News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service

[Apex]

Hmm, what gets me is that I understood it to be an economic truth that it was cheaper/easier to retain existing customers than strive to get new ones. From the way the consumer's treated though it seems to be the reverse that's the case, and once you get 3+ months into a contract the carriers regard you as an increasingly annoying liability. I can forsee a big backlash against this, with en-masse defections from the companies with poor CS to one's with a better reputation.

Like Biscuit, they'd have to do a LOT to convince me into ANY contract longer than 12 months. At the moment I'm on a 30-day rolling one with Virgin, which is suiting me fine. And I've found their (Virgin's) customer service - both in-shop and over the phone - to be excellent. So I'm quids in, and getting a better service.

Then again, from what I'm hearing mobile phone companies are way better than mobile phone recyclers. Judging on the opinions in MSE and elsewhere, these recyclers seem to be staffed entirely by those too psychotic to be accepted as sellers of either double glazing or second-hand cars!

It's cheaper to get new customers due to the fact that the handsets makers give the network a chunk of money for selling one of their handsets rather then keep a customer and get nothing when they upgrade and in fact cost the network money because they normally try to get a discount for been a loyal customer.

Truth is been a loyal customer is just silly in this day and age; so glad i don't work for O2 anymore.

[crossy]

It's cheaper to get new customers due to the fact that the handsets makers give the network a chunk of money for selling one of their handsets rather then keep a customer and get nothing when they upgrade and in fact cost the network money because they normally try to get a discount for been a loyal customer.

Ah right, so if the handset makers didn't subsidise new customers, then perhaps the carriers would be a bit more amenable to treating their "old" customers with a bit more value?

I know ... naive, and we (customers) need to treat them (carriers) with reciprocal level of contempt.

[Oobie-]

@Apex - thats classic. Ive found a few instore policies to be utterly ridiculous when its free online.

Forgive me if someones already mentioned this, but its so easy to pass off customers these days as it seems that loyalty means diddly squat. The over-subscription, overpopulation and sheer lack of care by your everyday user means that companies can afford to be poorly managed, rude and unwilling to keep you.
I'd pay more (and have done for BeThere internet - seriously, Be compared to plusnet CS is godlike) for good customer services. Ive never been able to get the phone contracts of 2008 where its under £8 with o2, and have slowly been hiked up to £25, forcing me to search for cashback redemptions. If you've got the time and can put in the effort thats the only place I can see making a real saving.

[Apex]

Ah right, so if the handset makers didn't subsidise new customers, then perhaps the carriers would be a bit more amenable to treating their "old" customers with a bit more value?

I know ... naive, and we (customers) need to treat them (carriers) with reciprocal level of contempt.

@Apex - thats classic. Ive found a few instore policies to be utterly ridiculous when its free online.

Forgive me if someones already mentioned this, but its so easy to pass off customers these days as it seems that loyalty means diddly squat. The over-subscription, overpopulation and sheer lack of care by your everyday user means that companies can afford to be poorly managed, rude and unwilling to keep you.
I'd pay more (and have done for BeThere internet - seriously, Be compared to plusnet CS is godlike) for good customer services. Ive never been able to get the phone contracts of 2008 where its under £8 with o2, and have slowly been hiked up to £25, forcing me to search for cashback redemptions. If you've got the time and can put in the effort thats the only place I can see making a real saving.

"loyalty means diddly squat" - Nail meet head.

The whole handset business is murky to say the least and i don't think anything has changed since i left. The whole business of running a mobile network is as one of the people i worked with put it 'a licence to print money' its just one big gravy train with money all over the shop and don't let them tell you otherwise.

[MattEvansC3]

Well I'm with Three until my contract runs out then I'm ditching them, absolutely terrible company to deal with.

I preordered the Nokia Lumia 1020 via one of their stores to get the free accessory pack worth £140 and was told I'd get a call when they were in. Release date comes around and no phonecall. Contacted the store and was told that the non-preorder phones were in stock but the preorder bundles hadn't come in but they'd ring me the following day to say if they came in or not. Following days comes around and no phone call, contacted the store and was told the preorder bundles were still not in stock but I'd get a phonecall the day after. Third day comes around and no phone call so contact the store, preorder bundles still haven't come in so I ask if I can have the phone, sign the contract and pick up the accessory pack when it comes. No, that's not allowed, the preorder pack is the phone and accessories in one box, if I took the phone without the preorder pack I'd lose my preorder so it was either have the phone then or wait longer to get it with the accessory pack.

Not happy with that I rang their customer service phone line and was told that the accessory pack came in a separate box because they had plenty there. I asked if I setup the contract over the phone would they honour my preorder...no, because they were two separate companies operating under the Three brand they could only give me one of theirs if I had preordered with them and that as the preorder period had ended if I took the contract out with him then it wouldn't be classed as a preorder. I explained that from a consumer point of view I preordered from Three, I was speaking to an employee of Three and nowhere in the store does it say its a separate entity to the online/telephone branch and that I wanted him, as a representative of Three, to honour my preorder. Once again he said he couldn't because my preorder was with Three and that if I had rang them up on release date they could have done something for me as the preorder scheme had been extended to the release date. Needless to say I wasn't happy and I just wanted to have the phone and accessories. He was decent enough to ring the store and advise them that as the phone and accessory packs were separate I should be able to sign the contract, have the phone and get the accessory pack when it arrives which the store manager agreed to do...that entire phone call took near an hour. I went to the store got the phone and was told thu'd ring me when the accessory pack came in.

A week later and no phonecalls, contacted the store and was told none had come in but they'd chase it up and call me when it was in. Another week goes by and still no call. Rang the store, they told me no stock had come in but they'd chase it up and give me a call back the following day. Next day comes and no phonecall, I call them the day after get told they haven't had a response yet but they'll chase it up and give the call the following day....no phone call. I speak to the assistant manager who's nice enough, explains what he's going to do and will give me a call in a few days...still no call back. I ring them again, tell him i'm not happy with the lack of communication, he says he'll contact the area manager and call me back tomorrow. He actually called me back but it was just to say the area manager hadn't got back to him yet. A week passed with no communication so I rang them again and went back through the rigmarole of being promised a call back, get no call back, ring back, get promised a call back, etc. After two months of this I contact the assistant manager to complain, he agrees with me as he never got my preorder pack, there's no stock left in the stores and he's not getting anywhere on his end as nobody is getting back to him.

So I write a complaint email or at least try to. Complaint website requires me to logon but its not accepting my password, try to reset it but it asks for my SIM number but doesn't recognise the SIM number from my phone so getting quite fed up I ring them, couldn't give me the accessory pack but "she could authorise a credit for one month's line rental". Not happy with that I contact the citizen's advice bureau, they advise to write a letter and also give me some choice things to say. Send the letter and a few days later get a missed phonecall and a message to ring them back. Ring them back but have to spend ten minutes on the phone to a customer service representative because there's no direct option to speak to complaints and the customer service staff want to go over everything other than the fact I had a message asking to give them a call back before they'd transfer me through. So after all that I get to speak to a member of the complaints team, they check the system and they just wanted to tell me a letter had been sent out against for further information. I asked if I could give it over the phone, nope I'd have to reply to the letter. Letter comes through and its asking for my mobile number as I didn't put it on the letter...the phone number they rang me on and left a message.

Send the letter back and get a missed call so give them a ring back, another ten minutes spent speaking to someone before they'd transfer me. Get to speak to the customer complaints manager who repeats that there's no stock but can give me a months line rental. I tell him that's not acceptable, he asks what would I find acceptable...I just tell him I want what was advertised or a cheque for the value so that I can order the accessories myself. He puts me on hold for five minutes, comes back and says he can't do that as it was a limited offer for preorders but is willing to authorise a £50 credit on my account. I tell him I'm not agreeing to that and hang up.

I go back to the Citizen's Advice Bureau who advise to write a second, final letter which I do. Get a missed phone call a few days later and spend another ten minutes telling the customer service representative that its an open issue with customer complaints, I don't want to explain the situation to him and that I just want to speak to the complaints team. Eventually get to speak to the customer complaints manager...or at least a different one, he reads the note, says his colleague offer was the final offer. I tell him I'm not happy with that and that I just want what was advertised, he puts me on hold and comes back after ten minutes and says he's willing to offer me three months line rental which is worth £104, I tell him that's not acceptable and that they advertised the £140 accessory pack and as such they have to fulfil their end. He turns around and says it was a limited offer only available to preorders. I explain to him, as it said in the letter, that I had preordered the phone, that I had done so before they extended the period which meant that they were taking on more orders without fulfilling existing preorders and they had stock when I rang three days after release. His response was that as it was a limited offer they didn't have to fulfil it, weren't going to fulfil it and weren't going to offer anything better. Trading Standards are mow dealing with this on my behalf.

[Brewster0101]

Three are the worst for customer service in my experience. Moved from them because of that.

True , although both myself and wife stick with them...

Why? Because all phone operators have rubbish customer service generally - so may as well stick with the cheapest and best value.

[benegerton1985]

just going to throw something out there... do you really think someone earning minimum wage or there or there abouts working in a phone shop or call centre are going to give a toss really? Staff turnovers in those sorts of places are a third or half every year which underlines they are probably not very nice places to work, not to mention the staff qualification levels are not exactly brain surgeon requirements (no offence intended) and the companies outsource. As customers we obsess over 'loyalty' but to them we are usually just a voice on the end of the phone and some numbers on a screen in front of them, loyalty only works on a personal level which none of these huge organisations are.

[crossy]

Well I'm with Three until my contract runs out then I'm ditching them, absolutely terrible company to deal with.

I preordered the Nokia Lumia 1020 via one of their stores to get the free accessory pack worth £140 and was told I'd get a call when they were in. ......

And the folks at Three wonder why they've got the reputation for appalling customer service?

Based on the training courses I got forced to sit through, doing "acceptable" customer service isn't that difficult. Heck, if your CS folks are permitted to use their common sense then - from what I can see - it should be second nature.

There's a limit to how many minutes etc you can do for a low price, so it's pretty self-evident that soon customer service and other "intangibles" will become major factors in that "buying decision".

Got to say that I was bleeding furious when the EE merger meant that they closed the local T-Mobile shop (good face-to-face customer service) and left the old Orange store (monkeys) open. Local O2 seemed quite helpful. Local Voda was not the best. And it'll be a cold day in hell before the local Three store gets any of my money. Local Virgin Mobile shop also pretty helpful - although not the fastest at doing things.

On the phone, I've found T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile to be pretty helpful, with Three mainly useless (although they did manage to reset my phone for me when I got locked out pretty quickly).

As Apex says, there's no point to being "loyal" to any network these days. I'm mercenary enough to try and seek out the best deal - which is easy if you've got a SIM-free phone.

[MattEvansC3]

The annoying thing is Crossy is that I did retail customer services for years before moving to the public sector and doing customer services there and neither myself or my colleagues have ever been as hostile to the customer as Three have been. While I had issues with the store they were at least nice to deal with and actually made it sound like they saw where I was coming from and wanted to help. Their customer service and complaints staff don't listen and have a "f**k you we got your money" attitude which is just shocking.

On a side note has anyone else had issues with Three not fulfilling preorders? Trading Standards are looking into it based off my issue and if they can find other instances of Three doing it it'll support their case.

[Defiant]

Three's network in Edinburgh has been horrendous of late since before Christmas, I cant get youtube to stream in the city for more than 5 seconds after 7:30am to after 10pm at night.

I'm out of contract and I'm still with them as their call centres are a nightmare to talk too. Barely understandable people, constant redirection of your issue to taking out another contract and a general not interested in my reports of issues.

Now they have put the price up due to 4G (Still not got it in Edinburgh) I need to find a Call centre less way to terminate this contract.

[Dottorrent]

I think the only good services out there are virgin (Basically orange for internet and T mobile for signal), O2 and, rather embarrassingly, Tesco mobile. The rest just don't seem to change things around whatsoever.

[Devastater6194]

Haven't had a problem with T-Mobile as such. Did get a call a few weeks back asking what requirements I had on upgrading to 4G. I said I wanted unlimited data like i have now for the same or very small price increase. their response was sorry we don't do unlimited 4G. Your loss T-Mobile.

[crossy]

Three's network in Edinburgh has been horrendous of late since before Christmas, ... Now they have put the price up due to 4G (Still not got it in Edinburgh) I need to find a Call centre less way to terminate this contract.

If you took out your contract with a store, then you might be able to get that store to help you "disconnect". But go in when they're not busy. If you have to deal with Three-Retentions then you have my sympathies!

When I requested my PAC code from Three June 2012, I had to sit through a 50 minute "retentions" call - and that's with me consistently repeating "I want to leave Three, please give me the PAC code" - apparently this is heresy. And then I had the indignity of a second 20 minute call the following day from "customer relations" dangling the prospect of a Galaxy Y (low end Android junker) to get me to stay - despite me pointing out (repeatedly) that I'd already got a Galaxy S3 that I was happy with, making the Galaxy Y completely unwanted. After that it took them about two days to get the PAC to me.

Compare with T-Mobile in December - phoned them up to get a PAC, was told that "they were sorry to see me go, but would I like to speak to Retentions to see if I could be persuaded to stay?". Said no thanks, and after a short delay got the PAC, this being texted to me while I was still on the call.

[stoatwblr]

They're _ALL_ poor for customer service.It's not a matter of finding a good one, it's a case of finding the least-bad option.

I speak as a enduser (a few hundred pounds/year) and as a corporate manager (a few million pounds/year)

[stoatwblr]

Why ask for a PAC? Are you so firmly wedded to a phone number that you want to take it with you?

Seriously, in this day and age, phone numbers are a disposable item. Telcos use PACS as a way of keeping you by forcing you to jump through hoops, so don't play their game.

[crossy]

Why ask for a PAC? Are you so firmly wedded to a phone number that you want to take it with you? Seriously, in this day and age, phone numbers are a disposable item. Telcos use PACS as a way of keeping you by forcing you to jump through hoops, so don't play their game.

You really didn't think that one through before you typed it did you?

The driver for wanting to number port is pretty obvious - people (me included) don't want the hassle of having to go around all their contacts having to tell them to can the old number and replace it with a new one. Okay, if you've got a select circle of family, friends, etc then this isn't a big deal. But if you're talking about 20 or more folks then that IS a pain.

Oh, thought just occurred, supposing you're self employed - so your mobile number is also your business contact, if you change it then you've got the incurred costs in lost trade, having to reprint business cards, etc.

Based on my (limited) experience I'll agree that PAC requests are perhaps an area where some (remember, based on personal experience only) teleco's use overly bureaucratic processes to dissuade customers from leaving. In which case surely, we need to be persistent and make sure that that tactic comes to naught?

I've no objections to having a short discussion with Retentions on asking for a PAC - that they want a last shot at retaining your business seems reasonable to me. However, if you're adamant about leaving then I'd expect speedy turnaround of the request - with anything longer than next-working-day being a sign of incompetence on their part.