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3Mobile plus Sony Ericsson K750i

Just had to share this with you all...
I'm having problems believing it myself!

In November last year, my youngest son signed up to 3 on a student package ...free minutes here there and everywhere for little outlay as possible...you know what students need! He also took out the insurance package to save cash in case of the phone getting damaged.
Anyway the phone he got was a Sony Ericsson K750i..".quite nice" I thought whilst pocketing my own Nokia 3100...anyway I digress...

All was fine for about 2 weeks then for some unexplained reason the LCD display went black as if someone had poured ink all over it...rang 3 who said the repair would cost £50 plus postage and packing but he could save the P&P if he took it into the shop in York...being cash strapped that is what he did...in the shop he remembered the insurance...
"Oh the screen isn't covered under the policy"...:confused:
Coughed up £50 and ten minutes later he had his phone back complete with new screen...semi-happy bunny but miffed that the insurance appeared to be worthless..que sera...

In JULY 07, the phone stopped working...
Rang 3...we'll send a Jiffy bag for you to return it for repair...Jiffy bag arrived phone sent...3 days later back it came...All seemed fine...the 'repair lasted a month and it failed again in exactly the same way as before.

Rang 3 and got rather stroppy with the person who seemed unable to grasp the fact that the repair they had made had failed and the phone was again unusable.

After being kept on hold for 30 minutes...(all this from my home phone at local daytime rate) we got no further and hung up in frustration..Tried again on several occasions after that. Each time we were passed from one department to another and it was racking up my landline bill in the process...Finally after a full week of 'wrangling' on the phone to Three...we managed to get them to understand that we were not happy with the quality of the phone and required a replacement...They would hear none of that but said they would send another Jiffy bag for us to return it for repair again...We agreed under the caveat that rental payments would be withheld until such time as the phone was repaired and once again back in use..This was now the middle of AUGUST!
Since then the phone has not been returned.
Despite several more attempts to find out where it was from 3 my son is still without the mobile phone and ( unless I lend him my Nokia) cannot utilise the service he is paying rental for..So I cancelled the direct debit...That got things moving.;)

For the past 6 nights 3 have rang wanting to speak to my son the fact that my son is at University and only calls in to drop off his washing every week or so seems not to register with the brain dead at the 3 collections department.

Each time they call I or Mrs Tracker have explained the history and why the D/Debit has been stopped. They have also been advised that until my son gets his phone back they will not be getting a single penny more. Yet they still insist on phoning every night...and to be honest I'm getting rather sick and tired of this harassment and have now told them (last night) that due to the phone not being fit for the purpose it was intended, under the Sale of Goods act I am declaring the contract null and void with immediate effect...The ball is now in their court...
Has anyone else had anything similar happen to them when dealing with 3 and a phone in need of repair...or is this a 'one off' thing?
 
I have never seen phone insurance thats worth it.

There is many instances of 'liquid damage' which very few cover, and the owners swear it didnt go near water.

The excess is usually a lot, often making the insurance almost pointless compared to buying a new phone right off.

People so often forget to cancel it, even if they change their phone.

If you have a reasonably cheap phone, its definatly not worth it. If you lost your phone, it would probably be easier to buy a very simple model which you can get for nothing these days.

Check whats covered. For example above, the screen wasnt. Phones have a 1 year warranty anyway (or 2 according to the EU, but I dont know anyone thats managed to use that yet), so you only want things thats going to be accidental. i.e. dropping, theft, etc. Its pointless getting it if the phone goes wrong, because the warranty covers it.

Its a bit late for you Tracker, but hopefully it helps someone else.
 
Thanks ...I'm busy sharpening my tongue in case 3 should dare to telephone again...
Perhaps I should record a message and play it back each time they ring...as I'm getting rather peed off with the constant harassment and may say something I may regret ;):laugh:
 
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If ya get peed of with the calls, BT will change your No for free :) so no more hassle.
I had my K750i for 12 months and the only prob I had was the joystick getting stuck because of dust, quick squirt of WD40 and its fixed.
I prefer to go to the shop to complain, they cant walk away or hang up then.
 
Have you considered writing a letter to be delivered by recorded delivery threatening them with a small claims action if they do not repair the phone within 7 days!!
Done that...well due to the postal strike I have sent an e-mail via the 3 website stating much the same...once the Post office get back to work the e-mail in letter form will be sent as a 'hard copy Rec/Del back-up' ;)
 
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Just thought I would update you all on this story.....
After I stopped the payments and sent them the recorded delivery letter demanding they return the phone, things escalated somewhat...

They denied all knowledge of ever receiving the phone back for repair and tried to blame my son for sending it in the normal mail saying he should have handed the jiffy bagged phone over the PO counter....Umm yeah right...the person who arranged to send the jiffy bag told him to pop it in the post box...!

They (3G)have handed my son's account to their debt collection agency who demanded we pay the money they reckoned we owed (in spite of my son not having a phone to access a service he was contracted to receive ...a phone provided by 3 to enable him do just that) sent them a strongly worded letter explaining that until the phone was returned in a satisfactory repaired state or a replacement given not one penny would be paid...Still they denied having received the phone.

This state of affairs lasted well into the new year with varying levels of contact between 3G/myself/various collection agencies and we reached a stage where they would provide a new phone as a gesture of goodwill and waive two months worth of charges... wasn't prepared to accept my son still being held under contract due mainly to the way he had been treated and the gross incompetence of 3G, their customer service bods and collection agencies all of which never seemed to talk to each other before embarking on another quest to squeeze money out of us...They wanted in excess of £300 to cancel out of the contract plus accrued rental...something that we were not prepared to pay or indeed believed we were liable for given the circumstances.

Anyway to cut a very long story short I escalated matters to 3G's regulatory Ombudsman at Otelo who investigated the case on our behalf.

We have just received the final decision...we have to pay 2 months rental plus call charges which brought the total owing to around £120 (which we accepted we owed but had been withheld during the dispute) and the contract is dissolved without further penalty or blemish to my son's credit rating.
Result!
 
Well done shows it does help to fight and follow the rules.
 
Sorry for resurrecting this but thought you should all be made aware of how thick those at 3 really are.....
Son received a 'Bill' from 3 this morning thus....

Dated 03/10/08
Total monthly charges = £0.00
Total charges before VAT = £0.00
Previous balance £107 10
Payments received £107.10
Nothing to pay £0.00


"You now need to pay your final bill
We closed your account on 01/04/08 but the balance is still overdue."


I guess I should now write them a cheque for £0.00, put it in an unstamped envelope enclosing a copy of the 'bill'...do you think they would get the message that we are no longer customers of their 'service' then?:laugh::laugh:
 
Whoa £0.00, what a rip-off :) .
 
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