Three UK fined £250,000 for customer complaints cockup Three UK has been fined £250,000 by Ofcom after the mobe carrier was caught giving up on moaning customers' complaints without resolving their problems with the service. The communications watchdog said that Three UK failed to handle some subscriber gripes in a "fair and timely manner". Ofcom added that, during the regulator' …
"I remember a huge office full of peeps dealing with such emails."
That's how it works in my company....but still there's an urgency amongst the minions when a CEO-directed complaint lands on their desks. That may be unfair, even wrong, but if you're not getting through the bureaucracy, a CEO directed complaint can often fix things.
If it doesn't, then the unresolved CEO complaint is powerful ammunition in court of with ombudsman services.
"I remember a huge office full of peeps dealing with such emails."
Meaning the company's first line was utter crap.
Three, Talktalk and the rest of the dross tend to work on the basis that the customer will get tired of complaining and go away. For the most part they're right.
I too was with them for years and it was fine. It was when I tried to leave that all the problems began, refusal to cancel my contract and instead signing me up to a new contract in spite of me repeating over and over again "I do not want a new contract, I already have a contract elsewhere"
I then spent several months fighting with them to get the illegal contract cancelled, during which time they sent debt collectos and all sorts after me. Eventually got info on the ombudsman service or whatever it's called who deals with three. It was settled with a "He didn't sign anything, you have no legal ground to stand on, refund any money you've taken" personally I would have prefered additional payments for the amount of phone calls / stress. But at the time I was just happy it was finally done with.
As a further note, if you ever wish to cancel your contract with 3, go in store, ask a rep to call up and cancel on your behalf, state your behalf. I
As a note I'm not the only person I know of who has had this happen to them.
I found them utterly dreadful in all respects first time round in 2004-6; customer service, network and cancellation 'process'.
Went back two years ago because it was so filthy cheap (a tenner for unlimited everything inc tethering for the first year), and I haven't got a bad word to say about the service itself, quick since 4g came along. The customer service is still rather clueless, but fortunately not needed often, but I expect cancellation to be similarly dire.
I made a complaint against Three that was reported in El Reg, I've had cause to make a couple of complaints about them actually as has my girlfriend however they have all been to do with the sales department rather than the operation of their network once on it. There seems to be a total disconnect between their pre-sales team and their post-sales support, the former has been dreadful and guilty of outright lying while I've never had a problem with their service or support once contracts have been agreed and are in use. I'm on my third or fourth contract renewal with them now and wouldn't change to another operator as Three have far and away been the best in terms of contracts and coverage in my area, but it can be a complete nightmare trying to go from one contract to another.
Ofcom also noted that, although the investigation identified certain shortcomings in Three’s complaints handling processes, the harm to consumers was mitigated due to the efforts of frontline customer service staff.
Once again the low paid staff on the front line keep the high paid bosses asses out of the fire.
Why would anyone want to use '3'?
1) One month rolling sim only contract for around 11GBP 300 + 300 + 1GB data
2) No, repeat No roaming charges in the USA where I travel on a regular basis, Saves me an absolute fortune.
3) Only 1 bar EE and 2 bars Vodafohe at home , with '3' it is 4 bars
4) 4G at No extra charge (which I get at home)
Nothing is worse than vodafone, they don't even respect customers wishes. I have tried to opt out of their marketing SMS 27 times since last December, the messages keep coming despite escalation to store staff and to CEO's office. Finally escalated my complaint to the ombudsman service yesterday when Vodafone's customer service rep refused to deal with me unless I could tell him the amount I last topped up (I never keep a record of how much i top up, it's always the amount of small notes in my wallet when the last top-up runs out. somewhere between £5 and £30, the rep kept insisting I could somehow "look it up").
When I got a Vodafone phone with a brand new number, I got a cold sales call -- and an obnoxious one at that -- within five minutes of turning it on.
Do they still insist on that annoying thing where there are two different Vodafones and you can never tell which one you have to ring for service and they act like you're an idiot for not knowing? I forget the details, but I haven't gone back.
Never had a problem with Three Customer Service, they ring back when they say they will and have dealt with the issues I have presented them with - take that Nothing Nowhere
Only downsides I'm finding is the Internet is suffering slowdowns far more now that more and more people are moving to over Three, plus their 4G Coverage Map is a work of fiction.
Surely the key way to assess a company's response to a complaint is to look at whether the customer is satisfied with the result. But that doesn't seem to be what's happened here.
The communications watchdog said that Three UK failed to handle some subscriber gripes in a "fair and timely manner".Ofcom added that, during the regulator's investigation of the company, Three UK had wrongly closed unresolved complaints on its system – while some calls passing through the operator's customer service team had not been officially logged.
....
Ofcom also noted that, although the investigation identified certain shortcomings in Three’s complaints handling processes, the harm to consumers was mitigated due to the efforts of frontline customer service staff.
So Three have, according to Ofcom, actually dealt with complaints perfectly well from the customers' point of view -- but their complaint-logging processes have been crap.
I have worked in customer service. I've worked for companies where good staff are trusted to sort customers' problems out and everyone's happy if the customer's happy, even if it's all dealt with in five minutes and there's no official record created; and I've worked for firms where the really important thing is logging every detail of the customers' comments, even if they're even more pissed off after contacting you than they were before.
Speaking as a customer, I give much less of a damn about complaint logging than I do about complaint resolution.
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