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News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Also a quarter of mobile users are planning to switch networks soon.
Read more.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
My GF recently switch to 3 after some appalling customer service from Orange/EE. She had been with them for 13 years! They were very rude about her leaving too - the cheek!
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
I left Orange after 9 years in 2013 - a total shower for a while before I moved. Dinged my credit rating after I left until I got that nonsense sorted out.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Unless the "bad customer service" is the network not matching a rival's plan/price offering, I find it hard to believe that customer service is such a big factor in moving. I'd say the average user has no need to contact customer services, I certainly haven't had a reason to (other that trying to squeeze a better deal at upgrade time, but I'm usually set on leaving anyway if it gets to that).
For me, it's always price, coverage and inclusive data. In that order. If I have to chat to a call centre in India or Birmingham once every 4 years, I'll accept that.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Deends what you classify as 'customer service' though - does it include apps and websites? For example, I haven't used their customer service per se but the EE website is the worst, most frustrating and utterly useless pile of garbage I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.
I've had to use EE for mobile broadband over the last few months and my experience with their website has been so bad that I have completely ruled them out for my next phone contract provider.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Three are the worst for customer service in my experience. Moved from them because of that.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
The EE/orange website never works, very few of their services that show information regarding your account seem to work except for the sms texts ('bundles' & 'balance' to 150).
I would probably leave EE/orange pretty quickly if I could do, their data allowances are very poor, although thats the main reason I'd switch for more data.
The only reason I've not left is that most of my friends and family are on EE/orange and I can use magic numbers to not use all of mine/their minutes up and I get by on wifi for the most part.
The few times I've delt with their customers services its been very hit and miss.
At times they'll be able to answer a question or fix a problem very quickly, but for the most part they've not a clue or actually cause more problems (such as mucking up my online account for over a week when I switched from PAYG to monthly).
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
virtuo
Unless the "bad customer service" is the network not matching a rival's plan/price offering, I find it hard to believe that customer service is such a big factor in moving. I'd say the average user has no need to contact customer services, I certainly haven't had a reason to (other that trying to squeeze a better deal at upgrade time, but I'm usually set on leaving anyway if it gets to that). For me, it's always price, coverage and inclusive data. In that order. If I have to chat to a call centre in India or Birmingham once every 4 years, I'll accept that.
You'll say that C S isn't important, up until you get into that situation where you're talking to someone obviously reading from a script who has obviously got their team lead breathing down their neck to "ditch the bozo" and get the next caller on.
At least, I thought, if you pick one of the big players then you can use the local shops as 1st line. My experiences there were that Orange = awful, pre-EE T-Mobile = good, Three = depends. Two examples:
1. Tried to see if I could move to a "better" deal with Three and the phone "support" folks were "refer to our website, goodbye". Local shop were useless - too busy doing makeup and nails and the attitude was "eff off, we're busy". Result - didn't renew my contract and cancelled the other Three contract.
2. uFix SIM for one of my kids. Had more than six attempts to get it to recognise that a SIM for an Android phone needs a data allowance (which I was paying for). Result - cancelled the uFix in favour of someone else's (cheaper!) monthly SIM, then later moved two other phones to the same provider.
3.Leaving experience with Three was traumatic - very lengthy and a pain. Leaving T-Mobile on the other hand was easy and very quick. Perversely that fact would make me more inclined to rejoin T-Mobile at some future point ... assuming that they can do a deal at a price I like.
Personally, I think these days most of the providers are about the same (Voda has less data, Three a lot more), so the "customer experience" is becoming more important. In which case, EE might be well advised to unbundle themselves back into Orange and T-Mobile.
By the way "Textronix Communications" - don't tell me the old 'sillyscope (and printer and graphics VDU) maker has a new opinion research division?
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
I was with T-mobile, walked into a EE shop and said I needed a new sim card as I'd bought a Moto G, £10 charge. I explained I was out of contract, spoke to the manager, no change. Thanks but no thanks, switched to Giff Gaff. Really surprised they were willing to lose a customer for a £10 one off charge, but just towing the company line rather than being allowed to think for themselves.
G/f on Orange walks into a different EE shop, they hand her a new sim card, wtf?!? Although they were meant to call customer services and they ended up having to post her another sim card (for free).
Maybe change network again due to coverage (O2 aren't great round here), but wouldn't pick EE again quickly.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Regarding the headline, is that unusual ? in the UK it is standard practice to leave a company because of bad service. In the EU it seems to be a different picture, whereby people standby there choices, so they don't look stupid... I'd imagine.
The way I see it is that once the companies are reeling in your 'hard earned' they don't give a cr*p, and that seems to be world wide occurrence, not just the EU or UK.
Money FIRST, Opinions/Complaints after.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
I have been on all the major networks in one form or another over the past 5 years and they are all as bad as each other once you weigh up positives and negatives. I dont spend too much time worrying about customer service and such anymore, i just accept that they are all crap and try and get the best price i can. Probably going to go month by month sim only from now on and switch/change whenever they try the whole 'inflation rise' rubbish.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
I count on one hand the number of times I've contacted customer services to do anything other leave. Not a big decider for me but if I do have a bad experience I definitely wouldn't renew. I do however take note of how they treat me when I leave. If they try and hang on to my business I sometimes do stay (and if not always consider them next time). If they just let me go I say goodbye and very rarely go back to them. Lets you know if you matter to them or not....
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Just moved from 3 to Virgin following a 2 month period of 3 being utterly pants.
Without warning both my girlfriend's and my phone signal dropped to zero at our house. Some checking showed that it was anywhere within our signal cell. Absolutely no problems anywhere else.
We waited the weekend to see if it would come back as we have had 1 day outages before. No joy.
Phoned 3 from work (got Michael...from Mumbai...yeah right!) and explained the situation.
Told him we have different phones and have no problems anywhere else other than home and surrounding area.
"I'll have to put you on hold while I go and check Sir!"..."Ok Mike."...phone goes dead, I've been disconnected.
Try again...get Sally (also from Mumbai)...explain the situation again...get disconnected again. Give up and decide to visit the 3 shop in Bath.
2 days later I meet a very helpful woman who tells me the transmitter in our area is down for maintenance..."Really! Any reason why we weren't told? You have no trouble texting us with ads why couldn't you text us with this info as it was obviously planned? Anyway when will it be fixed?"..."I don't know sir it doesn't say...but if you have unlimited broadband we could give you a Signal Enhancer that plugs into the router. All you need to do is phone this (premium rate) number and arrange it."
...So I tracked down an alternative on saynoto0870 and gave it a call..."Oh hello there Tracy from Mumbai".
I explained the situation to her...3 times.
Finally, she says she hasn't got the authority to issue hardware (Why am I talking to you then?) and is going to pass me up the line.
I get a bloke this time (who doesn't give me a name but could be from Mumbai). He needs 3 attempts to understand the situation before saying he can't help and is going to pass me to the Level 3 technical help.
I've been on the phone for about 40 minutes by now and beginning to get a tad irritated.
3rd time lucky maybe...Nope...another bout of multiple explanations until the guy says
"We can't give you a signal booster until the transmitter is fixed and we can check the strength of the signal!"...It was at this point that I lost it and many things were said about 3 and it's business practices / customer service / general incompetence before putting the phone down and telling the girlfriend that she better take over from this point.
By the way I don't have any problem with Indian call centres (Britian based help is just as bad) but giving all their operatives English names isn't fooling anybody.
She goes back to the shop and talks to the women again. She phones head office and arranges for them to contact us, on our Home phone, concerning the problem...wait 2 days, no response...back to the shop.
Women emails HO this time...still nothing.
We give up and resolve to leave 3 at the soonest opportunity. We swap over to a couple of really cheap PAYG sims and let everyone know to phone the temporary numbers for the meantime.
2 weeks later we get an email from 3 saying that as we haven't responded to the voicemails they left us on our Mobiles (that don't get any signal) they are shutting the call.
6 weeks after the signal first disappeared it comes back along with all out missed calls.
No warnings, no apologies, still no promised rebate and to add insult to...errr...all the other insults, when we phoned up to get Unlock / PAC codes etc the guy tried to keep us from leaving by offering a free signal booster.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
I'm with Tesco Mobile, would thoroughly recommend. Phone developed a fault took it in to my local supermarket they did all the work by calling the relevant people for me and arranged for my phone to be fixed as it was still under warranty. The next day(!) received a pre paid pack in the post to send them my phone, took it to the post office and one week later got a working phone back again. Considering I'm on a rolling monthly contract for £10 a month cannot complain in the slightest.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
DemonHighwayman
Regarding the headline, is that unusual ? in the UK it is standard practice to leave a company because of bad service. In the EU it seems to be a different picture, whereby people standby there choices, so they don't look stupid... I'd imagine. The way I see it is that once the companies are reeling in your 'hard earned' they don't give a cr*p, and that seems to be world wide occurrence, not just the EU or UK. Money FIRST, Opinions/Complaints after.
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!
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
jimbouk
I was with T-mobile, walked into a EE shop and said I needed a new sim card as I'd bought a Moto G, £10 charge. I explained I was out of contract, spoke to the manager, no change. Thanks but no thanks, switched to Giff Gaff. Really surprised they were willing to lose a customer for a £10 one off charge, but just towing the company line rather than being allowed to think for themselves.
G/f on Orange walks into a different EE shop, they hand her a new sim card, wtf?!? Although they were meant to call customer services and they ended up having to post her another sim card (for free).
Maybe change network again due to coverage (O2 aren't great round here), but wouldn't pick EE again quickly.
O2 almost lost me when i went to get a new phone [XperiaM] they wanted me to pay another tenner on top for the sim card; walked out the shop went online and orded the phone with new sim at no extra cost and just to rub it in the stores face i had the phone sent to the shop for pick up......their face was a peach.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
crossy
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
Apex
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
@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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Quote:
Originally Posted by
crossy
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
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.
"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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
sykobee
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
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. ......
:wallbash: And the folks at Three wonder why they've got the reputation for appalling customer service? :rolleyes:
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. :D
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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Originally Posted by
Defiant
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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)
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Quote:
Originally Posted by
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.
You really didn't think that one through before you typed it did you? :O_o1:
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.
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Re: News - A third of Brits switch network due to bad customer service
Quote:
Originally Posted by
McEwin
My GF recently switch to 3 after some appalling customer service from Orange/EE. She had been with them for 13 years! They were very rude about her leaving too - the cheek!
Exactly the same here, though I was a customer for 15 years. Orange/EE simply gave up offering good value and service.