THREE chasing me for money I don't owe
Discussion
Any help or suggestions to get THREE off of my back would be appreciated. Long story cut short as follows…..
1st Feb - Ordered mobile broadband for use in cabin at end of garden
2nd Feb – delivered to home, tried to use it but service was very poor
3rd Feb – tried again but no better so phoned to cancel contract. Cancellation agreed ( I cancelled the direct debit) and was told they would send me a returns bag.
Everything that I had posted back was signed for by THREE, so as far as I was concerned, that was the end of it, however from mid-Feb through to mid March I had numerous texts and emails telling me that I had an outstanding balance – each time I phoned THREE and explained the situation. Eventually someone realised that they hadn’t processed the cancellation which was why I was still getting charged. They apologised etc and said that should be it….
Fast forward a couple of weeks and the texts start all over again as did the emails, by now the bill had gone up and I was also getting letters threatening me with debt collection if I didn’t pay. So once again back on the phone and once again I get passed from one call centre person to another, apologies all round and then got a letter to say case closed. Alas that wasnt to be the case as today and I got an email from a debt collection agency chasing me for the money! Phoned THREE who once again passed me around until i eventually got to speak to someone who kind of understood what the problem was – she said that the account had been cancelled but it was done incorrectly and not back dated hence me still being charged. She needed to speak to someone to ‘try and get this resolved’ and promised a call back.
Now I consider myself a fairly laid back person but this is really starting to grate and I have absolutely no faith in them a) calling back and b) cancelling the debt. Any suggestions as to what I should do with THREE and also with Debt Collection people?
1st Feb - Ordered mobile broadband for use in cabin at end of garden
2nd Feb – delivered to home, tried to use it but service was very poor
3rd Feb – tried again but no better so phoned to cancel contract. Cancellation agreed ( I cancelled the direct debit) and was told they would send me a returns bag.
Everything that I had posted back was signed for by THREE, so as far as I was concerned, that was the end of it, however from mid-Feb through to mid March I had numerous texts and emails telling me that I had an outstanding balance – each time I phoned THREE and explained the situation. Eventually someone realised that they hadn’t processed the cancellation which was why I was still getting charged. They apologised etc and said that should be it….
Fast forward a couple of weeks and the texts start all over again as did the emails, by now the bill had gone up and I was also getting letters threatening me with debt collection if I didn’t pay. So once again back on the phone and once again I get passed from one call centre person to another, apologies all round and then got a letter to say case closed. Alas that wasnt to be the case as today and I got an email from a debt collection agency chasing me for the money! Phoned THREE who once again passed me around until i eventually got to speak to someone who kind of understood what the problem was – she said that the account had been cancelled but it was done incorrectly and not back dated hence me still being charged. She needed to speak to someone to ‘try and get this resolved’ and promised a call back.
Now I consider myself a fairly laid back person but this is really starting to grate and I have absolutely no faith in them a) calling back and b) cancelling the debt. Any suggestions as to what I should do with THREE and also with Debt Collection people?
TUS373 said:
I had a similar hard time when trying to leave THREE - OP has my sympathy. Pretty much the same thing happened and I spent a lot of time on the chat function and then on the phone - literally hours. I will never touch them again for anything. It was perseverance that paid off.
Just to give you a heads up - I was being made liable for charges after I had already cancelled, but that cancellation had not been done properly. The final insult was after it was all sorted out, that there was a strike on my unblemished credit file for missing payments that I was not liable for!!!
I had to contact THREE to get them to contact the credit reference people, to remove that from my record. I did not trust that to happen, so I put in an objection to the credit reference people that this strike against me was unfounded. Either way, it was removed and my credit score went back up.
If the OP's shoes, I would seek to head this from happening at the same time as you sort your account out, otherwise it just spirals out of control.
I switched to SMARTY for a 4G SIM, and so far they have been easier to deal with, besides essentially being part of THREE.
Good luck. Hang in there.
- thanks for comments, i fear i'm going down the same path as you Just to give you a heads up - I was being made liable for charges after I had already cancelled, but that cancellation had not been done properly. The final insult was after it was all sorted out, that there was a strike on my unblemished credit file for missing payments that I was not liable for!!!
I had to contact THREE to get them to contact the credit reference people, to remove that from my record. I did not trust that to happen, so I put in an objection to the credit reference people that this strike against me was unfounded. Either way, it was removed and my credit score went back up.
If the OP's shoes, I would seek to head this from happening at the same time as you sort your account out, otherwise it just spirals out of control.
I switched to SMARTY for a 4G SIM, and so far they have been easier to deal with, besides essentially being part of THREE.
Good luck. Hang in there.
Assuming they actually do call me back i will be raising the potential issue of my credit file being impacted (thanks for the heads up on that ) BrettMRC said:
Best course of action is as follows:
Go to the Three customer services webpage, click on the chat icon on the bottom right.
Once connected to an agent say you want to make a complaint.
Give them the details of the issue and what you expect the resolution to be.
At this point one of two things will happen; they will either be able to resolve it there for you on the screen, or will arrange a callback.
I've dealt with them a lot over this sort of thing when supporting a community broadband project. Their online/chat team are surprisingly good normally.
thanks - i have previously raised a formal complaint and was told that this had been resolved and the case closed, but that wasnt to be! I now have another complaint formally raised and will see what this one brings!Go to the Three customer services webpage, click on the chat icon on the bottom right.
Once connected to an agent say you want to make a complaint.
Give them the details of the issue and what you expect the resolution to be.
At this point one of two things will happen; they will either be able to resolve it there for you on the screen, or will arrange a callback.
I've dealt with them a lot over this sort of thing when supporting a community broadband project. Their online/chat team are surprisingly good normally.
Retroman said:
If you've submitted formal complaints via their official complaint proccess about this, then you can escalate the claim by writing to CISAS . They will act as an adjudicator for the complaint
When i worked for a communications provider about 16 years ago, if a complaint when to CISAS , CISAS would forward it to the high level complaints department, and charge the provider £80 for doing so.
If they still didn't resolve the issue, CISAS would step in asnd give them a ruling but win or lose CISAS would charge the communications provider almost £500 for doing so.
This means when the communications provider gets a complaint from CISAS they will make sure it's all handled by someone who knows what they're doing. It's usually a specialist complaints team.
To be able to write to them you either have to have had an issue with your provider for 6 months or a deadlock letter.
Thanks for that - much appreciated When i worked for a communications provider about 16 years ago, if a complaint when to CISAS , CISAS would forward it to the high level complaints department, and charge the provider £80 for doing so.
If they still didn't resolve the issue, CISAS would step in asnd give them a ruling but win or lose CISAS would charge the communications provider almost £500 for doing so.
This means when the communications provider gets a complaint from CISAS they will make sure it's all handled by someone who knows what they're doing. It's usually a specialist complaints team.
To be able to write to them you either have to have had an issue with your provider for 6 months or a deadlock letter.
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