“Three” mobile phone contract in the UK – BEWARE!
My daughter had a mobile phone contract with the THREE company (http://www.three.co.uk). She contacted them at the end of January when she wanted to cancel her contract; it was in my name and I spoke to the customer services about cancelling it.
This morning I noticed a charge on my bank statement that looked like THREE were still taking money from my account, so I rang them up to see why.
They basically explained that they sent my daughter a PAC code (so that she could transfer her number to a new provider), but she had decided to just take the new number without bothering to transfer it.
They said that the PAC code expired in 30 days. This is no problem, I knew and understood this. What I didn’t expect was that after 30 days they would reinstate the contract and start taking money off me again. That was January and now it’s August – so giving them a month for the cancellation period thats
7 months x £15.32 per month = £107.24 for nothing.
So I asked for the money back as the phone had not been used and they refused on the basis that they had sent text messages to the phone explaining that the contract would continue if the PAC code was not used. Whilst this may seem fair enough, we never read the text messages as we had a new phone contract with a different provider and not used the phone since January. I expected them to see this was reasonable, but unfortunately all I got was the robotic-like answer that it was in the contract (which I believed I’d cancelled).
So I asked to speak with the Manager, Rushmi Jajiv, to see if I could get any further. The response was the same.So I got no refund. According to Rushmi, this is industry “standard”. If it is, then BEWARE because THREE may steal money from you too.
So, CANCEL the direct debit when you cancel the phone – if they want the additional month while the contract finishes the final 30 days, let them write to you and ask for it, then send a cheque.
This was an opportunity (like most customer complaints) to secure a loyal fan; some one to tell a story of how reasonable they were, how they seem like a good company who treat you fairly. It would have been a positive story about THREE to be spreading. It’s a shame for THREE and a shame that people who work for THREE are employed to deceive people especially when they could do with the business.
Of course, this practice is criminal really, and THREE have lost any chance that I, my wife and my two children will ever use them again. They may have also lost the custom of any people I tell about this story to, either friends and family, or who ever sees this blog. It’s not the amount of money, it’s the principle of not taking money in an underhand way.
THREE should be ashamed of themselves.
