contract out their call centre work to. Bear in mind guys that these people are on minimum wage and they weren't the ones who decided to up your prices. They've a script to follow and that's it.

I've no vested interest by the way other than having a daughter who once worked in one of these call centres and nearly had a nervous breakdown as a result.

Samuel you will see from 3's thread on here they're already getting the guff and they can't do anything either. The line they've been given is you must ring this number to cancel, nothing they can do about it. In one case yesterday the poor girl got abuse back and forth all day.

She can ONLY do what she's told to do! She's not CEO of 3 and if you think the CEO is reading boards you'd be mistaken.

Very few call centres in Ireland would be scripted or have people on minimum wage. In India on the other hand they're modern day sweat shops.

People who work on social media for companies would not be 'Tier 1' agents. They're usually not much better piad but they'll be a small number of well trained agents. The point of carpet bombing a companies social media is it's actually effective. Agreed getting on at Tier 1 agents, completely ineffective.

Case in point:

pilly

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Very few call centres in Ireland would be scripted or have people on minimum wage. In India on the other hand they're modern day sweat shops.

People who work on social media for companies would not be 'Tier 1' agents. They're usually not much better piad but they'll be a small number of well trained agents. The point of carpet bombing a companies social media is it's actually effective. Agreed getting on at Tier 1 agents, completely ineffective.

Case in point:

Did you miss the part where I said my daughter worked in a call centre Samuel? It was in Ireland and believe me it was scripted and minimum wage.

Samuel T. Cogley

pilly wrote: »

Did you miss the part where I said my daughter worked in a call centre Samuel? It was in Ireland and believe me it was scripted and minimum wage.

Did you miss the bit where I said 'most'? :pac:

F34

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Very few call centres in Ireland would be scripted or have people on minimum wage. In India on the other hand they're modern day sweat shops.

Call centres in Ireland are minimum wage and are indeed scripted and by all accounts aren't the easiest places to work.

Samuel T. Cogley

F34 wrote: »

Call centres in Ireland are minimum wage and are indeed scripted and by all accounts aren't the easiest places to work.

I've direct experinace of five huges ones (on the island of Ireland). Two in house and three outsourced. They're no where near as bad as people think. I actually was much happer than I was on my feet all day in retail.

The misconceptions people have are based on OUTBOUND telemarketing centres and usually outsourced ones. There has been a complete shift in the way centre operate in the last 10-20 years and inbound were never what people made them out to be...

... in most cases. There are always asshat employers.

L1011

Telecoms firm call centres in Ireland are unlikely to have a solid script and are more likely to be 20/21k salaried rather than minimum wage.

You can't hire staff on minimum wage at all in many parts of the country, particularly if you want people who can speak English.

More generic customer care/booking/billing and certain foreign language it'd still be possible.

chocandgo

I'm not unsympathetic to hard-pressed workers, but I wouldn't allow sympathy get in the way of valid complaints. 3 better get their act together if they want to retain their customer base. Post on their forum also and contact comreg

Samuel T. Cogley

L1011 wrote: »

Telecoms firm call centres in Ireland are unlikely to have a solid script and are more likely to be 20/21k salaried rather than minimum wage.

You can't hire staff on minimum wage at all in many parts of the country, particularly if you want people who can speak English.

More generic customer care/booking/billing and certain foreign language it'd still be possible.

Some modern ones have directors/senior managers who want to be in Dublin, knock on effect for staff and pay rates. IIRC Sky hire at 24K now and are surrounded by call centres many of whch pay better (but are more specilised - e.g. Amazon).

Samuel T. Cogley

chocandgo wrote: »

I'm not unsympathetic to hard-pressed workers, but I wouldn't allow sympathy get in the way of valid complaints. 3 better get their act together if they want to retain their customer base. Post on their forum also and contact comreg

One can easily be assertive and polite - as I'm sure you are. And no one would begrudge a customer that.

Cabaal

F34 wrote: »

Call centres in Ireland are minimum wage and are indeed scripted and by all accounts aren't the easiest places to work.

Actually an awful lot of call centre's in Ireland are not min wage,
Take the likes of Apple or Amazon, far from min wage.

Call centres that handle outsourced contacts for company's such as Three wouldn't pay as good wages when compared to call centres owned by the company themselves (ie: Apple).

Samuel T. Cogley

Cut off after 15 minutes myself, there will be other coffee breaks. Colleage got through after 20 minutes.

Not all that bad considering the queue of three old ladies and me (4 old ladies!) can take that in the post office.

Toots

Took me most of yesterday evening and up until lunch time today to get through. Between the phone not actually ringing, to being told the number isn't in service, to being on hold for 20+ mins and then getting cut off... I held for about 90 minutes today, then got through to someone. In fairness, he was very friendly and helpful, and didn't try to mess me around by trying to convince me to stay. 5 accounts all switched to the 30 day rolling contract, and they'll all be going to other networks after the unlock codes come through for the phones.

Got the absolute run-around on Three's online chat (nothing new there) and the same thing repeated in their forum as far as I can see. I wasn't trying to cancel by chat, just wanted to see would the phones be unlocked if we broke the contract, a simple yes or no answer, and was repeatedly referred to the 1800 number that's next to impossible to get through on.

chocandgo

Hi Toots, can I ask you the cost of the 30 day rolling contract? Thanks

Whiplashy

Is it just one particular plan this is affecting or more? How do I find out if mine is going to increase? Only signed up to a new contract in Jan so won't be happy if they up my bill.

pilly

Whiplashy wrote: »

Is it just one particular plan this is affecting or more? How do I find out if mine is going to increase? Only signed up to a new contract in Jan so won't be happy if they up my bill.

You should have gotten a text or letter by now?

L1011

Whiplashy wrote: »

Is it just one particular plan this is affecting or more? How do I find out if mine is going to increase? Only signed up to a new contract in Jan so won't be happy if they up my bill.

Most plans except some legacy O2 ones, should receive a letter.

Whiplashy

pilly wrote: »

You should have gotten a text or letter by now?

Haven't heard anything so I presume I'm okay

Whiplashy

L1011 wrote: »

Most plans except some legacy O2 ones, should receive a letter.

That's got me worried again! Presume they would have to notify me if my plan is effected?

pilly

Whiplashy wrote:

That's got me worried again! Presume they would have to notify me if my plan is effected?

Check the website.

Toots

chocandgo wrote: »

Hi Toots, can I ask you the cost of the 30 day rolling contract? Thanks

It's €30 per month as far as I could see.

Samuel T. Cogley

Got through, not bad for 3 - 5 days into a major upset for a business. I was NOT a happy camper with the Talk to forum as you can read for yourself. But the call centre guy was fantastic - Thanks Daniel if you keep up with your company on Boards.ie

All in all understandable delays poorly manged by a senior management team who if were placed the other end of the quays couldn't organise a piss up in the brewery they'd find themselves in.

chocandgo

I'll try again tomorrow and see what they offer me. Cheers, All

Samuel T. Cogley

chocandgo wrote: »

I'll try again tomorrow and see what they offer me. Cheers, All

They're not offering a lot from what I can gather you have to rejoin basically (which I don't think they can do). Rolling 30 day or 10% off.

I wanted a new phone so cancelled, signed up again and I'll port my old number onto the new contract once it's cancelled. Had they just said €40 or what ever for an upgrade I'd have done it. Really rather poorly handled but that's not the agents fault.

tony glenn

I called into my local Three shop today to express my annoyance at their mid-contract price-hike.
It was explained to me that the increase was unavoidable, due to the losses they'd be incurring on roaming.
I asked how Three would react if I reduced my payments mid-contract due to losses arising from a car breakdown?
Then (savouring the moment), I told them I'd switched to Virgin Mobile over the weekend, better deal, better plan, better price.
Ha! Anyone else remember Citizen Smith?

jonnny68

I binned them years ago, the Indian call centre were an unmitigated nightmare to deal with the worst customer service I've ever encountered, why does this not surprise me.

AngryLips

The OP is a Three customer all this time and they're only finding out about their customer care now?

chocandgo

[I wanted a new phone so cancelled, signed up again and I'll port my old number onto the new contract once it's cancelled. Had they just said €40 or what ever for an upgrade I'd have done it. Really rather poorly handled but that's not the agents fault]

Was there much time left on your contract? I think I've a year to go. Maybe this is no longer relevant.

Samuel T. Cogley

chocandgo wrote: »

[I wanted a new phone so cancelled, signed up again and I'll port my old number onto the new contract once it's cancelled. Had they just said €40 or what ever for an upgrade I'd have done it. Really rather poorly handled but that's not the agents fault]

Was there much time left on your contract? I think I've a year to go. Maybe this is no longer relevant.

I was due an upgrade in September and contract ended in December. I had another one that was probably out of contract anyway now I think about it.

If you cancel and sign back up you can have your number ported once the 30 days runs out on the notice, or so I'm told.