I know.
Everyone warned me about the shitty customer service you get from 3 mobile, and their atrocious call centres, but would I listen? If only I'd been that sensible...
The problem is this, I did go into a carphone warehouse store on february the 16th and ask if I was eligible for an upgrade. They rang 3 to check how long I had had the contract for; I'd like to point out here that I was present for the phone call and heard it all.
They agree that I was actually eligible a long time ago (I took the contract out in 2006) and start offering me deals. Unfortunately none of the deals are as good as the one I'm on (inflation worked in my favour for once - ha ha!) so I decided not to take anything. They actually advised me to go and check in some other shops in the trafford centre and see if anyone could match the deal - I didn't bother, but that's mostly because I'm lazy.
One week later I recieve a phone call from 3 mobile insurance agents asking me if I'd like to insure my fancy new handset. Huh?
I have spent the last week arguing with 3 over whether I took an upgrade from them (note: I have been hung up on twice, and several times had them say 'I'm sorry madam I don't understand the question'). Carphone Warehouse have no record of an upgrade and insist that they have had no dealings with me since June 2007 (when I took out my other phone contract). After a frustratingly long phone call today, I finally decided to take a different approach, so I rang the carphone warehouse and asked them if we could do a conference call with 3. They were only too happy to oblige.
Throughout this call the guy from 3 is constantly talking over me and Debbie (the nice lady from CPW) and shouts her down on several occasions (the amusing part was when she finally lost it and cried 'JUST LET ME SPEAK!'). He insists that all upgrades are non-reversible and I am locked into a 12 month contract - which is a lot more expensive than my previous one.
Good old Debbie pulls up some pages off the internet and starts reading him statutes that say even if I had agreed to the upgrade (which they have no paperwork or evidence to enforce) I am entitled to a cooling period, so they should be able to reverse it for that reason. He insists that regardless of UK law, 3's policy is never to reverse an upgrade for any reason at all. When Debbie points out that this is illegal he states, 'it doesn't matter, it is 3's policy.'
He will not allow us to speak to another person, and when Debbie requests a copy of the phone conversations between 3 & myself and 3 & the store that the upgrade supposedly happens in he says no. Debbie again points out that I am legally entitled to request a copy of these calls and he keeps saying no. Eventually he decides that they were not recorded. How convenient.
Debbie points out that he couldn't have checked that quickly and he says that they definitely weren't. She asks him to go and look again. He puts us on hold for 30 seconds and says 'I told you they weren't.'
At this point you can hear Debbie trying not to laugh as she says he couldn't possibly have searched the phone records that fast. He puts us on hold for a further two minutes and says 'No, as I thought they were not recorded.'
Right. Like I'm supposed to believe he actually checked. More likely he put us on hold for two minutes whilst he picked his nose or whatever else he was doing then said 'no'.
I'm not really sure where to go from here. Debbie is having a hard time sorting anything out as she has no record of a transaction to fault. She speaks to one of her managers and they agree to launch an investigation personally as a gesture of good faith to me, and try to help build up a case against 3. Unfortunately they can't see any way of this being resolved, particularly as 3 have that habit of refusing to pass you on to any kind of management. CPW's legal team have been sent a transcript of our conference call and Debbie says they will help me out if they can.
I only went with 3 in the first place because they were cheapest, but nowadays they are not even cheapest. Virgin do a contract mobile for £8.50 per month! So not only are they no longer the cheapest, they are still the worst customer service I have ever experienced, and happily, knowingly breaking the law.
My advice - don't even think about going near them.