I haven't done one of these in a while so may as well blow off some steam over my latest pet-peeve.
I had been a customer of the telecoms-provider O2 for over 15 years, though for 'normal-calls' usage only, as my broadband/data usage is catered for by the Three telecom group.
That all changed about 2 months ago when O2 started texting its customers to inform them that they were about to be taken over by Three - but Hey! not to worry, it would be business as usual for O2 customers (paraphrasing) after the change. Decidedly not the case as I have just discovered!
I had over €70 worth of credit with O2 prior to the take-over. I was therefore flabbergasted to discover about a week ago that this had plunged to a mere €7. Contacting Three, I have been informed that I am on a €1 per-day/50MByte plan, which relentlessly counts down your account balance to zero, whether or not you use the phone. In the past 6 days, my remaining €7 has been reduced to €1 even though I have not placed a call...
My immediate reaction to this is, how can it be legal? Ok, Three can offer any account-types they like, but how can they not inform former O2 customers that their no-expire-with-non-use accounts have suddenly become Three credit-expiration accounts?!?!?
One thing is for certain, I will NEVER be topping up this phone again!
Notes:
A few years back, I foolishly signed up for a Three phone when cold-called out of the blue by a Three rep. It turned out that the phone I was told would be a Nokia was some unknown piece of crap with software that almost made it compulsory to create a Facebook account before it could be used. I contacted Three, telling them I wanted to return the unit and get a refund - and was almost told point-blank that I could not do so! After almost an hour of being passed around to Three people, no doubt in an effort to break my resolve, I finally was given an address to return the phone to, albeit at my own expense - BUT ONLY AFTER SCREAMING AT THEM THAT UNDER EUROPEAN CONSUMER-RIGHTS LAW, THEY WERE LEGALLY OBLIGED TO ISSUE A REFUND!
I suffered similarly at their hands with regard to my Broadband account with Three. I had had a BB-account with them for a couple of years previously, even though I had since moved address and technically, Three didn't have network coverage in this part of the country. In actuality, their signal was weak and usable, so they had no problem with my continuing to pay for their BB service!
Fast forward, a few years. Their network coverage had finally expanded to cover my area and to advertise the fact, they were stuffing leaflets through every letterbox in the locality. As the EU-sponsored BB-rollout was a much better deal both financially and data-cap wise, I naturally opted to sign up. Only to be told that I couldn't - but they had this alternative that cost almost twice as much and would I be interested... After over 30min of this bullshit - I was after all, no longer in contract, so could have just closed my Three account, then immediately open the much better deal BB-account - followed by some more actual screaming at the rep, I eventually got my way.
The above experiences highlighted one thing to me - Three's primary focus is money, and despite all their rhetoric to the contrary, if providing quality customer-care deflects from this goal in any way, to hell with its customers!
Edit:
After reading this post in its entirety, it has dawned on me that I should also have re-read it before this 'Edit:' - it's just confusing! So, this 'Edit:' also needs a major re-editing!
What I had written above about the reason my account had been blitzed from €70 to €7 was what I had been told by Three Customer Care (CC) - IDIOT, WHOEVER THEY WERE, THIS WAS NOT CORRECT!!! The real cause turned out to be a 'service' that I was signed up for without my knowledge, and which had been debiting my O2 credit by €5 a week for almost 5 months! Even though the Three CC rep. would have had this information in front of her when I called, there was not one mention of it. I only discovered it when I looked through my call-history for myself online, something I didn't know I could do till then. Next I contacted Three CC, explained my discovery, and was flabbergasted to be told that they were aware of this 'scam' (though she didn't use that word) but unfortunately could do nothing about it as it was a third-party operation. It was then I went searching for info online (Three CC having yet again proven completely useless!) and discovered that this scam was both well-known and has been ongoing for YEARS!!! You would think that Network operators would ban these scam operators (PrizeVault in my case) from using their network - not a bit of it! It was then I contacted Comreg Ireland.
Well, I emailed ComReg Ireland and was informed that they were well aware of this scam but had agreed to allow the company in question to reimburse any aggrieved parties that would contact them directly - which I was advised to do, so I did! Within about a week I was sent a cheque for €95 - no note of explanation, no apology, nothing but the cheque!!! So, they had been debiting my account for nearly 5 months, without so much as an email/text-message to me that they even existed. 'They' being a company named "PrizeVault". My demand to know how they had gotten my details in the first place, to sign me up for this 'service', was met with silence naturally.
I've had further dealings with Three's Customer support since then as well. Their email service is both a joke and an insult to customers. The second-to-last time I emailed them I was waiting for 10 days for a response. The last time, I lost patience after a week, so tried their 'Live-chat' help instead. Much much better, and I had received clarification of my problem in less than 10 minutes. I never did hear back from the email help. If Three can't be bothered to provide a decent email help service, they should just withdraw what's currently on offer entirely.
