nightmare with mobile provider

[jonnyboy]

Hi all

Having a total nightmare. Set up mobile broadband with 3 way back in Oct 08. It included roaming. Used successfully in May 09 in Italy. Not working in Aug 09, rang them from abroad to be told "terms and conditions changed, we wrote to you, you have to pay for roaming". Never received letter as this was fundamentally important to contract therefore would have cancelled immediately. Had no option as had work to do so paid them £50 by card and went ballistic. Set up Mobile bb with Vodafone in Oct 09 on advice from Carphone Warehouse who said not to cancel DD for 3 as there was a months cancellation payment due, wrote to 3 to tell them to get lost.
Noticed 3 were still taking dd from bank a/c (not one I normally use so had been missed) in Dec 10 so went nuclear. Rang 3 in Calcutta or wherever. Actually make that rang them 10 times, speaking to different people offering them copy letter of cancellation and proof I'd gone elsewhere. Tehy have no clue, none at all. "only possible to cancel from today sir" etc etc. Spoke to department head who confirmed correct course of action was to take it up with the bank who had paid dd in error (they hadnt as was never cancelled by me at CPWarehouse's bhest). Anyhow spoke to Natwest in England who were excellent. They agreed I was not to blame, had acted properly (although should have cancelled dd) and they refunded me in the area of £200.
I have now had two pre-legal letters from two different debt recovery agencies. The first one "investigated" with 3 who deny they told me what to do and basically there is £232 outstanding for which they will go legal. The second is from a diff agency saying they are issuing proceedings.


What the hell can i do here? No way should I pay this, no way at all, but I don't want any legals happening, and of course 3 are denying everything. I know I should have cancelled the DD but I was acting on advice. I also know we should have spotted it going out of the a/c Mrs JB uses.

Anyone had this sort of thing happen to them before?

 

[markjay]

Try:

Turn to Troubleshooter - Times Online

I read her column regularly and unfortunately your experience is not a one-off...

On a more general note, AFAIK Debt Recovery agents can only act through bailiffs if you do not dispute the debt. But if you make it clear that you dispute owing 3 anything, the only course of action open for them is to issue court proceeding. The matter then goes to court where you will be able to put forward your case.

 

[PXW]

Sounds nasty, and unfortunately many people would just pay up to get rid. I have heard so much that is negative about 3's customer services - in fact, it's hard to find someone who has anything decent to say about them.

Re debt collection bods - just tell them you don't owe anything and that they should go back to 3 to sort it out. 3 will fail in this - so you may end up with a CC application - in which case just go in with your copy letters, statement from CPW, NatWest etc etc and a bill for costs including your time - my guess is court will be sympathetic to this as long as it looks reasonable, given that it's your own business.

Even when it's settled, don't throw your paperwork away. I had an incident a few years ago where my learning disabled daughter was conned into opening mobile accounts with all the service providers - the crim then flogged the phones down the pub for a fraction of their value - and eventually 3 wrote off the 'debt' when presented with police evidence etc. However a few years later she was being hounded by one of the murkier debt collection outfits. Apparently what happens is that periodically 3 will sell all their 'written off' and time barred debts, for perhaps a percentage or two of their face value. The debt collection people then hound the original customer trying to entrap them into agreeing there is a debt (even when legally there isn't). Once they have evidence of acknowledgement of the debt it is then apparently no longer time barred, so the game starts all over again.

 

[jonnyboy]

Try:

Turn to Troubleshooter - Times Online

I read her column regularly and unfortunately your experience is not a one-off...

On a more general note, AFAIK Debt Recovery agents can only act through bailiffs if you do not dispute the debt. But if you make it clear that you dispute owing 3 anything, the only course of action open for them is to issue court proceeding. The matter then goes to court where you will be able to put forward your case.

Good link, cheers.
The 1st debt recovery agency passed it to the 2nd one after I told them it was in dispute.

 

[d w124]

I feel for you John as I had problems with them before,was even told that I can`t speak english
Never again

 

[jonnyboy]

Sounds nasty, and unfortunately many people would just pay up to get rid. I have heard so much that is negative about 3's customer services - in fact, it's hard to find someone who has anything decent to say about them.

Re debt collection bods - just tell them you don't owe anything and that they should go back to 3 to sort it out. 3 will fail in this - so you may end up with a CC application - in which case just go in with your copy letters, statement from CPW, NatWest etc etc and a bill for costs including your time - my guess is court will be sympathetic to this as long as it looks reasonable, given that it's your own business.

Even when it's settled, don't throw your paperwork away. I had an incident a few years ago where my learning disabled daughter was conned into opening mobile accounts with all the service providers - the crim then flogged the phones down the pub for a fraction of their value - and eventually 3 wrote off the 'debt' when presented with police evidence etc. However a few years later she was being hounded by one of the murkier debt collection outfits. Apparently what happens is that periodically 3 will sell all their 'written off' and time barred debts, for perhaps a percentage or two of their face value. The debt collection people then hound the original customer trying to entrap them into agreeing there is a debt (even when legally there isn't). Once they have evidence of acknowledgement of the debt it is then apparently no longer time barred, so the game starts all over again.

Cheers, some good info there. Did you hear me talking loudly to them this morning from your house??? Your story is a shocker. Scum of the earth people like that.

 

[jonnyboy]

I feel for you John as I had problems with them before,was even told that I can`t speak english
Never again

A case of the pot calling the kettle ????
You've got less of an accent than I have!!!!!!

 

[d w124]

A case of the pot calling the kettle ????
You've got less of an accent than I have!!!!!!

Lol I even had their debt collection at my house before 7 one morning,just as I was leaving for work
Once he seen all the paperwork he was gobsmaked but told me to go to court

Went to court and won but I asked the judge who`s going to pay my day`s work

 

[Colin_b]

I'd just like to say I've had excellent service from 3. I reported a problem with reception. They took it seriously, and escalated to the right level that discovered a problem with their network that would take them ' a while to fix'.

As they couldn't provide a timescale they offered me immediate cancellation of the contract with no penalty or a 50% discount until they fixed it. 3 months later they called me, apologised for not fixing it and upped the discount to 75%. It still isn't fixed, but I can live with £7 a month for a decent contract

Always dealt with an Indian call centre who have been professional, and whose command of English put most UK based call centres to shame!

Perhaps I'm just lucky

 

[rf065]

My son had a similar problem with debt agencies because of a mistake by Orange. Talking to the debt people is useless, they are not interested. We solved it by e-mailing the CEO of Orange. Try [email protected], not sure who there currant CEO is.

Russ

 

[PXW]

not sure who there currant CEO is.

Still worth raisin the issue though....

 

[Piff]

I'd just like to say I've had excellent service from 3. I reported a problem with reception. They took it seriously, and escalated to the right level that discovered a problem with their network that would take them ' a while to fix'.

As they couldn't provide a timescale they offered me immediate cancellation of the contract with no penalty or a 50% discount until they fixed it. 3 months later they called me, apologised for not fixing it and upped the discount to 75%. It still isn't fixed, but I can live with £7 a month for a decent contract

Always dealt with an Indian call centre who have been professional, and whose command of English put most UK based call centres to shame!

Perhaps I'm just lucky

The wife has a three contract, and I have thought to change to them but my work location varies and three don't always get good coverage in the wilds of suffolk!

However, twice recently she has lost coverage, the first time for 2 days the second time for 1 day.

First time she phoned three and asked if there was a network problem which they denied. They had her reset the phone - she lost all her contacts throught this operation. They then said her phone was faulty & she should take it to the nearest three store for repair. She did this the next morning and the local store advised her that ther was an issue with a local mast.
So no problem with the phone & no need to re-set it & no need to visit local store, just wait for three to maintain their mast instead of wasting our time.

The second time, phoned three again. They claimed no network issues & wanted her to follow the same proceedures. I took her sim card & put it in an old phone, which showed the same "no network", proving that her phone was ok. Just waited for the network to be cured.

Why can't three give correct cusotmer advice - are they embarassed by network problems or don't they know?

 

[Colin_b]

The wife has a three contract, and I have thought to change to them but my work location varies and three don't always get good coverage in the wilds of suffolk!

However, twice recently she has lost coverage, the first time for 2 days the second time for 1 day.

First time she phoned three and asked if there was a network problem which they denied. They had her reset the phone - she lost all her contacts throught this operation. They then said her phone was faulty & she should take it to the nearest three store for repair. She did this the next morning and the local store advised her that ther was an issue with a local mast.
So no problem with the phone & no need to re-set it & no need to visit local store, just wait for three to maintain their mast instead of wasting our time.

The second time, phoned three again. They claimed no network issues & wanted her to follow the same proceedures. I took her sim card & put it in an old phone, which showed the same "no network", proving that her phone was ok. Just waited for the network to be cured.

Why can't three give correct cusotmer advice - are they embarassed by network problems or don't they know?

I suspect they have a script, and they follow it. If that doesn't work, they then escalate the problem (well, they did for me), where you seem to get to speak to someone more clued up.

Maybe worth persisting, they were quite open that they had a problem.

 

[Piff]

Don't think wife is quite as persistant as me with these things - for example, I would have tried the sim card in a different phone before phoning customer services. That way I would have known that re-setting the phone & loosing all contact info would serve no purpose.