Dispute With Three Mobile

[Jester]

I wonder if anybody can advise on the following problem.

In June 2007, I took out an 18-month contract with Three Mobile for a mobile phone for my daughter for her 16th Birthday. The contract is in my name, but the phone is hers. The contract stated that the phone bill would be £15 per month.

Due to an oversight, I forgot to make the payment in December. I called Three this evening to pay both December and January bill, only to find that the bill had suddenly increased to £39.50 per month. Consequently, I refused to pay the bill and told Three to cancel the contract forthwith.

Three then told me that I must give them 30 days notice before cancelling a contract. They also told me that the price increase is because the phone went out of contract on 28th November 2008 and it has now reverted to a standard contract. I dispute this because I know that I took out the contract in June 2007 and therefore the contract should not have expired until 28th December 2008 at the earliest.

Furthermore, at no time did Three inform me that the phone was about to be out of contract and therefore subject to such a significant increase in monhtly charges. They say this was informed to me in my December bill (which I cannot find at this moment in time). However, even if this were the case, if I have to give them 30 days notice to cancel a contract then surely they must also give me a similar 30 day notice that a phone is about to come out of contract and subject to a price increase ?

The upshot is that I have refused to pay the bill and notified them that the account is now formally in dispute. Their reply was that they would take the necessary steps to recover the monies owed to them. I told them that as the bill is in dispute that they cannot take action against me in this way under UTCCR laws, but (it being an Indian Call Centre) they simply did not understand the implications of this.

I will be contacting OFCOM first thing tomorrow morning to make a formal complaint about these practices and to get them to investigate Three practices.

However, I was wondering if anyone else out there has had similar problems (with Three or any other mobile phone company) and what their experiences are and what the best next steps to take are.

I am determined not to roll over to Three in what I consider very underhand circumstances. I am determined to fight this and go all the way to court if I have to. They cannot be allowed to continue such underhand practices. If I were paying by DD, then I may not have even been aware fo this sudden and unexpected increase in monthly charges.

I should also add that my daughter is a light mobile phone user and therefore I KNOW that she would not have exceeded her monthly call/text limits and neither would she have called any premium rate numbers.

Any help/advice gratefully received.

[Celestine]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

Does the bill for £39.50 show a breakdown of calls and monthly fees?

Is this £39.50 the monthly contract rate inclusive of all calls?

It just seems very high for a standard contract monthly fee.

Seems like a simple case of breach of contract on your part and then 3 whacking in a penalty to punish you.

I'd definitely challenge it hard.

[Jester]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

I still haven't found the December bill yet. It's buried underneath the mountain of other letters on my desk that I have had in the last month or so. However, my daughter (being a self-confessed geek) only ever calls either myself or her mother from her phone. It had a standard 300 minutes of talk-time and unlimited texts. She has never even got close to exceeding those limits before in the past.

Furthermore, I have occasionally forgotten to pay the bill on time in the past but have never been 'punished' for it. In fact, until now, the only charges I have ever had on that contract in the standard £2.50 Admin fee for not paying by DD.

What has really got my back up is that they have hiked the price up by almost treble and yet never informed me that this was going to happen. If I have to give them 30 days notice to cancel a contract, then surely the cookie crumbles both ways and they have to give me similar notice of an increase in charges and/or the phone going out of contract ?

They also informed me that the increase was due to the contract having half-price line rental. Yet even if you double the £15 I originally paid, it does NOT add up to £39.50 !!

I should also add that at no time was I aware that the deal was 18 months half-price line rental. It was sold to me as a mobile phone contract of £15 per month that had 300 minutes and unlimited texts. No mention of half-price line rentals !!

[WendyB]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

Three are absolutely rubbish at communicating, and when you call them you just get the complete runaround. My OH is with Three, but as soon as his contract is due to end we will be cancelling it. He wanted to cancel a couple of months ago but their cancellation charges are astronomical.

Anyway, have you given them written notice of cancellation? If not, do it now. Get it cancelled then argue about the outstanding bill later. In the meantime, there are loads of much cheaper tarrifs. O2 online are really good, and as you already have the phone you can just have a Pay As You Go sim card. In fact I've got some of those hanging about at home, if you want one just pm me your address and I'll send you one. I put £10 a month on mine, which gives me either 300 free txts and 100 minutes, or 100 free minutes and 100 texts. And you get back 10% of all top ups, every 3 months as a reward. Obviously it would mean your daughter changing her number but that's a small price to pay. Only thing with Three is their phones are "locked" so you would need them to unlock it ( I think they charge about 15 quid to do that, and are pathetically inefficient at doing it), or there's various stalls, markets, shops etc that do unlocking for the same price or less.)

[Paule]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

Obviously it would mean your daughter changing her number )

You can keep your number forever nowadays, very easy to transfer over

You can 'Port' your existing number over to the new phone.

Just get the Port Authorisation BEFORE you cancel your contract, then go to new supplier give them the details and your number will be transfered over.
This process will also cancel your old contract.

[WendyB]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

I meant if she had one of my O2 simcards she would have to change her number

[Paule]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

No she wouldnt, she can bring her existing number to any network

I want to keep my mobile number



Provided you have fulfilled any contractual agreement you may have with your current Service Provider you can request a PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) from them.

We need your PAC number before we can begin the transfer so you'll save time if you contact your Service Provider first. To bring your mobile number to O2, here's what you need to do:

1. Contact your current Service Provider and request a PAC code. PAC codes are valid for 30 days from the issue date and will also act as notice of termination for your old account. This means you will not lose service until the day of the transfer.
2. Buy a combined O2 mobile and SIM card or just a SIM card but please ensure the O2 SIM will work in your mobile
3. Click on the 'Keep my number form' link below providing the following information:

• Your name and address including postcode
• An alternative contact number
• The mobile number you want to keep
• SIM serial number for that SIM card
• Password (if you have one)
• Order number of new SIM card
• Mobile number for new SIM card
• SIM serial number for new SIM card
• Date and amount of last top-up (if Pay as You Go)
• Two numbers that you dial regularly (if Pay as You Go)

Once we receive your request, we will arrange your mobile number transfer and reply with your transfer date.

This will take two working days from the date we request it. Please remember that the date of request may not be the same date that you sent the details to us.

Important Note


Under no circumstances should your existing contract be cancelled before your mobile number transfer is complete. If this happens please contact your Service Provider immediately.

[Jester]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

OK. Having spoken to OFCOM, I have proceeded to issue a formal complaint to Three about what is happening. That went off in the post last Thursday.

They have today come back to me in regard to the complaint but seem to have given it to one of their Juniors in an Indian Call Centre to deal with it.

This guy had no idea whatsoever on how to deal with me. I simply re-iterated my case and stated that I was happy to pay the £15 per month (including arrears) that I was paying before, but not happy to pay the £39 per month they suddenly adjusted the bill to. He did try to explain his way out of it but I kept pointing out to him that his numbers simply did not add up.

He has now gone away to the payments people to reconsider and recalculate the bill. Am waiting for them to call me back.

He also made some idle threat that if I did not pay the bill then they would initiate legal action against me, until I warned him that as the account is now in dispute then they cannot chase me for the money until the dispute is resolved under British Law (which flummoxed him). Even OFCOM told me as much.

So I've left them with a simple choice.

a) Resolve this situation to my satisfaction and I 'may' even consider taking out another another 18 month contract (hence guaranteeing them a lot more money than the disputed amount)

or

b) Take the letter of complaint as official notification that I intend to cancel the contract

When he was told about b), he tried worming his way out of it by stating that a contract can only be cancelled by my calling their Cancellations Department to do so. I corrected him by stating that all I am required to do by Law is send them written instructions of my intention to cancel the contract. As I stated in my letter of complaint that if they are not prepared to settle this amicably then they must accept my letter as notice of cancellation, then they already have that cancellation in writing and nothing further needs to be done on my part.

I really ripped into the poor guy, who probably didn't deserve it, but as the muppets who make these decisions hide away from the general public then he unfortunately had to bear the brunt of my anger and frustration.

He even asked me to stop shouting at him at one point, but I pointed out that he would soon know when I was shouting and that all I was doing was being firm and standing my ground on the matter.

Will post an update when I hear more.

[9mil]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

I am from a Telecom background an Ofcom will not fight any corner for you, the only thing they do is forwad details of your issue to a pre-agreed address.

You should contact the network provider (in this case 3) and as for a deadlock letter to take the issue to independent arbitration. I believe 3 use CISAS.

Any case which goes to arbitration costs the network approximately £600 without any legal costs, the cost to the customer is free. It makes sense for the network to reach an amicable agreement. If you need any further help let me know

[Jester]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

Been away from home all week so today is the first chance I have had to review this thread.

Had the usual bull***** letter back from Three telling me that I still owe them £78.30, but thew good news is that if I pay that amount then I am eligible for an upgrade !!

Cretins !!

They have had their chance. I have made the complaint and they have failed to deal with it. For the sake of halving that bill, they could have had another 18 month contract from me, but as they refuse to bow then they will have no more business from me.

I've now informed Three that as they have failed to give a satisfactory answer, then I intend to take the matter further.

I checked the CISAS website and it does not list Three as one of the companies that use their services. Typically, Three's own website is also very vague as to where one goes if the complaint is not handled satisfactorily.

A bit of research has suggested that this should be escalated to Otelo, but on checking their website I cannot find Three listed under any of their members either. So I am now stumped as to where this complaint should be escalated.

I think I am going to have to do some more research as even the OFCOM website does not reveal any information as to where one should go in relation to a complaint about Three.

Ho-hum, back to London tomorrow so this will probably have to wait until next weekend to be dealt with now.

[9mil]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

You could through their Executive Office via email executive.office@three.co.uk or try Allan.McLuckie@three.co.uk who is the Customer Service Director. I will locate a phone number if required

[Jester]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

Cheers 9Mil,

Once again, I have been away from home all week with my work. I shall try sending an email to both of those email addresses stating my case and see what response it garners. I will then look at my next steps if no resolution is forthcoming.

[mikeymikemcmike]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

I would be careful if you value your credit rating. Here's my story:-

In February 2007 I took out a contract with 3 mobile. The offer was 18 months half price rental with a refurbished Motorola handset. All was good until after 12 months they started debiting my bank account for the FULL rental. I queried this numerous times and each time I was advised by their call center that "according to their computer" my handset was new, not refurbished. This went on for another 2 months and eventually I made a movie with my camera showing the original box IMEI number of the handset and REFURBISHED in big letters on the top of the box.

Eventually after I sent them the video they admitted they had made a mistake.

By this time I was sick and tired of the way 3 mobile had been treating me and I wrote to them advising them they had breached the contract and that I would be cancelling my direct debit.
I was then called many times by their call centre who advised me I had to pay the full 18 months rental even if I cancelled the contract. My response every time was that there was no contract anymore because 3 mobile had breached the contract by charging full rental after 12 months when it should be 18 months.

This was followed by nasty letters from 3 different debt recovery agencies. Each time I called the agency and explained the situation and that I was not going to pay and each time they said they would refer the issue back to 3 mobile.

I have now found that 3 mobile have filed a "default" against my credit report causing my credit score to plummet from 960 to 577. I am now in the process of trying to get this removed and it is proving difficult.

So I would advise you to take care.

[Jester]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

Given the circumstances that I went through throughout 2008 (which is well documented on this site), my credit rating is a complete zero anyway. Nothing they can do will make it any worse. So I am not the slightest bit bothered by that.

I have emailed both the addresses given by 9Mil AND had a response from both. They told me they are investigating my complaint and that I will receive a response in 10 days (which should be the end of this week).

The phone is out of contract anyway, so they cannot hang me on that one. Am also cancelling another 3 contract which expires next month when I get home at the end of the week. Am using that as leverage (and also that some other members of my family have 3 contracts that they will terminating as a result of this action.

I just keep rubbing into them how much money they stand to lose over this if they stand their ground. The mobile networks, like other companies, are desperate to get more sales as many people are coming off contracts due to the credit crunch as they can no longer afford them and see them as a luxury (I read a report to such effect in one of the newspapers last week).

So they have to weigh up the potential of losing more customers against a paltry gain they may get if they stick to their guns.

I will certainly never ever give Three mobile any business again that's for sure.

Cheers

[mikeymikemcmike]

Re: Dispute With Three Mobile

I (like you) kept thinking that they would never win the case in a court of law, but what I did not realise is that they would be able to file the default in my credit history without ever having taken legal action against me.
What they have done is outrageous and immoral - all for the sake of £84.

I will be writing to the addresses above.